NANYANG MBA

The Need for Cultural Intelligence in the Post-Pandemic World

The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred rapid digital adoption and new working arrangements. Professor Ng Kok Yee from Nanyang Business School (NBS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore, shares her insights on how companies can utilise cultural intelligence to create a new cultural differentiator for the post-pandemic era.

The approach to work has evolved in unexpected ways since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Around the world, companies are choosing to permanently maintain hybrid approaches to work even as offices and markets resume opening. Some companies, such as Google and Apple, expect employees in the office only two to three days a week, while others, such as Salesforce and Facebook, will allow workers to work from home on an ongoing basis.

“Digital transformation and telecommuting usher in new work processes by leveraging technology. They do not remove the need for working with people but change the way people work and communicate with one another,” explains Prof Ng, who is also the Director of Research at the Centre for Leadership and Cultural Intelligence (CLCI)[1], NBS.

With the shift to hybrid work patterns, business leaders must contend with new modes of communication and negotiate the changing dynamics of interaction and collaboration. As companies and employees navigate this changed environment, the rules of engagement must evolve as well. Successful leaders must set new standards and adopt a more sensitive and flexible approach to team management that reflects these permanently changed norms. 

The changing workplace dynamics

With where and how we work changing, business leaders must adapt their communication skills to master the challenges of remote communication. Without the cues of physical, face-to-face interaction, remote communication can exacerbate misunderstandings and conflicts, reducing trust and knowledge-sharing, ultimately undermining organisational effectiveness.

“Cultural intelligence or CQ, focuses on the capability to detect cultural cues that shape the implicit ‘rules’ that govern how people think, feel, and act. In the post-pandemic world, cultural intelligence will set leaders apart as they can no longer expect to have clear, prescribed work roles. Instead, their roles are likely to evolve dynamically with changes in the environment,” shares Prof Ng.

In an environment where employees will be collaborating while rarely meeting in-person, it’s imperative that leaders build a strong sense of shared purpose within the organisation. To leverage social capital, encourage collaboration, and maximise organisational performance, leaders must learn to be culturally adept.

According to Prof Ng: “CQ is even more important for leaders and employees working with diverse stakeholders. Culturally intelligent organisations and leaders are more likely to develop organisational processes that will mitigate cultural biases, promote the making of new shared ‘rules’ to minimise cultural conflict, and harness diverse perspectives for greater creativity and innovation.”

Building success with CQ

Cultural intelligence enables leaders to detect, adapt to, and leverage cultural differences of stakeholders to achieve creative and synergistic outcomes.

“Leaders with greater CQ are more likely to demonstrate adaptive behaviours because of their capability to detect changes in assumptions or ‘rules’, ability to anticipate how changes will affect the stakeholders of different cultures, and their wider behavioural repertoires to enact appropriate actions to influence and work with others,” explains Prof Ng.

With the rapid pace of change, business leaders must develop the cognitive and behavioural capabilities to utilise cultural intelligence (CQ), emotional intelligence (EQ), and business acumen to be effective. However, skills such as CQ and EQ cannot be learned by absorbing content—they must be developed through reflectivity and experiential learning.

“This is where I believe our curriculum for the MBA programme at NBS places emphasis on nurturing agile and impactful leaders. Through a leadership-focused module and coaching, the Nanyang MBA helps sharpen your cultural intelligence to better manage talent and lead teams. In-class case studies and real-life examples shared by a diverse class helps acquire new insights and share principles. The MBA programme offers participants an invaluable community of practice,” says Prof Ng.

“The Nanyang MBA helps sharpen your cultural intelligence to better manage talent and lead teams. In-class case studies and real-life examples shared by a diverse class helps acquire new insights and share principles. The MBA programme offers participants an invaluable community of practice.”

Pioneering research and thought leadership

To help leaders implement CQ in real-life working environments, CLCI has been a pioneer in research and thought leadership on the science of cultural intelligence.

Led by executive director and professor Soon Ang, the CLCI is the first CQ research centre in the world. Its mission – to lead research, assessments, and programmes to cultivate culturally intelligent leaders and organisations – is anchored on a scientist-practitioner ethos, with the aim to generate research, data, and programmes to support industry and advance CQ research.

A recent CLCI study on intercultural conflict management focused on C-suite and senior leaders from more than 40 countries using intercultural situational judgement tests developed by the centre to uncover global leaders’ conflict resolution strategies, won the Best Paper Award at the 2020 Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology (SIOP). “The SIOP award honours high-impact research in industrial and organisational psychology,” according to Prof Ng.

Our strong partnerships

Partnership with the Singapore Armed Forces and the Prime Minister’s Office underscores the importance of the centre’s research on leadership development. As Prof Ng highlights, “We collaborate with organisations on strategic, large-scale leadership research and development projects to create systematic and evidence-based processes to develop future leaders.”

The Nanyang MBA prepares future leaders to be agile and culturally adept so they can navigate the changing workplace, digital disruption, the imperative for sustainability, and any other challenge that gets thrown their way. Offering a diverse cohort, interdisciplinary curriculum, leveraging NTU’s technology and innovation strengths, incorporating expertise from world-class research centres, and fostering strong industry connections that offer practical real-world learning, NBS blends academic rigour with experiential learning to prepare you for the future of work.

Professor Ng Kok Yee is a professor in International Management and the Director of Research at the Centre for Leadership and Cultural Intelligence (CLCI). She is best known for her research in cultural intelligence and global leadership. Her research has been published in top academic journals, including the Academy of Management Journal and Journal of Applied Psychology. She specialises in international organisational behaviour, focusing on the role of culture and cultural intelligence in the domains of leadership and multicultural teams.

Nanyang MBA

The Nanyang MBA is a flexible 12-month or 18-month programme designed to fuel your growth into a future-ready leader equipped with the skills needed to excel in a global, digital environment. The programme aims to develop impactful, culturally adept leaders who embrace the connection between business, technology, and innovation to excel in global environments and adapt to each new wave of digital change.