Intercultural Management

Review of the chapter 3 from the book

“Cultural Intelligence”

Prepared by: Supervised by:

Maryem REYANE (ML)
ML) Mr.Alouani
Imane ELACHCHAK (GFC 2)
Oumayma EL MRABTE (CI)

Good Reading

2022/2023
Table of contents

1. Introduction

2. Defining the concept of “Cultural Intelligence”

3. Theory of “Multiple Intelligences”

4. The Culturally Intelligent Professional

5. Can Cultural Intelligence Be Increased?

6. Gaining cultural intelligence - a process

7. Many ways to view the world

8. Conclusion
1. Introduction

In our daily life we face people from different cultures background, we travel, we study with
different classmates, we do trade, we communicate …. But, how we deal with these
situations, especially cross-cultural situations?

Cultural Intelligence is a widespread term, which constitutes a key skill for every manager,
leader, team member…

If you developed your cultural intelligence, you will be able to understand others well and
create better results together and also you could easily fit into the culture of a workplace and
work well with team.

Cultural Intelligence plays a huge role in determining cooperation among people from various
corporate cultures, traditions, nationalities, disciplines, and functions.

In other words, developing cultural intelligence helps an organization gain a competitive edge
in whatever industry they are in.

Cultural Intelligence is a crucial skill in today’s world. As we are working and living in a
multicultural community, acquiring a different set of perspectives, knowledge and skills is
important in order to succeed. Gaining knowledge about other cultures is no longer optional.
It is necessary in order to learn, understand and deal with different situations competently.
2. Defining the concept of “Cultural Intelligence”

Culture Intelligence
What people think, what they do, or Intelligence is not quantifiable
how they against a standard resulting in an IQ
score.

Scores or grades lead people to believe that intelligence can be boiled down to an IQ score.
But that’s not correct

The psychologist Howard Gardner suggested that there is more to being intelligent than the
logical, verbal, or mathematical intelligence typically measured on standard IQ tests.

For example a musician a musician might be a genius on the piano but have very low math or
verbal skills. It would be wrong to label a musician as “not intelligent” because of a low score
on an IQ test. A dancer or a karate master might have great skills relating to movement and
space but might know nothing about a piano. A genius on an IQ test may not stand a chance
when sparring with a karate master. The basic idea is that there’s more than one way to be
smart.

 Culture + Intelligence = Cultural Intelligence or CQ

 Cultural intelligence is the ability to engage in a set of behaviors that uses skills
(language or interpersonal skills) and qualities (tolerance for ambiguity,
flexibility, empathy) that are tuned appropriately to the culture-based values and
attitudes of the people with whom one interacts. –Brooks Peterson–

 In other words, it is the ability to adapt to various cultural contexts, to relate and work
effectively in culturally diverse situations.
3. Theory of “Multiple Intelligences” by Howard
Gardner

Gardner offers some useful categories for defining intelligence:

Measured by standard IQ tests Not measured by standard IQ tests

1. Linguistic 1. Spatial
2. Logical-mathematical 2. Musical
3. Body/Kinesthetic
4. Interpersonal
5. Intrapersonal

But four of Gardner’s intelligences contribute most to cultural intelligence:

1. Linguistic: it concerns language teachers, interpreters, and editors.

Interacting with people whose native language is not Arabic, French or English
requires language skills
The salesperson that can interact with clients in the clients’ native language has a
much better chance of charming them and closing the sale. The customer service
person or front-desk receptionist who can speak even a little bit of his or her
customers’ native language stands a better chance of making a positive impression
than one who cannot.
Foreign language proficiency may not be necessary for you to communicate, but it can
give you an undeniable edge over your competitors.
2. Spatial: it concerns engineers, surgeons, sculptors, and painters.
When we interact with people from other cultures, at a minimum we should know the
proper behaviors to help us get through an introduction, a business meeting, a meal, or
other scenarios without making fools of ourselves.
In this context spatial intelligence relates to simple things such as how close people
stand to one another in conversation, where the most important person sits at a
meeting, how chairs are arranged, whether people bow or shake hands or touch each
other.
Example: when South American men talk to me, they sometimes pat me firmly on the
upper arm or shoulder to show friendliness or closeness. When we shake hands, they
 may use two hands to show, more warmth and sincerity. Asians have adeptly shown
me courtesy by opening doors for me, bowing slightly, stepping back out of the way
so I can pass into the room first, and so on.
The various ways of using body, voice, or space are no inherently good or bad; they
merely represent differences.
3. Interpersonal: it concerns salespeople, politicians, teachers, negotiators, and capable
leaders.
Successful interaction with people from other cultures is the heart of cultural
intelligence.
Gardner suggests that interpersonal intelligence is the ability to respond appropriately
to others. He describes interpersonal intelligence as the ability to “read the intentions
and desires of others, even when they have been hidden.”
Human interactions are unpredictable and there are limitless specific scenarios in
which intercultural relationships are enhanced or diminished. The best way to coach
you toward increasing this aspect of cultural intelligence is to suggest that you closely
examine your motivation for learning about other cultures.
By broadening our worldview and learning how others perceive us, we will begin to
appreciate the reasons why others may feel uncomfortable with us.
4. Intrapersonal: it concerns authors, actors, inventors, and entrepreneurs.
You need to know your own cultural style. If you are aware of your own cultural style,
you can more easily compare yourself with others, and you will then be able to adjust
your behavior to be compatible in cross-cultural settings.
The author said that he find it difficult to offer general advice in this category beyond
encouraging people to keep learning about themselves, because every person is unique
in many ways.
Gardner summarizes the multiple intelligences in one oversimplified sentence:

To interact well with people from other cultures, it helps to (a) speak a bit of their
language, (b) know how closely to stand (and other nonverbal behavior), (c) know about
your own cultural style, and (d) know how your cultural style meshes with those of others.

4. The Culturally Intelligent Professional

Haven’t we all met people who are good at the various skills required by their work but who
are not happy with their job and are perhaps a bit “unpleasant” to work with? I have known
people who are skilled but who probably would not do well overseas simply because they
prefer the comforts of staying home. Naturally, part of cultural intelligence must involve some
kind of intentions to do well in international situations. So, characteristics such as open-
mindedness or the desire to try new things are also important parts of the cultural intelligence
equation. Following is a table with various traits that can lead to greater cultural intelligence.
How would you rank yourself?

How do you rank Needs Strength Significant

your self improvement Strength

Flexibility
Extroversion
Humility
Empathy
Sense of humor
Win-win attitude

How did you rank yourself on the above table? How would you rank your colleagues? How
would they rank you? The above table can be used to see if you and your colleagues agree
with how you rank yourselves and one another.

Some of these characteristics are useful in any setting, but they become even more important
when you are working in an internationally mixed environment because more of these traits
are likely to be required of you simultaneously than in any other setting.

Let’s consider an example from the list—humility—and see how it might be more important
in international mixes. In your own country you can do just about anything you need for daily
living and for work. You know where to buy stamps, you know how much gas costs and the
places you prefer to buy it, and you know how to do the various functions of your job. In an
overseas setting, all this familiarity vanishes and you are left feeling not quite so confident.
You might command an entire department or division in an important company at home, but
abroad you can’t even buy a stamp or find your way to a gas station. This is naturally
humbling. Humility and the ability to change from the role of expert to the role of learner
suddenly become distinct advantages in international settings.

5.Can Cultural Intelligence Be Increased?

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that your cultural intelligence is “fixed” and cannot be
increased. It can increase by A lots of tests, including IQ tests, with varieties of puzzles and
problems, and I know that it’s possible to learn how to take these tests and improve the score.
Also by interacting with people from lots of cultures, within the setting of their own cultures,
that’s improving interpersonal relations skills. as professionals we should know that the
Appropriate conduct in a mixed-culture business meeting can be learned, as can many other
cross-cultural skills. And also don’t make the mistake of thinking that your cultural
intelligence cannot decrease.

6. Gaining cultural intelligence – a process

The writer suggests that true learning about culture requires expanding not only awareness
and knowledge, but also skills. Much like learning to juggle, developing cultural intelligence
takes time. He learned quite a bit, like where to keep notepad sand where you can copy things.
He’s insisting about these seemingly over whelming amount of information new hires had to
absorb in order to function on the job.

The process of building cultural intelligence is no different. It's frustrating sometimes, but I
think its okay because neither life nor learning is easy. One of the first things you want to do
when you arrive in a foreign city is depart from your hotel or base and explore the ever-larger
concentric streets.

7. Many ways to view the world

One of the ways people inevitably increase awareness when learning about other cultures is
from thinking "my way is the only way" to thinking "there are many effective ways" to
interpret life and participate in it.

It’s natural to start somewhere on the left side of the image above, because you only know
your own worldview until you see someone else’s. My optimistic side would say that as you
learn more about other people, your mind will naturally open. But as you learn more about
life, it's also natural to discover what you like and what you don't. I think it's only natural to
stop looking for solutions and new perspectives when you feel like you've figured out how
things work and how to live your life in a way that makes you happy

Just as you don't keep looking after you've found your car keys, when you think you have a
perfectly functioning cultural style and way of interpreting the world, your natural
inclination may be to stop looking at other cultural perspectives. I admit that my favoritism
or starting point when thinking about culture is that multiple perspectives and the ability to
adapt to multiple ways of life are desirable.

Intellectual and Ethical Development

Unless we develop very far to the right, this stage can appear as dualistic, as we quickly
abandon our old perspectives and accept or idealize new ones. At this stage, new ideas can
be considered plausible, but ideas that one way is better than the other can be preserved. At
this stage, we can acknowledge that multiple viewpoints are valid, and are less likely to
judge cultural traits negatively without careful consideration

Milton Bennett has aptly applied Perry’s thinking to cross-cultural issues using the labels
«ethnocentrism» and «committed ethnorelativism». On the left would be Kohlberg’s lowest
stages, where we think in terms of right and wrong, good and bad, and rules. This is not
unrelated to Perry’s dualism and the idea that cultures can be seen as black and white. In
terms of our cultural intelligence discussion, this is where we would label other cultural
perspectives as bad, backward, even abnormal.

Moving toward the middle, Kohlberg’s stages involve decision making based on societal
pressures and the desire to fit in with social norms. This could be related to Perry’s
multiplicity stage. Cultural intelligence is somewhat increased here in that we have at least a
beginning awareness, if not acceptance, of others. On the right, we might be able to slot
Kohlberg’s highest stages, where people make informed decisions autonomously after
considering multiple perspectives.
This would not be dissimilar to Perry’s committed relativism in that we choose our own
solution after considering other options.

Attitude and Behavior Change

Toward the left of the «One way/Many ways» scale we may become aware of different
attitudes and values, and as we move toward the right, we can accordingly practice changing
our behavior in ways that allow us to operate effectively in other cultures and/or with people
from other cultures.

The Cultural Adjustment Process

The simple point he wants to make here is that no matter how you define cultural intelligence
for your own professional circumstances and according to your own development, working
toward it is a process, not an instant fix. Everyone is familiar with the term culture shock. It
might better be called «culture ache» or «culture blues» because it often comes from the long
and frustrating process of adjusting to another culture. Just as you don’t increase your cultural
intelligence overnight, you don’t experience all the frustration of international living or
intercultural interactions overnight either.
for example it took him eleven days to set up a certain type of bank account inFrance. He later
timed it on a stopwatch and found that it took him eleven
minutes to set up a similar account in the U.S. he has been irritated by the clogs of scooters
and the air pollution in Asian cities, the resigned acceptance of violence and extreme poverty
in Brazil.

"Culture shock" should be "culture blues" to help us remember that we’re going through a
process of cultural adjustment. In our own culture, we might not choose to do things that way,
but we can certainly understand why we would in another culture. The process of improving
cultural intelligence is a process. To close this section by taking a step forward, the writer
wants to encourage us to stick with the process of increasing our cultural intelligence and
recognize that no matter whom we are or what culture we belong to, there are ups and downs,
forwards and backwards to deal with it, whether we are in "their" country or our own.

Conclusion
Cultural intelligence is popularly referred to as CQ for cultural quotient. It is considered very
important for the success of a business as it helps in providing access to a higher number of
resources. The employees can relate to working in situations that are culturally different from
theirs.

The best thing about cultural intelligence is that people with such capabilities can easily read
the emotional needs of other people as they are in sync with their body language, attitude,
beliefs, and values.

This understanding helps to relate to others with compassion and sensitivity. It helps people to
understand unfamiliar contexts and later blend beautifully with unfamiliar backgrounds for
future growth and development.

A person with high cultural intelligence in an organization can empathize, understand, and
develop viable connections even if he does not speak the language of other people. He will be
able to develop the necessary skills to ask appropriate questions, provide the right answers,
and adjust his work and dealings with people from any cultural mix.