ABSTRACT

Our field is replete with attempts to measure and predict a variety of behaviors in the workplace, including task performance, contextual performance, counterproductive activity, to name but a few. One of the most recent types of behavior that organizations would like to predict is the ability to interact effectively with culturally-dissimilar others. Known by various names, including cultural intelligence or cultural adaptability, there is relatively little research as of yet regarding this topic. Nevertheless, given the growing recognition that the workplace increasingly operates in a global fashion, there is reason to believe that the literature regarding this topic will expand. Furthermore, as we will discuss shortly, to date there has been one dominant theoretical approach to cultural intelligence. We provide a somewhat different approach to this new construct, one which is grounded in established bodies of research in social and Industrial/Organizational (I/O) psychology.