The Application of the Mindfulness Framework to the Study of Intercultural Competence

Date
2014-08-06
Authors
Houde, Sebastien
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Guelph
Abstract

Although a growing body of evidence has looked at the beneficial impact of mindfulness practice in a number of domains (e.g., improvement of mental health and psychological well-being, physical health, behavioral regulation, relationship and social interaction quality; see Baer, 2003; Brown et al., 2007), very little empirical research has been conducted or focused on the role that mindfulness could play in better understanding intercultural relations and related issues (e.g., intercultural competence development and training, intercultural adaptation and effectiveness). As such, the purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the relationship between mindfulness and intercultural competence, and more specifically investigate the extent to which there exists a direct or indirect relationship between these constructs. Although empirical evidence suggests that numerous mechanisms could be at play (see Shapiro et al., 2006), there are no theories or models specifically looking at the construct of mindfulness and the means by which it could potentially impact the development of intercultural competence. By drawing on the seminal work of Shapiro et al. (2006), two studies were conducted to test an integrative framework to highlight the presence of such a relationship and investigate the mediating role played by these different mechanisms, including (a) decentering, (b) exposure, (c) flexibility/rigidity, (d) self-regulation/self-management, and (e) value clarification. After steps were taken to ensure that the measurement properties of the different indices or psychometric instruments were meeting an acceptable standard across both studies, results generally indicated that mindfulness was indeed related to a number of intercultural competence indices, and that this relationship tended to be partially mediated by a number of mediating variables or mechanisms of action (i.e., exposure, flexibility/ rigidity, self-regulation/self-management, and value-clarification). Overall, these results tend to suggest that applying the mindfulness framework to the study of intercultural competence is likely to generate a number of interesting insights and greatly benefit both research and practice.

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Keywords
mindfulness, culture, cultural competence, intercultural competence, intercultural skills, mindful, mindfulness practice, mindless, cultural intelligence, mechanism of action, mechanism, intercultural training, cross-cultural training, cultural sensitivity, learning culture, mindful leadership, expatriation, intercultural adaptation, cultural adaptation, international assignment, cross-cultural expertise, workforce diversity, international management, global business management, cross-cultural interaction, cultural empathy, universality, diversity, universal attitude, intercultural effectiveness, cross-cultural effectiveness, foreign assignment, personel selection, training, training and development, cultural sense-making, multicultural attitude, multicultural values, pluralistic values, pluralistic attitudes, intercultural adjustment, cross-cultural adjustment, awareness, cultural awareness, mindful awareness, FFMQ, five-factor mindfulness questionnaire, theoretical framework, mediation, structural equation modeling, relative weight analysis, relative importance analysis, present-focused, orientation to experience, exposure, psychological flexibility, cognitive flexibility, decentering, reperceiving, phenomenological attitude, shift in perspective, mechanisms of mindfulness, emotional flexibility, behavioral flexibility, rigidity, cultural flexibility, self-regulation, self-management, behavioral regulation, emotional regulation, self-compassion, authenticity, ethnocultural empathy, perspective-taking, stereotyping, stereotype, acceptance, value clarification, benefits of mindfulness, multicultural competence, multicultural skills, multicultural abilities, dispositional mindfulness, non-judgment, non-reactivity, reactivity, global worldview, cross-cultural adaptation, ethnocentric, cultural tolerance, ethnorelative, openness to experience, openness, universality-diversity orientation, relativistic appreciation, acceptance of cultural differences, cultural differences, cultural frame switching, non-judgmental, non-evaluative, cultural metacognition, metacognitive skill, cultural skills, cultural knowledge, acting with awareness, AAQ, frustration intolerance, discomfort intolerance, experiential avoidance, comfort with differences, emotion regulation, common humanity, unbiased, unbiased processing, positive psychology, five facet mindfulness questionnaire, experience questionnaire, frustration discomfort scale, universality-diversity scale, acceptance and action questionnaire, international compence, mindful organization, organizing framework, adaptive performance, cross-cultural performance
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