Fifteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Today, as business becomes increasingly global, managers/leaders of multinational companies or local companies work with employees or customers from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Therefore, cultural intelligence (CQ) becomes a vitally important aptitude and skill, especially for leaders. The organizational success or failure depends upon the way, the kind of leadership which has been provided to its member. CQ focuses on how well individuals can relate and work across cultures. CQ helps minimize conflict and maximize the broad perspectives of a diverse workforce, allowing the organization’s leadership and employees to pursue the mission across a variety of cultural contexts. One dimension of culture that has received substantial attention is individualism-collectivism (or, similarly, independence-interdependence). These dimensions are associated with different conceptualizations of the “self.” Individualistic cultures tend to value personal goal pursuit as opposed to accommodation to others’ goals. Collectivistic cultures, by contrast, view the “self” as part of a whole. These differences underlie cross-cultural variation in decision-making, such as the decision modes people use, their preferences, negotiation styles, creativity, and more. This study considers the effect of CQ on the decision-making processes of Turkish managers. The survey was distributed to gather data from managers at various companies. The questionnaire consists of three parts: demographics, The Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) to measure the four dimensions of cultural intelligence (Ang, 2007) and General Decision Making Style (GDMS) scale (Scott,S.G.& Bruce,R.A.,1995).