Cultural Intelligence and Team Effectiveness

| Cultural Intelligence and Team Effectiveness | Organizational Behavior Term Paper | | | |

| Submitted by:
Group 1- Section B
Rakhi Verma (SMBA 11022)
Vatsala Ratanpal (SMBA11032)
Abhishek Shukla (SMBA 11033)
Akriti Agrawal (SMBA 11035)
Amit Kumar(SMBA 11036)
Anjana Carri(SMBA 11037)

Table of Contents
Abstract2

Introduction3

Review of Literature4

Methodology16

Results17

Discussions and recommendations21

References…………………………………………………………………………………… 23

Annexure

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of cultural intelligence (CQ) in establishing multinational teams and its association with team effectiveness. A sample of employees from two reputed companies in the UAE, HSBC Bank and Petrofac were surveyed with respect to their cultural intelligence and the effectiveness of their teams. The relation between Cultural Intelligence (measured as CQ) and team effectiveness was determined using Pearson’s coefficient analysis. Our findings suggest that CQ has an impact on the performance level of teams. The higher the CQ, the more adjusting are the team members. Thus, this would contribute to the success of the teams. This paper also concludes by suggesting some measures by which team effectiveness and cultural intelligence could be improved.

INTRODUCTION
Cultural Intelligence (CI) is the ability to make oneself understood and the ability to create a fruitful collaboration in situations where cultural differences play a role.
CI consists of three dimensions that correspond to the classical division between emotion, understanding and action. In a business world of non-stop change, innovation and globalization, companies have come to realize the importance of developing skills for staff to work effectively across culture. Companies such as. General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Lucent Technologies, Nissan, Price Waterhouse Coppers, Toyota etc. take pride in their cultural diversity. In the global scramble for talent, organizations aspire to be the employer of choice. They hope to attract, develop, and retain the best talent in their organizations. Organizations such as Novartis and Nike see the competitive advantage in hiring culturally intelligent people.
(Source: http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/publications/lia/v24n5question.pdf )
Cultural intelligence has now become a requirement for being successful today. It affects various aspects such as negotiations, conflict-resolutions and most importantly, communication (as s discussed in the later sections of the report). Thus, in order to function effectively in a new cultural context, executives must be able to quickly understand each new setting based on complex cultural cues, and be committed to understanding the new culture and overcoming his or her limitations within it while applying effective actions demanded by specific cultural situations.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

CULTURE: Culture consists of shared patterns of ideas and behaviors. It might also be considered as an ‘operational code’ that is valid for an entire group of people. Culture conditions the individual’s range of action and ideas, including what to do and not to do, how to do or not do it, and whom to do it with or not do it with. Culture also includes under what circumstances the ‘rules’ shift or change. Culture influences how people make judgments about what is right and wrong, assesses what is important and unimportant, categorizes things, and deals with things that do not fit into existing categories. Cultural rules are flexible in practice.

Cultural Intelligence(CQ) and its importance:
The ability to interact effectively in multiple cultures has recently been labeled cultural intelligence (CQ). It can also be defined as,

* CQ is a capability that allows individuals to understand and act appropriately across a wide range of cultures (Thomas, 2006). * It is thought to be a ‘‘culture-free construct that applies across specific cultural circumstances’’ (Ng & Earley,2006).

* It is a person’s capability to adjust to diverse cultural situations (Ang, Van Dyne, & Koh, 2006; Earley & Ang, 2003) and effectively adapt to various cultural settings (Ng & Earley, 2006). * Peterson (2004) stated that CQ ‘‘is the ability to engage in a set of behaviors that uses skills (i.e., language or interpersonal skills) and qualities (e.g., tolerance for ambiguity, flexibility) that are tuned appropriately to the culture-based values and attitudes of the people with whom one interacts’’.

Understanding culture, cultural frameworks and their related components provide a useful starting point for one to stereotype cultures and sense-make intercultural interactions (Osland and Bird 2000). However, one’s cultural orientation is influenced by the context (Leung, Bhagat, Buchan, Erez, and Gibson 2005). Characteristics of a particular situation may make certain cultural values more salient than others, and individuals often engage in cross-cultural codeswitching accordingly (Hong, Morris, Chiu, and Benet-Martinez 2000; Molinsky 2007). Consequently, rather than relying on cultural stereotypes, one needs to be cognizant of the dynamics of culture in each intercultural encounter. Besides, CQ is becoming important for the following reasons: 1. Globalization has turned the world into a global village, with many companies setting up shop in numerous countries. Thus, one is bound to encounter a culturally diverse workforce. It, therefore, important that one develops knowledge about other culture in order to avoid any miscommunication. 2. Cultural misunderstandings can contribute to more disagreements and disputes. Detecting disagreements and conflicts can itself be challenging. For example, members with an individualistic and low power-distance orientation tend to be direct and forthright in voicing disagreements. In contrast, members with a collectivistic and high power-distance orientation are often reluctant to disagree openly with others, as this will make them lose face. Cultural sensitivity is needed to accurately understand these behaviors and to decipher potential underlying currents of disagreements that may not be obvious on the surface. Communication is particularly important as it underpins the other processes such as collaborative problem solving, and planning and task coordination (Ellis, Bell, Ployhart,Hollenbeck34, and Ilgen 2005) 3. Culture also affects the way team members resolve conflict (Holt and DeVore 2005). Generally, individuals high in collectivism (typical in countries such as China) tend to avoid and withdraw during conflict resolution, because of the high value they place on relationship and harmony. In contrast, those high in individualism (typical of countries such as the United States) tend to adopt a more confrontational style, because of the high value they place on individual rights and achievement (Tinsley 1998; 2001). These preference differences add another level of complexity to intercultural conflict resolution. 4. Research has shown that culture affects creativity and problem solving. For example, individuals with high power distance are generally less comfortable with suggesting creative ideas (Levina and Vaast 2008). Further, members may have different perceptions about the importance and effectiveness of user involvement and participation. For example, members may have different expectations of who should be the one making decisions. Members with high power distance orientation (typical in countries such as China and India) usually expect decisions to be made not as a team, but by superiors in

the organization. Thus, by having knowledge of other cultures, one can avoid developing wrong opinions about the others.

Components of Cultural Intelligence(CQ):
CQ is a relatively new construct developed by Earley and Ang (2003) which is anchored on Sternberg and Detterman’s multidimensional model of intelligence (Sternberg and Detterman 1986).The latter proposed that intelligence is best conceptualized as an integrative framework of mental intelligence that comprises metacognitive and cognitive capabilities; motivational intelligence; and behavioral intelligence. Thus, CQ is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct comprising four dimensions—metacognitive, cognitive, motivational, and behavioral CQ—with specific relevance to functioning in culturally diverse settings (Earley and Ang 2003).

Figure 1: shows the components of Cultural Quotient (Source: Early, 2004)

Metacognitive CQ refers to an individual’s cultural consciousness and awareness during intercultural interactions. Metacognitive CQ fcuses on higher order cognitive processes, and involves capabilities to plan, monitor, and revise mental models of cultural norms. Individuals high in metacognitive CQ are consciously aware of their own as well as others’ cultural preferences and assumptions. They consciously plan for the intercultural interaction, reflect during the interaction, and adjust their mental models accordingly. Consequently, metacognitive CQ enables individuals to develop new heuristics and rules for social interaction in novel cultural environments.
Cognitive CQ refers to an individual’s knowledge of the norms, practices, and conventions in different cultures. This has been the traditional focus of most cross-cultural training, educating individuals on the different behaviors and practices in different cultures (e.g., the importance of face and gifts in China).However, given the wide variety of cultures in the contemporary world, it can be a Herculean task to learn and acquire knowledge about the nuances of all the different cultures. Cognitive CQ, therefore, emphasizes the knowledge of various aspects such as the legal, political, economic and social systems of different cultures and basic frameworks of cultural values (e.g., Hofstede 1980).Individuals with high cognitive CQ are those who understand the similarities and differences across cultures.
Motivational CQ refers to an individual’s capability to direct attention and energy toward learning about and functioning in intercultural situations. Individuals with high motivational CQ are high in intercultural self-efficacy and motivation. Individuals with high levels of confidence and interests in experiencing novel cultural settings will have a greater drive to engage in intercultural interactions. They are also more likely to persevere in the face of intercultural difficulties or setbacks.
Behavioral CQ refers to an individual’s capability to exhibit appropriate verbal and nonverbal actions during intercultural interactions. Individuals high in behavioral CQ possess a wide and flexible repertoire of behaviors, and are able to exhibit appropriate behaviors based on the specifics of the situation. This includes verbal (e.g., choice of culturally appropriate words and tone) and nonverbal (e.g., gestures, facial expressions) behaviors, both of which are salient features of social interactions.

How is CQ useful in organizations?

1. Education and Internships

Organizations may choose to partner with universities in the form of providing study abroad internships and scholarships, either at the undergraduate or graduate level. The internships could be used as a way of screening and training potential employees, similar to how many accounting firms often use internships as a way to screen prospective candidates, in some cases even before they enter their last year of college.
2. Training

Some have suggested that firms do not prepare individuals enough for international assignments (Johnson et al., 2006); yet, training has been identified as one of the key activities that will contribute to expatriate return on investment (McNulty & Tharenou, 2004). Therefore, it is important for organizations to determine how to appropriately train individuals for international assignments. Since education abroad seems to impact CQ at various levels, it is possible that firms should consider training individuals in the foreign countries as opposed to their home country. This approach may be useful not only for those who are expatriates, but also for those who interact with individuals from other countries as part of their work. Additionally, it is possible that individuals who have had multiple vacation experiences abroad, and who are therefore probably high in motivational CQ, would like to receive additional training on interacting effectively in other cultures. Organizations could target training programs to them, and design the programs to enhance overall CQ by using their vacationing experiences abroad as the foundation to build on their cultural knowledge. It may be necessary to tailor training programs on CQ to fit the differing levels of cultural understanding that employees have.
3. Expatriation

Selecting individuals for expatriate assignments is often a difficult task; yet, it is thought to be a key aspect of the return on investment in an international assignment (McNulty & Tharenou, 2004). Firms should consider examining employees’ CQ level prior to sending them abroad, which should help to minimize some of the common cultural issues that often occur during these assignments. Understanding what can increase CQ will aid organizations during this process, and allow organizations to develop more successful expatriates.
4. Global leadership

Global leadership skills have become increasingly important in the dynamic work environment, and it has been suggested that cultural intelligence can even lead to developing global leadership success. In global organizations high levels of CQ are likely to influence the success of global leadership, so firms should consider individuals who have had multiple global assignments and some education abroad. Even if a leader does not intend to leave his or her home country, selecting the appropriate person to interact with foreign subsidiaries should have a positive effect on the organization. that found many non-financial benefits to long term international assignments (McNulty & Tharenou, 2004). Firms may want to reevaluate their decisions.
TEAM WORK AND EFFECTIVENESS:
Teams are built fundamentally because “two heads are better than one”. Belonging to a team, in the broadest sense, is a result of feeling part of something larger than oneself. The bigger picture drives your actions; your function exists to serve the bigger picture. Teams provide a setting where politics can be worked out and diverse individuals can come together to share their cultures and backgrounds. It is important to rely on other team members to delegate the workload and to learn from individual experiences.

Advantages of a Multi-national team: There are many advantages to creating diversified teams that focus on a common goal and work towards a universal solution. Companies and associations are increasingly realizing the importance of diversity in teams in this modern society. Employees from different cultural backgrounds bring with them a wealth of diverse experiences and thus the benefits of individual brainstorming are tremendous. By creating diverse teams, with people of different backgrounds and cultures, the group can help prevent groupthink. Diversity provides a greater variety of perspectives and ideas, which can lead to more creative solutions. Leveraging workplace diversity is now important for competitive advantage.

Disadvantage of Multi-national team:
1. Language: One of the first disadvantages of working in an international team can be the impact of language. Two people might be using the same words, but understand one another on a completely different level. Multi-International teams have individuals who will not be able to converse in their native tongue. Undoubtedly, this will lead to some form of misunderstanding when working together for at least one member of the group.
2. Vocabulary- The vocabulary that we and others use can sometimes be confusing to others who do not speak the same native language. Many miscommunications can arise if one is not aware of the speech and vocabulary used and how it is interpreted by the receiving party.
3. Language Style- Varying nationalities communicate differently. When working in teams some individuals may be very direct and blunt, while others may be indirect and vague in their communication. Each person may interpret these language styles differently. It is important to recognize the differing language styles and the common misunderstandings that can come from it. Accents, pronunciation, slang and the use of idioms can also cause fundamental misunderstandings.
4.Non Verbal Communication- A majority of communication is done through non-verbal communication. Non-verbal communication has an enormous impact on intercultural communication because of the way in which it can be misinterpreted from one culture to the next.
5. Unwillingness to express ideas- The inferiority complex where team members feel they cannot express themselves in the language that is being used, so they do not express their ideas.
6. Attitudes toward time-The difficulty in dealing with international teams is that each culture has a different attitude toward time. This can cause problems when prioritizing tasks and completing tasks within certain deadlines.
7• Different Value Systems- Peoples’ values are expressed through what they say and what they do. Therefore people working together from different cultural backgrounds may find that they approach and execute tasks differently because of differences in their cultural values. Understanding differences in value systems helps us to understand how and why individuals may behave differently to ourselves. This can help teams to work more effectively together and make the most of the benefits that those differences offer.
8. Preconceptions & Stereotypes-Stereotypes are the tendency we have to simplify the world by putting people into a category, and then fitting the individual into the stereotype of that category. If one interacts with a team member from a particular country, he/she may have the tendency to put another a future team member in the same category as the first team member with whom they interacted.

How Cultural Intelligence Affects team Effectiveness:
Conflict resolution:
Conflict is often inevitable in teams, and cultural misunderstandings may in fact contribute to more disagreements and disputes. For example, members with an individualistic and low power-distance orientation tend to be direct and forthright in voicing disagreements. In contrast, members with a collectivistic and high power-distance orientation are often reluctant to disagree openly with others, as this will make them lose face . Cultural sensitivity is needed to accurately understand these behaviors and to decipher potential underlying currents of disagreements that may not be obvious on the surface.
Collaborative Problem Solvin
Research has shown that culture affects creativity and problem solving. For example, individuals with high power distance are generally less comfortable with suggesting creative ideas (Levina and Vaast 2008). Further, members may have different perceptions about the importance and effectiveness of user involvement and participation. For example, members may have different expectations of who should be the one making decisions. Members with high power distance orientation (typical in countries such as China) usually expect decisions to be made not as a team, but by superiors in the organization. This is based on the belief that those higher in the hierarchy can be trusted to make the right decision, given their greater knowledge and experience. In contrast, members with low power-distance orientation (typical in countries such as the United States) are likely to prefer participative decision making, as they believe that everyone hasequal rights and the potential to contribute to the decision (Sagie and Aycan 2003).
This suggests that user involvement and participation may be more accepted bymembers with low power-distance orientation.Differences in power-distance orientation can also affect the dynamics in team discussions.
Communication
Communication is a necessary component of any team. Communication is particularly important as it underpins the other processes such as collaborative problem solving, and planning and task coordination (Ellis, Bell, Ployhart, Hollenbeck, and Ilgen 2005). In global teams, members often differ in language, communication styles, and nonverbal behaviors. These differences can result in miscommunication, which can, in turn, affect trust, cohesion, and team identity (Shachaf 2008).
As seen from above, cultural intelligence is important in order to maintain cordial relations with others in the company. Any lacking in CQ can lead to misconceptions and miscommunication and eventually conflicts. In addition, other processes such as collaborative problem solving and planning and task coordination are adversely affected. All these, would, thus, affect team effectiveness. While on the other hand, high CQ can imply one’s ability to understand and adapt to other cultures in a positive manner. This would clearly help one in avoiding stereotyping and perception formation, misconception and miscommunication and would help in enhancing the team effectiveness. Several studies carried out previously support this. For instance, in a study carried out by Khani, Etebarian and Abzari (2011), where they interviewed employees from a steel company in Saudi Arabia, it was concluded that cultural intelligence and its facets were positively linked to group effectiveness.Keeping in mind about the increasing importance of CQ in the workplace environment, this paper attempts to establish a co-relation between CQ and team effectiveness and suggest few measures to improve CQ and team effectiveness.

METHODOLOGY

A survey regarding cultural intelligence and team effectiveness was conducted in the month of November 2011 to obtain data for this study. Questionnaires were distributed to 20 employees working in multicultural teams in HSBC Bank and Petrofac, Dubai. Measurement of Cultural Intelligence was done as a four-factor-20 item scale developed by Early and Ang in 2003 (Lawrence,2011)., which measures cultural quotient (CQ) at three levels: cognition, motivation and behavioral (See Annexure ). This part was measured using a 5 point scale from 1=Strongly disagree to 5= Strongly agree. The questionnaire for team work effectiveness was obtained from the website of a consultancy firm, MindTools ™ (See Annexure).From the responses received from the employees , the relationship between the levels of cultural intelligence and team effectiveness in each organization was determined using the Pearson’s coefficient.

RESULTS
I. Descriptive Analysis :
The respondents interviewed from both HSBC Bank and Petrofac , both located in Dubai are demographically described in the following tables:
Table 1: represents the gender of the respondents Gender | No. of respondents | Percent (%) | Male | 13 | 86.7 | Female | 2 | 13.3 | Total | 15 | 100 |

Table 2: represents the age groups of the respondents Age group | Frequency | Percentage Frequency (%) | 21-25 | 1 | 6.7 | 26-30 | 4 | 26.7 | 31-35 | 3 | 20 | 36-40 | 2 | 13.3 | 41-45 | 3 | 20 | Over 45 | 2 | 13.3 | Total | 15 | 100 |

Table 3: shows the nationalities of the respondents Nationality | No. of respondent | Percent (%) | Indian | 4 | 26.7 | Pakistani | 3 | 20 | Filipino | 3 | 20 | Egyptian | 2 | 13.3 | Syrian | 1 | 6.7 | Sri Lankan | 2 | 13.3 | Total | 15 | 100 |

Table 4: Represents the duration of time spent by the respondents, in the UAE. Length of time spent in UAE | Minimum | Maximum | | 10 months | 7years 8motnhs |

Graphs were plotted to give an overview of the range of CQ and the team effectiveness levels that the respondents had. The CQ levels ranged between 50 and 80 (maximum of 100) while the levels of team effectiveness ranged between 45 and 70 (maximum of 75) (see Figure 2). In the second graph, a comparison was done between the levels of both the parameters between different nationalities. While Indians and Pakistanis almost matched in terms of CQ levels and team effectiveness, the SriLankans and Filipinos were high on CQ but low on team effectiveness. Egyptians and Syrians were average in both respects.

Figure 2: shows the levels of cultural quotient and team effectiveness in the respondents surveyed.

Figure 3: shows the variations in cultural quotient and team effectiveness levels between respondets of different nationalities..

II. Descriptive Statistics:
Pearson’s coefficient was used to analyze the co-relation between CQ and Team effectiveness. The null hypothesis was framed as follows:
“There is no significant co-relation between cultural intelligence and team effectiveness.”
The co-efficient was calculated using the software available in the Virtual Statisics Laboratory of Rice University (http://onlinestatbook.com/rvls.html). The results are shown below:

r | r2 | Slope | Y
Intercept | Std. Err. of
Estimate | 0.731 | 0.535 | 0.751 | 4.632 | 6.0251 | P | one-tailed | 0.001 | | two-tailed | 0.0019 |

Figure 4: Shows the data summary after calculating Pearson’s coefficient

18
The Pearson correlation coefficient was computed to assess the relationship between the amount of water that one consumed and rating of skin elasticity. There was a positive correlation between the two variables, r = 0.751, n = 15, p = 0.0019 (Figure 3) Overall, there was a strong, positive correlation between cultural intelligence and team effectiveness. The higher the CQ the greater the team efficiency.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS:

Our findings suggest a strong positive co-relation between Cultural Quotient and Team Effectiveness. This can be linked to the fact that in a multinational team , members with a high CQ can adjust with others. This, in turn , would allow them to understand their less adjusting counterparts. As a result, there would be fewer cases of miscommunications and mis-understanding.All this would contribute to the establishment of an effective and successful team.
The group’s opinion is that being a part of a multinational team, managers need to help teams to overcome obstacles and improve team effectiveness. The following recommendations can be made in order to enhance team effectiveness: * Leaders must make teams understand the importance of their mission and how it contributes to the overall business strategy. * Clear rules for social interaction must be created. For this, leaders need to make sure that the team has engaged in a well-conceived, facilitated process to help them develop mutual trust and understanding. * Providing up-to-date communication and decision-making technologies helps a team establish valuable task-related monitoring and reporting processes. * Members of multi-national teams must be aware of the fault lines within groups and must attempt not to cross the line. Where they recognize the potential for fault lines to develop, members can take steps to overcome the group’s splitting into competing factions. Even small actions can have a big impact on the group’s ability to develop a unified culture.

* Previous studies show that more successful multinational teams rotated their places so that they could get exposure to all members, thereby lowering perceived differences among them and encouraging the creation of a hybrid culture (Early,2000) * At least one member high in CQ and another who has a reasonably high CQ need to be present in the team, so that inter-cultural conflicts are minimized.
The following recommendations can be made in order to enhance CQ: * For those with a low CQ should initiate assessing their current capabilities using either a self-assessment instrument (e.g., Earley & Mosakowski, 2004) or feedback from colleagues such as 360-degree performance reviews. Based on the outcome, managers can use specific techniques to improve their weak facet(s) of CQ. * To improve the meta-cognitive part of cultural intelligence, managers should devise learning strategies that focus them on noticing clues about the local culture and comparing and contrasting these clues with their own culture to develop a continuously updated map of the local environment. *
Those managers weakest on the motivational component of CQ need to focus on enhancing their cultural self-efficacy. Self-efficacy increases when they gain newskills to manage threatening activities and that self-motivation is best sustained by adopting subgoals that lead to large future ones. This suggests that managers seeking to improve their CQ should set small goals first, perhaps learning local greetings or having informal social interaction with foreigners. Once they feel confident in these capabilities, managers can move to more demanding interactions
REFERENCES
1. Bird, A., Osland J.S., (2000). Beyond sophisticated stereotyping: Cultural sensemaking in context, Academy of Management Executive. Vol. 14, no. 1, pp 65-79. 2. Leung,K., Bhagat, R.S., Buchan,N.R., Erez,M., and Gibson , C.B. (2005) Culture and international business: recent advances and their implications for future research, Journal of International Business Studies ,no. 36, pp. 357–378 3. Hong, Y.; Morris, M.W.; Chiu, C.; Benet-Martínez, V.( 2000) Multicultural minds: A dynamic constructivist approach to culture and cognition. American Psychologist, Vol 55, no.7, pp.709-720 4. Molinsky, A., (2007).Cross –cultural codeswitching: The psychological challenges in adapting behavior in foreign cultural interactions. Academy of Management Review, Vol. 32, No. 2, 622–640. 5. Khani A., Etebarian,A., Abzari, M.,(2011). The relationship between cultural intelligence and group effectiveness in Mobarakeh steel company. African Journal of Business Management .Vol. 5, no.17, pp. 7507-7510. 6. Ang, S., Van Dyne, L.,Koh, C., Ng, K.Y., Templar, K.J., Tay, C., Chandrashekhar, N.A.(2006). Cultural Intelligence: Its Measurement and Effects on Cultural Judgment and Decision Making, Cultural Adaptation and Task Performance.Management and Organization Review,vol.3, no. 3, pp 335-371. 7. Amiri, A.N., Moghimi, S.M., Kazemi, M.,(2010). Studying the Relationship between Cultural Intelligence and Employees’ Performance. European Journal of Scientific Research. Vol.42 No.3. pp.432-427. 8. Early, P.C., Gardener, H.K.(2005). Internal Dynamics and Cultural Intelligence in Multinational Teams. Elsevier, pp 1-31. 9. Early, P.C., Mosakowski, E. (2004), Cultural Intelligence.retreived on 27 November 2011, from http://home.sandiego.edu/~pavett/docs/msgl_503/CulturalIntelligence-HBR.pdf 10. Moynihan,L.M.,Peterson, R.M.,Early, P.C. (2006).Cultural Intelligence and Mutinational team experience: Does the experience of working in a multi-national team improve cultural intelligence? Research on Managing Groups and Teams, Volume 9, 299–323 11. Adidam, P.T., Gajre, S.,Kejriwal,S.,(2009). Cross-cultural competitive intelligence strategies. Marketing Intelligence & Planning/Vol. 27 No. 5, 2009, pp. 666-68. 12. Neal,M.,(2010). When Arab-expatriate relations work well Diversity and discourse in the Gulf Arab workplace. Team Performance Management .Vol. 16 No. 5/6, pp. 242-266 13. Livermore,D. (2010). The Cultural Intelligence Difference,retrieved on 27 November 2011, from http://davidlivermore.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/CQ-Difference-Chapter-1.pdf 14. Plum,E., Cultural Intelligence. Retreived on 28 November 2011, from http://www.culturalintelligence.org/What%20is%20CI.htm 15. Tan, J.S.(2004). Cultural Intelligence and the Global Economy.Leadership in action! Retrieved on 29 November 2011, from http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/publications/lia/v24n5question.pdf

ANNEXURE :
Questionnaire Form:

PART –A

The questionnaire has a total of 23 questions. Please tick next to the appropriate choice.

1. Gender: Male Female
2. Length of Time in UAE: years months.
3.Nationality:
4. Age Group: : 21-25 : 26-30 : 31-35 : 36-40 : 41-45 : Over 45.

Please answer all of the questions by writing the number that best reflects your experiences in the UAE.

1= Strongly disagree, 2= disagree, 3= neutral , 4= agree, 5 = strongly agree

5. I am conscious of the cultural knowledge I use when interacting with people with different cultural backgrounds.
6. I adjust my cultural knowledge as I interact with people from a culture that is unfamiliar to me.
7. I am conscious of the cultural knowledge I apply to cross-cultural interactions.
8. I check the accuracy of my cultural knowledge as I interact with people from different cultures.
9. I know the legal and economic systems of other cultures.
10. I know the rules (e.g., vocabulary, grammar) of other languages.
11. I know the cultural values and religious beliefs of other cultures.
12. I know the marriage systems of other cultures.
13. I know the arts and crafts of other cultures.
14. I know the rules for expressing non-verbal behaviors in other cultures.
15. I enjoy interacting with people from different cultures.
16. I am confident that I can socialize with locals in a culture that is unfamiliar to me.
17. I am sure I can deal with the stresses of adjusting to a culture that is new to me.
18. I enjoy living in cultures that are unfamiliar to me.
19. I am confident that I can get accustomed to the shopping conditions in a different culture.
20. I change my verbal behavior (e.g., accent, tone) when a cross-cultural interaction requires it.
21. I use pause and silence differently to suit different cross-cultural situations.
22. I vary the rate of my speaking when a cross-cultural situation requires it.
23. I change my non-verbal behavior when a cross-cultural interaction requires it.
24.I alter my facial expressions when a cross-cultural interaction requires it.

PART- B
The questionnaire has a total of 15 questions. Please tick next to the appropriate choice.

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Top of Form Statement | Not at all | Rarely | Some times | Often | Very
Often | 1 | My team is knowledgeable about the stages of development teams can be expected to go through. | | | | | | 2 | Team members are provided with a great deal of feedback regarding their performance. | | | | | | 3 | Team members are encouraged to work for the common good of the organization. | | | | | | 4 | There are many complaints, and morale is low on my team. | | | | | | 5 | Team members don 't understand the decisions that are made, or don 't agree with them. | | | | | | 6 | People are encouraged to be good team members, and build good relationships. | | | | | | 7 | Team members are provided with development opportunities. | | | | | | 8 | Meetings are inefficient and there is a lot of role overlap. | | | | | | 9 | Team members are encouraged to commit to the team vision, and leaders help them understand how their role fits into the big picture. | | | | | | 10 | Team members are often given a chance to work on interesting tasks and stretch their knowledge and capabilities. | | | | | | 11 | The team understands what it needs to accomplish and has the resources needed to be successful. | | | | | | 12 | Conflict and hostility between members is a pervasive issue that doesn 't seem to get better. | | | | | | 13 | People feel that good work is not rewarded and they are not sure what is expected of them. | | | | | | 14 | Team members balance their individual needs for autonomy with the benefits of mutual interdependence. | | | | | | 15 | Working relationships across units or functions is poor, and there is a lack of coordination. | | | | | |
.

Thank you for your time. Much appreciated.

References: * CQ is a capability that allows individuals to understand and act appropriately across a wide range of cultures (Thomas, 2006). * It is thought to be a ‘‘culture-free construct that applies across specific cultural circumstances’’ (Ng & Earley,2006). * It is a person’s capability to adjust to diverse cultural situations (Ang, Van Dyne, & Koh, 2006; Earley & Ang, 2003) and effectively adapt to various cultural settings (Ng & Earley, 2006). Figure 1: shows the components of Cultural Quotient (Source: Early, 2004) Metacognitive CQ refers to an individual’s cultural consciousness and awareness during intercultural interactions 3. Expatriation Selecting individuals for expatriate assignments is often a difficult task; yet, it is thought to be a key aspect of the return on investment in an international assignment (McNulty & Tharenou, 2004)