Cultural Intelligence Essay

Words: 3968
Pages: 16

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Cultural Intelligence

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction: Culture and Intelligence Defined 3
2. The concept of cultural intelligence 7
3. The effect of Globalisation on CQ 8
4. Aspects of Cultural Intelligence 10
5. Developing and Enhancing Cultural Intelligence 12
6. Profiles of Cultural Intelligence 14
7. Business benefits of Cultural Intelligence 16
8. Conclusion 18
9. References 19

1. Introduction: Culture and Intelligence Defined

"Managing and leading people, with various cultural backgrounds, require "cultural intelligence", which in a global setting is a management challenge in the new millennium".

All individuals have something psychologists call "personality" which is made up of traits,

According to Christopher Earley and Elaine Mosakowski in their October 2004 Harvard Business Review article, CQ is related to EQ, but picks up where EQ leaves off; it can be regarded as another aspect of emotional intelligence. Earley and Mosakowski define CQ as the "seemingly natural ability for an outsider to a culture to interpret someone's unfamiliar and ambiguous actions or gestures the way that person's cultural compatriots would". CQ is the ability to cope with national, corporate and vocational cultures.

A manager with low CQ, is vulnerable to culture shock and appears anxious when dealing with a foreign culture. This low-CQ manager will be unable to adapt to the unspoken rules and norms of the foreign culture and is likely to make cultural blunders. On the other hand, a high-CQ manager will adapt with relative ease to this unfamiliar environment and will be unfazed by cultural differences.

Interesting to note that the US Army has done extensive research on CQ for military operations and the understanding thereof in times of war. It appears that by being culturally aware of the so-called enemy, one is able to win in times of combat and hence war.

The concept of CQ is recent and was precipitated