Broadening Our Sight by Expanding Our Horizons: The Future of Intercultural Competence Research

Abstract

Researchers have been studying the effectiveness of people working across borders for decades, through many different disciplinary lenses. In management research, knowledge about Intercultural Competence (ICC) has developed mainly by theorizing about and studying a narrow set of cross-boundary interactions: professionals working outside their home country. Increasingly, individuals work in new countries for reasons other than professional expatriation and they work across cultural boundaries even without working internationally. Simultaneously, individuals themselves are becoming increasingly multicultural. These conditions have arisen in tandem with the challenges and opportunities facing the world today, from technological advances and interconnectedness to social inequity and fragmentation. This symposium confronts our assumptions about the context of ICC research, linking it more closely to Diversity and Inclusion research and research on multicultural societies. It encourages us to expand our horizons both to enrich the field and increase our positive impact. Full paper available at https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2020.18067symposium