Understanding the Development of the Intercultural Sensitivity of Personnel in the U.S. Armed Forces
Given the nature of recent and upcoming military engagements, there is growing interest in incorporating more cultural learning into US military training in order to better prepare military personnel to respond to security challenges in international theaters of operation. Costly mistakes and painful lessons from the United States’ involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq since the early 2000s heightened this need and convinced the Department of Defense that its military personnel must have the necessary knowledge, skills, and intercultural competence to meet the demands of frequent and demanding complex multicultural engagements.
This presentation shares the results of a multi-year study of U.S. military personnel from a language school in Monterey, California. The study contributes to the state of knowledge about the level of intercultural sensitivity of U.S. military personnel as well as personal and professional factors that contribute to more ethnorelative intercultural orientations. To date, little work has been conducted to measure and understand the intercultural sensitivity of U.S. military personnel.
The research revealed that a majority of subjects have Minimization and Defense/Polarization orientations, which is consistent with other professionals, and that most significantly overestimated their intercultural sensitivity to a greater degree than subjects in other studies. Less than five percent scored in the lowest category, Denial. Less than five percent scored in the fourth-highest category, Acceptance, while none scored at the highest level, Adaptation. Personal and demographic factors contributing most to intercultural sensitivity were family upbringing, living in culturally diverse areas, intercultural encounters, foreign language proficiency, and ethnicity and race. The most influential professional factors were integrating culture into language training, ongoing cultural training, cultural knowledge, the frequency of intercultural encounters in multiple contexts, and leadership attitudes. The findings provide valuable insights for scholars, policymakers, curriculum developers, military leaders, and others actively involved in working with and training U.S. military personnel.