Cultural intelligence considerations in the development of global managers: The case of Sud-Chemie

Abstract

The advent of globalisation has brought about the need for multinational corporations (MNC) to reconsider their strategies in order to sustain competitive advantage. A crucial aspect of strategy is the development of a global mindset within organisations and in particular among global managers. A key underlying theme of a global mindset is the ability to leverage cultural diversity for organisational effectiveness. As such, global managers need to be sensitive to diverse cultures, possess the ability to analyse situations in which individuals of different cultures are encountered, identify the requirements of the situation and exercise the appropriate behaviour. In order to be able to perform the foregoing, managers need to have cultural intelligence or ca. The purpose of the research is to provide Sod-Chemie, a German MNC, with a basis to enhance the development of its global managers through the assessment of the ca of the latters. A questionnaire that was adapted from literature and tailored for the requirements of the current study was used to assess the ca of a sample of managers within Sod-Chemie. This was substantiated by structured interviews conducted with a few participants. It was established that the level of cultural intelligence of managers within Sod-Chemie is average. The key finding of this research is the fact that expatriate experience plays a vital role in the development of ca. Other findings of note include the fact that cross-cultural training does not have a significant effect on the development of ca in S0d-Chemie's case. Furthermore, it was established that years of service within Sod-Chemie does not have a significant impact on ca. The findings from the structured interview revealed that ca global manager > ca functional manager > ca country manager, based on Bartlett & Ghoshal's (1992) triad model.