David C. Thomas (1947–)

Cultural diversity is a major phenomenon of our time. If cross-cultural challenges of all kinds find us unprepared, we face unexpected difficulties in conducting our business to a successful conclusion. And we may be at a complete loss to know what went wrong or how to fix it.

Marshall McLuhan’s prediction of a global village has come true with respect to worldwide electronic communications; yet in some respects we are still as far apart as ever. Now, however, the person whose culture we don’t understand may be our colleague or client instead of a stranger halfway around the world.

How do we prepare to deal with the many possible complexities and confusions that can arise between people of drastically different backgrounds—or better, avert them in the first place? David C. Thomas and Kerr Inkson say the answer is to raise our cultural intelligence. They call it CQ. In Cultural Intelligence: Living and Working Globally, they define the components of CQ and then show how to develop and practice it in a wide variety of situations, both abroad and right at home.

Read the entire review in Peer to Peer, the magazine of the International Legal Technology Association.… (altro)