Cultural Intelligence

Definition: Cultural Intelligence is the ability to cope with national cultures, organizational cultures and vocational ones. CI or CQ is the ability to understand and adjust to unfamiliar contexts. Earley and Mosakowski described 3 sources of CI:
1. The Head / Cognitive. Rote learning about the beliefs, habits and taboos of foreign cultures will not work well.
2. The Body / Physical. Merely showing you understand their culture is not enough; your actions and demeanor must prove that you have already to some extent entered their world.
3. The Heart / Emotional/motivational. To adjust to a new culture involves overcoming obstacles and setbacks. People can do that only if they believe in their own efficacy.

More on cultural intelligence.
More on personal skills: Active Listening, Assertiveness, Body Language, Cohen-Bradford Influence Model, Collaboration Rules, more...

MBA Brief offers accurate and concise definitions of MBA concepts, frameworks, methods and models.

We love to keep things really short, but provide links to learn more about your subject and to similar concepts.