How Cultural Intelligence is Perceived and Trained in Multinational Enterprises?

• Main Authors: Harald März, 馬哈洛
• Other Authors: Hsiao-Wen Ho
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/m7pjjg

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 國際經營管理碩士學程 === 106 === Cultural intelligence (CQ), an ability to cope with and adapt into different cultures across, professional, organizational and national boundaries, has received an increasing amount of interest in academic literature. Yet little is known about the importance attributed to it from the multinational enterprises’ (MNEs) perspective. Specifically, comparatively scant probing has been conducted with regard to unpacking how companies perceive the importance of CQ and select CQ training approaches. To investigate these underexplored issues, this thesis employs a set of semi-structured interviews with three interviewees having international exposure while working in a successful Austrian company. Template analysis is utilized for data analysis. The results indicate the interrelated and systematic nature of the appreciation and training of CQ taking into account the evolutionary stages of internationalization as well as the company’s soft side. In early stages companies seem to pay little attention to their CQ training programs although awareness and appreciation of CQ appear to be present; whilst later on, they gradually consolidate the CQ training, mainly due to the increased appreciation expressed by the employees who had such training before working abroad. These indicate that the development of CQ is a learning-by-doing process within MNEs. Instead of perceiving it as a one-time training program, companies should systemize and evolve successive training in accordance with employees’ personal developments.