Queen’s to teach cultural intelligence
Course helps students recognize differences in customs and values
The influx of international students into Ontario’s universities has swollen from a trickle to a torrent. Nowhere is this more apparent that in the corridors and courtyards of Queen’s University.
This cultural diversity fills the air at the university’s School of Business, where half the MBA students are international, drawn from 97 exchange schools in 29 countries. The number of students has increased threefold since 2003.
With this international presence comes a challenge for students and teachers alike to understand each other’s culture, language, mannerisms and business habits.
“The world is changing,” says Shai Dubey, director of the Queen’s MBA program. “They are going to have to increase immigration to this country. So we are in a changing environment, and people need to be able to figure out how to work with each other.”
The School of Business is answering the challenge by launching a new course in cultural intelligence (CI) to improve knowledge of the customs, values, and beliefs of different cultures.
Instructors will assess each student’s cultural sensitivity, then build up their communication skills using workshops, coaching skills, assessments and peer feedback.
Believed to be one of the first of its kind in Canada, the new cultural intelligence course is being rolled out this May for the next intake of 120 MBA students, which, as usual, will be split into 18 teams of six or seven, carefully balanced to blend experience with a mix of ethnicities.
The Business School administration hopes that the CI course will help unlock and explain many cultural differences that have, in the past, been a potential source of tension within the team approach.
“We do a great job of working with students in teams but, through the CI program, we can minimize needless conflict through this proactive approach,” says Prof. Jana Raver, who is designing the course for Queen’s.
“Cultural differences do emerge through the MBA program and we are giving students the tools to recognize them.”
Raver says there have been some large-scale studies of cultural behaviour over the past three decades.
“The information is out there, but you do need some expertise on staff to make sure that it is translated effectively. We’ve got a real good seat of cross-cultural experts here in-house, and that helps substantially to help push something like this forward.” Cultural intelligence, otherwise known as cultural quotient or CQ, is a theory first coined in the Harvard Business review in 2004 by Christopher Earley and Elaine Mosakowski. They made a case that understanding the impact of someone’s cultural background on behaviour was essential for any business to be effective and for measuring that person’s ability to succeed. “Experts on IQ say that you have what you were born with and that’s it. But that’s not the case with cultural intelligence. There are a number of strategies that can be used.” Queen’s Business School believes cultural intelligence coaching fits its mandate to train global business leaders who can function in any country or culture. Dubey, a lawyer from India, says that many cultural differences can be quite baffling for the outsider, yet have a simple explanation. “When you are in negotiations in India and you are putting your points, and the other side is saying, ‘Yes,’ in the North American context, we say that is an agreement,” he explains. “But in the Indian context that ‘Yes’ simply means, ‘I’m listening.’ It doesn’t mean, ‘I agree.’ ”
In many East Asian countries, silence is a sign of respect, an indication that the person is thinking deeply about your question. This is often misinterpreted by North Americans as a lack of interest.
“When you are dealing with a team, whether it’s on an MBA course or in business, and it is made up of different cultures, one set of instructions may not be enough for everybody,” says Dubey.
“It’s much broader than race or religion. How can we help people understand that we don’t all communicate in the same way? We need to start someplace.”