International Journal of Management & Information Systems – Fourth Quarter 2011 Volume 15, Number 4 © 2011 The Clute Institute 141 Cultural Intelligence And Global Business Competencies: A Framework For Organizational Effectiveness In The Global Marketplace Carole Ann Creque, University of Mary Washington, USA Doreen J. Gooden, Florida International University, USA ABSTRACT This paper proposes that cultural intelligence and global business competencies are vital to organizations as they seek to achieve success in the global marketplace. Adler (2001) suggests that because of the diversity of the global workforce cultural barriers may exist resulting in misunderstanding and thus inefficient interactions. Organizations will, therefore, have to understand the cultural foundation of the environment within which they operate in order to achieve organizational success. Keywords: Cultural Intelligence; Global Business Competencies; Organizational Effectiveness INTRODUCTION lobalization is transforming the way business is conducted worldwide. Economies and business systems are now entwined with each other; new market-based economies are developing in former communist countries and trade barriers are no longer an obstacle to international trade and foreign direct investment. Success in this new world economy requires organizations to attract employees who have an understanding of culture and cultural diversity and possess the necessary skills and abilities to interact with and create relationships with people from other countries. Triandis (2006) posits that the global environment promotes partner relationships between countries that are culturally different and suggests that cultural intelligence is needed in order to develop a good working relationship and successful interaction between partners. According to Thomas (2006) an individual who is knowledgeable about his own culture and learns about the culture of others will have a greater understanding of his own behavior and the behavior of others. Lane, Distefano & Meznevski (2000) state that an individual who understands the heart of a culture will be able to visualize himself/herself in that new cultural environment. CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE Cultural intelligence (CQ) is a fairly new concept which refers to an individual‟s ability to adapt to and function effectively in culturally diverse situations. Lee and Sukoco (2010) refer to cultural intelligence as the “ability that an expatriate has to adapt across cultures” (p. 963). Brislin et al. (2006) conclude that cultural intelligence is “a set of skills, from basic to advanced, that allow an individual to become effective at eventually transferring social skills from one cultural context to another” (p.53) Thus, CQ is a type of intelligence that helps an individual cope with the variability of cultural diversity and also helps them to function within that setting. Thomas et al. (2008) in their review of cultural intelligence summarized the work done in this area. This is presented in Table 1 below. G