Cultural intelligence in sport: An examination of football coaches’ cross-cultural training needs

Abstract

Cultural intelligence is the capability of a person to adapt effectively to different cultures. This capability has been investigated in areas such as management, military, and education. However, there are no studies in sport referring to this capability. It is important to study cultural intelligence in sport because of the increased globalisation resulting from coaches’ and athletes’ migration across countries and clubs. This study aimed to develop the Cultural Intelligence in Sport (CQsport) and examine its factorial structure and psychometric properties; and examine coaches’ cultural intelligence and their perceived cross-cultural training needs. Participants were 209 football coaches either with or without international experience. Participants completed an online survey consisting of CQsport and a cross-cultural training needs questionnaire. We used a multigroup analysis, within the structural equation model (SEM) approach, to test group differences in the CQsport and performed a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for comparisons across groups concerning cross-cultural training needs. Coaches with international experience rated themselves with more cultural intelligence in the sports context than coaches with no international experience on the metacognitive, cognitive, motivational and behavioural dimensions. Coaches with international experience also self-rated fewer training needs than coaches without international experience. This study represents the first attempt to examine football coaches’ cultural intelligence and their cross-cultural training needs.