Attitude of Military Personnel to the Challenge of Culture: Initial Findings J.L. Szalma & P.A....
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Transcript of Attitude of Military Personnel to the Challenge of Culture: Initial Findings J.L. Szalma & P.A....
Attitude of Military Personnel to the Challenge of Culture:
Initial FindingsJ.L. Szalma & P.A. Hancock
University of Central Florida
D.P. McDonaldDefense Equal Opportunity
Management Institute (DEOMI)
Not an Entirely New Idea• “The supreme art of war is to subdue the
enemy without fighting”
• “To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting”
• “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you victory will not stand in doubt.”
-Sun Tzu
Understanding my own culture is important for mission
effectiveness
65% agree or strongly agree
29% neither agree nor disagree
6% disagree or strongly disagree
Totally Disagree
Totally Agree
Cultural awareness is important for mission effectiveness.
Totally Disagree
Totally Agree
76% agree or strongly agree
20% neither agree nor disagree
4% disagree or strongly disagree
Training in language is enough to prepare military personnel
for an international deployment.
Totally Disagree Totally Agree
Air Force20% agree or strongly agree47% neutral33% disagree or strongly disagree
Totally Disagree
Totally Agree
Army23% agree or strongly agree28% neutral49% disagree or strongly disagree
Totally Disagree
Totally Agree
Navy
17% agree or strongly agree23% neutral60% disagree or strongly disagree
Totally Disagree
Totally Agree
Marines26% agree or strongly agree37% neutral37% disagree or strongly disagree
Class-room training for development of cultural
awareness/competency would be helpful in preparing me for an
international deployment
Totally Disagree
Totally Agree
Air Force59% agree or strongly agree
12% disagree or strongly disagree
Totally Disagree
Totally Agree
Army65% agree or strongly agree
8% disagree or strongly disagree
Totally Disagree
Totally Agree
Navy69% agree or strongly agree
7% disagree or strongly disagree
Totally Disagree
Totally Agree
Marines
56% agree or strongly agree
10% disagree or strongly disagree
Cultural Readiness
• Cultural competency• Cultural Awareness• Skills
– Language– Social interaction (e.g., rules)– Perception of cultural cues– Selection of appropriate response
Assessment of Attitudes, Perceptions, and Needs
• Assess general attitudes regarding:– Importance of culture for deployment– Importance and Quality of Training– Gaps in training– Prior cross-cultural experience– Perceptions regarding chain of command with
respect to cultural issues– Attitudes toward culture & the military
• Apply assessment data to:– identify learning objectives for cultural
readiness/awareness– Develop definitions of cultural readiness for DoD
Empirical Approach
• Develop survey questions for administration with the DEOMI Organizational Climate Survey (DEOCS)
• 14-15 items per administration• Identify:
– latent factors for needs, attitudes, and cultural awareness
– similarities and differences across services and ranks
Importance of Culture
• Attitudes regarding importance of culture emerged as a factor in each dataset
• Sample Questions:– How important do you believe cultural
understanding is in your military service?– How important do you believe it is for
military personnel in general to have cultural training?
– How important do you believe it is for military personnel to be trained to understand cross-cultural differences?
Importance of Culture as a Function of Branch (1st
Dataset)
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Air Force Army Navy Marines Coast Guard
Branch
Fa
cto
r S
co
re
Interest in Cultural Understanding as a Function of Branch (4th
Dataset)
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Air Force Army Navy Marines Coast Guard
Branch
Fa
cto
r S
co
re
Importance of Culture by Rank (1st Dataset)
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Junior Enlisted (E1-E6) Senior Enlisted (E7-E9) Junior Officer (O1-O3) Senior Officer (O4 & higher)
Rank
Fa
cto
r S
co
re
Interest in Cultural Understanding by Rank (4th Dataset)
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Junior Enlisted (E1-E6) Senior Enlisted (E7-E9) Junior Officer (O1-O3) Senior Officer (O4 & higher)
Rank
Fa
cto
r S
co
re
Perceived Readiness
•Perceptions of readiness for deployment to foreign countries•Aspects of foreign culture for which personnel believed they were:
–Well prepared–Poorly prepared
Sample Questions
• Do you believe you have been sufficiently prepared for deployment with respect to cultural training?
• Do you believe your chain of command values your training in:– cultural awareness– attitudes toward culture– language training
Perceived Readiness as a Function of Branch (Dataset
1)
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
AirForce
Army Navy Marines CoastGuard
Branch
Fa
cto
r S
co
re
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
JuniorEnlisted(E1-E6)
SeniorEnlisted(E7-E9)
JuniorOfficer
(O1-O3)
SeniorOfficer (O4& higher)
Rank
Fa
cto
r S
co
re
Perceived Readiness as a Function of Rank (Dataset 1)
Sample Questions
• How important you believe it is for personnel to receive training in cultural awareness?
• How important do you believe it is for personnel receive training in awareness of their own attitudes toward other cultures?
• To what extent do you believe that an increased emphasis on cultural training will result in greater mission success?
Importance of Understanding & Training as a Function of Branch
(Dataset 2)
2.5
2.55
2.6
2.65
2.7
2.75
2.8
2.85
Air Force Army Navy Marines Coast Guard
Branch
Fa
cto
r S
co
re
Importance of Understanding & Training as a Function of Rank
(Dataset 2)
2.5
2.55
2.6
2.65
2.7
2.75
2.8
2.85
2.9
2.95
Junior Enlisted (E1-E6) Senior Enlisted (E7-E9) Junior Officer (O1-O3) Senior Officer (O4 & higher)
Rank
Fa
cto
r S
co
re
Importance of Understanding & Training for Culture: Junior Enlisted
(2nd Dataset)
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2
2.2
2.4
2.6
2.8
3
Air Force Army Marines Navy Coast Guard
Branch
Fa
cto
r S
co
re
Deployed
Not Deployed
n=4
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
Air Force Army Marines Navy Coast Guard
Branch
Fa
cto
r S
co
re
Deployed
Not Deployed
n=2
Importance of Understanding & Training for Culture: Senior Enlisted
(2nd Dataset)
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
Air Force Army Marines Navy Coast Guard
Branch
Fa
cto
r S
co
re
Deployed
Not Deployed
Importance of Understanding & Training for Culture: Junior Officer (2nd
Dataset)
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
Air Force Army Marines Navy Coast Guard
Branch
Fa
cto
r S
co
re
Deployed
Not Deployed
Importance of Understanding & Training for Culture: Senior Officer
(2nd Dataset)
Summary of Results
Forces Themselves Overwhelmingly recognize:• The importance of culture for mission success• The need for more formal training in cross-
cultural interaction• Buy-in (Importance of the study of culture for
the military)• Awareness of One’s own cultural biases is an
important concern
Summary of Results
• Know thyself– Military should facilitate the understanding by
recruits of their own culture
• Deployment Experience Changes the perception of need for cultural readiness– Intrinsic cultural lessons learned should be made
explicit in pre-deployment training
• Training needs must be tempered by rank and branch of service
Summary of Results
• Prior experience in multi-cultural situations (before military entry) provides insight into cultural readiness requirements– Pre-military cultural experience is an
important dimension of military recruiting
Toward A Measure of Cultural Competency
• Defining the Construct• Cultural Intelligence
– Cognitive– Motivational– Emotional
• Cultural Awareness– Understanding cultural:
• Self• Other
Facets of Culture
Cultural Intelligence
Cultural Intelligence
MindfulnessStress coping
strategies
Personality
Appraisals(e.g., harmful/
beneficial)
Tolerance ofAmbiguity
Foreign DeploymentExperience
Rank
??
Attitudes
• Perceived importance of culture• Attitudes toward other cultures• Attitudes toward own culture• Attitudes regarding the value of
cultural training by:– Self– Chain of command
• Attitude change pre-post deployment
Attitudes
Cognitiveflexibility
Stress copingstrategies
Personality
Attribution style
Foreign DeploymentExperience
Rank
??
A Valid Measure of Cultural Attitudes• Based on initial baseline, select items
for administration to a single large sample of personnel
• Establish underlying factor structure• Conduct studies to validate attitude
measure• Examine role of individual differences• Longitudinal studies
Validation Studies
• Cognitive and affective correlates of attitudes toward culture
• Personality– Openness to Experience– Extraversion– Stress appraisal and coping
• Attribution Style• Cognitive Flexibility• Tolerance for Ambiguity