International business researcher
A series of conversations inspired by ‘The Social Dilemma’ film to explore the unintended consequences of our growing relience on social media and technology and what we can do to address it.
Source: ‘The Social Dilemma’ Virtual Tour
Dropped in for a listen – fascinating. Cheers @chrisaldrich #indieweb
Like many fast-growing startups, Away’s workplace is organized around digital communication. It’s how employees talk, plan projects, and get feedback from co-workers and higher-ups.
Source: Former Away employees describe a toxic work environment at the luggage company – The Verge
This article provides fascinating insight into the ways digital communication channels can be used for evil by decision-makers within next-generation businesses. It also highlights the way cross-cultural misunderstandings at the founder level can be magnified across the firm as a whole, with astonishing results.
The benefits of CQ in business include increased effectiveness, speed and efficiency in multicultural and/or global teams, and ultimately, success in culturally diverse markets. As testament to this, CQ is used as a recruitment and development tool among management and employees within organisations as diverse as global healthcare company Novartis, world airline representatives the International Air Transport Association, Harvard University in the USA, and Qatar Airlines.
While there are many measures of cross-cultural intelligence, this certification focusses only on the only scale to have withstood a high degree of validation across multiple settings and contexts. The scale and certification is administered by the Cultural Intelligence Centre, drawing on 20 years of peer-reviewed empirical studies on over 125,000 individuals across 100+ countries.
I see this rigor as a unique and genuine asset for organisations and individuals considering how best to make their way in an increasing globalised world. Combined with my understanding of the wider research around cross-cultural competences and my international business experience, my CQ certification gives me a valuable set of tools to facilitate the development of cultural intelligence amongst others. I look forward to applying what I have learned in my role as a Sessional Academic at QUT, in particular as Coordinator for the units AMB120 Bridging Cultures and AMB390 Bridging Cultures (International).
A particular strength of this unit was that it provided an opportunity for students to formulate a culturally-considered, competitive, and evidence-based marketing strategy for an actual Australian brand undergoing expansion into a specific international market. Guest speakers included international Trade Commissioners and expert marketing practitioners in a range of fields. Students appreciated engaging with a real-life client brief in this manner, and frequently commented on how useful and applicable the unit was.
I thoroughly enjoyed being involved with such a successful and relevant unit.
It was my first time addressing my erstwhile peers since my transition into a ‘new’ career as a doctoral researcher & academic. I was keen to integrate some of the insights I’d gleaned from my academic readings in the area of international business and entrepreneurship. Given empirically-based academic articles in these fields can draw on data from hundreds of businesses, it seemed like a worthwhile endeavour. It’s not easy to pitch the academy to practitioners, but as a former translator myself, I was counting using this experience to make the abstract tangible.
I wasn’t entirely certain how the session would work, but I was pretty happy with how it went in the end. I sense this topic has legs, and certainly my talk has scope for further refinement. I’m hoping another opportunity will arise in the future to enable me to develop it further.
A particular strength of this unit is that it provides theoretical frameworks for interpreting differences in cultural behaviour, as well as skills and strategies to help respond appropriately and effectively in culturally different situations. Students appreciate such tangible take-aways, and frequently comment on how useful and applicable this approach is.
We tend to see three types of students enrolled in this unit: students with an interest in intercultural communication, students who are learning or have learned a second language, and students who are inbound or outbound on international study exchanges. As such, our tutorials are lively and interesting, with high levels of engagement all around.
I’m delighted to be involved with such a successful and important unit.
