Cultural dimension theory based simulations for US Army personnel

Abstract

US Military Personnel are constantly operating in culturally diverse operational theaters and among multinational coalitions around the world. Though some cultural and linguistic criteria are considered when filling deployments, cultural missteps continue to plague the success of our combat operations. In order to address the increasing need for cross-culturally competent personnel the Department of Defense (DoD) requires scalable evaluative methods that supplement current measures primarily focused on evaluating linguistic skills for cross-cultural competence. This work investigates the integration of Cultural Dimension Theory and immersive avatar-based gaming systems with the goal of measuring and predicting cross-cultural competence. The objective of this effort is to assess the applicability of Cultural Dimension Theory as a means to interpret perceived cultural differences and to introduce a novel framework by which a Cultural Dimension-based simulation can be developed.