Preferred choice for many users

"We selected Rosinski's COF as a conceptual framework and primary assessment tool for several reasons (cultural categories transcend typical categorization, team profile can be utilized for future initiatives, cost effectiveness...). Other models were considered, however the COF framework seemed particularly designed for coaches to have coaching conversations that facilitate leveraging cultural differences and creating new possibilities."

Dr C Carr, PCC and L Seto, PCC (Canada),
International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring

Reference in many books and articles

The COF model has been described in the books Coaching Across Cultures,which integrated coaching and interculturalism for the first time and has been published in 10 languages, and in Global Coaching. Both books have been praised by Harvard University. Appears also in Evidence Based Coaching Handbook, Excellence in Coaching, The Routledge Companion to International Business Coaching, The Coaching Relationship, 52 Activities for Successful International Relocation,Positive Psychology in Coaching, Best Practice in Performance Coaching, The Psychology of Coaching and Mentoring, and more.

Different scope from traditional intercultural assessment tools

While still allowing comparison of individual profiles with various national cultures, the COF assessment has a much broader scope. The COF assessment aims at helping individuals grow by learning from cultural differences of various kinds. Culture here consists of all the characteristics we have acquired along the way, by interacting with various groups of people and being part of different cultural groups (family, generation, profession, company, country, religion, etc.). The COF™ assessment can be viewed as an equivalent, at the cultural level, to a personality assessment such as the MBTI®.

Multidimensional and flexible

With its 17 dimensions (more can be added on a custom basis), the COF allows us to become aware of our inevitable biases (e.g., how we communicate, think, manage time, organize ourselves, deal with power and responsibility), and to go beyond potentially limiting norms, values and beliefs. The COF allows discovery of new options to increase versatility, creativity and effectiveness. Its underlying dynamic and inclusive view of culture, enables us to build unity in diversity by leveraging cultural differences.

The COF has a number of uses:

• Assess cultures. The COF provides language to describe the salient traits of a culture and focuses your attention on key cultural variables and tendencies.
• Discover new cultural choices. You may recognize an orientation for, say hierarchical organization and compare it with a preference for a flat structure. Patterns that seemed so natural and universal suddenly appear relative and even biased when contrasted with their opposites. Orientations that had been overlooked or undiscovered offer new choices for dealing with challenging situations.
• Assess cultural differences. As Stewart and Bennett’s research indicated, "The core difficulty in cross-cultural interaction is--simply stated--a failure to recognize relevant cultural differences". When several cultures are involved, the COF gives you a systematic approach to clarify the nature of cultural differences among them as well as similarities.
• Bridge different cultures. Having pinpointed specific cultural differences allows you to focus your energy next on bridging the gaps.
• Envision a desired culture. The COF provides a vocabulary to describe an ideal culture. It then becomes a matter of bridging the current culture with the desired one. The challenge is still great, but it becomes manageable at least.
• Leverage cultural diversity. With cultural alternatives clearly identified, you can strive to have the best of the two or three viewpoints for each dimension. Whenever possible, you will make the most of cultural differences and achieve synergy.

This questionnaire will help you determine your cultural profile. As you respond to the questions, we invite you to reflect on the meaning of each dimension and think of your typical inclination in situations you have experienced.

A word of caution: Your answers to this questionnaire will help you to establish a cultural profile that constitutes a useful basis for further discussion, rather than a definite truth or absolutely valid measure.

To make the most of this assessment, you may consider:

• reading part II of Coaching Across Cultures to gain a more in-depth understanding of the dimensions,
• working with an intercultural coach certified to use the COF to help bring to the surface cultural characteristics you may be less conscious of,
• soliciting 360° feedback to help you appreciate how others perceive your ability to use each cultural orientation.

Additional caveats:

Please understand that the cultural profile concept is somewhat of a stretch. Your cultural orientations depend indeed to a large extent on the cultural context (unlike psychological preferences). This means that your orientations frequently change (at least to some degree) depending on the situation (e.g., low context at work, high context with family and with close, long-time friends.)

How could you establish a reliable cultural profile?

• One solution is to devise a cultural profile in each situation. The cultural profile would be accurate, but only in that situation.
• The solution we recommend is to accept that your individual cultural profile is only meant to represent your default, your overall tendency.

Your cultural profile does not always determine your actions. For example, you might have an orientation toward competition, yet choose collaboration in a particular situation. Consequently, your cultural profile does not limit your potential. The opposite is true. Aware of your profile, you can discover new options outside your profile and tap into this unexpected potential.

Methodological considerations: usefulness versus validity

For a detailed discussion, please refer to Global Coaching, pp. 129-132.

Individual responses can be aggregated to establish collective COF profiles for research purposes or/and in the context of group projects (e.g., the COF team profile used in a team coaching intervention, COF organizational profile used for the cultural audit of an organization, COF profile of each division within an organization).

The COF assessment questionnaire is designed primarily as a developmental tool (both at the individual and group level) and also as an audit tool (at the group level).

Please note that the group COF profiles are obtained here through aggregation of individual COF profiles rather than the aggregation of individuals’ perceptions of the group’s cultural orientations and abilities.

The COF license is temporarily consumed/debited when a participant starts the questionnaire (state “Q1 started”). The participant has 24 hours to complete the questionnaire. The remaining time is visible for the participant in the list of projects in which he/she takes part. If the participant has not completed the questionnaire within the 24 hours, his/her questionnaire is reset (back to the “Registered” state). The license is credited for the COF project manager and can now be used by another participant. If the participant completes the questionnaire within the 24 hours, the COF license remains permanently debited, the chronometer disappears and the state becomes “Completed”.

The reason for this subtlety is to avoid a scenario where several participants would be starting the questionnaire at the same time but some would not be able to complete it in case the COF project manager has not purchased a sufficient number of licenses. Instead, in this situation, our COF assessment will indicate upfront to a participant who wishes to start the questionnaire that there are no COF licenses available left to do so and that he/she should contact his/her COF project manager.

In any event, we recommend that COF project managers ensure that they always have enough COF licenses left before launching a COF project.