Navigating the Cultural Breach

Abstract

The article comments on the article by Chris Earley and Randall Peterson in which they challenge traditional intercultural training programs, extend the concept of cultural intelligence (CQ), and explore its implications for educating the global manager. The article began by critiquing the customary and conventional approach to international management training. The problem, not uncommon in training venues, is the one-stop shopping philosophy that treats all participants identically, overemphasizes informational components, assumes uniform behavior from cultural actors, and overrelies an analogical reasoning. Then Earley and Peterson is continued by building on work on social and emotional intelligence to advance the concept of CQ. The strength of their examination of CQ is integrating metacognitive-cognitive, motivational, and behavioral dimensions along the lines of Sternberg's triarchic model. CQ is not offered as an innate, static determinant of one's ability to navigate complex cultural situations. R...