The article by Cramer (2018) investigates the cultural awareness and cultural intelligence (CQ) of Chinese undergraduate business students. The study evaluated the results of 240 participants based on their knowledge of their own traditions, foreign cultures, languages, and religion, as well as their personal CQ (Cramer, 2018). The study has shown that the majority of the students presented moderate cultural awareness and average CQ, while highlighting that high scores in both are prerequisite to success in the modern business environment.
The article relates to the topic of the foundations of intercultural communication and culture in business context in several ways. First, it shows that in countries with a prolific dominant cultural group (in this case, Chinese), cultural awareness and CQ is, by default, lower than in places with high diversity of peoples (Cramer, 2018). Second, it explains the difficulties Chinese companies have when moving outside of the Asian sphere of influence, some of those associated with a lack of cultural understanding. Third, it highlights the relationship between culture, religion, and respect. Chinese students are largely raised in an atheistic system, which makes them less aware and willing to accept the beliefs of others (Cramer, 2018). As a result, they experience difficulties operating outside of their natural environment.
The article offers plenty of insights that could be extrapolated to other places and countries. Europe and the US are dominated by white European culture, and whites represent the majority of the population there, just like the Chinese are the majority in their country. As such, it may be likely that the cultural awareness and CQ of nation-state European white managers may be lower compared to that of individuals that were born and raised in a more diverse environment (Ferrara et al., 2020). As such, there is an incentive to hire diverse managers for the purposes of overcoming intercultural barriers.
Reference
Cramer, T. (2018). Cross-cultural management in China: Competencies of Chinese business students. Journal of Eastern European and Central Asian Research, 5(2), 52-60.
Ferrara, J., Nath, J. L., & Beebe, R. (Eds.). (2020). Exploring cultural competence in professional development schools. IAP.