Cultural Intelligence
Going one step beyond cultural awareness, cultural intelligence, or cultural quotient (CQ) can be described as the capability to navigate, relate, and work effectively in cross-cultural scenarios, or simply ‘cross-cultural competence’ (Pilon, 2009). Unlike IQ, which measures human reasoning skills and intelligence, and EQ, which measures an individual’s emotional intelligence, CQ measures how successfully someone relates, adapts, and acts in intercultural situations. Your CQ is more likely to predict your intercultural work and relationships than your academic achievement or IQ. EQ is a strong predictor of your success when working with people from your culture, but CQ is a much better indicator of how you will collaborate with people from different cultural backgrounds in both a formal and informal environment. A concept traditionally used in business, government, education, and academic research, the CommUnity Project also applies CQ to the civil society sector.
Cultural intelligence consists of four pillars, or four capabilities, that shape CQ:
- CQ drive (motivation): interest and motivation in cross-cultural issues,
- CQ knowledge (cognition): a good grasp of cultural similarities and differences,
- CQ strategy (metacognition): ability to be aware of and plan for cross-cultural issues,
- CQ action (behaviour): appropriately adapting one’s behaviour in cross-cultural scenarios .
Each of these capabilities relates to our different categories of being: Motivation, Cognition, Metacognition, and Behaviour. Motivation is defined as a reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way (Google Dictionary by Oxford Languages). Cognition refers to “the mental action of a process or acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses” (Lexico Oxford English Dictionary). Metacognition means “thinking about thinking” and can be defined as the ability to control your thinking processes through various strategies, such as organizing, monitoring, and adapting (Flavell, 1079). Behaviour refers to how the person acts or behaves, especially towards others (Lexico English Oxford Dictionary). It is evident how these dimensions might influence and decide our perspective and reaction towards someone from another cultural background. Depending on our internal and external motivation, we may be more or less aware of cultural differences and similarities, which inevitably influence the way we strategise and act in light of cross-cultural interactions.
As mentioned in David Livermore’s The Cultural Intelligence Difference (2011), over a decade of research in more than thirty countries has proven that people with high cultural intelligence are more capable of adjusting and adapting to the complexity and unpredictability of life and work in today’s globalised world, and CQ is proven to predict your success in today’s globalised world consisting of multicultural societies. Livermore (2011) also stated that:
“Research demonstrates that individuals and organizations with higher levels of cultural intelligence are finding a better way. Enhanced CQ is proven to strengthen your ability to work effectively and respectfully with individuals and situations in various cultural contexts. Not only do individuals with high cultural intelligence survive the twists and turns of our rapidly globalizing world, they thrive in them.”
The Benefits of Increased CQ
Benefits of increasing your Cultural Intelligence include superior cross-cultural adjustment, job performance, and enhanced personal well-being in cross-cultural settings.
As individuals grow in CQ, there is a direct correlation with their capacity to adapt to various situations and environments where assumptions, values, and traditions differ from those they are most familiar with. For example, research shows that people with higher CQ levels work more efficiently with multicultural teams and are more successful in forming collaborative environments than leaders with lower CQs. “One of the realities of living in such a rapidly globalizing world is that an ability to respectfully and effectively connect with individuals and situations from various cultural backgrounds is required of all of us. Enhanced CQ helps you be more effective at whatever you pursue.” (Livermore, 2011).
Regarding job performance, people with higher CQ levels have better judgement, decision making, and risk management that involve multicultural dynamics. Furthermore, individuals with higher CQ are more successful at cross-cultural negotiations than individuals with lower CQ since they better understand how to read nonverbal cues during negotiations. Also, high CQ will help create a cross-cultural social network and enhance someone’s leadership effectiveness (Livermore,2011).
CQ and the CommUnity Project
Therefore, it has been helpful to consider how Cultural Intelligence could benefit the CommUnity Project and how the partner organisations can thrive with an enhanced CQ. It is paramount in a civil society project that focuses on a multicultural audience, creating social cohesion and stimulating a sense of belonging to learn how to; increase our and our audience’s motivation for the challenges that often accompany multicultural relationships and work; increase our and our participant’s understanding of cultures and gather creative ideas on how to continue learning about cultural differences and similarities; improve the ability to be aware of what is going on in a multicultural situation and learn how to plan accordingly; and lastly, increase the behavioural repertoire for use in a variety of multicultural social and work settings (Livermore).
Watch or share the “Cultural Intelligence” knowledge clip here 👉 https://www.thecommunityproject.eu/the-knowledge-clips/