Cultural Intelligence

Examples of Cultural Intelligence in the following topics:

• Cultural Intelligence

  • Cultural intelligence is the ability to display intercultural competence within a given group through adaptability and knowledge.
  • The concept of cultural intelligence is exactly what it sounds like—the ability to display intercultural competence within a given group through adaptability and knowledge.
  • The components of cultural intelligence, from a general perspective, can be described in terms of linguistics, culture (religion, holidays, social norms, etc.), and geography (or ethnicity).
  • As a result, individuals interested in developing their cultural quotient (CQ) are tasked with studying each of these facets of cultural intelligence in order to accurately recognize the beliefs, values, and behaviors of the culture in which they are immersed.
  • An interesting perspective on cultural intelligence is well represented in the intercultural-competence diagram, which highlights the way that each segment of cultural knowledge can create synergy when applied to the whole of cultural intelligence, where overlapping generates the highest potential CQ.

• Considerations when Managing a Global Corporation

  • Strong global management skills, intercultural competence, and a sensitivity to cultural issues are necessities for global managers.
  • Global management skills are largely based in developing cultural intelligence, or a high cultural quotient (CQ), which delineates an individual's general understanding and adaptability of foreign cultures.
  • This is best achieved through understanding what constitutes a high level of intercultural competence and leveraging this confidence to achieve the desire results in global management (see Boundless's "Cultural Intelligence" section).
  • Once managers attain the appropriate levels of cultural intelligence, it becomes necessary to apply this to the corporate framework.
  • With lower standards of livings in certain regions, as well as differences in capitalistic philosophies and legalities, sensitivity to cultural differences is absolutely crucial in sidestepping the pitfalls of merging cultures that contradict one another.

• The Impact of Culture on Business Operations

  • Understanding culture and the influence that it exercises on organizations, has motivated a wide variety of studies and perspectives working to define and examine what constitutes 'organizational culture'.
  • Denison - Similar to Hofsede, Denison studied organizational culture in pursuit of idenitfying critical dimensions affecting internal culture.
  • Cross-cultural management requires cultural intelligence (sometimes referred to as 'CQ') along with an open-minded and empathetic mindset.
  • Observing the cultural tendencies of an organization and finding ways to accommodate them, and their interaction with other cultural predispositions, requires experience, motivation and self-awareness (of one's own cultural predispositions).
  • It provides a strong platform for cross-cultural managers to be insightful decision makers.

• Emotional Leadership

  • Strong emotional leadership depends on having high levels of emotional intelligence (EI).
  • Perceiving emotions – The ability to detect and decipher emotions in faces, pictures, voices, and cultural artifacts—including one's own emotions.
  • Perceiving emotions represents a basic aspect of emotional intelligence, as it makes all other processing of emotional information possible.
  • Emotionally intelligent people can capitalize fully upon their changing moods according to the task at hand.
  • The emotionally intelligent person can harness emotions—even negative ones—and manage them to achieve intended goals.

• Core Culture

  • Core culture is the underlying value that defines organizational identity through observable culture.
  • Core and observable culture are two facets of the same organizational culture, with core culture being inward-facing and intrinsic and observable culture being more external and tangible (outward-facing).
  • Core culture, as the name denotes, is the root of what observable culture will communicate to stakeholders.
  • This is where observable culture begins to transform into core culture.
  • Core culture has the same relationship with observable culture: core culture is created first, and ultimately drives the visible cultural aspects of the organization.

• How to Assess Culture

  • Outlining the way culture is assessed, the pros and cons of multiculturalism and how culture is transmitted is central to management.
  • The merging of differing cultures presents a variety of implications, and requires extensive assessment and cross-cultural competencies for both individuals and businesses.
  • Cultural assessment begins with awareness.
  • Perceiving the varying different elements of culture and cultural differentiation, and identifying the way in which these differences impact our interactions allows for a comprehensive approach at integrating different cultures.
  • Cultural transmission, or cultural learning, is the tendency of a society or culture to pass on new information and generate new norms.

• Defining Culture

  • Culture has evolved drastically as a term and a concept since inception.
  • With this evolution and malleability of culture as a modern idea in mind, it is important to explore the various aspects of culture in society today.
  • As culture is such a central component of human identity, the recognition of the role that culture plays in our daily lives is a critical context which we must be consistently aware:
  • As cultures continue to interact and cross paths with one another, understanding one another via culture minimizes cultural friction while maximizing on the potential synergies inherent in diversity.
  • Outline the various perspectives on the definition and aspects of culture.

• Observable Culture

  • Culture includes many factors, such as:
  • Each company has their own unique culture, but in larger organizations diverse and conflicting cultures may exist due to different characteristics of management teams.
  • Observable culture simply refers to the parts of an organization's culture that can be observed, such as a symbolic CEO, a business policy, or even a product .
  • A company's values play a big role in reflecting their observable culture.
  • Recognize the way in which intrinsic organizational culture is transmitted into an observable, public face for organizational culture

• Communicating Organizational Culture

  • Management is tasked with both creating culture and accurately communicating it across the organization.
  • Corporate culture is used to control, coordinate, and integrate company subsidiaries.
  • Culture runs deeper than this definition, however, because culture also represents the embedded values, traditions, beliefs, and behaviors of a given group.
  • Leaders have a number of tools and strategies at their disposal to communicate culture.
  • Human resource professionals are tasked with identifying candidates with culturally consistent perspectives and with underlining the importance of cultural considerations in interviews and on-boarding processes.

• Building Organizational Culture

  • Managers are tasked with both creating and communicating a consistent organizational culture.
  • The process of ingraining culture into an organization is simply one of communicating and integrating a broad cultural framework throughout the organizational process.
  • While there are a variety of cultural perspectives and many organizational elements within a culture, the initial process of instilling culture is relatively consistent from a managerial perspective.
  • Stories and myths: Finally, stories are powerful communicators of culture.
  • Overall, managers must be aware of their role as cultural ambassadors and their responsibility in creating a context for successfully instilling organizational culture.