Group intercultural competence: proposing a concept

Abstract The concept of intercultural competence (IC) was introduced by researchers to understand why and how some people, groups and organizations thrive in intercultural situations (LEUNG, ANG and TAN, 2014, 2014). The literature on individual IC is wide and guided by many concepts, but the predominant focus of these concepts are cognitive and behavioral, with a shortage of group level studies. In addition, there is an emerging paradigm shifting the emphasis of IC, including the ability to work successfully in a diverse team and the development of subsequent relationships, featuring a relational approach. A need was identified to deepen individual IC literature and investigate how it would be possible to work the concept at the group level. With the aim of proposing a concept for group intercultural competence (GIC), it was necessary to build a categorization of the field, a classification of concepts and an analysis of elements and IC dimensions, based on the literature on competence in general. With this it was possible to formulate a concept for the GIC that brings up a perspective of social construction of reality (BERGER and LUCKMAN, 2003), where the group intercultural competence can be better understood from an integrative perspective that encompasses social interactions. The dimensions that remained in the concept of GIC were: interaction, efficacy, cultural differences, communication, learning and negotiated culture.