Willingness to Learn: Cultural Intelligence Effect on Perspective Taking and Multicultural Creativity

Diana R Castañeda,Ahuitz R Avalos,Aihua Huang

doi:10.5539/ibr.v11n2p116

Abstract

Technological development has intensified interconnectivity in the global sphere creating highly diverse markets and workplaces making increasingly challenging for contemporary organizations to manage culturally diverse environments while benefiting from them. Hence, fostering employees’ ability to produce both novel and useful ideas within cross-cultural environments has gained enormous importance. This research attempts to better understand the relationship between cultural intelligence (CQ), perspective taking, and multicultural creativity. Data analysis from a causal, descriptive, non-experimental network survey, containing a remote associates test, supports the proposed theoretical framework in which cultural intelligence has an influence on the relationship between perspective taking and the individuals’ capability of drawing upon knowledge from distinct cultures. The results of the study show that two dimensions of cultural intelligence, motivational CQ and behavioral CQ, positively influence individuals’ multicultural creativity. These findings have positive implications when facing the urgent necessity of cross-cultural collaboration.

Highlights

Due to technological developments as well as pressure from globalization processes, workplaces have become more culturally diverse and interdependence has greatly contributed to diversify markets since organizations have to deal with stakeholders from diverse cultural backgrounds
After finding an expected positive, non-significant, relationship between individuals’ cultural intelligence and their multicultural experience, it was observed that perspective taking showed a considerable positive correlation (r = .55, p < .01) with cultural intelligence as a whole and with each of its four dimensions
This study of the relationship between cultural intelligence (CQ), perspective taking, and multicultural creativity presents three major contributions to the creativity and cultural intelligence literatures. It contributes to the resolution on how to mitigate the negative effects that multiculturally diverse environments may have on individuals’ creativity

Summary

Introduction

Due to technological developments as well as pressure from globalization processes, workplaces have become more culturally diverse and interdependence has greatly contributed to diversify markets since organizations have to deal with stakeholders from diverse cultural backgrounds. Globalization has swelled the idea of belonging to a world which is systematic and where we all share common concerns, such as climate change This unprecedented facet of multiculturalism as well as the increased interconnectivity among individuals, make organizations more dependable on employees’ creative ideas, especially those that come from multicultural environments since they can better respond to the complexity of present-day markets as well as enrich the organization’s knowledge base. Scholars have proven that a multiculturally diverse environment has a positive influence on creativity (Leung, Maddux, Galinsky, & Chiu, 2008; Maddux, Adam, & Galinsky, 2010) This type of creativity, as it includes generated knowledge from distinct cultures, has achieved a certain complexity degree that responds to the inherent necessities of multicultural environments as wells as to the demands of the current worldwide context

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