Dr. Ulrich H. Langanke, 2006. Impact Factor Intercultural Competences - A Multidisciplinary Profile Budapest Tech, 17th - 18th November 2006 Intercultural.

Dr. Ulrich H. Langanke, 2006


Impact Factor Intercultural Competences -

A Multidisciplinary Profile

Budapest Tech, 17th - 18th November 2006

Intercultural Competences in High Tech Industries - Aeronautics, Space and Defence



As the complexity of a system increases, our ability to make

precise and significant statements about its behavior diminishes [...]. A

corollary principle may be stated succinctly as, "The closer one looks at a real-world problem, the fuzzier

becomes its solution".

Lotfi Zadeh 1987 (Founder of Fuzzy Sets and Fuzzy Logic)


Intercultural Competences –Methodological Approach




Why "intercultural"?not: "multicultural"- Refers to the internal constitution of one single society- Political and sociological concept, in Western Europe also ideological- Focuses on egalitarian structures, denies existing hierarchies in business and product data management

not: "cross-cultural"- Often applied to US and UK context- Connotations, therefor less neutral as a technical term

Why "competence"?

Competence as a result- Paradigm shift in Higher Education- Less teaching, more instruction- Less exam feedback, more market feedback- Less theory, more practice- Less books, more projects- Less explicit knowledge, more implicit knowledge

Competence as a capability- "Having ability, power, authority, skill, knowledge to do what is needed"

Excursion: "Competence" in Neural Sciences


1. Transferring information from short- to long-term memory

2. Eric R. Kandel (Nobel Prize for Medicine)

We learn what the world is about – acquiring knowledge of people, places and things that are available to consciousness – using a form of memory that is usually called explicit. Or we learn how to do things – acquiring motor or perceptual skills that are unavailable to consciousness – using implicit memory.

3. Explicit memory - encodes information- recalled deliberately- result of creative, synthesizing, reconstructive process

4. Implicit memory- automatic, reflexive quality- subconscious, independent of awareness- accumulates slowly through repetition, frequent trials- results in improved performance

Dendrite

Cellbody

Nucleus

Axon

Synapse



Intercultural Competences –Scientific Approach




A multidisciplinary approach for engineers

Positivism vs. Radical Constructivism (Logic vs. Biology of Reality)

Analytic West vs. Holistic East (A or Not-A vs. A and Not-A)

Individual vs. Organisation (Skill vs. Structure)

Hierarchy vs. Equality (Leadership vs. Teambuilding)

Binary Logic vs. Multivalence (Simulation vs. Reality)

Truth vs. Perception (Borderlines vs. Tolerance)

Norms, Standards, Sets of Values vs. Permissiveness (Rules vs. Creativity)

(General: Clash of Cultures, Identity, Compassion, Soft Skills, Troubleshooting, Communication, Culture as Business, etc.)



Application:Intercultural fuzziness vs. technical exactness

1. Radical Constructivism (Biology of Reality)One view of the development of intercultural consciousness holds that we start bythinking our world view is reality, move on to awareness that there are manyperceived realities and further still to the notion that we are at all times mutuallyconstructing whatever reality we are operating in.↔ Tendency to look for analytic, black-white truth in engineering

2. Hierarchical structures (Leadership)Executive Coaching, Global Diversity, Global Leadership and Virtual Teambuilding↔ Western strategies of teambuilding, awareness of In-Out or Mine-Other relations significantly differ from those in the Far East


Efficiency through Diversity- Broad-ranging expertise in diverse sectors- Ethnic and cultural diversity as a source of inspiration- Patchwork instead of centralized, linear one-way-up systems- Accepting all, selecting the best, tolerating the rest- Openness goes ahead with a selfcritical attitude towards the own world view

A commitment to multidisciplinarity I


Neural facts demand a paradigm shift, students and other gifted Human/Talent Resource Capital must be therefor trained and educated in close co-operation with industry and market, so that their explicit learning can in time be cognitively processed into an on demand-repertoire of skills = implicit knowledge

Dual education - Bsc- and Msc-studies with integrated aeronautic, space and defence modules- General knowledge readapted to corporate demands


A commitment to multidisciplinarity II


Key competences- Strategies of tolerance- Teamwork, teambuildung, troubleshooting etc.- Soft skills sell- Support in personnel development

Synergy effects- Higher education and companies develop a common stratgy for social responsability- Identifying and exploiting sysergy effects between higher education and internal corporate education



Intercultural Competences – A Educational/Scientific Profile


High-impact learning- Derek F. Abell (President European School of Management and Technology, Berlin)

Our work is a clear commitment to impact – impact on the personality, on the company and on society in general. This “high-impact learning“ defines well our idea of up-to- date-management education.

A commitment to elitism


Selection- Tution fees (refund or financing programmes) - Entrance exams- Admittence by a board of representatives of both the participating companies and the scientists/education team

No compromises on quality- Campaign of excellence- Annual review of education tasks - Flexible, highly adaptive frameworks and networks


Paradigm shift- The teacher turns into a personal assistant, trainer, tutor, consultant- Student becomes a personal investment- Student as a corporate investment- Education staff responsible for the company‘s potential HR capital

A commitment to elitism II



Educational conceptFactor Human Resource Capital- Cognitive Sciences and Neurosciences- Personnel Development Strategies- Native Language/Foreign Language- Logic

Factor Society and Policies- Cross-cultural sociology- Cross-cultural philosophy- European Studies- Globalization

Factor Corporate Identity- Company‘s history, profile, perspectives, etc- Global competitors and challengers- Corporate Language/Communication

Factor Technical Knowledge

Impact Factor Intercultural Competences




Educational form

Aspects to be considered- Tution fees - Entrance exams- Admittence by a board of representatives of both the participating companies and the scientists/education team- Limited admittance- Undergraduate or postgraduate- Accreditation

Further Education Program

Bsc/Msc Major or Minor

Dr. Ulrich H. Langanke, 2006. Impact Factor Intercultural Competences - A Multidisciplinary Profile Budapest Tech, 17th - 18th November 2006 Intercultural.

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