A Framework for Understanding Cultural Diversity in Cognition and Teamwork

Abstract

Cultural competence is a critical enabler of effective performance on planned and ad-hoc multinational teams. The Army's Objective Force leaders and soldiers must understand cultural differences affecting team performance before they can learn adaptive behaviors that would ensure mission success when working with multinational partners. We studied processes of multinational teams running military peacekeeping operations at Stabilization Force (SFOR) headquarters in Bosnia-Herzegovina (B-H) to assess the degree to which cultural cognitive dimensions impact working level teamwork in a multinational headquarters. Several cognitive dimensions were identified as indicators of potential barriers of team performance in the areas of situation assessment, coordination, assigning roles and responsibilities, and support behavior. Findings were used to build a framework for considering the relationship among culture, social cognitive processes, and multinational teamwork. A methodology for building the framework is reviewed.