International Business Best Practices

¶ … emotional and cultural intelligence and offer the "essence" of what the authors were trying to say. Indeed, cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence are indeed related but they are not the same thing. This brief report will explain the perspective about that matter as explained by Earley and Mosakowski. While having a modicum of emotional intelligence is a good thing, cultural intelligence is even more important when speaking of a global business setting and it is important to be adept about both kinds of intelligence.

The article is very to the point when it explains that emotional intelligence is a good thing to possess. However, it also states that cultural intelligence picks up where emotional intelligence stops. This distinction is important because the general facets and rules about emotional intelligence are all well and good but they do not take culture into account like cultural intelligence does. The very first paragraph in the article makes the point about the latter.

In the United States, the grasshopper is considered a pest to most people, not unlike spiders, ants and the like. In China, they actually tend to treat grasshoppers like pets and do take care to not hurt them on purpose. In parts of Thailand, a grasshopper could literally be part of someone's meal (Moskakowski & Earley, 2004).

Another major takeaway from this report is stated when it says that it is not a bad idea to be detached and a bit removed from one's own culture because this makes it easier to acclimate and conform to the cultural expectations and norms of another cultural group. If one is too intertwined and ingrained in one's own culture, this shift can be quite difficult to pull off. Further, it takes head, body and heart and determination to make these adaptations.

In other words, these adaptations cannot simply rely on mechanical thoughts that are devoid of feelings because feelings are absolutely part of the paradigm that we are talking about. When it comes to cultural intelligence, managers can fall into one of six different classifications. The names of these classifications are provincial, analyst, ambassador, mimic, natural and the chameleon. The article concludes by covering how to cultivate one's cultural intelligence (Moskakowski & Earley, 2004). Conclusion In the modern business and educational spheres, it is very important to have cultural intelligence. Even those.