A comparison of cultural intelligence between black and white South African leaders

Abstract

Where cross-cultural encounters are often part of daily life in business and social contexts cultural intelligence has become a necessity for our times. This is especially true in a culturally diverse South Africa where it is expected of a leader to competently influence followers coming from a multicultural milieu through exercising multidimensional cultural intelligence capabilities. The purpose of this research is to create useful knowledge in the cultural intelligence discipline to be able to make recommendations to business in terms of training requirements and selection criteria for employment. This is achieved by identifying and comparing cultural intelligence differences between African black and white South African leaders. An online self-evaluation cultural intelligence survey was distributed to South Africans by utilising the snowball sampling methodology which resulted in a total of 420 fully completed questionnaire responses within the research boundaries. Statistical analysis of the data reveals a superior self-perceived cultural intelligence of black South African leaders. The knowledge gained from this research project, puts South Africa in a position to be a benchmark for other countries in future research that will contribute to indispensable knowledge creation in a world where globalisation is no longer a myth, but a stark reality. Copyright