Culture + intelligence old constructs, new frontiers

Abstract

Despite the extensive research on culture and intelligence in organizational psychology, little attention has been given to the integration of the two constructs. This special issue aims to stimulate new research directions by synthesizing the two streams of research. In this introduction to the special issue, we propose a framework that reflects and reconciles two different approaches to integrating culture and intelligence - the cultural variation of intelligence approach versus the cultural intelligence approach. Our focus is on the latter approach, which centers on validating the emerging construct called cultural intelligence - defined as the capability to be effective across cultural settings. Specifically, we discuss the measurement and substantive issues that future research should address in advancing our understanding of the cultural intelligence construct. © 2006 Sage Publications.