The editors of the special Issue on „Intercultural Competencies in a Changing Complex World“ in the European Journal of Cross-Cultural Competence and Management would like to invite contributions that explore intercultural competence and cultural intelligence in this environment in a variety of contexts including businesses, education, government and non-government organisations, but also between individuals working together in teams or sharing the same neighbourhoods. We particularly want to explore how intercultural competence can contribute to increasing creativity and innovation in a complex world. We want to explore new approaches and ideas to familiar problems that nonetheless present themselves anew every day.
While globalisation with its quick flows of people, information and technology has been a fact for many years and many lessons have been learnt, the ever-increasing scale and pace nonetheless adds to the Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) the world finds itself in today, with the challenges posed seemingly increasing rather than decreasing. VUCA has been mainly discussed in the context of business, but recent events from viral threats to a looming climate catastrophe have dramatically shown how the interconnectedness and volatility of the world extends far beyond the world of business into a myrrhiad of institutions and local communities face disruption all around the world. Therefore, this special issue addresses the role that intercultural competence and cultural intelligence play in such a volatile and complex environment that is characterised both by ever increasing connections and the threat that these connections pose, by ever more and closer diversity and the political push to restrict and reverse this diversity.
Yet, what constitutes intercultural competence in the age of VUCA has been less explored and questions remain open in regards to how intercultural competence and cultural intelligence need to be conceptualised and promoted in education to help address the challenges posed to organisations and individuals in a world fraught with disruptions, ambiguities, and uncertainties.
Thus, the call for papers is directed at scholars who want to contribute to a better understanding of the VUCA phenomenon in a global context. The editors also hope that the same kind of people will be interested in reading about others‘ experiences and theoretical thoughts.
Suitable topics include, but are not limited, to the following:
- Intercultural competence/CQ and its antecedents
- Relevance of intercultural competence/CQ in a complex world
- Training, teaching and learning intercultural competence/CQ
- Theory and Measurement of intercultural competence/CQ
- Conceptual papers discussing frameworks of intercultural competence/cultural intelligence, their differences and similarities, and appropriateness for various research purposes
- Provide theoretical concepts for VUCA
- Nature and dimensionality of intercultural competence
- Empirical research on the nature and dimensionality of intercultural competence in a complex environment
- Empirical multi-level research that examines the influence of intercultural competencies across different levels of analysis (e.g., team-level, organisational level)
- Empirical research that tests the unique and shared effects of different facets of intercultural competence on management-related outcomes
Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. (N.B. Conference papers may only be submitted if the paper has been completely re-written and if appropriate written permissions have been obtained from any copyright holders of the original paper).
All papers are refereed through a peer review process.
All papers must be submitted online. To submit a paper, please read our Submitting articles page.
If you have any queries concerning this special issue, please email the Guest Editors at Dr. Barbara Covarrubias Venegas at bcovarrubiasvenegas@gmail.com.
Manuscripts due by 31st May
Notification to authors: 31th July
Final versions due by 30th September
