The article by Early and Mosakowski (2004) seeks to give an understanding on how students come up with decisions concerning their lives in a culturally diverse environment. In addition, it seeks to show how students that have a propensity that is high with risk can individually decide whether to participate in an experience that is international or not (Earley, 2004).
Before an individual makes such a crucial decision, he or she must have a self-conversation. One must have the capability of adapting in diverse contexts of culture. This can be enhanced or improved by working with a team that is multinational. The article suggests that cultural intelligence (CQ) gives an individual stability. All this can be demonstrated by effectively working with a team with different cultural values.
According to Druskat and Wolff (2001), competence in a multicultural setting enhances creativity. The two authors say that though cultural conflict is unavoidable in a multicultural environment, it can be minimized. Accordingly, it can be empirically demonstrated that exposure to many cultures positively relates to cognitive performance. This will improve creativity of individuals. However, an individual’s ability to make apt decisions depends on his or her openness to foreign cultures (Druskat, Wolff, 2008).
Thomas Kilmann discusses how an individual can handle different situations that are fraught with conflicts in an appropriate way. He assesses the behavior of an individual and discusses it in two dimensions. That is, cooperativeness and assertiveness. Reading this finding made me think about my own style of leadership and practice (Kilmann, 2011). I am a cooperative person. That is my strength. My weakness is that I am not assertive enough and, I often let some mistakes slip out of my hands without properly addressing them. This should not be so because mistakes in health can be very costly. They can lead to loss of lives. Consequently, I need to improve on that.
I have learnt many concepts in the leadership class this semester. I cannot synopsize all but the key important ones are that one must be assertive enough and understanding. Having done my self-assessment, I need to improve on my style of addressing my mistakes. I usually cloth this by saying to myself that everyone makes mistakes. This should not be so since we all have individual responsibility. Additionally, repetition of mistakes always proves to be costly.
References
Druskat, V. U., & Wolff, S. B. (2001). Building the Emotional Intelligence of groups. Harvard Review, United States: Harvard.
Earley, P. C., & Ang, S. (2004). Cultural intelligence: Individual interactions across cultures. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press.
Kilmann, T., & United States Institute of Peace (2011). Conflict assessment and intelligence analysis: Commonality, convergence, and complementarity. Washington, DC: U.S. Institute of Peace.
CPP - The People Development People. (n.d.). Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI). Retrieved April 6, 2014, from https://www.cpp.com/products/tki/index.aspx
