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Are You Culturally Intelligent?

A Framework to Assess and Develop Cultural Intelligence

Abstract

AACSB requires that students demonstrate a commitment to address, engage and respond

to current and emerging corporate social responsibility issues including diversity, sustainable

development, environmental sustainability and globalization of economic activity across cultures

as measured by indicators and approaches to measure student learning. This paper pursues this

goal by first exploring and defining culture and presenting the nuances and challenges of

teaching students about culture in an environment supportive of multiple cultures (e.g., national,

regional, local, corporate, etc.). Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of a framework to

assess and develop cultural intelligence consisting of a cultural intelligence pre-assessment and

feedback, cultural intelligence transformation activities, and a cultural intelligence post-

assessment and feedback.

KEYWORDS:

Assessment, Cultural Intelligence; Experiential Learning Activities

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Introduction

A great deal of evidence underscores the globalization of the world’s economy. General

Electric, a quintessential United States (US) corporation, derived more than 50 percent of its

revenue from outside the US in 2009. IBM, another American archetype, employed about

400,000 individuals globally in 2009, with only about 115,000 in the United States, fewer than in

India (Doh, 2010). A reflection of this trend is that when Nissan made changes in its supplier

system in 2000, it did not necessarily reflect Japanese culture and was bucking the Japanese

cultural system. The CFO at Nissan was from Brazil (Varner, 2001).

At the same time the world economy is becoming more integrated, resulting in a global

society that is much more culturally diverse. For example, the Caucasian-American student is

often represented as the United States “norm” even though the US is not a unitary society.

According to the 2010 census, the United States population of 308.7 million individuals consists

of approximately 72 percent Caucasian-Americans, 13 percent African-Americans, 5 percent

Asian-Americans, and 1 percent Native Americans, with the remainder reporting “other” or a

mixed-race heritage. A Hispanic or person of Latino origin is not considered a racial category

and 16.3 percent of the US population is of Hispanic or Latino origin (US Census, 2010). In

addition, despite restrictions on student visas after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 the

number of foreign students in the United States has continued to increase, so that in 2011 there

were nearly 700,000 foreign students studying in the United States (Mellman, 2011).

During the period from 1965 to 1988, the United States corporate sector paid little

attention to how different backgrounds and experiences would impact their employees working

together effectively. The expectation was that everyone would conform to the dominant culture

of Caucasian males, which helps to explain why diversity training in the early 1980s was focused

on helping minorities and women assimilate (Anand & Winters, 2008). This notion has changed
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radically and now students and employees both participate in diversity training to encourage

appreciation of differences.

Worldwide, business schools must equip their graduates with the competencies needed to

operate across national and cultural boundaries (Vielba & Edelshain, 1995). Business curricula,

at both the undergraduate and graduate level, provides instruction in fundamental business

disciplines such as, marketing, management, accounting, and finance. Students also study

international business in which part of the course is dedicated to considering the cultures of

countries outside the United States.1

The Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB)

accreditation standards is also a major driver of cultural intelligence development. One of

AACSB’s core values is that students should demonstrate a commitment to address, engage and

respond to current and emerging corporate social responsibility issues including diversity,

sustainable development, environmental sustainability and globalization of economic activity

across cultures. AACSB seeks evidence that an educational institution values diverse student and

faculty viewpoints of social responsibility, fosters cultural differences and global perspectives,

and encourages sensitivity and flexibility.

In addition, most students engage in diversity training, focused on working with

individuals who do not share their cultural background and upbringing. Positioning diversity or

cultural intelligence as an expected competency in these graduates has created a major shift; the

assumption is no longer that only certain groups need training (such as white males or

minorities), but rather that all employees need to be cross-culturally competent in an increasingly

global world (Anand & Winters, 2008). The viability of the education offered by business

schools is impacted by and dependent on the mental maturity and cultural intelligence of their

students.
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This paper provides suggestions for developing cultural intelligence through a discussion

of an approach to assessing and enhancing student cultural intelligence. Following a definition of

culture and cultural intelligence, a cultural intelligence development framework including pre-

and post-assessments and cultural intelligence transformation activities will be described.

Culture Defined

Culture is the shared assumptions, values, and web of significance or meaning that is

used to make sense of an environment. Culture consists of explicit and implicit patterns of ideas

and their embodiment in institutions and practices, such as politics, governmental policies,

regulations, educational systems, and business practices (Gould & Grein, 2009). Culture lives

and changes and cannot be studied in isolation. Therefore, one of the major challenges in

teaching about culture is avoiding being blinded by static views of culture (Varner, 2001). Yet,

cultural continuity is psychologically important because it provides a sense of identity and the

standards for perceiving, communicating, and acting among those who share a language and a

history (O’Sullivan-Lago, deAbreu, & Burgess, 2008). Culture includes the national cultures on

which courses in international business courses traditionally focus: the demographic

characteristics (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, age, and disability) on which diversity courses

traditionally focus and the less visible dimensions of diversity (e.g., religion, professional

background, and corporate cultures) diversity courses increasingly address (Egan & Bendick,

2008). Culture is a construct, which means that while it is not entirely accessible via observation

it can be inferred from verbal statements and other behaviors. While generalizations can be

drawn, culture should not be considered applicable to everyone within a given culture in the

same way (Hofstede, 1993).

Culture Generalizations

Nations have recognizable cultural traits. So while individuals all over the world might be
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able to wear jeans, enjoy fried rice, eat at McDonald’s, and surf the Internet, they also retain their

own cultural values, their social groups, and their national identities (Leung, Bhagat, Buchan,

Erez, & Gibson, 2005). Academic research and practice hosts a continual pull between

generalization and specificity. Thus, any one person has both characteristics of a national culture

and other characteristics specific to him- or herself. The tension between these two viewpoints is

especially evident in the study of cultures. In considering intra-national differences, stereotyping

is discouraged, while in studying international business, stereotypes provide the basis for

understanding other countries’ cultures.

National cultures have a major impact on all activities, from a country’s capital structure

to the performance of groups within it (Leung, et al., 2005). Researchers have developed

generalizations that can aid in understanding cultural differences. The most-often used of these

generalizations is Hofstede’s (2001) dimensions of individualism and collectivism, power

distance, masculinity and femininity, uncertainty avoidance, and attitudes toward time.

Culture is natural to a native. Individuals tend to project their cultures onto others by

assuming that someone else’s perceptions, judgments, attitudes, and values are like their own. In

a parallel manner, individuals tend to see members of outgroups as similar to one another and

fitting the stereotypes assigned to them (Cardon, 2010). Individuals who are members of the

dominant group within a culture are often not aware that they have a culture, but instead see

themselves as “normal,” while those who are not like them are different. Thus it is often difficult

for the dominant group or the observer to recognize that other cultures are judged by their own

intrinsic standards of what is right or wrong, appropriate or inappropriate. Management diversity

education sensitizes students to recognize this process as stereotyping (Egan & Bendick, 2008).

If students fail to recognize their own self-reference criteria and work to overcome it, they will

more readily stereotype other cultures (Varner, 2001). An examination of the positive and
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negative attributes of one’s own and that of other cultures can prove very helpful in increasing

cultural intelligence (Triandis, 2006).

Given that culture changes very slowly, culture has been treated as a relatively stable

characteristic, reflecting a shared knowledge structure that reduces the likelihood that values,

behavioral norms, and patterns of behaviors will change (Leung, et al., 2005). Despite sometimes

dramatic economic, political, and social change, the impact of a society’s cultural heritage

persists to shape values and beliefs (Hayward & Kemmelmeier, 2007). Although a national

culture has static values, it is also constantly being recreated. Thus, citizens are both the products

of their national cultural socialization and also the creators of cultural change. Individuals seek

stasis and do not innately understand the paradox inherent in their lives that they change

continually while remaining the same (O’Sullivan-Lago, et al., 2008). That is, culture is a

constant negotiation, often conflicted, between generations, classes, genders, interpretations of

histories, religion, cultural values, and social norms (Tomaselli, 2003).

The increased mingling of cultural groups is both a problem and an opportunity (Smith,

2010). Many of the difficulties with cultural diversity in formerly homogenous cultures stem

from the presence of the “other.” Individuals become conscious of their own personal cultural

identities when a contrast with another culture is produced. This recognition renders the native

person’s cultural identity less secure (O’Sullivan-Lago, et al., 2008). For example, Dutch

nationals used what they called “inarguable” human values to explain their judgments of

minority group behavior as abnormal. This abnormalization of ethnic minorities allowed the

nationals to justify their criticisms and rejection of them, thereby maintaining the normality of

their own cultural identity (Verkuyten, 2001).

As a universal tendency, stereotyping requires constant vigilance to control. Research has

demonstrated that individuals tend to seek out information confirming stereotypes at a greater
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rate than information contradicting them. When information is ambiguous, individuals fit the

information to confirm stereotypical expectations. Even when individuals are explicitly informed

about the inaccuracy of stereotypes, their propensity to rely on the stereotype is not eliminated

and their reliance on actual information is not increased. Individual judgments are particularly

prone to distortion by stereotypes in complex, ambiguous situations calling for subjective

decisions, because stereotyping simplifies the problem (Egan & Bendick, 2008).

Within the safety of the classroom or on-line forum, students are not living within

cultures other than their own. Adapting to a “foreign environment” requires more than just an

intellectual understanding of the cultural differences. It requires an ability to demonstrate an

understanding of the behavioral differences as well (Oddou, 2005).

Expanding the Cultural Intelligence Definition

Cultural intelligence, cultural quotient or “CQ,” is a term used in business, education,

government and academic research. Cultural intelligence can be understood as the capability to

relate and work effectively across cultures. Originally, the term cultural intelligence and the

abbreviation “CQ” was developed by the research done by Early and Ang (2003) as a research-

based way of measuring and predicting intercultural performance and was continued with the

work of Ang & Van Dyne (2008) and Livermore (2009).

Most often the study of culture related to international business focuses on the differences

among nations, and the study of diversity in the United States focuses on gender, age, and race.

However, the study of cultures can be enriched by looking at subcultures within countries outside

the United States. For example, studying China’s ethnic minorities encompasses such topics as

stereotyping and the roles of history and geography in population trends. The rise to dominance

of Han Chinese culture within East Asia and the nature of the Han’s relationships with other

ethnic groups provides perspective when considering both Chinese culture and the roles of
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minority ethnicities in the US. Given this framework, many topics may be pursued, such as how

ethnic identities evolve over time and how concepts of civil and human rights are understood

differently in different settings (i.e., cultural intelligence), both by those engaged in struggles for

them and by those accused of repressing them (Stedman, 2010). Other fertile subjects for study

include issues such as caste in Hindu societies or the marginal status of the Roma in Europe

(Egan & Bendick, 2008). Few students know about the hardships of many individuals in the

world. Understanding individuals in this type of broader context is valuable both for

humanitarian and commercial purposes. Exposing young individuals to some of the world’s

injustices is a form of crisis for them (Fielding, 2003) that can stimulate cognitive development.

In addition to including minority groups in countries outside the United States, the

concept of cultural intelligence should be expanded to include a broad conception of cultural

identity that would not privilege either nationality or traditionally prominent demographic

characteristics, but instead balance them with components related to vocation, class, and

geography. This perspective emphasizes that even individuals who are members of a society’s

dominant culture may simultaneously be members of multiple subcultures (Egan & Bendick,

2008).

Teaching Cultural Intelligence Overview

Conventional education is typically associated to a learning model of one-size-fits-all

(Keefe & Jenkins, 2008). Under this learning model, everyone is supposed to learn in the same

manner, at the same rate, with the same methodologies, in a standardized way. Many

socioeconomic factors, and physical limitations of learning spaces, have been the cause of the

proliferation of this type of instruction. Under conventional learning models, the role of the

instructor dominates and approving evaluations seems to be the ultimate goal.

However, the conventional model of education is not fully effective because it does not
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adapt to individual and organizational needs, nor to our current knowledge-based era (OCDE,

2006). Nowadays, information and technology are available for people in most regions of the

world and offer new opportunities for everyone willing to learn.

Students live in a globalized world, where individuals and organizations are

interdependent. Now, people not only travel farther, more easily and more frequently, than

before, but they also, communicate and work with others in distant places using electronic

devices. Therefore, learning how to respect, co-exist and collaborate with people of other

cultures becomes an imperative.

Cognitive development has to do with how individuals mature in terms of their thinking

and, therefore, affects with how they learn. The levels of cognitive development of students who

are studying culture are of particular importance, as understanding cultures other than their own

requires advanced thinking.

The inescapable conclusion of cognitive development theorists (i.e., Jean Piaget, a French

psychologist and William Perry, an American psychologist) and observation (Belenky, Clinchy,

Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986) is that different students require different learning environments,

and a wide variation in student cognitive levels and skills is inevitable in a university classroom

(Knight & Sutton, 2004). Applying this understanding to teaching means that when instructors

structure courses, assignments, lectures, and exams, they need to include both activities that less-

well-developed thinkers can accomplish and activities that will challenge higher cognitively-

developed students. An instructor will benefit from taking a student’s point of view in the design

phase, providing the background information and guidance that a more cognitively-developed

student would need to achieve the intended purpose of the activity (Wong, 2010).

Not only are individual students at different levels of development, but any one student

may be at different stages in terms of content areas (Wankat & Oreovicz, 1992). Their
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background knowledge contributes to this. For example, most students think of humanities as

ambiguous, but if a student comes from a background in which politics is discussed openly, then

that student will likely feel more comfortable with the ambiguity of political ideas (Jackson,

2008). Students who are bicultural, such as African-Americans or Latinos in the US, those who

have traveled widely, and those who have lived in more than one culture will have an instinct for

greater understanding of international cultures.

One more caveat is that both undergraduate and graduate business students, however

intelligent or cognitively mature, are rarely serious students in the sense that they would conduct

exploratory research on their own. Instead, they are more likely to rely on lectures and textbooks

[and social media?] as the most expedient way to obtain the information they need (Egan &

Bendick, 2008).

Cultural Intelligence Assessment and Development Framework

This cultural intelligence assessment and development framework consists of a pre-test

assessment with feedback, cultural intelligence transformation activities to better prepare

students to function in different cultures followed by a post-assessment and feedback to measure

the student’s cultural intelligence difference. The cultural intelligence transformation activities

center around building classroom and external learning communities and fourteen classroom

teaching tactics (see Figure 1).

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Figure 1: Cultural Intelligence Assessment and Development Framework

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AACSB’s Assessment Mandate

As noted previously, one of AACSB’s core values is that students demonstrate a

commitment to address, engage and respond to current and emerging corporate social

responsibility issues including diversity, sustainable development, environmental sustainability

and globalization of economic activity across cultures. Specifically, Bachelor’s degree programs

and higher must provide instruction and training that facilitate a student’s ability to work in

diverse environments (AACSB, 2015, p. 32) and provide students with knowledge regarding

economic, political, regulatory, technological, and social contexts of organizations in a global

society (AACSB 2015, p. 34). The knowledge delineated here is consistent with the definition of

CQ which has been defined as an “individual’s capability to function and manage effectively in

culturally diverse settings (Early & Ang, 2003). CQ is viewed as a “specific form of intelligence

focused on capabilities to grasp, reason and behave effectively in situations characterized by

cultural diversity” (Ang et al. 2007, p. 337).

Coupled with this core value is a charge that programs/courses provide indicators and

approaches to measure the student learning that occurs. The fundamental goal of this charge is to

develop a process which demonstrates that “students achieve learning expectations for the

programs in which they participate” (AACSB, 2015, p. 29). The results of these measures can be

used to continue to improved individual programs and is also viewed as a way for

management/business degree programs to promote and demonstrate program and student

capabilities to prospective student employers and other constituents.

Finally, one of the benefits of the cultural intelligence assessment and development

framework is that it provides assessment data for student development, program evaluation, and

accreditation assurance of learning for accrediting bodies (e.g., AACSB). Assessment data is
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collected at the individual-level through the pre- and post-tests focusing on the four cultural

intelligence dimensions [i.e., drive (motivation), knowledge (cognition), strategy (metacognition)

and action (behavior)]. Students can use the self-assessment (i.e., pre- and post-tests) for

developmental purposes including diagnosis, reflection and action plan commitment.

Aggregation and comparison of pre- and post test data can be used to provide input into course

and program improvement. Finally, instructors can use the cultural intelligence assessment and

development framework to collect assurance of learning data for accreditation bodies.

Cultural Intelligence Transformation Activities Overview

Cultural Intelligence Pre-Assessment and Feedback

The CQ self-inventory assessment consists of four scales [i.e., drive (motivation),

knowledge (cognition), strategy (metacognition) and action (behavior)] and related subscales.

The CQ self-inventory can generally be completed in 15 to 20 minutes and includes questions to

identify a student’s CQ scores and cultural characteristics. Upon completion of the online self-

inventory, a report is generated and feedback is immediately available to students. The CQ report

is an 18-page report that includes an explanation of CQ, its benefits and the student’s

personalized numerical scores for the CQ dimensions and sub-dimensions. The results illustrate

how culturally distant students are from people in their own cultural cluster as well as in other

clusters. The report has space to answer related questions to trigger reflection and developmental

action plans. The instructor should debrief the report results and guide individual reflection to

support the creation of student’s developmental action plans.

The pre-test serves the instructor as a tool for gaining insight into the pre-existing level of

knowledge with regard to student ability to understand, process, and behave effectively in

diverse situations. Additionally, this understanding can be used to fine tune the approaches and
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techniques used to deliver course content and tailor the course to overall class needs as well as to

individual needs. In sum, knowledge gained from the pretest may afford the instructor with the

means and ability to customize and personalize the course to specific student needs.

Cultural Intelligence Transformation Activities

Classroom Learning Community

Developing a classroom learning community can be a great foundation to develop a

student’s cultural intelligence. Tactics for developing a classroom learning community including

diversity as part of the classroom, learning from others’ experiences, classroom discussion

importance, and more advanced students are discussed below.

Diversity as Part of the Class

Learning, critical thinking, problem-solving, and group skills are enhanced by diversity in

the educational environment (Avery & Thomas, 2004). That is, a class filled with differences in

gender, age, race, and nationality will help students to see more than one point of view. When a

school does not contain much diversity, students can be assigned to find experiences wherein

they are minorities, such as a white student attending a black church service or a straight student

going to a gay bar.

Learning from Others’ Experiences

A method that has proven successful in helping ethnocentric US students to understand

their own culture is to use the materials that are provided for international students entering the

US (Curran-Kelly, 2005). US students are often shocked to discover that individuals from other

nations consider sleeping with a dog or a cat to be horrifyingly filthy. Also, panel discussions

with foreign students can provide perspective, especially those who have work experience. They

are able to talk about their work experiences in their native countries and also to discuss their

adaptation processes when they first came to the United States (Varner, 2001).
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Class Discussion Importance

Although cultural intelligence cannot be forced, students who have been exposed to the

process of deliberation experience advances in their cultural intelligence more quickly than those

who have not (Treviño & McCabe, 1994). Therefore, class discussion and writing assignments

are important in encouraging cultural intelligence development. Classroom activities should be

designed to show that there are multiple answers to many questions. The understanding that

teachers do not necessarily have objectively “accurate” answers challenges students’ dualistic

world views is difficult for less-mature students, but the appreciation of multiplicity boosts

students to reach the next level in intellectual development (Wong, 2010). In this sense, the

power of teaching for conceptual understanding does not lie in its apparent certainty, but in the

fruitfulness of uncertainty (Milligan & Wood, 2010).

More Advanced Students

Should a teacher find that a class contains many students who are intellectually well-

developed, exciting discussions can be generated. An effective instructor provides freedom so

that students can learn what they need to learn. Especially when a class has older, non-traditional

students, they should be able to compare and contrast several perspectives simultaneously, and

also be able to understand the context in which these perspectives were developed (Knight &

Sutton, 2004). These students may be able to anticipate and understand similarities and

differences across cultural situations and are more likely to have accurate expectations of cultural

interactions (Ng, VanDyne, & Ang, 2009).

External Learning Community

Building on the classroom learning community, developing an external learning

community could greatly expand a student’s cultural intelligence. Tactics for developing an

external learning community include specialized social media platforms, related analytics and
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curated content. All are discussed below. The social media platforms and curated content are

linked together for maximum effectiveness Hernandez (2015).

Specialized Social Media Platforms

Social media platforms are a good way for students to interact with other students who

can be located any place in the world. Specialized social media platforms include Twitter,

Facebook, blogs and YouTube.

Curated Content and Analytics

Curated content relates to international and business topics, cultural intelligence research,

and training and development organized by hashtags and keywords. Examples of curated content

include: #CQDrive, #CQKnowledge, #CQStrategy, #CQAction, #Asia, #Mexico, #US,

#Germany #Global #Business, #CulturalShock, #GVT, etc.

Social media analytics permit instructors to measure student preferences about content.

These insights serve as a guide for the creation of new instructional content and student

activities. Popular posts, schedules, topics and ways to deliver the content are noted and new

student activities are piloted and adjusted or removed in various courses and groups.

Classroom Teaching Tactics

Building on the classroom learning community, additional classroom teaching tactics can

develop student cultural intelligence. Classroom teaching tactics for developing an external

learning community include films, an interactive ebook, fiction, controlled disequilibrium

creation, experiential experiences, socially-conscious assignments, and code switching.

Films

Intercultural training literature consistently recommends the use of films to provide a

uniquely rich medium for the purpose of studying culture (Mallinger & Rossy, 2003). Films are
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entertaining, engaging, and students have become accustomed to learning through multimedia,

since they have grown up with television, film, and are familiar with streaming via computers

(Cardon, 2010). Students observe plots and characters that can reveal communication processes,

socially acceptable behaviors, and underlying cultural values. With guidance from instructors,

films provide a medium for illustrating cultural concepts, such as individualism and collectivism.

Simultaneously, instructors can help students identify nuances and ambiguity in cultures that are

not included in formal theories. This is a challenge for both students and faculty (Mallinger &

Rossy, 2003).

However, an important caveat is that films can leave strong images of cultures that are

ethnocentric and negative. This drawback can help students to recognize stereotypes that

members of other cultures may have of them and understanding how films and popular culture

can perpetuate stereotypes. For example, Indian students who were asked to respond to the film

“Slum Dog Millionaire” pointed out the stereotypical ideas promulgated by the film. One of

them said that an American thinking that “Slum Dog Millionaire” represented India would be

like an Indian watching “The Color Purple” to understand America (Cardon, 2010).

Interactive eBook

Business and Career Beyond Frontiers is an interactive ebook written by a leading

Mexican cultural intelligence scholar. The interactive ebook consists of six chapters addressing:

personalized learning, cultural intelligence, cultural dimensions, diversity, leadership, decision

making, negotiation, conflict management and global virtual teams.

Fiction

Students will benefit from reading literature from cultures other than their own (Weiss,

1997). For the more advanced thinkers in the class, literature, history and arts help us to reveal

the interconnectivity of a society, as well as the connections in different parts of organizational

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life (Akbari, 2009). Given limited class time and student attention, instructors are usually limited

to shorter works, such as those included in texts (e.g., Puffer, 1991) and the offerings of Hartwick

College’s Humanities in Management Institute (www.hartwick.edu).

As an example, “The Switchman” by Juan Jose Arreola is a good story to use for

discussing fatalism in Latin American culture. In this story, a stranger arrives at a train station,

expecting to catch a train. An old switchman tells him that the trains run erratically and do not

reach expected destinations; he describes the adventures that travelers have on the trains; for

instance, towns have been formed when trains stop unexpectedly in unimproved areas of the

country. The traveler expresses distress at this unpredictability. Ultimately a train arrives and the

traveler leaves for a destination different from the one he originally declared. Students reading a

text placidly accept “fatalism” as a cultural value, but when they read “The Switchman,” some

react strongly; “This is crazy! No one even knows where they are going!” More mature and

advanced students are able to project themselves into a fatalistic society and talk about how they

would need to be more relaxed and accepting to adapt (Harris, 1991). While less mature thinkers

shift in their chairs and impatiently shuffle their papers, they are hearing the discussion, which

may provide a seed for future cognitive growth.

Controlled Disequilibrium Creation

Disequilibrium is necessary for students to mature in their cultural intelligence. Within

this framework, the role of the instructor becomes one of providing controlled disequilibrium

that challenges student understanding. The key factor is that instructors must both challenge and

support students at their current levels of development (Knefelkamp, 1974). Their discomfort

must be acknowledged and legitimized by their instructors, because stress, anxiety, and

confusion can cause students to retreat to an earlier level of thinking. The most dramatic such

retreat is movement back to dualism when the complexities of multiplicity become

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overwhelming (Jackson, 2008). If new information is too voluminous or too disparate from the

learner’s background, the usual response from students is to try to memorize facts with no

attempt to make any sense of them (Libby, 1995).

Instructors can provide support by building assignments on what students already know,

encouraging them to assimilate and accommodate to more abstract schemes (Fischer, 1999).

Students who are less mature and require more structure can be challenged, even if they are

engaging the material with relatively immature intellectual beliefs. Students with lower cognitive

maturity will complain about unstructured problems, while those with higher degrees of

cognitive development enjoy a lack of structure and discussing the methods they used to

approach an unstructured assignment (Marra & Palmer, 2004). Students need to experience non-

linear learning to be jolted from their comfort zones, because reality is that the very basis of

many cultures is non-linear.

Experiential Exercises

Preparing students to face the challenges of dealing with other cultures means using in-

class exercises so that students can experience a semblance of some of the same emotions they

would experience in a novel situation. Concrete experience can stimulate learners to understand

and reflect on their experience differently from more passive modes (Kolb, 1984). The greater

the similarity between the exercise and a real intercultural interaction, the greater the potential

for learning transfer (Oddou, 2005). All students will be able to benefit from concrete

experience, and the opportunity to engage in reflection, conceptualization, and experimentation

may help stimulate their intellectual growth, especially when these are discussed within the class.

Experiential activities where students adopt roles in novel contexts, such as wilderness

survival training, can jolt students from their everyday thinking and provide participants with

insights during reflection and generalization at the end of the activity (Houde, 2007). These
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activities are different from classroom experiences in that they can provide disequilibrium that is

not related to course material, and therefore is not threatening within the context of the course.

Socially-Conscious Assignments

To prepare students for their roles as citizens of the world, instructors should include

socially-conscious assignments. These assignments can be completed by all levels of students.

Projects on multinational corporations in developing countries and service learning activities are

two ways to achieve this goal (Fielding, 2003). Another method for encouraging societal concern

is to confront students with controversial statements, such as, “Capitalism and Christianity are

incompatible,” and “Many Iraqis believe that they had a more defensible historical claim to

Kuwait than the US had to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Florida, and Hawaii when

the US annexed these territories.” Having students revisit their world views through these

encounters with uncomfortable or decentering ideas causes them to experience a gamut of

reactions from agreement and disagreement to anger, pity, disbelief, and a sense of discovery

(Limaye, 2000). This type of decentering, if handled in a supportive manner, may provide the

impetus for further cognitive growth, but it also has the potential to frighten a student back into

an earlier level of development (Jackson, 2008).

Media Literacy

Media literacy is the ability to analyze the messages that inform, entertain, and sell, thus

revealing underlying cultural values (Tallim, 2010). Even the least developed thinkers in a class

can explore the values presented in advertisements, which opens their minds for deeper levels of

understanding, and hearing a class discussion that includes more advanced thinkers will

encourage their development. The course instructor can show the class an advertisement and ask

them to interpret its underlying values. In this approach students critically analyze media through

a process of dialogue, because both instructors and students are participating in exploring the
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meaning through dialogue where they question, learn, and reflect together (Tobias, 2008).

Advertising images tend to stereotype both male and female characters, affect the way women

think about themselves, and influence the way men think about women.

Ultimately, media literacy is essential for citizens in a participatory democracy, because

they must be able to make rational decisions based on the information they receive (Mihailidis,

2008). Deeper media literacy involves not only asking questions about what is shown, but also

noticing what is not there, which is important in business communication (Weiss, 1997). Media

literacy education involves cognitive processes used in critical thinking, not only for print

journalism, films, radio, television, but also for computer-mediated information and exchange,

including real-time interactive exploration through the Internet (Brown, 1998).

Post-secondary teachers largely construct and implement their own curricula (Mihailidis,

2008). Teaching strategies could include using film and television programming as well as print

texts to examine the power of propaganda in its stereotypical representations of certain groups

and how media texts serve corporate, political, and economic purposes (Tobias, 2008). An

interesting point of view is that of citizens from repressive societies. Censorship is an

impediment to the natural process of the cultural development of a society. Censorship of every

written or printed medium in the Soviet Union hindered the development of a literate mentality.

It impeded individuals’ ability to write, read, and analyze thoughts that seemed important to

them. Instead, Soviet individuals relied on their memories to commemorate important events,

like the arrest of a parent or material deprivations. Democracy can only exist when individuals

collectively are mentally ready to manage their own lives, make independent decisions, criticize

and analyze the decisions of others, which Russia lacks as a result of its history of censorship

(Golobokova, 2011). Learning should be an active process in which learners construct their own

understanding and knowledge of the world, through action and reflection, rather than passively
 Page 22

recording it or privileging the interpretations and meanings of others (Tallim, 2010).

Code Switching

Code-switching involves moving linguistically from one language to another depending

on context. It is a concept rooted in the historical experiences of African-Americans, particularly

in their dealing with Caucasian-Americans (Morrison, 2010). Students know that teenagers speak

differently when they converse with their friends versus when they converse with parents or

instructors. Individuals from most cultures exhibit different levels of formality, tone, language,

and gestures when they deal with individuals from their in-groups as opposed to when they deal

with individuals from out-groups. Since all students can relate to this concept, it can be used to

explain some cultural behaviors.

A more in-depth discussion can be developed for more subtle behaviors. For example,

Mexicans exhibit a certain negotiation behavior when they deal with individuals from their own

company; that behavior changes when they deal with Mexicans from other companies; and they

act differently again when they deal with foreign business people. Each situation contains some

characteristics of Mexican culture, but they are adapted to the situation. Similarly, Chinese

employee groups use different modes of communication depending on whether they have studied

abroad, worked abroad, speak English, or come from an urban compared to a rural background

(Varner, 2001).

Cultural Intelligence Post-Assessment and Feedback

The final element is evaluation. These evaluations can be self-assessed, co-rated or

completed by the instructor. Students should know about CQ, but may vary in their expertise

level depending on the culture they are most interested in or depending on what they needed to

advance the most.

One of the most meaningful ways for students to evaluate their cultural intelligence is for
 Page 23

students to complete the CQ self inventory assessment to measure the student’s final cultural

intelligence level. Each student will receive an 18-page including the student’s personalized

numerical scores for the CQ dimensions and sub-dimensions. A comparison of a student’s initial

and final CQ scores allows a student to evaluate their cultural intelligence growth. The aggregate

data is available from the Cultural Intelligence Center for a fee.

The power in teaching for conceptual understanding lies in the linkages it enables

learners to make between contexts, a concept-led approach supports students’ critical and

creative thinking skills (Milligan & Wood, 2010). Topics such as attitudes toward competition

can be explored, as they are not the product of any one process; instead these attitudes are shaped

by a web of interconnected factors including cultural history, emerging cultural values,

individual religious affiliation, and individual social position (Hayward & Kemmelmeier, 2007).

A more in depth analysis of the role of paradox, using literary texts and metaphors, such as “the

interplay between two opposites is analogous to the way silence and sound dance together – they

are inseparable and make no sense without each other” can be explored (Chen, 2002). The way

that cultural institutions, such as prisons, hospitals, and schools can be seen as evidence of social

control that is developed and accepted by a culture can be discussed (Prasad, 2009). The fact that

an interaction between individuals of two differing cultures remains open-ended and its

meanings elusive and ambiguous because its total context and meaning remain partly within the

unconscious of the two individuals, based on each of their own cultures can be explored, along

with the ambiguity that is further complicated by the mistrust of language in some cultures

(Weiss, 1997). A more in depth exploration of identity as existing only in relation to others

(Jackson, 2003) as not only an “Eastern” thought but also one that occurs in African and Native

American populations could be explored. The concept of ritual as a method for understanding

culture could be included (Wu & Hu, 2010). Cross-cultural understanding is essentially a matter
 Page 24

of interpretation and cannot be explained by making statements about a culture (Wang & Xu,

2009). Another fascinating topic is conceptions of time. The way members of a culture perceive

and use time reflects their society’s priorities and even their own world views; time can be

conceived of as an arrow piercing the future, as a revolving wheel in which past, present and

future cycle endlessly, or as a tapestry incorporating the past, present and future, in which the

past is ever present (Ezzell, 2002).

CONCLUSION

AACSB requires that students demonstrate a commitment to address, engage and respond

to current and emerging corporate social responsibility issues including diversity, sustainable

development, environmental sustainability and globalization of economic activity across cultures

as measured by indicators and approaches to measure student learning. This paper presented a

cultural intelligence assessment and development framework that assesses and demonstrates

student learning of cultural intelligence. The results of this cohesive process can be used to

promote and demonstrate program evaluation, assurance of learning, and student cultural

intelligence capabilities to prospective student employers and other constituents including

accreditation bodies (e.g., AACSB).

 Page 25

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1
. One of the most successful ways to introduce another country’s culture is to travel there.
Unfortunately, this is often too expensive for most students, whose learning is limited to material in the
courses they take. Additionally, students who are able to be involved in long-term internships in foreign
countries receive the greatest benefit (Vielba & Edelshain, 1995).