Acquiring cultural competence in crisis: Barriers and best practices from international NGO workers

Although cultural competence is widely recognized as essential to effective humanitarian work, the processes by which aid workers acquire cross-cultural skills remain underexplored. Drawing on 50 semi-structured interviews, observational fieldwork, organizational documents, and a supplemental survey, this study identifies acquisition strategies and their organizational barriers from the perspectives of international NGO workers deployed to Haiti during long-term recovery operations. The findings indicate that relational and experiential approaches (i.e., immersion, community relationships, and mentoring) are perceived as more effective than formal training, yet are often undermined by organizational policies (i.e., restrictive security protocols and insufficient training) shaped by duty-of-care risk governance, producing a governed immersion paradox in which the relational exposure needed for skill development is constrained. By identifying this paradox as a mechanism through which organizational risk governance structures access to cultural learning, this study advances understanding of how cultural competence is developed by NGO workers in fragile, high-stakes environments and offers practical guidance for organizations seeking to prepare and sustain workers in crisis contexts .