About us

What we do and how we do it

What we do

Caleidoscope Academy aims to increase the effectiveness of team members and leaders in an intercultural context. We do this by helping you to recognise and understand cultural patterns, both in yourself and in others.

Cultural patterns are often underestimated as a factor influencing behaviour at work. Thinking we are dealing with a skills related issue, we offer our 'difficult' team members help in changing their behavior to fit our expectations. We send them to management courses to become the leader we want them to be. We send them to communication courses to help them become more assertive. We coach them, we give feedback, we reward and punish where we see fit, and it all doesn’t help.

Instead of wasting time and money and remaining frustrated, we could also work on our cultural intelligence; by becoming more aware of our own biases, culturally affected interpretations, perceptions, thoughts and actions. By learning how other people may perceive differently, and how this influences their behavior and communication, we can open ourselves to new interpretations. We can look at ourselves from different perspectives, and we can tap into the strengths of team members with different cultural preferences.

Only then can we start to appreciate and use differences as an advantage.

Our humanistic approach

Defining cultural diversity

We define cultural diversity as:

“inclusive of but not limited to interaction across [people from different] national cultures, since much recent scholarship expands the term to ethnic, gender, linguistic, socioeconomic, generational, religious, and other aspects of culture that do not align neatly with national borders”.

Source: Akdere, M. and Acheson, K. (2022). Effective leadership across cultures. Achieving intercultural excellence. Chapter 13 in: Stolz, I. and Oldenziel Scherrer, S. (Eds). International Leadership. Effecting success across borders in a boundaryless world. Springer Gabler, Germany. Quote from p. 279.

The 7 pillars of the humanistic ethos

The pillars of humanistic ethos serve as guidelines for all that we do. We take a holistic view on the human person, respect the uniqueness of each person, protect and promote human dignity, view human beings as in permanent development towards flourishing, emphasize individual freedom and responsibility to the social word, respect the worth and interconnectedness of the entire living ecosystem and recognize human beings as self-transcending meaning seeking beings.

Source: Melé, D. (2016). Understanding Humanistic Management. Humanistic Management Journal, 1, 35-55.

Our guiding principles

We aim to contribute to wellbeing in a flourishing world

We give central stage to human dignity as an expression of authenticity

We take a holistic view on the human person

Human nature

The way we look at human nature determines how we organize and lead. We operate in a system in which homo economicus has become the norm. But this is not an accurate representation of human nature. We are not just selfish wealth maximizers. People are more complex than that. In the humanistic view of human nature, (wo)man is a holistic being, a being with dignity, and a need for connection and a sense of meaning. This view leads to a different way of leading and organizing, aiming to create wellbeing rather than wealth, putting dignity at the core of leadership practice.

"The purpose of business is to optimize collective value without violating human dignity in the past, present or future."

Source: Donaldson, T., Walsh, J.P. (2015). Towards a theory of business. Research in Organizational Behavior 35 (2015) 181–207

Human dignity

Human dignity can be either ignored, respected, protected and promoted. In order to flourish, people need to feel dignified in three ways: first, human dignity needs to be protected based on a shared humanity in which we are all equal. Second, human dignity needs to be respected in its various forms, as people are free to choose and express their social and cultural value patterns. Third, human dignity can be promoted through love and care for ourselves and others inviting personal growth and realization.

A holistic view

We do not isolate any aspect of the human person to explain behavior. It is not just our personality, our experiences, our relations, our culture, our gender or our age that causes behavior, it's always a combination of all these things, and many other influences. We believe people act and interact because we are unique, because we are part of several social and cultural groups, and we are all part of the human species. Understanding cultural patterns can help understand ourselves and others better, but it can never predict behavioral outcomes.

Value orientations

Although value orientations between (groups of) indiviudals may differ, we all recognize the underlying universal value dimensions. As we each prioritize and substantiate the dimensions differently, a myriad of value patterns emerges. Most of us live in a socio-cultural context that focusses quite specifically on one or two orientations, and ignores or actively discourages the use of others. Some value orientations may become completely alien to us. Our value patterns help us make sense of the world, but also form a type of mental prison.

Culturally diverse teams have great potential, yet often struggle with cultural tensions as people in the team do not know how to tap into the potential advantages of the differences present. By becoming aware of our own value pattern, and learning how to recognize and understand those of others, we can take a different perspective and start to use the potential of team diversity.

About Danaë Huijser

Nice to meet you! I am a business psychologist and researcher, specialized in intercultural organizational behavior. I support intercultural team leaders and members in dealing with individual and cultural differences at work. Approaching intercultural leadership and cooperation from a humanistic perspective, my services reflect a holistic view on the human person, based on inherent human dignity, appreciation for cultural variety, and genuine care for the unique individual.

I am also a PhD candidate, researching the intercultural potential of humanistic management. I specifically focus on the promotion of human dignity in intercultural teams.

I am fascinated by what drives people; how do people act, think and perceive, make choices and judgements. (Sub)cultures – teams, organizations, industries - have always intrigued me. I am curious about their ways of giving meaning to the world, of cooperating, communicating, coexisting, of dealing with power, with rules, with autonomy and belonging, with freedom and security.

Working across cultural borders makes work fun, exciting and challenging, but sometimes difficult, energy-consuming and frustrating. I help people to deal with these differences, to recognize them, acknowledge them and use them in a positive way.

Topics of expertise: team dynamics, individual and cultural differences, communication, decision making, cooperation, building trust, motivation, power and leadership, social perception, social identity, prejudice, biases, stereotyping, cross-cultural learning, organizational culture, creativity and innovation, international humanistic management.