Emotional Intelligence and Interactions Across Cultures - Report Example

A Professional Report Discussing How Cultural Intelligence Makes Today’s Manager Truly Global and Effective The s of the persons for whom the report is prepared (Client to fill here): Preparers of the Report (client to fill here): Date Of the Report (client to fill here): Does cultural intelligence make today’s manager truly global and effective? Introduction Culture intelligence is a person’s capability to function effectively in situation characterized by cultural diversity. In today’s increasingly global and diverse work setting the ability to function effectively in multi-cultural situation is important for employees, managers and organization. knowledge of your cultural intelligence provides insights about your capabilities to cope with multi –cultural situation, engage in cross cultural interaction appropriately and perform effectively in culturally diverse work groups EARLEY, P. C., ANG, S., & TAN, J.-S. (2006). It’s also needed to manage stress of culture shock and consequent frustration and confusion that typically result from clashes of cultural differences. There are three components of cultural intelligence and they are cognitive, the physical emotional cultural intelligence. Emotional intelligence presumes the people are familiar with their own culture and that they often unconsciously use familiar situations as a way to interact with others culture. Cultural intelligence determines a person’s ability to adjust to a new culture thus cultural intelligence. Hypothesis Cross culture adjustment is conceptualized as a degree of psychological comfort an expatriate has with the various aspects of a host culture. Work performance standard, job and supervisory responsibilities. An American expatriate manager we know had his cultural intelligence tested while serving on a design team that included two German engineers. As other team members floated their ideas, the engineers condemned them repeatedly as stunted or immature or worse. The manager concluded that Germans in general are rude and aggressive. A modicum of cultural intelligence would have helped the American realize he was mistakenly equating the merit of an idea with the merit of the person presenting it and that the Germans were able to make a sharp distinction between the two. A manager with even subtler powers of discernment might have tried to determine how much of the two Germans’ behavior was arguably German and how much was explained by the fact that they were engineers. Useful Steps towards Cultural Intelligence Start taking language classes. Though non-verbal communication often transmits a more powerful message than mere words, language skills are greatly beneficial. They help you to be more communicative in everyday life, to access more factual knowledge, and to address misunderstandings more effectively. Meet other expats who have already lived in this country and ask them about “best practice” tips. Immerse yourself in your new country’s rituals and products. You could, for example, read travel guides on local traditions, cook new recipes, or consume a bit of contemporary pop culture. What might such things reveal about deeper social issues, and how could they further your cultural intelligence? Do online research on your destination or buy a few books on expat living. The materials should explain some hard facts (e.g. history, politics), give you concrete advice on everyday situations (e.g. table manners, business etiquette), and address some underlying values. Take seminars on cultural intelligence. However, please exercise some caution here. There are often no specified qualifications for intercultural trainers, so always ask them for references. StPETERSON, B. (2004). An expatriate manager who was so much emotional with his intelligent would probably have empathized with the team members whose ideas were being criticized, modulated his or her spontaneous reaction to the engineers’ conduct, and proposed a new style of discussion that preserved candor but spared feelings, if indeed anyone’s feelings had been hurt. But without being able to tell how much of the engineers’ behavior was idiosyncratic and how much was culturally determined, he or she would not have known how to influence their actions or how easy it would be to do that. One critical element that cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence do share is, in psychologist Daniel Goleman’s words, “a propensity to suspend judgment—to think before acting.” For someone richly endowed with CQ, the suspension might take hours or days, while someone with low CQ might have to take weeks or months. In either case, it involves using your senses to register all the ways that the personalities interacting in front of you are different from those in your home culture yet similar to one another. Only when conduct you have actually observed begins to settle into patterns can you safely begin to anticipate how these people will react in the next situation. The inferences you draw in this manner will be free of the hazards of stereotyping. The concept of emotional intelligence burst into the cultural imagination in 1995 with the publication of psychologist Daniel Goleman’s bestselling book of the same name. Experts have predicted that scoring high on this personality trait would boost one’s bargaining outcomes. After all, the qualities that characterize emotional intelligence—awareness of our emotions and how they affect others, the ability to juggle our moods and behavior, empathy, the motivation to meet meaningful personal goals, and strong social skills—seem as if they’d help us get what we want from others and find common ground. EARLEY, P. C., & ANG, S. (2003).  Should emotional intelligence be included among the most essential negotiation skills? In a new study, researchers Kihwan Kim (Buena Vista University), Nicole L. A. Cundiff (the University of Alaska, Fairbanks), and Suk Bong Choi (the University of Ulsan, South Korea) sought to determine whether emotional intelligence correlates with beneficial negotiation outcomes, in particular trust building, the desire to work together in the future, and joint gain. The researchers began by having their participants, about 200 undergraduate students; fill out a questionnaire designed to measure emotional intelligence. At a later date, the students were paired and assigned to play the role of personnel manager or new employee in a negotiation over a job contract. They could negotiate issues such as salary, vacation, starting date, and medical coverage, and had opportunities to both create and claim value. Because points were assigned to the various outcomes, the researchers were able to measure participants’ relative success by adding up their points. Perhaps not surprisingly, higher levels of emotional intelligence were associated with greater rapport within pairs of negotiators. Strong rapport in turn nurtured trust in one’s counterpart and a willingness to work with the other party in the future. Counter intuitively, however, high emotional intelligence was not linked to better joint negotiation outcomes when measured by points. Why didn’t emotionally intelligent negotiators leverage their skills to help both parties achieve more? Kim and his team speculated that these negotiators’ keen sense of empathy may have led them to make excessive concessions to their counterparts at the expense of their own gains. Past work has suggested that emotionally intelligent negotiators may be vulnerable to exploitation by their counterparts for this reason. The results suggest that emotional rapport and other signs of a keen emotional intellect can promote trust and long-term partnerships. But when it prompts unnecessary concessions, emotional intelligence may undermine the same connections that it is touted to enhance. In all likelihood, you will start out with some clichés and stereotypes about other countries and cultures. That’s not exactly cultural intelligence, but it’s not necessarily all bad, either: Stereotypes exist because they are simple to understand and easy to remember. “All Germans are hard-working and over-punctual” is a far shorter statement than, “generally speaking, German businesspeople tend to live in an achievement-oriented culture with a mono-chronic approach towards time management.” a Summary Always remember: Even inter-culturally effective persons may sometimes behave awkwardly, especially in the beginning. However, your chances of success increases your level of cultural intelligence. It is important to note that competition is a necessity in the global business world and therefore it is good to have managers with global managerial skills and cultural intelligence. t References EARLEY, P. C., ANG, S., & TAN, J.-S. (2006). CQ: developing cultural intelligence at work. Stanford, Calif, Stanford Business Books. EARLEY, P. C., & ANG, S. (2003). Cultural intelligence: individual interactions across cultures. Stanford, Calif, Stanford Business Books EARLEY, P. C., & ANG, S. (2003). Cultural intelligence: individual interactions across cultures. Stanford, Calif, StPETERSON, B. (2004). Cultural intelligence: a guide to working with people from other cultures. Yarmouth, Me. [u.a.], Intercultural Press.anford Business Books Read More