A theory of cultural intelligence in organizations

A great deal of attention has focused on intercultural understanding in the wake of the terrorism experienced in the United States on September 11th, 2001. Among the core questions asked is why would people hate Americans enough to inflict such a toll on its citizens? A quest for intercultural understanding is sought frequently by people operating in multicultural environments such as that experienced in a transnational or multinational firm. The focus of this chapter is to introduce and explore the implications of cultural intelligence (CQ), a construct intended to improve understanding of intercultural interactions. Cultural intelligence refers to a person's capacity to adapt to new cultural settings based on multiple facets including cognitive, motivational and behavioral features. The implications for cultural intelligence for several key aspects of international organizations are discussed.