Cultural Intelligence: Unity without Uniformity

ABSTRACT

Imagine having similar fascinations, similar detachments, and similarities in everything we have and do; does not it sound monotonous? We cannot work with blacks and whites only when we can have grey. Similarly, if we want our lives to become radiant, we must welcome diversity and learn how to handle those diverse cross-cultural situations. “Diversity: the art of thinking independently together” - Forbes, 2015 Cultural Intelligence (CI) is a 21st-century concept based on the above statement. Research says people with high scores of cultural Intelligence are more flexible towards alien cultures, face global and local issues as a team, and are motivated to learn new ideologies. In contrast, individuals with less CI tend to have less vibrant relationships, adjustment, and rigidness to the new cultures and thinking styles. Not only is it a matter of acceptance and adaptation in different cultural contexts, but it is also a set of abilities affecting attractive communication skills, and smooth social and cultural bonds, that makes one compassionate and full of alacrity. In this paper, we will extend our knowledge about this "nice-to-have" Intelligence and find out how we will use it in practice; the researchers have highlighted its model and dimensions to demonstrate the strong interrelation of its factors to practical life.

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