4.2 H2: HOW DOES CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AFFECT THE BUSINESSMEN IN CAMEROON BEHAVIOR DURING INTERCULTURAL NEGOTIATIONS?
A person’s cultural intelligence is gained through experience and to a lesser extend through educations as mentioned in the literature review. Cultural Intelligence just as any other form of Intelligence is a continuum that develops with time (Thomas, 2016). Growth may be slow at the beginning or not even noticed but surely it develops with time due to living and working abroad (experience). Furthermore, Earley &Ang (2003) have also proposed that the four elements of cultural intelligence do not necessarily interrelated to each other. This means that a person might have a cognitive cultural intelligence but it does not mean …show more content…
but if it’s with a European, I tell him my price and stick to It…………… I know they are very time conscious, so in most of the meetings I try my best to be on time, but you know us Cameroonians we don’t keep to time which is the bad thing about us” Ngeh
As seen in the above statement, the Cameroon business man knows exactly how their foreign partners are like and deal with them accordingly, at the same time knowing how to deal with their local partners. The interviewee is aware that the impression perceive from some of their business partners doesn’t hold true to all the people of that country.
Even though all the interviewees were aware of the differences in culture, some of them still adapt their behavior during the negotiation only to a certain extent. A person with the understanding and ability to adapt to cultural differences does not necessarily mean that he or she has the motivation to adapt him or herself totally (Earley and Ang 2003). For example, all the interviewee agrees to trying to make a strong bargaining on what they were buying even when they know the price won’t change that much. To them, they don’t just want to give in easily.
“I have to try as much as possible to reduce the price to my advantage” …show more content…
The situation will be slightly different if that individual has a certain level of the cultural intelligence (Imai & Gelfand, 2010). As earlier mentioned, the cultural intelligence allows a person to act differently from where he or she comes from to adapt to a new cultural environment or context (Thomas et al., 2008). In this study, all the interviewees have the knowledge of the other culture that they are doing business with, however, adapting to their European partners depends on their motivations (Imai & Gelfand, 2010; Earley & Ang, 2003). Like the findings by Dyne et al. (2012), the results show that interviewees tend to adapt more when there is potential benefit to
A person’s cultural intelligence is gained through experience and to a lesser extend through educations as mentioned in the literature review. Cultural Intelligence just as any other form of Intelligence is a continuum that develops with time (Thomas, 2016). Growth may be slow at the beginning or not even noticed but surely it develops with time due to living and working abroad (experience). Furthermore, Earley &Ang (2003) have also proposed that the four elements of cultural intelligence do not necessarily interrelated to each other. This means that a person might have a cognitive cultural intelligence but it does not mean …show more content…
but if it’s with a European, I tell him my price and stick to It…………… I know they are very time conscious, so in most of the meetings I try my best to be on time, but you know us Cameroonians we don’t keep to time which is the bad thing about us” Ngeh
As seen in the above statement, the Cameroon business man knows exactly how their foreign partners are like and deal with them accordingly, at the same time knowing how to deal with their local partners. The interviewee is aware that the impression perceive from some of their business partners doesn’t hold true to all the people of that country.
Even though all the interviewees were aware of the differences in culture, some of them still adapt their behavior during the negotiation only to a certain extent. A person with the understanding and ability to adapt to cultural differences does not necessarily mean that he or she has the motivation to adapt him or herself totally (Earley and Ang 2003). For example, all the interviewee agrees to trying to make a strong bargaining on what they were buying even when they know the price won’t change that much. To them, they don’t just want to give in easily.
“I have to try as much as possible to reduce the price to my advantage” …show more content…
The situation will be slightly different if that individual has a certain level of the cultural intelligence (Imai & Gelfand, 2010). As earlier mentioned, the cultural intelligence allows a person to act differently from where he or she comes from to adapt to a new cultural environment or context (Thomas et al., 2008). In this study, all the interviewees have the knowledge of the other culture that they are doing business with, however, adapting to their European partners depends on their motivations (Imai & Gelfand, 2010; Earley & Ang, 2003). Like the findings by Dyne et al. (2012), the results show that interviewees tend to adapt more when there is potential benefit to