Develop Cultural Intelligence in Your Organisation
There are many psychologists who maintain cognitive ability cannot be adequately measured by traditional IQ tests. Many, following Gardner, believe there are multiple intelligences. Indeed, back in 1920 Thorndike coined the term social intelligence (SQ) in referring to the skill of relating well to other people. Others make much of emotional intelligence (EQ), defined in Wikipedia as “the ability, the capacity, or skill to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of one’s self, of others, and of groups.” It was Goleman who showed the relevance of this concept for business.
But effective business depends on cooperative relationships with general employees, managers, clients and other businesses. In many cases relationships both within and outside organizations bring together people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. It has become increasingly apparent to many that cultural factors profoundly influence human behaviour and these are not adequately understood business dealings may be adversely affected. Consequently, there is a need for many businesses to develop what has come to be known as cultural intelligence.
Cultural intelligence, often simply referred to as CQ, concerns an individual’s ability to adapt to varying cultural contexts. Some people adjust well to new cultures. At the other extreme are those who seem to be incapable of adjusting.
It is incorrect to think of cultural intelligence as a subset of social or of emotional intelligence or as a particular application of such skills.
Think for a moment about the relationship between emotional and social intelligence on the one hand and cultural intelligence on the other. One Anglo-Australian leader had recently invited a Sri Lankan to join his team and, wanting to build the working relationship, invited him to his home for a one-to-one meeting late one afternoon. The leader had good people skills and, in the past, had shown considerable sensitivity towards people’s emotions. When the meeting had finished and the Sri Lankan had left he felt that they’d had made a good start towards building an effective working relationship. However, subsequently the Sri Lankan told me how upset he was with the way he had been treated, for at no point while he’d been in the home of the leader had he been offered any hospitality. This was a classic case of a leader having good SQ and EQ but poor CQ.
Cultural intelligence must be kept quite distinct from social and emotional intelligence. There is no direct correlation between these different types of intelligence. Indeed, as illustrated above, it is ironic that some who have high social or emotional intelligence in their own cultural environments may also have low cultural intelligence, that is a poor ability to adjust to new cultures easily. By contrast, it would seem that some who have high cultural intelligence may be deficient in social and emotional intelligence in their own culture. Upon reflection, however, this should not be surprising, since social and emotional intelligence presuppose familiarity with one’s own culture. Clearly this does not translate into familiarity with another culture.
When I was in Pakistan I came across a young man who had real leadership potential. However, when I encouraged him to think of what he might achieve I unthinkingly fell into a Western motivational model, pitched at stirring his personal emotions, thinking that his ultimate decision would be based on how he responded to my appeal. But I failed to understand that in his community-oriented culture the decision must be made corporately by the senior male members of the family.
Christopher Earley & Soon Ang identify three features of a person’s cultural intelligence (CQ):
Cognition: “Do I know what is happening?” Understanding cultural differences.
Motivation: “Am I motivated to act?” Being prepared to relate and minister to people not withstanding the difficulty posed by cultural difference.
Behaviour: “Can I respond appropriately and effectively?” Learning how to relate and minister to people across cultures.
Go back to my mistake at seeking to help this Pakistani youngster develop his leadership potential. Clearly, my behaviour – responding appropriately and effectively – in this situation presupposed cognition and behaviour. I was certainly motivated to act. But my cognition needed working on. At the time I did not understand what was happening. As a result I had not adequately learnt how to relate and minister to this young Pakistani.
While I was working in Pakistan I had a language teacher come to my home to help me learn Urdu. On one occasion he was sick and could not come. He sent his son to inform us. Pakistan is a very hot country for most of the year. However, this happened during the winter period, so the weather was cool. Now the language teacher’s own home was very close to our own so his son only had to come a short distance to convey the news. When he arrived I went to the front door and spoke to him as he stood on the doorstep. He explained that his father was sick and I conveyed our commiserations and hopes he would soon recover. Then I said “Salaam” and thought that was that.
When the language teacher did recover and returned to teach me he expressed his anger with me. Why? Again it was the hospitality thing. I had failed to invite his son to come into my home and offer him at least a drink, even though pragmatically speaking it was hard to see he would need refreshment after having made such a short trip on a cool day. Once my cognition was adjusted on this score I don’t believe I ever made this mistake again. From this point on visitors were also invited in and provided with hospitality.
However, it must be noted that while culturally intelligent behaviour presupposes culturally intelligent cognition and motivation it is possible for a person to have the cognition sorted out and still fail to behave properly simply because he or she is not motivated to do so. I recall another leader in Pakistan who had a bad reputation among his Pakistani clients because he would not make himself available to meet with visitors if it was not convenient for him to do so. He had been in the country long enough to know being a good host was a must but he simply lacked the motivation to act upon his knowledge.
The relationship between cognition and motivation on the one hand and behaviour on the other is not one-way but two. For the culturally intelligent person doesn’t wait till he or she understands everything before beginning to behave in the culturally appropriate manner. Indeed, to make cognition a precondition to culturally intelligent behaviour is a typical Western failing. Rather, the culturally intelligent person learns to let people from the other cultural background indicate what is the right way to do things and he or she learns to sense and copy appropriate cultural behaviour. As time goes on and he or she gains a greater appreciation of the culture then often this will be accompanied by greater insight into the cultural values and worldview that underlies such behaviour.
The following training approaches represent some ways of addressing the three areas of cognition, motivation and behaviour:
Cognition
• Discriminate between individual behaviour and cultural behaviour.
• Help participants to understand that, apart from some relatively minor aspects, culture is not neutral.
• Choose a model to use for explaining the dynamics of culture.
• Provide case studies that highlight cultural differences and lead to an appreciation of underlying values and beliefs.
• Have articulate and reflective representatives of other cultures explain what they perceive to be the major cultural differences and the values and beliefs that underlie their own distinctive and cultural practices.
• Help people to appreciate the relative nature of their own culture and to have a balanced view of it, identifying positive and negative aspects.
Motivation
• Use demographic analysis to highlight the strategic importance of this ministry.
• Help targeted employees to see the people from the other cultural background as real people.
• Expose targeted employees to motivational public addresses and involved them in seminars that will encourage them to see the benefits of cross-cultural encounters.
• Organise for those who have led effective business relations across cultures, in comparable settings to those your business might develop, to come and enthuse your targeted employees.
Behaviour
• Arrange for targeted employees to visit comparable business settings to the one they will be later be involved in and learn from what they see there.
• Arrange for targeted employees to spend a nominated period working alongside a leader in a comparable business setting.
• Ensure targeted employees know how to properly greet, welcome and assist their business counterparts from the other culture.
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