Intercultural competence can be understood as “the capacity to engage with people of a cultural group and identity to which we do not belong, to understand them and to act together with them; it is not a matter of changing identity but rather of crossing group boundaries to see their culture from within, and to see our own culture from the other perspective” (Byrams, 2008).
The CCAI, or Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory, is an assessment commonly used in higher education for study abroad programs. It is also commonly used to measure employee readiness for international business assignments.
A Self-Report Inventory
An inventory is not a test per se, but a self-reporting survey or questionnaire. Self-report inventories often ask direct questions about personal interests, values, symptoms, behaviors, and traits or personality types. The CCAI is made up of 50 lickert scale questions. As a self-assessment tool, it allows individuals to measure their strengths and weaknesses in four dimensions related to cross-cultural communication and activity: Emotional Resilience, Flexibility/Openness, Perceptual Acuity, and Personal Autonomy. The inventory is self-scored, and produces a visual grid of the individual’s profile.
Successfully Adapting to New
Situations & People
The CCAI offers insights into a person ‘s need to prepare for successful adaption to new situations, people, and customs. Originally created in 1987, and revised in both 1989 and 1992, the CCAI has most often been been used for:
• Promoting multi-cultural discussions in a training setting
• Assisting individual self-selection for international business assignments
• Developing readiness for travel or study abroad
• Counseling individuals considering life changes involving other cultures
• Improving the effectiveness of intercultural virtual teams and work groups
• Selecting and training global leaders
• Building and sustaining a corporate culture that values and embraces cultural diversity
Use in Training Healthcare Professionals
The CCAI’s insights into successfully adapting to new situations, people, and customs can also be used in the training of healthcare professionals working with diverse populations both domestically and abroad. For example, the CCAI is being used at The University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine as part of a global health elective. While this elective was designed originally to prepare students for a study abroad experience in Guatemala, the class is in high demand every semester by students who want to feel more prepared for the US populations they will serve as healthcare professionals. These students find the CCAI helps them look at cultural differences in a broader way. Successfully adapting to new situations and people who are different from ourselves includes not only cultural differences, but also language differences, literacy differences, educational and socio-economic differences. Lifestyle is one of the most important factors in establishing and maintaining good health. People’s lifestyles are impacted to a huge extent by culture – yes! – but inseparably by ALL these factors. The CCAI can be a great tool to open discussions with those healthcare students who are interested in exploring their own attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. With skillful guidance through well-planned group discussions, students come to understand how their own expectations set the tone for communication with patients and families in every healthcare interaction.
Resources:
Byram, M. (2008). From foreign language education to education for intercultural citizenship. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
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