Customer Reviews

Cultural Intelligence: People Skills for Global Business

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a detailed survival manual for those who are new to working across cultures. Its aim is to help such people to raise their 'cultural intelligence' - their understanding of cultural diffrences and their impact and their skill with tools to recognize and overcome misunderstanding and failures of communication based on differing cultural expectations.
While it is pitched for those who have little or no cross-cultural experience, it contains material which will also be useful to those with substantial experience.
An appendix lists useful sources of specific country information.

This is a well-written book, which provides a generalist approach to dealing with cross-cultural issues with many excellent examples. The core idea of the book is based on the Hofstede model. One of the central criticisms of this model has been that nation state and culture are always presumed to be the same. Local culture does not follow political boundaries. The authors seem to be unable to avoid this trap.

Cultural Intelligence gives good insights on how to notice "Cultural Cruise-Control" and change own way of thinking. Providing some practical tools would have added to the value of this book, but this is a good book for international managers and HR personnel involved in multicultural business.

I have read countless books regarding inter-cultural communications and competence but I have to say that this is eons ahead of all others (including some by the same title). The strongest argument that the authors make here is that there are no patronising sets of rules to follow in different cultures, that one can, using an effective method and basic awareness, communicate across any culture successfully and without the aid of guidebooks and the like. In essence, this is the only book anyone will ever need on this subject...nice work!

brief book offers an easy-to-read description of what it takes to adapt to a culturally diverse business environment. David C. Thomas and Kerr Inkson make it clear that you can learn cultural intelligence only from experience, not from reading books. However, their manual does provide a basic introduction that will be extremely helpful to people experiencing cultural shock or dislocation. The most distinctive feature of the authors' treatment of the subject is their insistence on mindfulness as the fundamental first step in developing cultural intelligence. We believe this book will be particularly useful for businesspeople embarking on expatriate assignments, but anyone working in a business context that includes diverse cultures will benefit from reading it - and thus will become better equipped to get some of that all-important experience.

I learned a lot from this book. It uses examples and case studies to drive home lessons on cultural literacy. If you are looking for a more business oriented book, consider "Doing Business in the New Latin America" by Thomas Becker. I can't make any recommendations regarding other regions.

This book doesn't give you a laundry list of things for each culture. It explains the ways in which cultures differ and helps you to improve your ability to notice and react to cultural differences.

Cultural intelligence: people skills for global business provides practical advice and presents information that is pertinent to anyone who interacts with other cultures seeking to increase their own cultural sensitivity.

David C. Thomas and Kerr Inkson's ideas are straightforward and fairly obvious. They offer specific methods of overcoming cultural barriers both mentally and behaviorally through knowledge about culture and the intricacy of how it works. They recognize that not every cultural scenario can be predicted nor does a prescription to solve all cultural difficulties exist, but they aim to equip readers with skills that will afford them the best possible outcome. Thomas and Inkson effectively communicate greater awareness of cultural diversity and thus the need for cultural intelligence.

The concepts presented in Cultural intelligence: people skills for global business come from both academic research and personal experiences. The authors build the concept of cultural intelligence based on emotional intelligence (EQ) and intelligence quotient (IQ). In Cultural intelligence: people skills for global business, Thomas and Inkson offer pertinent knowledge and insight gained through their own cross-cultural interactions as they each learned to live and work in diverse cultural situations. The authors effectively connect with their readers through the use of real-case scenarios, a distinctive factor setting this book apart from other intercultural management type books. With these scenarios, the reader can connect their own experiences and increase their understanding of cross-cultural interactions.

The thesis is that living and working amongst diverse cultures requires a set of skills that allow the flexibility, adaptability, and sensitivity necessary in diverse cultural contexts. Thomas and Inkson claim the difficulties that arise with cross-cultural interactions are mainly due to the lack of cultural intelligence on the part of the individuals involved. They offer three basic skills as the basic components of cultural intelligence: knowledge, mindfulness, and behavior. While they view knowledge as fundamental to cultural intelligence, continuously reiterated throughout the book is the skill of mindfulness. It is the core skill linking knowledge and behavior to cultural intelligence. Finally, behavior is the evidence or application of both knowledge and mindfulness seen in action. Throughout the book, the authors expose the reader to in-depth information concerning the important aspects of decision-making, communication, negotiation, and leadership across cultures.

With every passing moment, the world becomes relatively smaller. As travel, business, and education brings cultures together, at some point they are bound to collide. Every human being has deeply ingrained cultural orientations acquired from the time of birth until death. The real problems arise not because people are diverse, but because human nature leads individuals to believe that the best way of doing things is their own. Thomas and Inkson believe that the key is cultural intelligence. Cultural intelligence: people skills for global business is a useful tool for anyone seeking to raise their own cultural awareness. More importantly, it is a necessary addition to the library of all those living and working in diverse cultural situations where cultural intelligence is the biggest key to success.

I'm the author of a book that was in print from 1996 to 2004 that was called "Global Supply Management, a Guide to International Purchasing." It had a few chapters on managing cultural differences. That's an area that I find very interesting, so I read this book.

While Dr. Thomas didn't intend this to be a textbook, training programs are developing around this work. I already noticed a "Train the Trainer" program for teaching Cultural Intelligence.

I thought this book was an excellent scholarly compendium of the multiple areas where cultural differences can impede business relationships. But ultimately I think that a user who wanted to understand and develop cultural intelligence will come away less confident than when he started.

There seems to be more emphasis on manners-level knowledge and less on the underlying differences in values and behavior that are often more troublesome than manners issues. He touches briefly on some Hofstede values but never mentions other important issues such as attention to the clock and schedules (the monochronic-polychronic dimension) or the differing importance cultures give to pleasing a customer.

Personally, I prefer cultural analyses that list a manageable handful of dimensions of cultural differences that can help people understand troublesome differences in behavior.

if you are interested in cross-cultural intercultural competence this is a great reference. It's detailed and still fun and light.

Cross cultural communication is extremely important in todays globally diverse corporations! This book gives great insight into peoples cultural lenses.