Intercultural Effectiveness Training in three Western immigrant countries: A cross-cultural evaluation of critical incidents

The purpose of the present study is the evaluation of material for a new intercultural training instrument. More specifically, we examine the validity of 21 critical incidents used in the training. The training programme is targeted at natives in Western immigrant countries dealing - mostly professionally - with cultural diversity in their own country. The study yields support for the cross-cultural applicability of 14 critical incidents. Experts from Australia, Germany and the Netherlands largely agree in their judgements about to what extent reactions to the critical incidents are interculturally effective. The validity of the critical incidents is examined by relating personal competences and self-reported intercultural behaviour of lay respondents to their performance on the critical incidents. Results show that, in Australia and the Netherlands, intercultural effectiveness is related to measures of competences, in particular to open-mindedness and cultural empathy. The study yields some support for a relationship between self-reported intercultural behaviour and intercultural effectiveness. Moreover, speaking a foreign language shows a moderate relation with intercultural effectiveness. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.