As workplaces become increasingly international and diverse, intercultural competence, the ability to effectively interact with people from different cultural backgrounds, has become essential. This dissertation examines various learning experiences to understand whether, and how these facilitate the development of intercultural competence. First, intercultural competence development in the classroom was investigated by integrating an intercultural learning tool into a regular university course. Second, the intercultural experiences of Ph.D. students and their supervisors, who lived and worked internationally as part of a research consortium, were explored to identify how specific incidents contributed to their intercultural learning. Third, the study examined how growing up abroad as a third culture kid influences multicultural personality traits. Moreover, the learning processes underlying the development of intercultural competence are studied.
The findings show that these learning experiences lead to different outcomes for different individuals. For intercultural competence development, an intercultural learning process must transform an experience into meaningful learning. Key factors of this process include interaction with culturally diverse others, appropriate exposure to cultural differences, and reflection. The dissertation illustrates how people make sense of intercultural experiences and the strategies they use. Critical incidents play a role across the studies, highlighting their value for learning and research.
Pauline Vromans is an intercultural trainer, researcher and educator. She coaches expatriates on how they can be more successful on their international assignments and trains multicultural teams on enhancing their intercultural competence. Recently, she designed several intercultural learning projects at University of Amsterdam where she also teaches intercultural skills at the Business School. Born to Dutch parents, she grew up as an expatriate child in the Canary Islands, Madrid, and Switzerland. In the last twenty years, she has lived and worked/studied in the Netherlands, Mexico, Costa Rica, Australia, and the USA. Pauline holds a M.Sc. in Human Resource Studies from University of Tilburg and a M.Sc. in Culture, Organization and Management from the Vrije University, Amsterdam. Previously, Pauline gained international business and management experience in the baby product industry and as a hotel manager in Costa Rica.