Exam Material Intercultural Competence Year 2

EXAM SUMMARY
Intercultural Competence

Lecture 1 | Intercultural Competence in Leisure Management
Relevance of Intercultural Competencies for leisure managers
 understanding different stakeholders
 showing respect
 realizing necessity of differences
 being aware of cultural contexts to judge behaviour
 new creation that integrates seemingly opposing values by synergy


Lecture 2 | The concept of culture
Culture
Definition (Ferraro, 2002)
 everything that people have, think & do as member of their society

Approaches to culture
 sociology: how people share cultures
 psychology: how people are mentally programmed
 anthropology: emerging in cultures to understand them
 linguistics: expression of culture in importance & meaning
 organizational: interaction of different cultures in institutions

Explicit Culture Implicit Culture
 man-made, material objects  norms, values & beliefs
 symbols (e.g. national flag)  preferences
 heroes (e.g. Gandhi)  assumptions & expectations
 rituals, etiquette & habits
 behaviour & (non-)verbal communication

Characteristics of cultures
 integrated wholes (logical systems with interrelated elements)
 guidelines (definitions of right & wrong)
 define universals (common problem  common solution, e.g. school system)
 taught (transmitted through interaction, not genetic)
 influence biological processes (e.g. eating, pain, bod modifications, …)
 continuously change: analysis of own & other cultural benefits / disadvantages
 internal change through discovery & intervention; external change through diffusion or replacement
 ethno-centrism: assuming own culture is superior & principles should apply for everyone
 minorities have to adapt to majority