[MUSIC] Thank you Angus. Now let's talk about cultural intelligence and national culture differences. Nowadays it has become easier and easier for us to interact with people from foreign countries. We may travel to a different continent, we study and work in different country. And even if we stay in our home country, we can still virtually connect with people all around the world, like what we're doing now. Well, you may have very good intention and a strong motivation to make friends with, or work with foreign people. However, having motivation itself is not sufficient to interact effectively with people across borders. So you may have heard a lot of stories about cultural clash, in order to navigate effectively across borders, we need to develop this capability called Cultural Intelligence, CQ, which is the ability to adapt into a noble country,or noble cultural context, and behave appropriately. And there are three elements of Cultural Intelligence. Knowledge, Mindfulness, and Skills. Knowledge is what you know about different cultures. It includes general cultural framework and also specific country knowledge. And mindfulness is our being aware of the cultural influence. Analyzing a situation and then planning our behaviors accordingly. And skills are a broad set of skills that are instrumental for intercultural effectiveness. Let me describe all the three elements in detail. So first, culture intelligence. Cultural knowledge is like a iceberg. On the surface level we have knowledge about the language, business ethics, economic system, legal system, social norms, nonverbal behavior rules, etc. For example, Americans greet each other by a handshake, Spaniards kiss on the cheeks, and Japanese they bow. Those things are tangible, it's easy for us to see and mimic. And we can learn a lot about this knowledge by reading a book, by watching a movie or talking with people. The deep level knowledge is a values and assumptions, and they're very difficult to detect. When we were growing up, those values and assumptions are programmed in our minds. We take them for granted and we seldom challenge those assumptions. In order to study cultures systematically, scholars have come always meaning a key cultural dimensions. So, today here I'm going to describe four of them. The first one, egalitarian versus hierarchical. This dimension describes the extent to which people in your society accept that inequality is distribute in organizations or institutions. In hierarchical countries, the large inequality in the society and people tolerate that differences. In the work place, managers then make decisions, they give orders to subordinates, and subordinates they seldom challenge or question those orders. On a contrary, in egalitarian countries their tolerance for inequality is very low, and this authority provides you opportunities to move up, through for example education or profession. In the workplace, subordinates are more likely to participate in the decision making process, and the relationship between the bosses and subordinates are usually two way interactions. Egalitarian countries include countries like US, Sweden, and Finland. And hierarchical countries include countries like Asian countries and some Latin American countries. The second dimension, individualistic versus collectivistic dimension, refers to the extent of which people see themselves as individuals or a part of the group. In individualistic countries people value their personal achievement. They're responsible for their own actions. They prefer to work together and being rewarded as individual. But in collectivistic countries people take care of each other. They look after each other. They prefer to working together in a group and being rewarded as a group. And again can you think some example of individualistic and collectivistic countries? Individualistic countries again include countries like US and Germany. And collectivistic countries include many Asian countries, African countries and Arab countries. The third dimension refers to how trust is built in a society. In task-based countries, trust is built through business related activities. Work relationships are built and dropped easily. If you do your work consistently well, if you're reliable, if I enjoy working with you, then I trust you. Those countries include US, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, etc. In some other countries, trust is built through sharing meals, evening drinks and a visit at the coffee machine or the water cooler. Work relationships take a longer term to build. If I know you on a deep level, if I share my personal time with you, if I enjoy having dinner and drinks with you, then I trust you. Those countries include China, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Brazil and some African countries. The last dimension here is communication. Cultures differ in terms of how context makes a difference in communication. In low context communication countries, people relay on the words to convey the message. For example, if you read a transcript of a conversation of a meeting, you'll probably get all the information you need from the conversation. So, in those countries, for example, again, US, they use direct communication, while, in some other countries, high context communication countries, people rely more on the subtle nonverbal cues to make inference about the conversation. So, if you read the transcript of conversation you are going to miss a lot information, because you don't see the social cues and non-verbal cues in the transcript. Those countries, for example, China and some African countries, they use indirect communications. [MUSIC]
