Who Needs Intercultural Competences?

The current essay focuses on the need for formal education in the area of intercultural communication and training of intercultural competences. It builds on cultural identity and diversity literature, on the experiment conducted in the Low Countries in introducing a new topic for students from social sciences referring to intercultural communication and on reports and papers of international companies, organizations and agencies. The argument of globalization which should give equal opportunities to each and every world’s citizen adds pressure on managers dealing with multicultural teams. Intercultural competences gain importance in recruiting, while turning cultural diversity in team performance requires skills, knowledge and experience. Managing cultural diversity presupposes that people are aware, recognize, understand and deal with differences. Thus intercultural communication should be studied as a stand-alone topic or imbedded in other subjects in different forms of education or training, so people are prepared for intercultural, social and professional relationships.