LEAD FPX 5210 Assessment 1 Cross-Cultural Leadership Capabilities

Student Name

Capella University

LEAD-FPX5210 Leading Global and Diverse Cultures

Prof. Name

Date

Six Domains of the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (IES)

The six domains are derived from three factors (Kozai, 2021), each containing two specific competencies, as listed in the chart below.

Self-Awareness

This category describes an individual’s ability to honestly assess how their strengths, weaknesses, styles, and behavioral traits/inclinations affect others. Healthy self-awareness consists of regular self-examination from this perspective in order to cultivate and continuously develop healthy relationships with all types of people from various walks of life.

Exploration

This area refers to one’s ability to remain open to ideologies, norms, values, and customs from different cultures. It measures the aspirations, openness, and inquisition associated with the desire to explore diversity in experiences. It analyzes one’s inclination to seek growth through diversification of experiences and assign value to them through personal application. Higher scores indicate individuals who are more inquisitive, explorative, open-minded, and genuine in their quest to understand diverse ideas, norms, values, and customs. They tend to apply these experiences to their own life’s lessons and gain insight from them.

Global Mindset

This area looks at the level of interest one assigns to different cultures and the people in those regions. It can be measured through the level of interest given to foreign media, books, entertainment (movies, television, plays, etc.). Higher scores are reflected in people with a propensity to expand the horizons of their global outlook with others who do not share the same beliefs. High scores indicate people who seek commonalities to highlight similarities in belief, thought, and humanity. They generally participate in work and personal relationships with heightened success as their colleagues and friends appreciate their consideration. Lower scores show a blocked vision for accepting unfamiliar ideas, beliefs, and values. These individuals are usually more challenged when forming work or personal relationships outside of their comfort zone and find it difficult to engage with others by seeking common ground to overcome differences.

Relationship Interest

The ability (and desire) to look for commonalities in myriad cultures and demographics and develop lasting relationships measures one’s “Relationship Interest.” Developing and maintaining relationships across many cultures is a critical component of improving effective diversification in relationships. One way to do this is to examine one’s desire, ability, and the emphasis placed on learning new languages. High scorers tend to actively seek relationships with people from various cultures and make a concerted effort to communicate in their language. Low scorers are less likely to engage with people unlike themselves, prefer to communicate in their native language, and see the process as arduous and unnecessary.

Positive Regard

Essentially open-mindedness, this dimension looks at one’s ability to approach relationships with individuals from different cultures without judgment or stereotypes. It measures one’s ability to maintain a positive regard for the process and the people involved while striving for further development through their own emotional resilience (Kosai, 2021). High scores indicate people who are more open, accepting, and likely to successfully develop and maintain effective relationships. Low scores indicate people who have a more negative outlook on anything different from themselves. They tend to be more judgmental, assign stereotypes, and struggle to relate to people different from them.

(Emotional) Resilience

This category is perhaps the most significant. Unlike other categories that can be learned through routine training, flexibility and instinctive action in this area are tougher personality traits to teach. It examines one’s ability to approach significant emotional events with balance. The ability to focus on the solution, not the problem, is a key component of this metric. Higher scores are found in individuals who look beyond conflict toward resolution. They tend to remain calm and collected in stressful situations and have greater success in relationships involving diverse groups. They are better able to focus on tasks while considering others involved. Lower scores indicate people who excessively focus on conflict and miss opportunities to grow together. They often allow too much time and energy to be diverted to significant emotional events or perceived differences, creating a toxic environment that hinders relationship growth and successful task accomplishment.

Personal Global Leadership Plan

An awareness of the need to develop these skill sets can lead to an enhanced “cultural intelligence quotient” or “cultural IQ” (Capella, 2021). “The culturally intelligent person requires knowledge of culture and the fundamental principles of cross-cultural interactions. This means knowing what culture is, how cultures vary, and how culture affects behavior” (Capella, 2021). To function as an effective Global Business Leader, one must sincerely seek a clear, concise understanding of others’ values, ideologies, norms, and both acceptable and unacceptable behaviors peculiar to a select culture.

There is a marked difference between intercultural awareness, intercultural sensitivity, and intercultural competence (Chen, 1996). One must not only be aware of these differences but also display a penchant for competency in applying the sensitivity required to develop and maintain positive relationships with differences in mind (from a positive viewpoint). “Inter-culturally” sensitive persons must have a desire to motivate themselves to understand, appreciate, and accept differences among cultures, and to produce a positive outcome from intercultural interactions.

LEAD FPX 5210 Assessment 1 Cross-Cultural Leadership Capabilities

Awareness is a key component of developing oneself as a culturally sensitive business leader. Self-awareness is a key aspect of the aforementioned awareness. In other words, having the presence of mind to ask oneself, “where do I fit in on the world scene?” Recognizing something as simple as age is a great starting point. In the IES Survey, the norm group includes undergraduate and graduate students as well as working adults across a broad range of occupations, ages, and nationalities. Specifically, 8% of the norm group is under age 20, 64% is between 20 and 29, and 28% is age 30 and above; 57% are male and 43% female (Kozai Group, IES Survey, 2021).

Developing a routine to casually take a quick look at obvious characteristics can help to develop patterns of behavior that lead to more critical analysis of myriad differences. Careful attention should be given to not focus too much on these differences as they may tend to overshadow the task at hand. With these enhancements in mind, a broader awareness will help me lead to better detailed planning and more effective conflict resolution (Hammer, 2009).

References

Bhawuk, D. P. S., & Brislin, R. (1992). The measurement of intercultural sensitivity using the concepts of individualism and collectivism. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 16, 413-436.

Bird and Osland (Capella). (2021). Global Leadership Competencies Pyramid Chart.

Capella University Library. (2021). Retrieved from http://media.capella.edu/CourseMedia/LEAD5210/Interactive_unit03/ComponentsofCulturalIntelligence_u03_wrapper.asp

Chen, G. M., & Starosta, W. J. (1996). Intercultural communication competence: a synthesis. Communication Yearbook, 19, 353-383. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED408634.pdf

Hammer, M. R. (2009). Resolving conflict across cultural boundaries: Solving problems and resolving conflict using the Intercultural Conflict Style Model and Inventory. Retrieved from http://www.icsinventory.com/resources/mr-hammer-2009-ics-moodian-article

LEAD FPX 5210 Assessment 1 Cross-Cultural Leadership Capabilities

Kosai Group, IES Survey. (2021). Retrieved from http://media.capella.edu/CourseMedia/LEAD5210/Interactive_unit03/ComponentsofCulturalIntelligence_u03_wrapper.asp