Promoting diversity in academic committees and councils has had many supporters for years. Taking for granted that more diversity of minds would end up at better decisions, brings a caveat, as with more diversity there is also more potential for conflicts to arise and underperformance to settle. With the globalization across most endeavours, academic councils also became composed by members originating from different national and organizational backgrounds, encompassing people from significantly different globe regions as well as organizational cultures. Such paradigm brings completely different worldviews into committees and council gatherings with both pluses and minuses. Therefore the potential for misunderstandings, miscommunication and ultimately underperformance dynamics has never been higher. Such paradigm and context demands new approaches and solutions, and perhaps new council leadership skills and training approaches. Several distinct models and frameworks exist to bring understanding over intercultural communication and management; however, there’s barely any established taxonomy or unifying model which one could refer to in order to harness such situations. Among the main frameworks, one can find the ones from knows authors such as Hall, Trompenaars, and Hofstede. The method used comprises the analysis and comparison of the main cultural models and associated frameworks, clarifying where such models superimpose each other and where they are complementary. Once such models are understood, it will be possible to think in terms of cause and effect, and therefore design useful initiatives and procedures to support academic council members, hence contributing to an improved human dynamics paradigm in what intercultural interactions concern. The purpose of this paper is to bring clarity and order, contributing to establishing a comprehensive framework as a result of the integration, or blending, of the main existing frameworks, and as such provide guidance for education professionals who have to engage in academic governance under the impact of multicultural settings. This paper points towards possible research pathways for addressing such an important issue for making multicultural committees and councils more effective and efficient. The outcome is a clearer and tentatively universal model which may help in addressing, managing and mitigating risks derived from multicultural interactions, so academic committees and councils optimally pursue their function.

Keywords: Academic councils, Diversity, Council Dynamics, Conflict Management, Culture Models.