Cultural Competence & Awareness Flashcards

Geert Hofstede's cultural dimension of 'Uncertainty Avoidance' measures:

Answer: How comfortable a society is with ambiguity and unpredictability

Uncertainty Avoidance reflects the degree to which members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous situations and seek rules and structure.

Which practice BEST demonstrates cultural awareness during the onboarding of international employees?

Answer: Providing cultural orientation that acknowledges both the new culture and the employee's background

Effective onboarding acknowledges cultural backgrounds while also orienting employees to the new environment, signaling respect and inclusion.

An organization notices that employees from certain cultural backgrounds rarely speak up in meetings. A culturally competent intervention would be to:

Answer: Redesign meeting formats to allow multiple modes of contribution

Redesigning participation structures (e.g., written input, small groups) respects different cultural norms around authority and speaking up.

The 'contact hypothesis' in diversity research suggests that:

Answer: Meaningful intergroup contact under positive conditions can reduce prejudice

Gordon Allport's contact hypothesis holds that positive, equal-status contact between groups can reduce intergroup prejudice under the right conditions.

Which behavior is an example of a 'microinvalidation'?

Answer: Telling an Asian-American colleague 'You speak English so well!'

Microinvalidations are subtle communications that negate or dismiss the experiences, feelings, or identities of marginalized people, such as implying someone is foreign.

Power distance, as a cultural dimension, primarily affects workplaces by influencing:

Answer: The degree of deference employees show to authority and hierarchy

High power distance cultures expect significant hierarchy and deference to authority, affecting communication, decision-making, and feedback norms at work.

Which of the following best illustrates 'cultural encapsulation'?

Answer: A counselor who applies only their own cultural framework to all clients

Cultural encapsulation refers to imposing one's own cultural lens on others without recognizing or valuing cultural differences.