Culturally Competent Behaviors at Workplace:An Intergroup Perspective for Workplace Diversity

With focus on cultural identities like ethnicity, race, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, etc., this study views cultural competence from the lenses of intergroup theory and workplace diversity. This paper has two highlights. First, the major focus is on using qualitative inquiry to offer a framework for culturally competent behaviors of organization and its personnel. This framework offers themes and categories on what behaviors of individuals and organization help them in dealing with cross-cultural situations effectively at workplace. Second, the findings also suggest how culturally competent behaviors of members and leaders of the organization groups affect the intergroup relations (group boundaries, power differences, affective patterns and cognitive formations including ‘distortions’) that involve identity groups and organization groups. Directions for future research are also discussed.