Individual Cross-Cultural Interactions Model

About ICCI Model

Over the years, in my work as a higher education professional and cross-cultural trainer, I have given a lot of thought to the interactions that occur between people who come from different cultural backgrounds. I tend to define 'cultural background' pretty broadly, including race, ethnicity, language, national origin, tribal affiliation, geographic region, socioeconomic class, profession, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion/spiritual tradition, and (dis)ability, among many others. I see each person as a complex amalgam of varying cultural influences and identities that can change over time. As we interact with each other across these cultural differences, it can be useful--or even essential--to keep in mind that each of us brings the values we have gained from our evolving cultural identities (Kim, 2009; Ting-Toomey, 2005); and the behavior, thoughts, and emotions of our cross-cultural approaches (Deardorff, 2006; Hammer, 2012). The Individual Cross-Cultural Interactions Model offers a set of questions that support an individual's reflections about their interactions (also see an example scenario). If you are interested in going one step further, I would encourage you to take a look at the Intercultural Development Inventory®, an instrument that can give you some options for improving your cross-cultural effectiveness.

references

Deardorff, D. K. (2006). Identification and assessment of intercultural competence as a student outcome of internationalization. Journal of Studies in International Education, 10(3), 241-266.

Hammer, M. R. (2012). The Intercultural Development Inventory: A new frontier in assessment and development of intercultural competence. In M. Vande Berg, R. M. Paige, & K. H. Lou (Eds.), Student learning abroad: What our students are learning, what they’re not, and what we can do about it (pp. 115-136). Sterling, VA: Stylus.

Kim, Y. Y. (2009). The identity factor in intercultural competence. In D. Deardorff (Ed.), The SAGE handbook of intercultural competence (pp. 304-320). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publishing, Inc.

Ting-Toomey, S. (2005). Identity negotiation perspective: A theoretical framework. In W. B. Gudykunst (Ed.), Theorizing about intercultural communication (pp. 211-233). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publishing, Inc.