During the last years, due to the globalization markets become more and more involved in an international level. Cultural diversity in the workplace is something common nowadays, it involves countless benefits for the companies and the other professional contexts. While simultaneously, it involves conflicts and misunderstandings therefore it is more and more required to get people able to deal with different cultures. The main purpose of our Thesis is to study the process through which an individual becomes able to deal and work with different cultures. In other words, we pretend to discover how someone can become culturally intelligent. This thesis has been conducted using the Grounded Theory method. By analyzing the data we have collected throughout eight interviews from different culturally intelligent people and the data we have obtained by reading literature, we came with the idea that the process for becoming culturally intelligent is composed by three elements: the first one is related with the individual, the second one is related with the interaction of the individual within a multicultural group and the third one is related with the benefits and disadvantages that emerged while someone is working with different cultures.

Este trabalho traz um exame dos guias classificados como culturais, e elaborados especificamente para a área de comércio internacional. Procura verificar a qualidade das informações neles contida a respeito da cultura em geral e da cultura árabe em particular, e também sua eficácia no processo de contato intercultural, verificando se de fato cumprem seu papel de guiar o leitor rumo ao conhecimento das características culturais do país alvo, com a intenção de possibilitar e facilitar o contato entre diferentes culturas. O exame desses guias é feito a luz da Inteligência Cultural, conceito relativamente novo que propõe o desenvolvimento de habilidades e de flexibilidade para aprender e assimilar aspectos de uma cultura. / This work brings an examination of the guides classified as cultural guides, elaborated specifically for the area of international commerce. Its aim is to verify the quality of the information contained in them about culture in general and, the Arab culture particularly; and so its efficiency in the process of intercultural contact, verifying whether in fact they fulfill the role of guiding the reader onto the path of knowledge of cultural characteristics about a particular country, with the intention of making contact possible and facilitating the contact between different cultures. The examination of these guides is made through the theory of Cultural Intelligence, a concept relatively new which is centered on the development of skills and flexibility to learn and assimilate aspects of a new culture.

The number of international graduate students continues to rise at American universities nationwide. While academic librarians wish to serve this student population effectively, few of us have received formal training or meaningful exposure to this sector of our student populace. This panel will provide first-person experiences from academic librarians who are actively engaging with and researching international students. Acknowledging and encouraging cultural diversity fosters the awareness of building inclusivity into graduate programming. Rather than viewing international students as a challenge to be resolved with a one-size-fits-all approach, cultivating cultural intelligence makes us more thoughtful and effective instructors and service providers for all students. This panel will discuss Tailoring services and support from the perspective of inclusivity for all students. Empirical best practices and lessons learned from focus groups with international students Tips for providing sessions tailored to multicultural audiences across the disciplines Partnerships with International offices, programs, and groups on campus The problem of academic writing Shared aspects of the graduate student experience Plagiarism and the academic honor code Thoughts about future engagement A current list of professional resources will be provided. We anticipate audience discussion will be generated by this topic and will encourage participation through informal polling and direct questions.

Improving patient outcomes has long been the rationale supporting calls to reform health care delivery systems and health profession education programs (Greiner, 2002; Institutes of Medicine, 2001, 2004; O’Neil & Pew Health Professions Commission, 1998). In 2003, the Institute of Medicine shared its vision statement for health professions education, asserting that “[a]ll health professionals should be educated to deliver patient-centered care as members of an interdisciplinary team, emphasizing evidence-based practice, quality improvement approaches and informatics” (Knebel & Greiner, 2003, p. 3). Despite the importance placed on teamwork in health sciences education, little attention has been devoted to understanding underlying factors influencing student attitudes towards team learning (Curran, Sharpe, Forristall, & Flynn, 2008). The purpose of this study is to explore the importance of emotional and cultural intelligence in shaping pre-health students’ attitudes towards team-based learning. A non-experimental, cross-sectional study design was used employing correlational and multivariate regression analysis. Findings indicate: a) significant relationships between emotional and cultural intelligence to the value students place on group work; and, b) emotional intelligence accounts for approximately 3% of variance above and beyond the Big Five personality factors in predicting student attitudes towards group work. This study will inform interprofessional education policy and practice in two fundamental ways. First, the study provides insight on the importance of non-academic factors in shaping students’ attitudes towards team-based learning. Secondly, increasing understanding of emotional and cultural intelligence in early stagse of a student’s development influences their preparation for health professions careers.

Today, nurses represent many cultures and ethnic backgrounds. In their leadership style, nurse leaders must learn to embrace cultural intelligence or cultural quotient (CQ), that is, an extension of emotional intelligence that affords them the ability to manage a culturally diverse workforce. Historically, CQ has been relevant to business, locally and globally. But it is also important to explore the CQ of nurse leaders. Scholarly studies show that leaders with CQ are responsible for developing innovative employee behaviors, forward-thinking ideas, and creativeness in the workplace. CQ has a theoretical foundation in the 2003 research of Early and Ang who focused on CQ and the ability to lead in culturally diverse situations. This theoretical foundation will support the qualitative case study approach used to explore the CQ of nurse leaders. Ten participants were selected to answer semi structured interview questions, which were designed to produce data to answer research questions about the meaning of CQ to nurse leaders, the patient experience, self-awareness of CQ, and leadership practice. Thematic data analysis using the MAXQDA software program was the analysis tool. The results are expected to create positive social change by providing evidence-based results that can enhance the CQ of nurse leaders, their leadership style, and their practice in the United States. This study will add to the existing literature and its results may help the reader to reflect on the importance of CQ in their practice of leadership in the nursing profession.

The purpose of this study is to explore the viability of an international distance English-language program in the development of language and cultural proficiency. Students participated in tests at the beginning and at the end of the course to determine how well they developed both language and cultural proficiencies. The measures included (a) the computer-administered Oral Proficiency Interview (OPIc) from theAmerican Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), (b) ACTFL-aligned assessments of reading, listening, grammar, and vocabulary skills, and (c) the Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS). In addition, course activities surveys provided additional information about student perceptions of course activities. Participants in this study came from various countries as they prepared to attend a U.S. university in Hawaii.The distance learning program fostered language proficiency through various learning activities, with an emphasis on synchronous dialogue over video chat technologies. In addition to English-language proficiency, the program sought to help students learn to effectively communicate with students from other cultures. Cross-cultural proficiency was fostered through cross-cultural dialogue with tutors, teachers, and other students. Students showed improvement in speaking, listening, vocabulary, and grammar. However, on average, students did not show an improvement in reading proficiency. Students reported that dialogue with tutors and teachers was among the most helpful activities in learning English. Students showed some improvement in cultural proficiency. However, this improvement was not universal across all measures of cultural proficiency. Students reported that certain activities—particularly dialogue with tutors and other students—as helpful in developing cross-cultural proficiencies.This study also investigated the relationship between language proficiency and cultural proficiency. Results were mixed. With a few exceptions, cultural proficiency did not predict a student’s language proficiency at the beginning of the course, during the course, or at the end of the course.

The quest to comprehend how cultural differences can impact learning is one of those intriguing challenges that continue to beguile some scholars and educational leaders even at a time that is characterized as globalized. This dissertation is a qualitative case study about teaching to culturally diverse populations and is primarily based on the interviews of seven accountants designated as instructors and the direct observation of those instructors while teaching accounting principles to other accountants. The English language was used despite the fact that all participants, including the instructors, spoke English as a second or third language and came from diverse cultures around the world. It brings to light how an American company (American World Trade or AWT) felt they succeeded in teaching to the diverse population of students though not purposely providing accommodations for the diverse cultural differences in the classroom. During the year 2009, AWT took the materials USU developed around the world and presented conferences in regional offices of Bangkok, Budapest, Santo Domingo, Pretoria, and San Salvador. The pilot study interviews took place at the end of 2009. This study was based on the conference that took place in February 2010 in which 16 of the 70 countries were represented. This dissertation does several things: First, it looks at the cultural dimensions of students and instructors from 16 different countries, in an international setting, and examines if lack of knowledge about cultural dimensions and accommodating for them could interfere with learning. Second, it looks at the strategies and behaviors used by the instructors who were not knowledgeable of cultural dimensions to reveal if they were unconsciously adapting their teaching for the culturally diverse. Third, this study offers an in-depth look at several additional factors, including cultural intelligence (CQ), which could explain their ostensible teaching successes.

China is a highly attractive destination for foreign direct investment, especially to Australia with which it has a strong complementary commercial relationship. Although the need for cross-cultural leadership effectiveness presents a major challenge to Australian businesses operating in China, most extant studies emphasize cultural dimensions and cultural influences on expatriate leadership effectiveness. In contrast, this study investigates the importance and implementation of transformational leadership (TL), emotional intelligence (EQ) and cultural intelligence (CQ) as key components of cross-cultural leadership capabilities within the context of Australian-Chinese cultural differences. Specifically, it answers one overarching question: What key factors contribute significantly to cross-cultural leadership effectiveness in Australian businesses operating in China? Following an interpretivist research philosophy, this inductive study employed qualitative individual and focus group interviews with a final sample of 32 expatriate managers and 19 local Chinese managers working in 30 Australian organizations. The individual participants were top- and middle-level executives of Australian businesses operating in China in different industry sectors, including minerals and energy, manufacturing, consulting, building and construction, banking, legal services and education. Participants based their responses on their own experiences and observations. These perspectives were supplemented with equally important input from the focus group interviewees, who were Chinese local managers that work closely with the expatriates. Based upon the findings of the study, the researcher developed a holistic pragmatic heuristic model of cross-cultural leadership effectiveness for Australian businesses operating in China, which emphasizes the developmental process underlying the emergence of effective expatriate leadership. This model defined and categorized three sets of cognitive, attitudinal and behavioural characteristics of effective cross-cultural leaders: personal (intrapersonal) competencies, social (interpersonal) competencies and cross-cultural competencies. Because the model is pragmatic as well as heuristic, its framework provides practitioners (e.g. Western and especially Australian expatriate leaders) with an informed understanding of the complexity of cross-cultural leadership issues in China, the importance of having theoretical knowledge on this topic, and the need to be flexible and pragmatic in applying this knowledge in daily practice. Thus, the model offers Australian firms currently investing or intending to invest in China a specific strategy to assist expatriate selection and leadership development in that the competencies it contains can be used to recruit and develop suitable candidates and training criteria. Likewise, the model provides business coaches or business consultants serving Western organizations in China a comprehensive fundamental framework for developing competent global leaders. Hence, future research should concentrate on developing and validating cross-cultural leadership effectiveness in China model using diverse approaches.

<p>Over the last 30 years, technology has made it possible for people to travel to other cultures in a cheaper and more efficient way. The increased traveling has made it possible for an increase in trade and as the trade flourishes the need for people that can handle the differences between the cultures in the world increase. Some people handle cross-cultural negotiations better than others; we want to know how Cultural Intelligence influences The Business Negotiation Process.</p><p>To find out how Cultural Intelligence influences The Business Negotiation Process we choose to conduct qualitative interviews with a few Swedish companies that have experiences of cross-cultural negotiations with China.</p><p>The findings indicate that Cultural Intelligence influences The Business Negotiation Process by different factors such as engagement, communication and understanding. The greater engagement and understanding the negotiator has of the different parts the more likely it is that the business negotiation process will have a positive outcome.</p><p>We studied as much literature as we could find about cultural intelligence and the business negotiation process. Out of our findings, we build a model, and this gave the opportunity to test the different parts of the model in our research.</p><p>Our contributions to the field are foremost the discovery of the two new dimensions: Structure and Power Dependency that can be added to both Cultural intelligence and The Business Negotiation Process. In future research, these two dimensions can be further researched and developed. In our research, statements from our respondents create a small practical guideline for cross-cultural business negotiations with China. The negotiators might have use for this guideline when negotiating with Chinese companies.</p>

Over the last 30 years, technology has made it possible for people to travel to other cultures in a cheaper and more efficient way. The increased traveling has made it possible for an increase in trade and as the trade flourishes the need for people that can handle the differences between the cultures in the world increase. Some people handle cross-cultural negotiations better than others; we want to know how Cultural Intelligence influences The Business Negotiation Process. To find out how Cultural Intelligence influences The Business Negotiation Process we choose to conduct qualitative interviews with a few Swedish companies that have experiences of cross-cultural negotiations with China. The findings indicate that Cultural Intelligence influences The Business Negotiation Process by different factors such as engagement, communication and understanding. The greater engagement and understanding the negotiator has of the different parts the more likely it is that the business negotiation process will have a positive outcome. We studied as much literature as we could find about cultural intelligence and the business negotiation process. Out of our findings, we build a model, and this gave the opportunity to test the different parts of the model in our research. Our contributions to the field are foremost the discovery of the two new dimensions: Structure and Power Dependency that can be added to both Cultural intelligence and The Business Negotiation Process. In future research, these two dimensions can be further researched and developed. In our research, statements from our respondents create a small practical guideline for cross-cultural business negotiations with China. The negotiators might have use for this guideline when negotiating with Chinese companies.