- The Development Core provides consultation, training, and coaching around intercultural effectiveness tailored to the specific needs of Center investigators as they work with multicultural and, increasingly, international populations. The target audience for the programs is principal investigators, junior investigators, fellows, research project managers/directors, and research assistants, especially those currently working in international settings or with plans to do so. Dr. Iván C. Balán, who conducts international research and teaches on intercultural effectiveness in organizations heads the intercultural effectiveness programs.
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- In order to provide individualized feedback to research teams working in international or cross-cultural settings, Dr. Balán regularly attends meetings where teams present new research ideas and review progress on grants, as well as Project Launch meetings, which occur prior to the initiation of research projects and are aimed at assessing and providing feedback on practical issues that are relevant to launching a new project. His participation in these meetings focuses on helping the research team identify potential intercultural challenges to the execution of the research project and possible ways of avoiding or overcoming intercultural conflicts. Issues discussed include team building across distances, working in more relationship-oriented cultures, bridging the individualism/collectivism divide, and establishing realistic timelines for working in cultures where work processes are slower. Discussion of these issues has focused on helping the research team establish strong relational ties with their international collaborators to ensure data quality and adherence to the research protocol. Dr. Balán remains available to the research team as a coach and consultant to assist them through intercultural challenges they might encounter in the execution of the research project. Periodically, he also coordinates group training opportunities (ie. panel discussions, didactic trainings, etc) for HIV Center researchers on challenges and lessons learned in international HIV prevention research.
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