Cultural intelligence is an ability that varies with individuals and explains differences in intercultural effectiveness. This ability is difficult to assess, yet managers must be able to measure it in order to determine which employees are talented at working across cultural contexts and with people from different cultures. In this article I describe the development of a new measure of cultural intelligence and how managers can use it to inform and support a number of management decisions such as international staffing and leadership of cross-cultural teams or projects.

Photo: iStock/ Carlos Andre Santos