The changing focus of military operations from a traditional, kinetic approach to stability and support operations places greater emphasis on the cultural knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) needed for mission success. Given the variability in interpretation and application of such KSAs, a scientific approach is needed to understand what cultural skills are necessary in what situations. In response to that need, Aptima worked with the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences to develop frameworks of cross-cultural competencies and contextual attributes. The competency framework developed outlines 15 general cross-cultural competencies needed for effective cross-cultural performance. The contextual attribute framework puts forth seven categories by which to describe the situation surrounding cross-cultural interactions. The frameworks were then used to qualitatively code 334 real examples of cross-cultural interactions in order to map the context to competencies. Results demonstrate that situational characteristics impact the display of cross-cultural competencies. Results from this research can be used to develop training scenarios that are tailored to specific missions and situations. The scenarios can be used to have military personnel analyze the important pieces surrounding a cross-culture interaction and also develop the cross-cultural competencies most likely to be needed within that situation.
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