SFI Module Helps MPA Students Better Manage Cultural Diversity

Managing cultural diversity is a critical skill in today’s globalized world.  It is also the focus of one of the ten Skills For Impact (SFI) modules that all two-year MPA students take at the School of Public Policy. “The ten modules have been selected and designed to focus on four core competencies that are vital for successful public policy leaders in the twenty-first century,” explains SFI Program Director and Adjunct Professor of Practice Oliver M. Triebel.  The four pillars of the SFI program are shaping complex environments, engaging internal and external stakeholders, mastering communication and advocacy, and leading with passion.

Visiting Professor Kinga Göncz, who is a trained psychiatrist and has extensive public policy experience, is leading the day-and-a-half long seminar that is being offered to both first- and second-year MPA students this year. “Many MPA students have extensive intercultural experience and so are familiar with some of these issues,” says Göncz. She notes that all of us, however, could benefit from being more aware of our own cultural values and beliefs and how they are perceived by others, and also more sensitive to the dynamics of intercultural situations. “Developing the skills, attitudes, and knowledge that will help us anticipate potential cultural misunderstandings, and deal with them when they occur is a life-long process,” she says.

One of the tools that Göncz uses is in-class simulation exercises. In a recent module, she divided second-year MPA students into two groups, and then put them in different rooms. She told the members of one group that they had to observe certain cultural rules. The second group were visitors. It was their assignment to learn more about the culture of the first group, and to discover what its rules were.  They were told to do this by contacting "locals," asking questions, and observing their behavior. The two groups then came together and interacted based on the rules they had been given. It was an awkward and uncomfortable situation for some students – which, as Göncz points out, intercultural experiences can be. Participating in a classroom simulation is also a very unnatural situation – and yet it provided a valuable opportunity for observation and reflection. “We all bring with us certain cultural assumptions from our families, and from our backgrounds,” Göncz says. “This can’t be avoided, but there are skills that we can develop that will allow us to manage cultural diversity more successfully.”