Successful interaction across cultures requires cultural intelligence. Several aspects of cultural intelligence in organizations are described: suspending judgment until enough information about the other person becomes available; paying attention to the situation; cross-cultural training that increases isomorphic attributions, appropriate affect, and appropriate behaviors; matching personal and organizationally attributes; increasing the probability of appropriate organizational practices.
Intelligence cannot be fully or even meaningfully understood outside its cultural context. Work that seeks to study intelligence a contextually risks the imposition of an investigator's view of the world on the rest of the world. Moreover, work on intelligence within a single culture may fail to do justice to the range of skills and knowledge that may constitute intelligence broadly defined and risks drawing false and hasty generalizations. In this article, we consider the relevance of culture to intelligence and its investigation, assessment, and development. We describe studies from diverse continents, based on the theory of successful intelligence, that show the importance of understanding intelligence in its cultural context and conclude that intelligence must be understood in such context.
This study examines the influence of cultural exposure on emotional intelligence and cultural intelligence. Because of the importance of international experience in organizations, and the ease of travel, understanding the impact of exposure to other cultures is critical. In this study, cultural exposure is examined in a variety of ways, such as a binary measure, breadth measure, and depth measure, as well as the interaction between breadth and depth. The sample included 485 participants from a large university in the northeast part of the United States. Regression analysis was conducted and findings indicated that cultural exposure in all forms had an impact on cultural intelligence, while it did not have an impact on emotional intelligence.
The construct of cultural intelligence, recently introduced to the management literature, has enormous potential in helping to explain effectiveness in cross cultural interactions. However, at present, no generally accepted definition or operationalization of this nascent construct exists. In this article, we develop a conceptualization of cultural intelligence that addresses a number of important limitations of previous definitions. We present a concise definition of cultural intelligence as a system of interacting abilities, describe how these elements interact to produce culturally intelligent behavior, and then identify measurement implications.
In: Sutherland , A , Edgar , D & Duncan , P 2015 , ' International infusion in practice : from cultural awareness to cultural intelligence ' , Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice , vol. 3 , no. 3 , pp. 32-40 . https://doi.org/10.14297/jpaap.v3i3.188
United Kingdom (UK) Universities strive to increase international student numbers and claim to be internationalising the student experience. In parallel student-centred approaches appear to be the norm across learning, teaching and assessment strategies. However, a tension exists in delivering both of these claims concurrently in that domestic and inbound international students often have different experiences, expectations, needs and perceptions regarding pedagogy, support and curriculum. While programme delivery centres on the UK educational mode, universities tend to accommodate orientation for all students centrally, as a largely homogenous group. This paper explores the experiences of inbound Erasmus exchange students from several European Union (EU) countries to determine if student-centred approaches are adequate to meet their needs. It also examines possible gaps in the tutor-student pedagogic experience, expectations and perceptions. With reference to gap analysis, a case study of a module in a post-1992 University is explored. Observation, focus groups, policy analysis and quantitative analysis of student results are used to make sense of the intercultural pedagogic experiences of the students and potential implications for curriculum design and delivery. Findings indicate that the processes and procedures put in place to support Erasmus students in navigating UK pedagogic styles, assessment and curriculum are insufficient to truly support the student journey in a way that student centeredness would imply. Key areas of discord revolve around curriculum structure, assessment style, expectations and pedagogic approach. In essence, the cognitive and intangible processes and aspects of the student journey are problematic with evidence to suggest that poor cross-institutional communication and generic orientation compound the challenges. The research is particularly significant in that it highlights the need to provide a more reflective and reflexive approach to working with Erasmus students, requiring a shift away from a mechanistic focus on systems, structures and cultural awareness towards cultural intelligence.
While the role of intelligence is to reduce uncertainty for decision-makers, a role of intelligence scholarship is to highlight uncertainty, that is, open up possibilities for ethical reflection and deliberation that conventional wisdom, institutional inertia, and mainstream research have closed off. Along these lines, this essay argues for the development and use of rhetorical and critical/cultural perspectives within the field of Intelligence Studies. It describes what rhetorical and critical/cultural research entails and explains how associated perspectives benefit the field. Adapted from the source document.
This study introduces the conceptual foundations of cultural intelligence (CQ) at the organizational level and elaborates on its three factors: process, position, and path capability. Drawing on Early and Ang's individual level of CQ conceptualization and Teece et al.'s dynamic capability framework, the proposed organizational CQ theory suggests how micro theories of cultural intelligence can be relevant to the macro theories of organizational CQ. In addition, this study also proposes a nomological network for organizational CQ models that sheds light on the role of organizational CQ and the underlying mechanism of the relationship between organizational CQ and organizational performance as well as intermediate performance outcomes (international performance).
Cultural intelligence (CQ) represents a promising advancement in the area of cross-cultural training and management. Experiential approaches for CQ development have been proposed as highly effective; however, there is a lack of CQ-specific approaches in the management literature. This work overviews the concept of cultural intelligence and its relevance to management then highlights an experiential CQ education process and framework. The process, designed to increase CQ capacity by engaging in a new cultural contact experience, was initially developed with two cohorts that included a total of 743 management education participants. Details of the process, supporting theory, related teaching materials, participant evaluation, and participant CQ development indicators are presented and future research directions are discussed.
Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to discuss the concept of cultural psychological capital, its impact on motivational cultural intelligence (CQ), the influence of motivational cultural intelligence on metacognitive awareness, and the moderating role of perspective taking on the relationship between motivational cultural intelligence and metacognition.Design/methodology/approach– Collected data from international management program alumni to test the hypotheses.Findings– The results show that cultural psychological capital has a positive relationship with motivational cultural intelligence, which in turn relates to metacognitive awareness, and perspective taking does not moderate the relationship between motivational cultural intelligence and metacognition.Research limitations/implications– The data were collected from a single source. The study supports broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 2001) by demonstrating that cultural psychological capital has an important association with motivational cultural intelligence.Practical implications– Cultural psychological capital can be improved. Therefore, organizations that desire to increase the motivation of employees may consider improving the cultural psychological capital of employees. Learning is an important outcome of motivational cultural intelligence, and it is an asset for today's organizations.Originality/value– The study takes a positive perspective for cross-cultural experiences and identifies cultural psychological capital as an important resource for expatriates. Metacognitive awareness, as an outcome, provides support that cross-cultural experience results in higher learning for individuals who are motivated.