Dealing with that office mate from another part of the world

As a result of globalisation, the workforce has become increasingly diverse with respect to national and cultural origins. Technology has been the great enabler for this third wave of globalisation. It has enabled organisations to conduct business anywhere and to expand operations beyond their national borders for both customers and employees.

Today, work assignments are increasingly performed by teams consisting of members that are located in different countries. Organisations with the capacity to manage cultural issues will out-perform those who are less able to manage these issues.

Global leadership can play a significant role in managing this international workforce. Leadership theory has been developed mainly in a western context and has not fully recognised the unique characteristics required for effective global leadership.

Global leaders who successfully work across borders are considered to have a high level of “cultural intelligence‟ (often referred to as CQ). Global leaders with high cultural intelligence also exhibit a personality trait known as “openness‟.

Globalisation and Effective Global Leadership
There is a considerable amount of research that demonstrates the challenges of cultural diversity for multicultural teams, global leaders and overseas work assignments.

Cultural intelligence (CQ), as conceptualised in 2003, is defined as “a person’s capacity to function effectively in situations characterised by cultural diversity”.

Employees increasingly find themselves working in culturally diverse, geographically dispersed, multi-national teams and business is being conducted in increasingly culturally diverse environments both domestically and internationally.

Effective global leadership is essential to manage this cultural diversity. Effective global leaders are good at working with colleagues from other countries. These leaders are able to interact well with internal and external clients from other countries and can often speak another language. They are highly skilled in supervising employees who are of different nationalities. They are capable of developing a strategic business plan on a worldwide basis and can manage a global budget.

Effective global leaders are good at negotiating in other countries with people from other counties. They are highly skilled in managing foreign suppliers or vendors and can manage risk on a worldwide basis.

Cultural Intelligence
Cultural intelligence, or CQ (Cultural Quotient) as it is sometimes called, is not a strict mathematical derivation as is the intelligence quotient (IQ). Cultural intelligence (CQ) is intended to provide an answer to why some people adapt readily and successfully to different cultures whereas others do not.

Cultural intelligence is ‘the capability to interact effectively with people from different cultural backgrounds‟.

Cultural intelligence (CQ) is not the same as emotional intelligence (EQ). Truly effective leaders have a high level of self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skill.

There are many individuals who operate very well within their own culture and are high in emotional intelligence but do not adjust well to other cultures. They continue to point out that this is not simply a problem of personal style mismatch.

For example, when a person with an extroverted personal style, living in a reticent style culture, is introduced into an extroverted cultural environment, there is no guarantee that s/he will adapt well simply because s/he has a better cultural fit.

It has been argued that intelligence is culturally-based and that intelligence tests tended to have a strong cultural bias. This is consistent with the idea that social or cultural valuing of an ability is required, in order to include it as part of intelligence.

Research indicates that the construct of cultural intelligence is not an adaptation or variation of social or emotional intelligence. Research has showed that what is regarded as emotionally intelligent in one culture is not necessarily regarded as emotionally intelligent in another.

In cultures that are not emotionally expressive, the style of successful speech making is very restrained compared to the speeches of leaders in more emotionally expressive cultures. Due to their emotional intelligence, these leaders and speech makers have an understanding of what is successful in their domain, as do the individuals with whom they are communicating, who have personal as well as culturally derived expectations.

The model developed by Thomas and Inkson’s (2004) has three components: Knowledge, Mindfulness and Behavioural Skills.

One must have a sufficient level of knowledge in order to understand cross-cultural differences; one must have the mindfulness to be able to monitor and comprehend cross-cultural situations; and finally, one must have the ability to adapt their behaviour in accordance to whatever is appropriate for various cross-cultural situations.

Having these three traits creates a foundation for one to have a high level of cultural intelligence.

The three components interact to build on each other. The first component being knowledge of culture, what culture is and what it is not, how cultures vary, how culture affects behaviour, and the principles of cross cultural interactions.

Part of this knowledge is derived from observation of other cultures (and one’s own) which leads to their concept of mindfulness and being aware of differences in a non-judgemental way.

The behavioural skills component indicates that the individuals must adapt their behaviour to cultural norms and combine the new norms that they have learned into their new knowledge bank, to be used in future situations. Developing cultural intelligence is an ongoing process and is reinforced with each new cultural experience.

Conclusion
We believe that over the next decade, the impact of globalisation will intensify. While current leadership theories provide a useful framework, developing effective global leaders requires a deep understanding of skills essential for success in cross-cultural environments.

Our research on the concept of cultural intelligence indicated that cultural intelligence is not the same as emotional intelligence or social intelligence. We also found that openness is essential for effective global leadership.

Future research can test the link between cultural intelligence, openness and effective global leadership empirically.

In a borderless world, leaders will have to think globally in order to be successful. Yet global leaders will also be required to understand and appreciate cultural needs and expectations. We believe that global leaders who have a high level of cultural intelligence and openness will be extremely effective in this new global environment.
 

Thomas Verghese is an internationally renowned author, presenter, executive coach, consultant and founder of Cultural Synergies. Known as 'The Cultural Synergist', he is a leading international specialist in the areas of intercultural and diversity management. Brian D’Netto is a Research Intensive Professor of Human Resource Management at the Faculty of Business, Australian Catholic University.