Explain how the US is a highly culturally diverse country. As a result, cultural competence in the workplace is essential for any occupation. Cultural competence can be described as a set of policies, attitudes, and congruent professionals that come together among professionals, agency, and a system and enables the professionals, agency, or system to ensure effective functioning in cross-cultural settings. Cultural competence ensures that there is the ability to know that people are different and each individual has a different set of values and ensures respect for the values and differences. Workers should learn to respect the beliefs and values of other cultures at the workplace. The cultural competence model has ensured improved cultural competency in general and in the workplace specifically.
Cultural Competence
One must comprehend culture to effectively understand cultural competence. Culture is defined as the shared history, customs, beliefs, and shared ideas of a group of people. Culture encompasses ethnicity, sexuality, religion, nationality, and language. Cultural competency involves bringing together culturally sensitive, cultural awareness, and cultural knowledge to provide an environment that is productive and safe (Shepherd et al., 2019). Since culture is part of an individual’s life, cultural competence is an essential tool. Cultural competence is having the ability to effectively apply social skills and interpersonal knowledge to show a comprehension of different cultures of other people.
Key Elements to Cultural Competence
Various key elements have a significant effect on cultural competence. Such elements include adapting diversity, the institutionalization of cultural knowledge, understanding difference dynamics, doing self-cultural competence assessments, and valuing diversity. Valuing diversity can be described as respecting and accepting other cultures despite differences. Self-assessment of cultural competency is also essential. A survey on cultural self-assessment is essential to reveal what people know about themselves as well as provide answers to questions regarding one’s culture to colleagues. Comprehending the different dynamics provides that individuals should work together to achieve their aims and goals. Moreover, people can communicate respectfully and respect other people’s values and beliefs. Cultural knowledge institutionalization is when there is cultural knowledge integration in all parts of the workplace by an organization. The workers have effective training in policies and how to react positively when exposed to different cultures. Lastly, adversity adaptation is when an organization abides by structures, policies, attitudes, behaviors, and values that ensure a communication guide for cross-cultural settings to ensure high cultural competence (Jongen et al., 2018). The above elements are all essential in ensuring cultural competence in organizations that have highly diverse cultures.
Factors Affecting Cultural Competence at Workplace
Various aspects affect cultural competence in the workplace. How development, emotions, cognition, memory, personality, and gender impact cultural competence in the occupational setting is in either diversity or one’s culture. In any large organization, various types of diversity exist. Some types of diversity can be considered as historical impacts. For instance, there was a particular period when one could not be hired for a certain job because of their race or gender. Moreover, at some time, people with medical problems were also not fired for various jobs. Memory and age were also key determinants for various types of occupations. Older adults had challenges securing various jobs that required physical strength. Some organizations believe that older adults lack emotional, memory, and cognition capability compared to younger ones. A workplace promoting cultural competence should establish policies and regulations to ensure that race, gender, and other developmental differences do not receive unfair treatment (Ramakrishna, 2019). Diversity has many benefits, including rich sources of different ideas on how to perform various tasks, successful management of our survival and work, helping in conserving the environment, and having an opportunity to interact with different cultures across the world.
Steps of Achieving Cultural Competence
Various steps should be used to achieve cultural competence. The first step is establishing a support system for the required changes, followed by identifying possible barriers to effective cultural competence. Thereafter, an assessment of the level of cultural competence of the company should be effectively conducted. As a result, it will reveal the parts that require improvement in the workplace. The resources required and the cost of achieving the required level of cultural competence of an organization (Peterson et al., 2021). Lastly, the organization requires to establish targets and commit to sticking to the strategy and the set aims. Although it is a challenge to collect effective information to secure and build a culturally competent organization, the company will develop and grow stronger when high cultural competence is attained.
The Five-Factor Model
The five-factor model has five major components; openness to experience, conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, and extroversion. The model explains the personality difference among different individuals. Cultural competence and the five-factor model are related in that they affect one’s relationship with colleagues and their work output (Soto & Jackson, 2013). For instance, a person with a high level of openness is more willing to work with individuals from different cultures. Their creativeness and curiosity may make them have a high inclination toward people from different cultures. The opposite is also true and could bring negative issues in the workplace, which negatively affect the production of an organization.
Influence of Cultural Competence Knowledge at My Workplace
Knowledge of the cultural competence model has positively influenced my cultural competency in general and in the workplace specifically. I have understood that everyone has a different personality and can come from a different culture. Various cultures have different values and beliefs. As a result, it is essential to ensure respect for various cultures even where their customs and beliefs are different. Moreover, we must ensure that we respect the personality of others since we are all different. Such actions are essential in ensuring that we coexist peacefully at the workplace, even when we have different cultural backgrounds. I have also realized that in any workplace setting in the US, there is a high likelihood of having a culturally diverse workforce. As a result, having high cultural competence is an essential tool for any workplace in the US. Respect for all people irrespective of their cultural background or personality is essential for maximum production of any workforce. An organization should also develop various rules and policies to ensure that its workforce has a high level of cultural competence.
Conclusion
The cultural competence model has ensured improved cultural competency in general and in the workplace specifically. The US is a highly culturally diverse country. As a result, cultural competence in the workplace is essential for any occupation. Cultural competence can be described as a set of policies, attitudes, and congruent professionals that come together among professionals, agency, and a system and enables the professionals, agency, or system to ensure effective functioning in cross-cultural settings. Cultural competence ensures that there is the ability to know that people are different and each individual has a different set of values and ensures respect for the values and differences. Workers should learn to respect the beliefs and values of other cultures at the workplace.
References
Gopalkrishnan, N. (2019). Cultural Competence and Beyond: Working Across Cultures in Culturally Dynamic Partnerships. The International Journal Of Community And Social Development, 1(1), 28-41. https://doi.org/10.1177/2516602619826712
Jongen, C., McCalman, J., & Bainbridge, R. (2018). Health workforce cultural competency interventions: a systematic scoping review. BMC Health Services Research, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-018-3001-5
Pettersson, S., Holstein, J., Jirwe, M., Jaarsma, T., & Klompstra, L. (2021). Cultural competence in healthcare professionals, specialised in diabetes, working in primary healthcare—A descriptive study. Health & Social Care In The Community. https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.13442
Shepherd, S., Willis-Esqueda, C., Newton, D., Sivasubramaniam, D., & Paradies, Y. (2019). The challenge of cultural competence in the workplace: perspectives of healthcare providers. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-3959-7
Soto, C., & Jackson, J. (2013). Five-Factor Model of Personality. Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199828340-0120
Cultural competence is based on the interactions between five main concepts: cultural desire, cultural encounters, cultural skills, cultural knowledge, and cultural awareness. Each week, you have journaled about cultural encounters you’ve experienced and reflected on your responses during those interactions. In a final 4-5 page paper, reflect on those experiences and others, and explain how your knowledge of the cultural competence model has influenced your cultural competency in general and in the workplace specifically.
Questions to consider as you draft (you do not have to answer all of these — they are to help you brainstorm):
How have your thoughts, emotions, or actions during cultural encounters evolved over the past several weeks?
Describe a cultural encounter that was particularly interesting–what made it challenging or successful for you?
How has your implicit bias changed (if at all) since the beginning of the course?
What aspects of the course or the materials were most influential to the evolution of your cultural competence? Why?
How will your cultural competency inform your interactions in the workplace?
What will you continue to do/focus on to continue the development of your cultural competency?
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