1. Developing Cultural Intelligence:
The IATA Case
Guido Gianasso
University of Geneva
8 September 2011

2. 8 September 2011Guido Gianasso
Developing Cultural Intelligence: the IATA case
2
Research Gaps
Global Competence:
 No generally accepted definition of the construct and
validated assessment instrument
 Prior studies have focused on expatriates adjustment.
Little research exists on the relationship between global
competence and individual job performance
 Little research exists on how organizations can develop
global competence

3. Guido Gianasso
Developing Cultural Intelligence: the IATA case
3
Research Questions
 What makes “global” individuals more capable to
operate across cultural boundaries and what is
the relationship between this capability and job
performance when individuals operate in
interculturally diverse contexts
 How can CQ capability be developed and how
can organizations do so
Research Context: IATA

4. Guido Gianasso
Developing Cultural Intelligence: the IATA case
4
Intended contributions to research
 To examine the link between employees’ CQ and
job performance in a global organization (only one
study to date)
 To provide first insight to whether employees
demonstrate improvement in their CQ after
undergoing a structured CCT intervention
combining didactic and experiential activities (no
study to date)
 To propose an integrative model for future research

5. Guido Gianasso
Developing Cultural Intelligence: the IATA case
5
Intended contributions to practice
 To provide the empirical evidence to show that
organizations need to seriously consider how to
select and develop employees working in
intercultural environments
 To provide a concrete example of how a CCT
intervention could look like

6. Guido Gianasso
Developing Cultural Intelligence: the IATA case
6
Theory Development
Cultural Intelligence (Ang & Early, 2003; Ang et al., 2007)
 Capability to interact effectively in culturally diverse
setting
 Four factor conceptualization (Sternberg & Detterman,
1986)
 Selected among different conceptualizations of global
competence for its
Theoretical soundness and parsimony
Instrument reliability, validity and easiness of
administration in IATA

7. Guido Gianasso
Developing Cultural Intelligence: the IATA case
7
Study 1 - Hypothesis
H1: all four CQ factors are positively associated
with job performance in culturally diverse settings
 H1A: Metacognitive CQ is positively related to job
performance
 H1B: Cognitive CQ is positively related to job performance
 H1C: Motivational CQ is positively related to job performance
 H1D: Behavioral CQ is positively related to job performance

8. Guido Gianasso
Developing Cultural Intelligence: the IATA case
8
Study 1: Results
Note: Results are controlled for participants’ age, gender, observer liking, and
superior-subordinate similarity.
** p < .01 *p < .05
Observer CQ ratings across A and B players
Observer Ratings A Players B Players
CQ Factors M SD M SD
Motivational CQ 5.93 0.51 5.35 0.71
Cognitive CQ 5.47 0.65 5.09 0.73
Meta-Cognitive CQ 5.40 0.57 4.93 0.59
Behavioral CQ 5.01 0.58 4.69 0.61

9. Guido Gianasso
Developing Cultural Intelligence
9
Study 1: Results
Note: Results are controlled for participants’ age and gender.
** p < .01 *p < .05 † p < .10
Self CQ ratings across A and B players
Self CQ Ratings A Players B Players
M SD M SD
Motivational CQ 6.13 1.03 6.12 0.99
Cognitive CQ 5.57 1.05 5.49 0.96
Meta-Cognitive CQ 5.50 0.89 5.58 0.95
Behavioral CQ 5.47 1.07 5.27 1.20

10. Guido Gianasso
Developing Cultural Intelligence
10
Study 1: Discussion
 Observer – ratings
 All four factors are positively correlated with job
performance
 Self-ratings
 Only behavioral CQ is positively correlated with job
performance (metacognitive and behavioral in Ang’s study)
≠ Degree of cultural diversity
≠ Difference in sample size
≠ Observer ratings vs. self rating  self enhancement

11. Guido Gianasso
Developing Cultural Intelligence: the IATA case
11
Study 1: Theoretical contributions
 First study showing that all four factors of CQ are
positively correlated with job performance
 Study addressing the methodological limitations of
Ang’s study (size, self-reported CQ, limited
geographical scope)

12. Guido Gianasso
Developing Cultural Intelligence: the IATA case
12
Study 1: Limitations
 Research design does not allow to assert that CQ
causes performance, but that only employees with a
higher CQ are more likely to perform better
 I did not control for multiple types of intelligence
 I focused on task performance only
 I assessed the relationship between CQ and
performance but not the psychological / behavioral
mechanism underlying the relationship

13. Guido Gianasso
Developing Cultural Intelligence: the IATA case
13
Study 2 - Hypothesis
H2: the IATA Intercultural Leadership Engagement
and Development (I-LEAD) program - with its
integrative approach focusing on experiential
learning - enhances participants’ CQ.
 H2A: Motivational CQ will increase after attending I-LEAD
 H2B: Cognitive CQ will increase after attending I-LEAD
 H2C: Metacognitive CQ will increase after attending I-LEAD
 H2D: Behavioral CQ will increase after attending I-LEAD

14. Guido Gianasso
Developing Cultural Intelligence: the IATA case
14
How I-LEAD activities will affect CQ
• Lectures on Culture
• Teaching Internal Teams
• Traveling / Visiting
• International Projects
• Managing Internal/
External Stakeholders
• Leading Internal Teams
• Producing videos on
culture
• CQ Self-Assessment &
360°
• Being Coached and
Coaching junior
employees
EXPERIENTIAL
II--LEAD ACTIVITIESLEAD ACTIVITIES CQ DIMENSIONSCQ DIMENSIONS
DIDACTICDIDACTIC
SELF-
AWARENESS
MotivationMotivation
CognitionCognition
MetacognitionMetacognition
BehaviorBehavior

15. Guido Gianasso
Developing Cultural Intelligence: the IATA case
15
Study 2: Results
Descriptives and repeated measures ANOVA results
for observer CQ ratings for 55 I-LEAD change agents
Note: Results are controlled for participants’ age and gender ** p < .01
Change Agents Retrospective
Pre I-Lead
Post I-Lead
MS F (1,52)
CQ Factors M SD M SD
Motivational CQ 5.08 0.62 6.00 0.52 0.94 10.15**
Cognitive CQ 5.03 0.60 5.90 0.52 0.68 8.11**
Meta-Cognitive CQ 4.95 0.58 5.85 0.52 0.63 8.33**
Behavioral CQ 4.75 0.58 5.56 0.62 0.78 9.76**

16. Guido Gianasso
Developing Cultural Intelligence: the IATA case
16
Study 2: Results
Descriptives and repeated measures ANOVA results
for observer CQ ratings for 160 I-LEAD team members
Note: Results are controlled for participants’ age and gender ** p < .01
Team Members Retrospective
Pre I-Lead
Post
I-Lead
MS
F
(1,157)
CQ Factors M SD M SD
Motivational CQ 4.84 0.59 5.59 0.60 0.55 6.09**
Cognitive CQ 4.75 0.56 5.39 0.56 1.06 15.94**
Meta-Cognitive CQ 4.60 0.56 5.33 0.61 1.52 17.01**
Behavioral CQ 4.43 0.54 5.06 0.61 1.47 16.99**

17. Guido Gianasso
Developing Cultural Intelligence: the IATA case
17
Study 2: Discussion
 Change Agents who went through the program were
reported as having a significant increase in CQ
 +14.5 % Cognitive
 +15.0 % Metacognitive
 +15.3 % Motivational
 +13.5 % Behavioral
 Finding significant results despite low statistical power
suggests strong effect size
 Using a comparison group (I-LEAD Members) with results
showing smaller CQ increase allows to rule out the
possibility of maturation effects

18. Guido Gianasso
Developing Cultural Intelligence: the IATA case
18
Study 2: Contributions
 The study demonstrates that CQ is a measurable
capability that can be systematically developed
 Is the only study conducted in an organizational setting
and based on observer reports that looked at impact on
CQ specifically
 Demonstrates that the scope and intensity of the program
affects the level of CQ development and show cases the
importance of an integrative training approach containing
didactical, experiential and self-awareness elements

19. Guido Gianasso
Developing Cultural Intelligence: the IATA case
19
Study 2: Limitations
 I-LEAD team members are not a perfect comparison
group
 The non-randomized selection of change agents
 The retrospective pretest measurement has
limitations (socially desirable responding, etc)
 The study did not test the relationship between
specific training activities with specific dimensions

20. Guido Gianasso
Developing Cultural Intelligence: the IATA case
20
Overall Discussion: Integrating Study 1 and
Study 2
Employees’
Cultural
Intelligence
Motivation
Cognition
Metacognition
Behavior
Employees’
Job
Performance
Integrative
Cross-Cultural
Training Program
Didactic
Experiential
Self-Awareness
Proposed mediating role of CQ in translating global leadership
training programs into performance at the workplace

21. Guido Gianasso
Developing Cultural Intelligence: the IATA case
21
The model addresses some gaps in
existing research:
 Few studies on the relationship between CCT
interventions and job performance
 Few studies available focus on small groups of
expatriates or students
 Most CCT studies have examined the direct effects
of training interventions without explaining the
underlying mechanisms

22. Guido Gianasso
Developing Cultural Intelligence: the IATA case
22
Implications for future research:
 Future studies can empirically test the proposed
integrative model that CCT programs affect job
performance via the development of cultural
intelligence
 Future studies should conduct utility assessment of
CCT interventions on the organization’s
performance.

23. Guido Gianasso
Developing Cultural Intelligence: the IATA case
23
Implications for global human
resources systems
Global organizations should integrate CQ in their HR
processes:
Global talent acquisition
Performance management and rewards systems
Global leadership development and training

24. Thank you!
Guido Gianasso
8 September 2011