Cultural Intelligence ─ Surviving and Thriving in the Global Village

Globalization means that we need to be prepared to interact with people from a wide range of cultures. But it's impossible to learn the particular customs and traits of every culture you might regularly come into contact with. Cultural Intelligence teaches techniques and people skills that will allow you to function effectively in any culture. Instead of providing a laundry list of culturally specific dos and don'ts, Thomas and Inkson show how to disable your “cultural cruise control” and pay attention in a mindful and creative way to cues in cross-cultural situations. Over time, you'll develop a repertoire of skills appropriate to different intercultural settings and be able to choose the right ones for any given interaction—the authors call this ability CQ, or cultural intelligence.

This third edition has been updated throughout and broadens the focus beyond business to include organizations of all kinds—nonprofits, governments, educational institutions, and more. It places a greater emphasis on the active development of CQ and includes a new scale for measuring your CQ level.

David C. Thomas is the Beedie Professor of International Management at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada.

Kerr Inkson is an emeritus professor and research advisor at the University of Auckland Business School in New Zealand.