Introduction

This document is part of larger project to bring the reality and theory of culture together. At its core it the website www.culturalcompetence.eu, based on the mind-map and the triangle model of culture. The triangle model has the size of groups as its starting point, ranging from very large groups through larger and smaller groups to the individual.

Cultural competence draws the lines of this series of e-books together. This concept indicates how each of us may deal with culture. Each of us deals with culture in every contact, albeit at the subconscious level. Moving it up to conscious level, helps you in understanding yourself (individual culture), clarifies aspects of job, sport or hobby (organisational culture, team culture), highlights the difficulties of the multicultural society and indicates the differences between states (national cultures).

However, this learning process is not a simple one, like reading a book or following training. The focus is on the continuous process itself; the goal is clear but you also know that you will never reach it – like life itself. Just because a human being is not perfect, you can only improve your cultural competence but not mastering it. Having a good level of cultural sophistication, cultural preparations will be more efficient (one knows what to look for) and more effective (one knows why).

Overview

This e-book consist of three parts.

▼ the idea of cultural competence

by illustrating its three main

components, knowledge, skills

and attitudes

▼ acquiring cultural competence

▼ dealing with cultural differences.