Cultural Intelligence

Culture is an observable, powerful force in any organization. “Made up of its members’ shared values, beliefs, symbols, and behaviors, culture guides individual decisions and actions at the unconscious level. As a result, it can have a potent effect on a company’s well-being and success” (One Page, n.d.).

Another factor in the success of an expatriate involves the expatriates pre-existing culture intelligence quotient (CQ). It is still uncertain that an expatriate’s success working internationally is determined by their CQ but it is crucial for expatriates working on international assignments because it is a sign of cultural competency.

Cultural Competence is a complicated assimilation of education, beliefs, and experiences which would strengthen communication and efficient interaction cross-culturally. However, culture is defined as one way of life. It is not defined by race, language, food, religion, and ethics. With a job that involves constant involvement or entanglement with different culture, it is important for cultural competence. To be cultural competent is the ability to know one difference but still understands, respect, and safeguard the individual right to self-confidence, self- interpretation and status. Nevertheless, working with people of different cultural diversity might be difficult especially it differs from our own core culture. Therefore to prevent bias

In Embedded Assessment 1, a personal essay about one’s culture, I learned and established some factors about the general idea of culture, and I found more about who I am. Firstly, regarding culture I was already familiar with the concept of how someone’s race or ethnic origin can influence who they are. This applied to me, since I have Spanish culture, as well as having Spanish ancestry. I was also familiar with the fact my cultural identity was mostly American, this shows that the place that one lives has an effect on the culture that one may have. I discovered in this study that my culture cannot be expressed in one word, or a single idea. It is a mixture of my background, and also with new experiences. Additional, one new cultural heritage

There is a relationship between intelligence and culture because intelligence is culturally shaped and defined and some cultures support and identify it as very vital in the context of social and ecological aspects. In the early years, there was a bias towards intelligence tests because they used English language and culture. The formation of Wesler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fourth Addition (WAIS,IV) in 2008 by David Wesler was meant to minimise the bias. According to Westen, Burton and Kowalski (2006), intelligence assists human beings to take control of their lives and it varies cross culturally because the power dynamics differ in each society and this leads to differences in behaviour and line of thinking. These authors describe intelligence as multifaceted, functional and can be defined by culture because it is universal and studying intelligence using different culture as a sample that can be used to question Western ideas about intelligence with some emphasis on the assessment of skills and abilities using culturally appropriate methods (Benson, 2003)

Purnell’s Model for Cultural Competencies is represented by a circle. The perimeter of the circle is made up of three different layers, each representing something different. The outer layer represents the global society; the middle layer represents the individual’s family and the inner layer of the perimeter represents the individual. The center of the circle is divided up into twelve different categories, which look like slices of a pie. Each of these categories represents part of one of the 12 different cultural domains. The very center of the circle, inside the pie slices is a small black circle, this represents all the unknown information about the individual (Dayer-Berenson, 2014).

Globalization and technological advancement have dictated the need for managers to deal with multiple ethnic groups with different culture in their day to day interactions. According to Kulkarni (2012), cultures play critical roles in individuals, including values, beliefs, humor, worries, fears, hopes, opinions, attachments, and anxieties.

Cultural awareness: having an understanding and appreciation for different cultures as well as your own. Being culturally aware allows you gain more insight and increases your knowledge on the way of life in other countries. You get a different perspective and a better appreciation for other cultures thereby eliminating close-mindedness. (San Diego State University, n.d.)

This essay will also discuss the authors own culture, knowledge, experience and behaviour that were previously discussed in assessment 1. According to Quappe and Cantatore (2005), in order for one to be culturally self-aware, the ability to understand one’s own belief, perceptions and cultural values are necessary for understanding and the development of other’s cultural dynamics. Moreover, according to Brislin, Worthley and Macnab

with its people. More and more leaders are realizing that they just don’t connect naturally

Cultural intelligence assessment will enable the individual to have certain information about himself. It is posited that cultural difference has a greater impact on business effectiveness than we think. That our cultural backgrounds really influence the way we think and act and the way we interpret each others contributions. Our success or failure in communication will depend on the extent at which we understand the different cultural background of the employees and create a fruitful collaboration in situations where cultural differences play a role. To achieve this, we need to act in an appropriate way in multicultural situations coupled with the ability to have an open mind which admits new information and this is curious about

Cultural skill is the ability to adapt to new situations flexibly and creatively. Cultural skill

Culture is fundamental to understanding human experience. It makes the world inspiring, entertaining, enables effective communication, and influences most factors of modern life, so it’s no surprise that psychologists are interested in the impact it has. Sociocultural psychology and cross- cultural psychology are two different approaches that explore cultural experience. The two disciplines, though different in their definitions of cultural impact, share many of the same goals and ideas, and can arguably offer great insight to the other approach. The potential for collaboration between the two disciplines to garner a rich insight into personal and social cultural influence means that the two approaches are by no means incompatible, and their compatibility can offer a wealth of positive contribution to psychological research.

We know that culture intelligence is related to cross-culture competence. The understanding of an individual culture background. My key objective is that people fail to adjust to understand new cultures, behavioral, cognitive, and motivational aspect of other cultures.

Team The Impact of Team Cultural Intelligence and Cultural Heterogeneity on Team Shared Values. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 44(6), 941-962.