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Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. REPORT DATE Introduction PurposeThis task, the first of five tasks in a project to support Cultural Readiness for the Department of Defense, represents the first step in the development of a -paper and pencil‖ questionnaire measure of cultural competency. The purpose of this task was to identify measures that are reliable and valid for the measurement of cultural competency. Thus, our approach was to identify existing measures in published peer-reviewed literature in order to understand the available instruments, the dimensions and constructs they measure, the purposes and previous uses of these metrics, and their reported psychometric properties. This document provides an overview of the project as a context for this task, provides the findings of this task, and discusses next steps in the project. Project OverviewThis initial project supports the assessment of capabilities and requirements leading to the development of a common framework in order to -set the stage‖ for input to policy, as well as for research and training efforts by the emerging Department of Defense Cultural Center of Excellence. Thus, the overall purpose of this project is to develop a framework of cultural competence and its related measures. In addition, we believe that the existing measures may leave something to be desired in terms of the constructs assessed as well as the relevance of existing measures for the purposes of the current assessment requirements.In addition to literature review, in order to conceptualize the overall construct of interest (i.e., cultural competency), some basic issues must be addressed. These include coming up with a precise definition of what exactly is being measured, how it will be measured, the format of the questionnaire, benefits to such measurement, and the meanings of the scores derived, among others. First and foremost in this process, the conceptual criteria should be carefully identified to include all of the important dimensions of performance.This will involve not only theoretically-based hypotheses of important constructs that make up a measure of cultural competency, but also detailed explications of what performance success looks like that can be tied to all of the important and rele...

Understanding the factors responsible for successful interactions between cultures has been an ongoing investigation among anthropologists, social workers, and organizational psychologists. The need for employees who are able to function effectively across cultures has resulted in a great deal of research examining which factors enable expatriate effectiveness. Despite the necessity of a workforce that is able to function across cultures in today's global economy, an even greater case can be made for cross-cultural competence (3C) in the U.S. military. The potential for loss of life and international-level consequences is high if our military forces are not adequately prepared. This is why the Department of Defense has identified 3C as a critical determinant of success for military missions. Despite the critical need for military 3C, a review of the literature found no validated instruments developed to assess the readiness of our troops to work closely with foreign nationals and coalition forces in the context of military deployments. As such, the overarching goal of this validation study was to enable the U.S. military to prepare and train its forces in 3C, specifically allowing the military to: (1) better assess troop readiness to engage other cultures; (2) target training to those skills that help achieve missions in the field; (3) design more authentic cross-cultural training exercises; (4) assess the effectiveness of crosscultural training; and (5) guide the development of future cultural training efforts. To that end, a blended approach to scale development was undertaken, whereby critical-incident interviews with subject matter experts informed which of the individual difference predictors from the civilian literatures would likely be applicable to the military domain. Initial administration of the prototype instrument to 792 military members, followed by exploratory factor analysis, revealed six hypothesized factors of 3C. Following scale development, the Cross-Cultural Competence iv Inventory (3CI) was administered to almost 5,000 service members, and the six-factor structure was confirmed as well as cross-validated. Another data collection effort focused on assessing the stability of the six factors over time, via test-retest reliability analysis. A final validation study revealed Cultural Exploration to be a significant predictor of three of the four performance criteria, as rated by supervisors on deployment. Furthermore, this study offered the unique perspective gained by administering two popular civilian instruments along with a military-based tool, providing insight into the nature of military 3C and the ways in which it is similar to, and distinct from, civilian 3C. Additionally, important theoretical contributions may help guide future empirical research and military applications. This study is the initial step in assessing readiness for cultural interaction in the military. The results may serve to guide future efforts in military research in order to support our forces in the field as well as...

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