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What part CQ plays in Cultural Adaptation?

Authentic leadership as described in Bishop’s article “Defining the Authenticity in Authentic Leadership” (2013), is an interplay of perceptions both from the leader and its followers. To be truly authentic, there must be harmony in both perceptions in the aspect of integrity, ethics, morals, values, self, relationships, and learning (Duignan & Bhindi, 1997 in Bishop, 2013). Furthermore, authentic leadership involves the discovery of one’s identity with respect to its moral, ethical, values, and behavioral stance as it relates to its environment. If we analyzed the connection between authentic leadership and cultural intelligence, we can easily establish that both are means for leaders to relate and adapt to its environment – the followers, its organization, and the external environment.  In the aspect of cognition, culturally intelligent leaders will think, learn, and strategize from cultural situations that he/she encountered. Similarly, authentic leaders will try to understand and learn the differences between his/her moral and values from the other culture and will try to relate with that culture while being true with its beliefs. In the aspect of motivation, culturally intelligent leaders try to understand itself, its limitations, biases, ideals, and the things he/she can and cannot do. On the other hand, in authentic leadership, discovering one’s identity is part of the process of being authentic and this requires understanding one’s self. Lastly. In the aspect of behavior, culturally intelligent leaders will adapt and implement the new behavior he/she deemed appropriate based on the analysis and self-reflection he/she performed from the cultural situation he/she experienced. Similarly, authentic leaders will demonstrate behaviors that harmonized with the perception of its followers and its organization.
As described in the textbook “Cultural Intelligence for Leaders” (2012), leaders with high cultural intelligence can easily adapt to cultural situations that are unfamiliar. This is possible as the leader possesses the ability to objectively analyzed and assessed the situation. The leader will try to understand the situation by identifying the source of cultural differences. This includes reflecting on its own beliefs and values based on the situation. Once identified, the leader will then strategize and implement new behaviors that will be suitable for such situations. With its high self-efficacy, the leader can overcome any difficulties in the strategies and solutions he/she formulated and can successfully adapt to the novel situation.
References:
Bishop, William H. (2013) "Defining the Authenticity in Authentic Leadership," The Journal of Values-Based Leadership: 6(10). Retrieved from: http://scholar.valpo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1077&context=jvbl

Cultural Intelligence for Leaders (2012). Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0. Available online at http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/cultural-intelligence-for-leaders/

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