The Operational Mentor: The Critical Art of Cross-Cultural Competence and Being Understood in the Contemporary Operational Environment

Abstract

The paper analyzes how a situation in an international conflict environment can be interpreted, explained, or even understood through a selection of basic social science perspectives. The analysis is based on an incident and confrontation between an Afghan company commander and the author during military security operations in Afghanistan. The relationship was negatively and unnecessarily affected because of lack of basic multicultural sensibility and understanding. The paper is a personal and retrospective case study based on observational field data, and the implications are that cross-cultural competence and social science theories can help avoid or reduce cross cultural mistakes and misunderstandings as mentoring is a highly personal endeavor between a mentor and his counterpart.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 06, 2017
Accession Number
AD1176557

Entities

People

  • Erling Nervik

Organizations

  • Marine Corps University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Afghanistan Conflict
  • Anthropology
  • Cultural Diversity
  • Department Of Defense
  • Deployment
  • Enlisted Personnel
  • Ethnic Groups
  • Human Behavior
  • Military Education
  • Military Personnel
  • Military Training
  • National Security
  • New York
  • Social Sciences
  • Students
  • Terrorism
  • Training

Readers

  • Educational Psychology
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.
  • Theoretical Analysis.