The Cultural Orientations Approach (COA) is a certification solution which enables business professionals to integrate and apply the TMC definition of culture and the related Cultural Orientations Indicator® (COI) assessment to develop boundaryless leaders, to build cross-cultural, multinational teams and to produce business results. Typically, companies who certify their professional staff in the COA already have access to the COI through the Cultural Navigator® and wish to disseminate the powerful insights and capabilities that can be realized through these tools to a wider population in their organization.
The COA is delivered in three basic models:
Fully Virtual COA Program: combines virtual webinars, assessments, individual, pair and trio activities, online learning and reading. The program is designed to leverage technology to meet the requirements of a multinational participant group with limited time to travel to a shared location.
Blended COA Program: integrates webinars, individual and pairs learning, assessments, and reading, with a one- or two-day face-to-face program that emphasizes real-time learning and case studies, and hands-on application with feedback and coaching.
Three Day On-Site COA Program: is delivered at the client site in a three-day format, supporting the sharing of insights and knowledge, creating a community of practice, building customized applications of the COA and COI into on-going and future initiatives, and supporting the development of peer coaching relationships.
The underlying theory, method, and practice of the COA is the TMC understanding of culture as the complex pattern of ideas, emotions and observable manifestations (behaviors and/or symbols) that tend to be expected, reinforced and rewarded by and within a particular group. The COA views culture as influenced by multiple levels: (1) national/societal (2) identity group (3) organizational (4) functional/business unit (5) team or (6) individual levels. This concept of culture lends the COA™ a distinguishing and differentiating characteristic in the fields of management, international business, organization and leadership development, and intercultural communication.
COA™ Certification is a professional certification and available to:
- Professionals associated with organizations who have licensed this approach from TMC and are committed to using the associated tools, such as the Cultural Navigator® and the Cultural Orientations Indicator® to address cultural challenges at any level in their organization;
- Academics, educators, and/or researchers at academic and educational institutions who seek to embed the COA in their teaching or research agendas.
- Select business partners who seek to apply the COA within the context of their partnership with TMC.