Assignment 5: Assessing Your Cultural Intelligence

For this assignment, you will be assessing your cultural intelligence. Cultural intelligence is an extension of emotional intelligence and a competency and a skill that enables individuals to function effectively in cross-cultural environments. It develops as people become more aware of the influence of culture and more capable of adapting their behavior to the norms of other cultures. A multicultural team can only find success if its members take the time to understand each other and ensure that everyone feels included. Multiculturalism and cultural intelligence are traits that are taking on increasing importance in the business world today.

Instructions:

1. Take the Assessing Your Cultural Intelligence quiz below.

1. Score each of the three sections separately, following the instructions given. The results are provided at the end of the third set of questions.

1. Answer the following questions after taking the Assessing Your Cultural Intelligence quiz.
2. Which quotientcultural, physical, or emotional/motivationalwas your strongest?
3. How can the cultural intelligence of a team improve performance?
4. Have you ever been on a multicultural team that was high on cultural intelligence? How about a team that was low on cultural intelligence? What were the impacts?

1. To assist you with this assignment, you may want to review the video on cross cultural management in the Materials folder.

1. Your responses should address each question in detail.

1. Upload your completed assignment to this assignment box.

Assessing Your Cultural Intelligence

Give your responses using a 1 to 5 scale where 1 means that you strongly disagree and 5 means that you strongly agree with the statement.

• Before I interact with people from a new culture, I wonder to myself what I hope to achieve.
• If I encounter something unexpected while working in a new culture, I use that experience to build new ways to approach other cultures in the future.
• I plan on how I am going to relate to people from a different culture before I meet with them.
• When I come into a new cultural situation, I can immediately sense whether things are going well or if things are going wrong.

Scoring: Add your total from the four questions above. Divide the total by 4. This is your Cognitive Cultural Quotient.

• It is easy for me to change my body language (posture or facial expression) to suit people from a different culture.
• I can alter my expressions when a cultural encounter requires it.
• I can modify my speech style by changing my accent or pitch of voice to suit people from different cultures.
• I can easily change the way I act when a cross-cultural encounter seems to require it.

Scoring: Add your total from the four questions above. Divide the total by 4. This is your Cognitive Physical Quotient.

• I have confidence in my ability to deal well with people from different cultures than mine.
• I am certain that I can befriend people of different cultural backgrounds than mine.
• I can adapt to the lifestyle of a different culture with relative ease.
• I am confident in my ability to deal with an unfamiliar cultural situation or encounter.

Scoring: Add your total from the four questions above. Divide the total by 4. This is your Emotional/Motivational Cognitive Quotient

Cognitive Cultural Quotient: One first learns about the beliefs, customs, and taboos of foreign cultures via the head.

Cognitive Physical Quotient: The body involves more commitment and experimentation with the new culture. It is this physical component (demeanor, eye contact, posture, accent) that shows a deeper level of understanding of the new culture and its physical manifestations.

Emotional/Motivational Cognitive Quotient: The heart deals with a persons own confidence in their ability to adapt to and deal well with cultures outside of their own. Heart really speaks to ones own level of emotional commitment and motivation to understand the new culture.

Results: Generally, scoring below 3 in any one of the three measures signals an area requiring improvement. Averaging over 4 displays strength in cultural intelligence.

Adapted from Cultural Intelligence, Earley and Mosakowski, Harvard Business Review, October 2004.