Measuring Public Manager Cultural Competence: The Influence of Public Service Values

Authors

Thomas Longoria, Texas State University
Nandhini Rangarajan, Texas State University

Abstract

This study develops a public manager cultural competence instrument. The proposed instrument includes items from existing cultural competence instruments from professional fields (e.g., Nursing, Social Work, and Medicine) and new items developed specifically for measuring public manager cultural competence. We find that self-reported bilingual respondents have higher cross-cultural competence scores on three dimensions (attitudes, skills, knowledge). Minority respondents have higher cross-cultural competence scores on two dimensions (skills, and behavior). Gender and international travel experience do not result in statistically significant differences. Implications for the promotion of cultural competencies in graduate education settings and in public sector organizations are considered and recommendations are made.

Recommended Citation

Longoria, Thomas and Rangarajan, Nandhini (2015) "Measuring Public Manager Cultural Competence: The Influence of Public Service Values," Journal of Public Management & Social Policy: Vol. 21: No. 1, Article 3.
Available at: https://digitalscholarship.tsu.edu/jpmsp/vol21/iss1/3