CULTURAL QUOTIENT (CQ) AND HR LEADERSHIP

Phuoc D. Nguyen

Because HR leaders are key strategic partners today. Therefore, in international and cross-cultural business environments, behaviors, actions, gestures (including non-verbal gestures), attitudes, responses, and speeches are interpreted differently which can lead to misleading and these cannot be understood and cooperated between people and working teams each other, HR leaders who own CQ include sensitive, natural ability, innate gifts, foreign language ability, religious competence, cross-cultural experience, life experience, and international management experience to interpret and understand it. Additionally, HR leaders use their CQ throughout HRM and HRD processes. Cross-cultural HR leadership skills equip diversity management skills for HR leaders.

Groves and Feyerherm (2011) suggested “In addition to mediating conflicts that arise from team members’ diversity of values, perspectives, and worldviews, high CQ leaders may also role model effective conflict mediation skills that team members emulate during periods of intense intrateam conflict.” (p. 559). High CQ index leaders who have great diversity management skills and good conflict management skills support HR leaders actively to help them detect potential conflicts and aim to mediate, resolve, and manage conflicts effectively. Cross-cultural HR leadership requires HR leaders who reach a high CQ index that they apprehend and classify cross-cultural behaviors from multi-cultural people to establish appropriate cross-cultural norms. Chin and Gaynier (2006) define cultural intelligence as a capability to gather and manipulate information, draw inferences, and enact behaviors in response to one’s cultural setting. HR leaders analyze information in the cross-cultural interaction process to apprehend different cross-cultural situations and use their senses to apprehend and understand personality traits in comparison to their home country’s culture aim to think, judge, behave, and act appropriately aiming to respond promptly to specific cross-cultural situations.

Losey, Meisinger, and Ulrich (2005) suggested “A far greater challenge is finding the courage to question the gospel of the status quo within the organization—and this requires HR leaders to examine every policy, practice, procedure, and assumption affecting our people. We throw out the practices that were appropriate in the past, perhaps adequate today, but which we know will have little relevance in the future. We examine the policies affecting the organization’s people and challenge governance and management to replace those that are no longer viable, relevant, or part of a new and tenuous future.” (pp. 344-345).