***Continued from Chapter 01 (Covered previously: Meaning & Understanding of Cultural Intelligence, Cultural Quotient, Definitions, Components of Cultural intelligence, Framework for Cultural intelligence)
Link to Chapter 01:
https://conceptsnest.blogspot.com/2024/05/cultural-intelligence-demystified.html
Cultural Intelligence in Institutions
Institutions, too, have cultures, often very distinctive; anyone who joins a new company spends the first few weeks deciphering its cultural code. Within any large institution, there are sparring subcultures as well: The sales force cannot talk to the engineers, and the PR people lose patience with the lawyers. Departments, divisions, professions, geographical regions—each has a constellation of manners, meanings, histories, and values that will confuse the interloper and cause him/ her to stumble. Unless, that is, he or she has a high Cultural Intelligence.
Cultural Intelligence Profiles
Global leaders who possess a high level of Cultural Intelligence potentially can influence a culturally diverse workforce, moving them to work together synergistically to accomplish common goals. They are sensitive, adaptable, and embrace diversity more openly. More importantly, they have the capability to act accordingly when needed. Most individuals are a hybrid of two or more of the Cultural Intelligence profiles developed by Christopher Earley and Mosakowski.
Most managers fit at least one of the following six profiles. Many may also be a hybrid of two or more of the types. Most prevalent are a hybrid of Ambassador and the Analyst.
Leveraging Cultural Intelligence
The Chameleon is perhaps the most desirable profile. However, most people fall in the Analyst and Ambassador categories. In today’s increasingly global and diverse environment, the potential for growth goes far beyond domestic markets and this means that managers have to manage diverse teams of stakeholders. Digitization and global mobility further allow institutions to operate globally and recruit a diverse workforce. In such global environments, Cultural Intelligence becomes critical.
People with high Cultural Intelligence generally are better managers as they are capable of reducing cultural barriers and leverage cultural diversity for innovation success. Cultural diversity stimulates innovation due to the presence of multiple perspectives from multicultural teams. It fosters innovation success as it helps to reconcile cultural differences and mitigate conflict. This enhances the likelihood of achieving a culturally synergistic solution that embraces the ideas or interests of multiple parties.
Cultural Intelligence & Emotional Intelligence
Cultural
intelligence is related to emotional intelligence, but it picks up where emotional
intelligence leaves off. A person with high emotional intelligence
grasps what makes us human and at the same time what makes each of us different
from one another. A person with high cultural intelligence can somehow tease out of a
person’s or group’s behavior those features that would be true of all
people and all groups, those peculiar to this person or this group, and those
that are neither universal nor idiosyncratic. The vast realm that lies between
those two poles is culture.
One
critical element that cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence do share
is
a propensity to suspend judgment — to think before acting. For
someone richly endowed with Cultural Intelligence, the suspension might take
hours or days, while someone with low Cultural Intelligence might have to take
weeks or months. In either case, it involves using our senses to register all
the ways that the personalities interacting in front of you are different
from those in your home culture yet similar to one another. Only when conduct we
have actually observed begins to settle into patterns can we safely begin to
anticipate how these people will react in the next situation. The
inferences we draw in this manner will be free of the hazards of stereotyping.
The
people who are socially the most successful among their peers often have the
greatest difficulty making sense of, and then being accepted by, cultural
strangers. Those who fully embody the habits and norms of their native
culture may be the most alien when they enter a culture not their own.
Sometimes, people who are somewhat detached from their own culture can more easily
adopt the mores and even the body language of an unfamiliar host. They
are used to being observers and making a conscious effort to fit in.
The Three Sources of Cultural Intelligence
Head.
Rote
learning
about the beliefs, customs, and taboos of foreign cultures, will never prepare
a person for every situation that arises, nor will it prevent terrible gaffes.
In addition, inquiring about the meaning of some custom may fail because
natives may be reticent about explaining themselves to strangers, or they may
have little practice looking at their own culture analytically.
Instead, a newcomer needs to devise what we call learning strategies. Although most people find it difficult to discover a point of entry into alien cultures, whose very coherence can make them seem like separate, parallel worlds, an individual with high cognitive CQ notices clues to a culture’s shared understandings. These can appear in any form and any context but somehow indicate a line of interpretation worth pursuing.
Body.
By adopting people’s habits and mannerisms, we eventually come to understand in the most elemental way what it is like to be them. They, in turn, become more trusting and open. People who adopt some of the mannerisms of others in the immediate environment with cultural backgrounds different from their own were more likely to be accepted. We will not disarm foreign hosts simply by showing that we understand their culture; our actions must prove that we have entered their world. This will not happen if a person suffers from a deep-seated reservation about the called-for behavior or lacks the physical poise to pull it off.
Heart.
Adapting
to a new culture involves overcoming obstacles and setbacks. People can do that
only if they believe in their own efficacy. If they persevered in the face of
challenging situations in the past, their confidence grew. Confidence is always
rooted in mastery of a particular task or set of circumstances.
A person who does not believe herself capable of understanding people from unfamiliar cultures will often give up after her efforts meet with hostility or incomprehension. By contrast, a person with high motivation will, upon confronting obstacles, setbacks, or even failure, reengage with greater vigor. To stay motivated, highly efficacious people do not depend on obtaining rewards, which may be unconventional or long delayed.
Cultivating Cultural Intelligence
Why can some people act appropriately and effectively in new cultures or among people with unfamiliar backgrounds while others flounder? Our anecdotal and empirical evidence suggests that the answer does not lie in tacit knowledge or in emotional or social intelligence. However, a person with high Cultural Intelligence, whether cultivated or innate, can understand and master such situations, persevere, and do the right thing when needed.
Content Curated By: Dr Shoury Kuttappa
Comments
Post a Comment