CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE AMONGST EMPLOYEES OF MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS IN LAGOS, NIGERIA

Abstract

Cultural Intelligence (CI) is the ability of an individual to function effectively in situations characterised by cultural differences. Previous studies on CI have focused on the influence of CI on psychology and communication related issues in the workplace with little attention paid to how CI influences interpersonal communication competence in multinational corporations, especially in Nigeria. This study was, therefore, designed to examine CI and interpersonal communication competence level of employees of selected multinational corporations in Lagos, with a view to establishing how CI influenced employees’ interpersonal communication competence. Expectancy Violation, Cognitive Dissonance and Multiple Intelligence theories served as framework, while descriptive survey and interpretive designs were used. Three organisations (Chevron Nigeria Limited, British American Tobacco Company and American International School) were purposively selected because of the cultural diversity of their employees. Purposive sampling method was used to select a total number of 365 culturally diverse employees who had worked in the organisations for one year. A Cultural Intelligence and Interpersonal Communication Competence Questionnaire was administered to 345 employees at the junior management cadre, while in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 purposively selected employees at the senior management cadre who were of different nationalities and willing to participate in the research. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Pearson Product Moment Correlation at 0.05 level of significance, while qualitative data were analysed with explanation building technique. All four factors of CI were high among the employees: cognitive CI (77.2%); metacognitive CI (88.2%); motivational CI (90.7%) and behavioural CI (92.3%). The four CI factors positively correlated with interpersonal communication competence (cognitive: r=0.78; metacognitive: r=0.56; motivational: r=0.54; and behavioural: r=0.60). Interpersonal communication competence was also high among the employees: response to violation (85.0%); ability to handle dissonance (85.6%); and communication styles (88.0%). Age and years of work experience had significant influence on employees’ level of cognitive CI (t. value = -2.65 and t. value = -2.44), metacognitive CI (t. value = -2.65 and t. value = -2.44), motivational CI (t. value = -2.65 and t. value = -2.27) and behavioural CI (t. value = -0.76 and t. value = -2.44). There was no significant difference between gender and educational qualification of respondents’ cultural intelligence competence. The senior management employees confirmed that cognitive, metacognitive, motivational and behavioural CI contributed to interpersonal communication competence. Besides, knowledge of culture and how it affects behaviour enabled them to deploy appropriate communication styles such as self-disclosure, empathy, altercentrism, immediacy, and assertiveness in interpersonal communication. They also reported the acquisition of cultural intelligence skills through training and cross-cultural experiences. Cultural intelligence was a strong factor that enabled employees of multicultural corporations in Lagos to communicate effectively with their counterparts of different cultural backgrounds. Thus, culturally heterogeneous organisations could intensify cultural intelligence level through formal training.