Edwin Hoffman en Arjan Verdooren - Diversity competence

Diversity competence

Differences between people rarely take place on a completely level playing field ; power differences, however subtle, often play a role. Frequently, this is also tied to mechanisms and histories of exclusion between individuals and groups. Ad ditionally, cultural differences between people of different ethnic, national and religious backgrounds often lead to challenges around ethics , when one person or group’s values or habits create tension with those of others. Awareness, re flection and sometimes taking position around these issues can be essential for just, satisfying and mutually sustainable interactions and relations. TOPOI as a communicative approach to diversity All things considered, we propose the TOPOI model (Hoffman, 2013) as a com municative approach to intercultural interaction. In interaction, communica tion is the means people have to influence, understand and connect to each other. To this end, we make use of the work of renowned communication schol ar Paul Watzlawick (Watzlawick, Beavin & Jackson, 2011), famous for the adage you cannot not communicate . This means that communication entails verbal and non-verbal communication as well as messages on the content and the re lationship level. It also implies a system-theoretical approach that considers the wider influence of the social environment in which people interact on individ ual interactions. TOPOI offers five areas where differences that cause strangeness in interactions can be identified: Tongue (verbal and non-verbal language), Order (views and logic), Persons (identity and relationship), Organization (rules and agreements) and Intentions (motives and concerns). Based on an attitude and mindset of not-knowing, empathy, openness and reflectiveness, the TOPOI areas offer various hypotheses to understand and reconcile differences, as well as possible areas to intervene. The relationship between communication and the normali zation of strangeness can be twofold: communication can follow normalization – once familiarization is achieved – to identify and potentially address the issue at hand, or communication as such can be a way to achieve normalization. In practice, the two will often go hand in hand, and back and forth. Alternatively, the TOPOI areas can be used as a way to categorize the rich avail able knowledge around inter- and cross-cultural communication from various academic fields including linguistics, (social) psychology, anthropology, neuro science, history, philosophy and anthropology. From a practical point of view, it is not necessary to know – let alone memorize – all the different facets of the various TOPOI areas. In any case, we believe that learning about these areas enhances one’s sensitivity to the various differences that can manifest them selves in communication and interaction.

22