Meta-Knowledge of Culture Promotes Cultural Competence

A behavioral signature of cross-cultural competence is discriminative use of culturally appropriate behavioral strategies in different cultural contexts. Given the central role communication plays in cross-cultural adjustment and adaptation, the present investigation examines how meta-knowledge of c...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of cross-cultural psychology 2013-08, Vol.44 (6), p.992-1006
Main Authors: Leung, Angela K.-y., Lee, Sau-lai, Chiu, Chi-yue
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation
Adjustment
American people
China
Communication
Cross-cultural analysis
Crosscultural communication
Cultural aspects
Cultural competence
Culture
Discrimination
Foreign culture
Hong Kong
Knowledge
Metacognition
Social cognition
Strategic planning
Students
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A behavioral signature of cross-cultural competence is discriminative use of culturally appropriate behavioral strategies in different cultural contexts. Given the central role communication plays in cross-cultural adjustment and adaptation, the present investigation examines how meta-knowledge of culture—defined as knowledge of what members of a certain culture know—affects culturally competent cross-cultural communication. We reported two studies that examined display of discriminative, culturally sensitive use of cross-cultural communication strategies by bicultural Hong Kong Chinese (Study 1), Chinese students in the United States and European Americans (Study 2). Results showed that individuals formulating a communicative message for a member of a certain culture would discriminatively apply meta-knowledge of the culture. These results suggest that unsuccessful cross-cultural communications may arise not only from the lack of motivation to take the perspective of individuals in a foreign culture, but also from inaccurate meta-knowledge of the foreign culture.
ISSN:0022-0221
1552-5422
DOI:10.1177/0022022113493137