Cultural Agility
Building a Pipeline of Successful Global Professionals

Succeeding in today?s global economy requires organizations to acquire, develop, and retain professionals who can operate effectively around the world, irrespective of country or culture. More than ever before, organizations need a pipeline of professionals who possess cultural agility?the ability to quickly, comfortably, and successfully work in cross-cultural and international environments.

Filled with illustrative examples from a wide range of organizations, including the Peace Corps, the U.S. military, and many Fortune 500 companies, Cultural Agility offers business leaders and human resource professionals a step-by-step guide for creating and implementing highly effective, cutting-edge talent management practices to increase cross-cultural competence throughout their organizations. Validated through several years of her research and practice, Paula Caligiuri outlines the ?Cultural Agility Competency Framework.? This framework sets the foundation for the strategic talent management practices organizations need to effectively build a pipeline of culturally agile professionals, such as how to attract, recruit, and select professionals with cultural agility or those with the greatest propensity to readily develop cultural agility.

Cultural Agility also provides guidance for creating organizational cultures and HR systems to support the development of a workforce that is culturally agile. For example, international assignments are commonly enlisted as a means of developing global leaders, but these have proven to be only partially effective for building cultural agility. Caligiuri offers training and development practices that organizations can use in a learning system to continually build professionals? cross-cultural competencies, including specific recommendations for designing truly developmental international assignments.

This book is a must-have resource for human resource professionals and all business leaders who know that the key to their organizations? success in today?s complex global economy is their culturally agile human talent.

Preface xiii

Acknowledgments xvii

Part 1: Introduction: The Basics of Cultural Agility 1

Chapter 1: What is Cultural Agility—And Why is It So Crucial Today? 3

Cultural Agility: A Mega-Competency with Three Levels 4

The Need for Speed in Building a Pipeline of Culturally Agile Professionals 7

Barriers to Creating a Pipeline of Culturally Agile Professionals 10

Take Action 18

Part 2: Who is Culturally Agile? 21

Chapter 2: Three Cross-Cultural Competencies Affecting Culturally Agile Responses 23

The Cultural Agility Competency Framework: Twelve Key Competencies 24

How the Competencies Affecting Behavioral Responses are Different 26

Competencies Affecting Behavioral Responses in Cross-Cultural Contexts 26

Take Action 46

Chapter 3: Nine Cross-Cultural Competencies Affecting Success of Culturally AgileProfessionals 47

Three Competencies Affecting Psychological Ease in Cross-Cultural Situations 48

Three Competencies Affecting Cross-Cultural Interactions 53

Three Competencies Affecting Global Business Decisions 59

Take Action 64

Part 3: Attract and Select the Most Culturally Agile Talent 67

Chapter 4: Attracting and Recruiting for Cultural Agility 69

Finding Culturally Agile Professionals 74

Attracting Culturally Agile Professionals 82

Creating the Employee Value Proposition for Culturally Agile Professionals 89

Take Action 92

Chapter 5: Assessing and Selecting for Cultural Agility 95

Résumé Screening 98

Foreign Language Assessment 100

Knowledge Assessment 102

Personality Assessment 103

Interview 108

Self-Assessment 113

Take Action 115

Part 4: Train and Develop Culturally Agile Talent 117

Chapter 6: Building The Foundation for Cultural Agility with Cross-Cultural Training 119

What to Include in a Cross-Cultural Training Program 121

Delivery Methods for Cross-Cultural Training 128

Language Training 132

Timing and Sequencing of Cross-Cultural Training 133

Readiness for Cross-Cultural Training 134

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Cross-Cultural Training 135

Take Action 140

Chapter 7: Crafting Developmental Cross-Cultural Experiences to Increase Cultural Agility 141

How Cross-Cultural Experiences Become Developmental 143

Suggestions for Developmental Cross-Cultural Experiences 150

Take Action 156

Chapter 8: Developing Cultural Agility Through International Assignments 157

International Assignment Goals and Cultural Agility 161

Using Strategic Global Mobility Practices to Build Cultural Agility 164

Take Action 182

Part 5: Conclusion: Leadership and Organizational Factors 183

Chapter 9: Managing and Leading to Build Cultural Agility in the Workforce 185

Your Organization’s Readiness for Cultural Agility Practices 187

Leadership Practices to Foster a Culturally Agile Organizational Culture 191

HR’s Role in Building the Culturally Agile Workforce 195

Your Cultural Agility 205

Take Action 205

Stay Connected to Learn More 206

Appendix: Lists to Assess Your Organization’s Global Employer Image 207

Notes 219

About the Author 231

Index 233

Paula Caligiuri, Ph.D., is a professor of human resource management at Rutgers University, a work psychologist, and regularly appears as an expert guest on CNN. Listed among the top 50 most prolific authors in the field of international business, she is a frequent speaker and sought-out consultant for organizations in the United States, Asia, Australia, and Europe. She is the author of three books and the HR area editor for the top-ranked Journal of International Business Studies.