Diversity, Inclusion, Cultural Competence and Linguistic Competence, What Do They Mean?

For decades we have heard the concept "Diversity". In today's businesses, diversity has a much different meaning then before.  Another concept that is taking a strong force is Cultural Competence. There is a clear difference between Diversity and Cultural Competence, however, they are used interchangeably.  Diversity is the distinction of race, ethnicity, nationality, culture, religion, age.  Cultural Competence is a working definition, there are an array to choose from, cultural competence is the set of values, traditions, beliefs, and systems that group of people share.

Another definition that is very important to know and understand is linguistic competence.  The definition of cultural competence by the National Center of Cultural Competence is the ability of an organization and its personnel to understand and convey information that is easily understood by individuals, including Limited English Proficiency. Now let's go back to Diversity and Inclusion at the Workplace.  There cannot be diversity and inclusion without cultural and linguistic competence at the workplace.  Businesses and organizations must pay attention to the cultural differences  among their employees and how it affects management and staff communication as well peer interaction.

Let's look at the following situation.  HR hires a Chinese community educator to train the Chinese community on a specific health condition.  Management ask the educator to develop an educational curriculum for the trainings.  The educator is asked to implement the curriculum in a bilingual format.  The educator asked management in what Chinese dialect should he deliver the training?  Management response is, well you are Chinese, don't you speak Chinese?  The educator responds yes, but I only speak Cantones.  Management finds out that the Chinese community center's patients, the majority speaks Mandarin, two different dialects.

The lesson learned: Businesses and organizations should not make assumptions about their employees' culture and language base on their race or ethnicity.  Therefore, we must move beyond diversity and inclusion, cultural and linguistic competence knowledge is a requirement to do and stay in business.

For more information contact Helen Dao at helen@daoconsultingservices.com.