ABSTRACT
In 2004, management researchers Earley and Mosakowski raised in the Harvard Business Review (2004a) the question why some people can act appropriately and effectively in new and unfamiliar cultural contexts while others flounder. To analyze management behavior in unfamiliar cultures, they introduced the concept of cultural intelligence (CI) as an ability that individuals may have to easily adopt the modes of someone they are unfamiliar with, change their behavior when a cross-cultural encounter seems to require it, and adapt to the lifestyle of a different culture. These authors presuppose that it depends on individuals themselves whether they are able to adapt to specific lifestyles which are ingrained in cultures.
