What world do we live in? To answer this question, we must acknowledge that cultural diversity (regional, national, industry, professional, and organizational cultures) plays an important role, and the success of many organizations will depend on how to productively deal with cultural diversity. Living in a shared, interconnected, interdependent and globalized world with the need to cooperate requires organizations, which actively move beyond the mere recognition of cultural diversity and foster the development of commonalities across cultures.

Against this background, transcultural competence as a willingness and ability to develop new commonalities across cultures while maintaining cultural diversity is a promising approach. Such a focus on the development of commonalities and cooperative potential can form an important counterbalance against the backdrop of ongoing conflicts, crises, disasters, fragmentation and competition, be they economic or political in nature.  

Current research shows that international organizations need to realize that addressing cultural diversity is not only about country-specific knowledge or local adaptation vs standardization but about developing global best practices. In fact, the productive handling of cultural diversity will become more and more part of risk management, innovation management and the resilience of organizations in the upcoming years. Overall, establishing transcultural competence on an individual and organizational level will be a prerequisite for organizations to thrive in a world that is shaped by cultural complexity.