Earley, P.C. and Soon Ang. (2003). Cultural Intelligence: Individual Interactions Across Cultures. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP.

Reviewed by Dave Livermore, and sent to Graeme Codrington by email.


Cultural Intelligence: A persons ability to adapt effectively to new cultural contexts.
· Ability to generate new and appropriate responses to a novel culture where most of the cues and behaviors that are familiar may be lacking
· Adjusting relatively easily, quickly, and thoroughly to new cultures
· Successful adjustment related to 3 facets of CQCognitive, Motivational, and Behavioral
Our primary focus is the development and presentation of a new conceptual framework that can be brought to bear for researchers seeking new research topics and directions concerning international functioning for people (page 15).
1. Cognitive Basis – Knowing what to do and how to do it
Perhaps most important aspect of CQ is the ability to construct innovative ways of conceptualizing, data gathering, and operating in a new culture
Definition: The extent of an individuals knowledge of specific cultural information. The ability to understand and make sense of cultural cues as well as to develop new cultural schemas.
3 important questions:
AWhat are the ways I can determine what I am like and what might someone else be like?
BWhat is this person like and why are they this way?
CWhat can people be like and why?
Many of the lessons learned in one culture will often interfere with successful adaptation in a new culture. Cultural adjustment is a bit of a moving target and requires a set of highly complex cognitive (and metacognitive) skills. (page 94)
A highly CQ person must inductively create a proper mapping of the new cultural setting to function properly
Key elements of the Cognitive basis:
· Knowledge of Self and of Presuppositions
· Flexibility and capability to reorganize ones self-concept
· Knowledge of the target (knowing how an individual in a diff context processes info etc.)
· Inductive and analogical reasoning skills
Meta-Cogntive CQ–an individuals level of cultural mindfulness during cross-cultural interactions
· Consciously question their own cultural assumptions, reflect during interactions, and adjust their cultural knowledge when they interact with those from other cultures.
· Meta-cognitive cultural intelligence involves higher-level cognitive strategies–strategies that allow individuals to develop new heuristics and rules for social interaction in novel cultural environments by promoting information processing at a deeper level
The meta-cognitive factor of CQ is a critical component of cultural intelligence for a number of reasons.
· Promotes active thinking about people and situations in different cultural settings
· Triggers active challenges to rigid reliance on culturally bounded thinking and assumptions;
· Drives individuals to adapt and revisetheir strategies so that they are more culturally appropriate and more likely to achieve desired outcomes in cross-cultural encounters.
Those with high meta-cognitive CQ possess an ongoing awareness of the cultural cues and miscues, as well as rules and norms of the social environment around them. They assimilate new information quickly and adjust rapidly to new cultural environments. Those with high meta-cognitive CQ actively plan and strategize for their cross-cultural interactions, monitor their behavior, and modify these strategies as cultural situations change.
2. Motivational Basis Having the motivation to persevere through cultural dissonance
CQ requires not only a cognitive understanding of a new culture but also a persons motivation and drive to engage the new culture/their personal desire to adjust
Definition:The extent to which individuals are confident about their ability to engage in cross-cultural interactions and the extent to which they find intrinsic satisfaction in these interactions. The drive and motivational force to adapt to the new cultural environment.
Motivational CQ is a specific form of self-efficacy
· Successful intercultural interaction requires a basic sense of confidence for social interaction in novel settings
The social history of a culture may lead individuals within one culture to have generally higher levels of CQ than individuals from another culture (e.g. Americans typically have lower levels of success rates adjusting to other cultures compared to many other ethnic groups)
This dynamic is perhaps most neglected in cross-cultural research
· Motivational CQ is a critical component of cultural intelligence because it is a source of drive. It triggers effort and energy directed toward functioning in novel cultural settings.
· Motivation alone is insufficient to predict cultural adaptation. Motivation must be in alignment with the other 2 facets of CQcognitive and behavioral systems (e.g. a highly energized, friendly American who removes all barriers in a high power distance society may not acculturate well regardless of how strongly theyre motivated to do so)
3. Behavioral Basis Ability to acquire behaviors needed for a foreign environment
Overt behaviors, both verbal and nonverbal, represent the most salient features of any social interaction 
Definition: The extent to which a person modifies verbal and non-verbal behaviors appropriately in different cultures. The ability to enact culturally appropriate behaviours.
When individuals initiate and maintain face-to-face interactions, they do not have access to each others latent thoughts, feelings, or motivation. Yet, they can rely on what they see and hear in the other persons verbal, vocal, facial, and other bodily expressions.
There are some universals of human behavior but the specific meanings and expressions of those behaviours still differ across cultures (e.g. laughter, shouting, sex, etc.)
Cultures vary in their behavioral repertoires in three ways:

· Specific range of behaviors that are enacted;
· The display rules that govern when and under what circumstances specific nonverbal expressions are required, preferred, permitted, or prohibited;
· The interpretations or meanings that are attributed to particular nonverbal behaviors
Individuals with high behavioral CQ are flexible and adjust their behaviors to the specifics of each cultural interaction.
In cross-cultural situations, nonverbal behaviors are especially critical because they function as a “silent language” and impart meaning in subtle and covert ways
Because behavioral expressions are especially salient in cross-cultural encounters, the behavioral component of CQ may be the most critical factor that observers use to assess other CQ.
Goal for sojourners is to manage and regulate their social behaviours in cross-cultural encounters so that there is minimal misperception and misattribution…Managing the right impressions across cultures is crucial.

Application of CQ to Work Enviornments/Training etc.

ASSESSING CQ
CQ assessment objective is more to identify those who are most at risk of failure rather than looking for the ideal expat.
High CQ individuals who are frequently exposed to international encounters learn to adapt quickly and successfully to the different requirements of each culture.Through continuous learning and adaptation in new situations, these individuals build behavioral performance that is not only uniquely and personally meaningful but also suits the demands and requirements of various cultural contexts (p. 192)
12 Cultural Competencies of a Global Manager(Moran and Riesenberger)
1. Global mindset
2. Works as an equal with people from diverse backgrounds
3. Long-term orientation
4. Facilitates organizational change
5. Creates learning systems
6. Motivates employees to excellence
7. Negotiates and approaches conflict collaboratively
8. Manages skilfully the foreign-deployment cycle
9. Leads and participates effectively in multicultural teams
10. Understands own culture, values, and assumptions
11. Accurately profiles the organizational and national culture of others
12. Avoids cultural mistakes and behaves in a way that demonstrates respect for other countries
CQ approach is not only focused on assessing the individuals repertoire of CQ behaviours but should also seek to understand the general cognitive structures and motivational processes out of which individualized CQ is constructed, how they develop, and how they play a role in ongoing social interaction in different cultures (p. 199)
INTERPRETING CULTURAL BEHAVIOR ETC.
Personal habits and behaviours may be misattributed as cultural traits
· These behaviours may be related to culture but are just as likely an idiosyncrasy
· The generalization of personal idiosyncrasy to inferences about cultural values, norms, and syndromes is one of the most common pitfalls facing an expatriate manager. The high CQ person is able to distinguish between a persons idiosyncratic actions and general cultural norms for behavior. However, this is one of the most difficult aspects of intercultural understandingseparating personal eccentricity from cultural norms for appropriate behavior. (p. 239)
· A high CQ person learns to separate idiosyncrasy from cultural patterns (at the very least uses meta-cognition in interpreting behaviours)
TRAINING CQ
Nature vs. Nurture issue
· No convincing or conclusive evidence that genes are indeed the key determinants of intelligence
3 Key dimensions of Cross-Cultural Training via Social Learning Theory
1The Self Dimension
2The Relationship Dimension
3The Perception Dimension
The key challenge in training for CQ is the meta-cognitive element (how do we foster praxis, meta-cognition, etc.?) Meta-cognitive involves 3 regulatory skills
1Planning
· the selection of appropriate strategies and allocation of resources that affect performance;
· how do we generate our own cognitive structures and strategies
2Monitoring
· ones on-line awareness of comprehension and task performance;
· ability to reason inductively, engage in deliberate cognition, formulate hypotheses, shift between external cueing and internal regulating mechanisms and the ability to self-monitor
3Evaluating
· appraising the products and efficiency of ones learning;
· ability to learn about ones own learning 
Common themes for training motivational dimension:
· Relevance (A learner tends not to be very motivated to learn a subject if he or she perceives the subject to be irrelevant to his or her needs. Likewise, an expatriate will not be keen to understand a foreign culture if he or she does not see how such understanding can be relevant to his or her work. Thus, it is imperative that a cross-cultural experience is framed as pertinent and related to ones overall goals.)
· Self-efficacyconfidence plays a key role in ability to take on challenging and unfamiliar subjects and topics
Behavioral training
· Need to integrate the information gained from a culturally competent assessment and the motivational force arising from the cultural engagement into culturally appropriate behaviours
· Importance of culture-general training approaches as focus rather than culture-specific (theres a place for culture-specific but participants need culture-general schemata to adapt accordingly)
Concluding thoughts…
CQ provides a new perspective lacking in psych and org studies…focuses upon intercultural understanding through an integrative approach not available elsewhere in literature
· Organizations might use CQ to identify individuals who would be particularly well suited for overseas assignments
· Could be used to screen out those who are proficient in domestic settings but unlikely to succeed in cross-cultural settings or in jobs that require frequent and on-going interaction with those from other cultural backgrounds.
· Could be used to develop corporate training and self-awareness programs or to identify employees who could serve as supportive mentors to those starting overseas assignments.
Cultural Intelligence has exciting potential as an important new construct
· Important field of research as we define the role of the Westerner in global missions
· CQ is essential tothe empowering roles we play with national church

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