Academic-Capital

Sociocultural awareness is becoming more important in the military. At present there appears to be sociocultural gaps in military leadership development. The researcher Janice Lawrence believes that leaders will be called upon to engage socially across many different cultures and to build trust, create alliances, read intentions, and influence and understand people and their motivations (2011). This type of learning is fundamentally different and higher than previous learning.  For decades the military has been at the helm of leadership development. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have highlighted some gaps. The development of higher sociocultural awareness helps leaders understand the local population, their needs, and their motivations. To create greater cross-cultural awareness requires skills in empathy, respect, genuine interest in others, flexible behavior, tolerance for ambiguity, open-mindedness, sociability, and initiative (Early & Ang, 2003).  A failure to be