The globalization of businesses has become very common today, when compared to the past. Companies have started branching out to different countries in order to expand their business using the advanced technology - the Internet. Understanding their respective culture is very crucial to develop an establishment in any country. The working style and method varies from country to country based on their culture. There is always a scope of conflicts due to culture variations. The article “Impact of cultural intelligence level on conflict resolution ability” talks about the importance of cultural intelligence level and how this helps to resolve the conflicts. “Therefore, this model presents that a higher level of cultural intelligence positively affects and predicts whether an individual will select an appropriate conflict resolution strategy fitting for the cultural backgrounds of those involved in the conflict” (Ramirez, 2010, p. 2). The author starts off with briefly discussing why it is so important for the business leaders to use different conflict resolution strategies using the cultural intelligence level of the persons involved in the conflict. The author first described the gaps in the current studies of “impact of culture intelligence level in resolving the conflicts” and then explained how the current model would fulfill those gaps. This model helps leaders to prepare different strategies and to use the correct strategy based on the cultural intelligence level of the persons involved in the conflicts.
The model considers culture intelligence level as independent variable and conflict resolution ability as dependent variable and the how these two variables are related to cultural intelligence characteristics and versatility.
According to the article, high cultural intelligence people fall under “high confusion acceptance people.”These people expect some confusion ahead. It is easy to resolve the conflict with this category of people.

Points of Agreement “As levels of cultural intelligence are manipulated, the knowledge base to select a culturally appropriate strategy—the conflict resolution ability is increased or decreased. Therefore, cultural intelligence level serves as the independent variable on the dependent variable of conflict resolution ability” (Ramirez, 2010, p. 5). I agree with the author that cultural intelligence level as independent variable because the whole reason for a conflict is due less cultural intelligence. The conflict resolution is a dependent variable because the type of resolution strategy selection depends on the type of conflict, which is a direct result of lack of cultural intelligence.
“Confusion acceptance also serves as a mediating variable in this model” (Ramirez, 2010, p. 8). I agree with the author using this as mediating variable. Here confusion can be understood as “expecting something is going to be unusual and to prepare ahead for things that may arise. The author’s 2x2 model is interesting. Points of Disagreement

“The groups will be representative of predominantly African American, Anglo American, Hispanic American, and Asian American Baptist congregations in the Dallas Metroplex.” (Ramirez, 2010, p. 9). Though author’s model is interesting, I do not think that selecting the members from the same country will help to understand the cultural intelligence. All the members selected are Americans though they are from different race. As these people from different races are living in America, American culture would have an effect on their culture, which in turn leads to misinterpretation of results. I would suggest the author to select a group of people from different continents.
“High levels of cultural intelligence will predict stronger conflict resolution ability.” (Ramirez, 2010, p. 9). I think cultural intelligence level also depends on the experience of a person. Author considered the cultural intelligence characteristics as mediator, which is fine, but the problem is how we define these characteristics. The other major problem with author’s model is an extraneous factor like mood of a person is not considered. For example, person might have high cultural intelligence level, but if person’s mood is in upset state, it will affect cultural intelligence level.

Application to Worldly Views

In the world of globalization, cultural conflicts are very common in between the employees. Employees should have high cultural intelligence levels to avoid disputes. Business leaders are considering the cultural intelligence level before hiring the person. For example, Americans working with Koreans are educating their employees not to get into an argument with Korean managers as Koreans believe Manager’s decision is final. Similarly, Japanese managers do not like fun or cracking jokes during meetings, which is unusual to Americans.

Integration with Literature

Cultural intelligence plays an important role in the success of a business. This has been shown in the article “Chinese-Style Conflict Resolution: A Case of Taiwanese Business, Immigrants in Australia.” The Chinese business owner, Mr. Ma was not able to resolve the conflicts in the initial stages due to lack of cultural intelligence. Chinese business owner had barriers like language and has not taken steps to understand the Australian’s way of doing business. Mr. Ma was able to resolve the conflicts when she started learning the English and Australian way of doing business. “Mr. Ma put all of the company policies in writing clarified all the regulations and rules Apollo should follow, and forbade Mrs. Ma to interfere with any management decisions. Mr. Ma began to use the regulative model in managing Apollo business.” (Wei, 2000, p. 13).
“To visualize this point, imagine that words cover semantic fields that can be mapped out. In English, a given word occupies a certain space, which then becomes a common sense meaning of the word to native English speakers. The foreign language equivalent may cover more or less space, including meanings not present in the first language while excluding others.” (Raymond Cohen 2001). Language has a major share in the cultural intelligence level. For example, most of the Americans say, “I would do that,” for most of the non-native English speakers, understanding the semantics is difficult. The employee would do something different as the employee was not clear what it meant, and it would lead to the conflict.

Conclusion

Cultural intelligence level is a key to run successfully in the current world of globalization and advanced technology. If we can find out the important characteristics that would help to improve the cultural intelligence level, it would be easy to resolve the conflict. More research has to be done to develop standard conflict resolving strategies.

New Questions Sparked

1) Should the author consider some more independent variables in developing conflict resolving strategies like mood, experience?
Considering some independent variables like mood and experience will eliminate the bias that might encounter during the experiment.

2) Is it important to learn the cross-cultural business methods, if so to what extent?
If cross-cultural barriers are defined, it will help to improve their cross-cultural intelligence.

3) What exactly means and include in cultural intelligence characteristics?
Author has not explained in detail about cultural intelligence characteristics. If details like what cultural intelligence characteristics, it would increase the probability of selecting the appropriate conflict resolution strategy.

4) Is that cross-cultural intelligence was the factor affected in Chinese business or other factors like not responding to the situations at appropriate time are also factors of Chinese business loss in Australia?
It seems after reading the article that Chinese business woman has not even tried to respond to the situation though she has good understanding of what is going on. I think business leaders should differentiate between the cross-cultural conflicts and other factors to pick the appropriate strategy to resolve the conflict.

Reference

Cohen, R. (2001). Language and Conflict Resolution. International Studies Review,
Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 25-51

Ramirez, A. (2010). Impact of cultural intelligence level on conflict resolution ability: A conceptual model and research proposal. Emerging Leadership Journeys, 3, 1. 42-56.

Wei, H. (2000). Chinese-Style Conflict Resolution: A Case of Taiwanese Business Immigrants in Australia.