The National Communication Association (NCA) is the lead industry affiliation of media organizations and communications professionals in the United States. The NCA “advances communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific and aesthetic inquiry” (National Communication Association). The role of the NCA as a professional affiliation and knowledge sharing network for scholars, practitioners and teachers is in the interest of fostering and promoting ethical and free communications in the public and private sectors and finding solutions to global problems (National Communication Association).
Leadership
The Executive Committee, Legislative Assembly and various Boards of Directors dedicated to oversight of the NCA work toward the goals and objectives of the communication’s affiliation’s mission and programs. Association leadership is guided by the bylaws and governance framework defining the structural administration of the organization.
The governing leaders of the NCA are volunteers with substantial professional history in the field(s) of communications media, law and commerce whom provide advisory, business partner sponsorship and strategic planning decision to the non-profit organization’s fundraising stewardship and programmatic statement. The NCA is part of a professional network of member institutions such as the American Council of Learned Societies, the governing body of the Consortium of Social Science Associations, the Council of Communication Associations, and National Humanities Alliance (National Communication Association).
Cultural Intelligence
The NCA applies a “transactional model of communication” in generation of meanings across mediated contexts and in dialogue with a range of critical and cultural disciplinary foci (National Communication Association). A consortium for knowledge sharing, the NCA is a vital locus of critical and cultural exchange.
The emergence of cultural intelligence (CI) as a core competency in organizational performance illustrates the impact that globalization has had on management strategies (Earley & Ang). Reconciliation of cultural and linguistic difference amid market transformation and social change is realized in Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars’ “Synergy Hypothesis” where cultural intelligence is forged at the nexus of contrasting values (Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars).
Event Analysis
The NCA’s multi-media strategy includes social media network participation by members, and coincides with best practices in channel marketing and advertising (National Communication Association). The NCA’s approach to collateral and press development suits the definition of CI as lean and agile solution (Earley & Ang).
Members coordinate with the NCA in support of mutual benefit, using culture as an asset and as a force. The member organizations are engaged in a range of events targeting the development of the digital media, press, radio and television markets. This supports the thesis that CI is a vital capacity building mechanism in the expansion of influence and economic interests (Hampden-Turner & Trompenaars).
Recommendations
Cultural capital it has been effectively argued, is perhaps most transparent in the mobilization of communications practices in support of capitalisation. How well organizations are able to benefit from global capital flows has much to do with their ability to harness global-local matrices of cultural intelligence in communications (Earley & Ang).
In the contemporary moment, the capacity of the NCA to promote member organizations in their pursuit of cultural capital by way of communications is determined by its representative voice across institutional interests (National Communication Association). Cultural intelligence is the shared asset that will continue to ensure equity in participatory action into the future.
Bibliography
Earley, P. C. & Ang, S. Cultural intelligence. Stanford University Press, Stanford, 2003.
Hampden-Turner, C. & Trompenaars, F. “Cultural Intelligence: Is Such a Capacity Credible?” Group & Organization Management 31, 1 (2006), PP. 56-63.
National Communication Association, 2013. <http://www.natcom.org>
