EMQ » April–July 2024 » Volume 60 Issue 2
Summary: The world is changing as people from around the world work together side-by-side. Mission organizations must adapt to accommodate changing dynamics. Improving organizational cultural intelligence is key to sustaining diverse and inclusive teams that can effectively engage in today’s mission environment.
By Luke Lundstedt
The shift in global mission to a from everyone to everywhere paradigm has introduced a new level of complexity to global mission organizations.[i] Today, leaders and staff need to know how to cross many diverse cultures often simultaneously. The ability of an organization to do this effectively is known as organizational cultural intelligence (OCQ).
The concept of cultural intelligence (CQ) was first developed in research by Earley and Ang[ii] and later gained public attention through the book Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The Real Secret to Success by Livermore.[iii] Just like IQ (Intelligence Quotient) measures a person’s reasoning and problem-solving ability and EQ (Emotional Intelligence) measures the ability to understand, use and manage emotions in positive ways, CQ is a way of measuring a person’s ability to function and manage effectively in diverse cultural settings.[iv]
OCQ goes beyond the cross-cultural ability of individual leaders and staff to focus on the capability of the organization itself to operate effectively across multiple cultures and countries at the same time. It has been hailed as a key competency for organizational success.[v]
Evaluating Cultural Intelligent Organizations
In “The Culturally Intelligent Mission Organization: Five Factors to Evaluate” published in the October 2016 edition of EMQ, Joanna Lima proposed five factors for identifying culturally intelligent organizations. These factors include both the individual cultural intelligence of its leaders throughout the organization as well as key characteristics of the organization itself that facilitate its ability to intentionally adapt to its environment. The five factors are:
- Leadership Behavior – Culturally intelligent organizations have leaders who are high in cultural intelligence.
- Adaptability – Both the leaders and the organization are able to adapt their way of operating to each unique cultural environment.
- Training – Cross-cultural training and leadership development are understood to play a crucial role in providing effective ministry across cultures.
- Intentionality – Leadership and staff know the importance of being intentional about engaging in self-reflection and getting feedback about how communication and interaction is perceived by others in the organization.
- Inclusion – The membership is diverse and engages in mutual learning from each other. Culturally intelligent organizations are effective at incorporating the skills, abilities, perspectives, and voices of all members.[vi]
The Role of Power
The crucial role mission leaders play in using their power to expand or curtail the cultural intelligence of their organizations cannot be overstated. While the association of influence, authority, and power with manipulation and self-interest has tainted the concept of power as a negative force in Christian organizations, Scripture emphasizes that power is to be recognized and used positively for the common good.
Jesus addressed the appropriate use of power by instructing his disciples to serve others: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant” (Matthew 20:25–26, ESV).
Proverbs 1:9 projects power as a tool to be used judiciously on behalf of the powerless: “Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy” (ESV). Using power prudently and effectively to serve others means that mission leaders must match the way they use power to what is appropriate in each context.
There is no one best way of leading that works well across all cultures. What makes a leader effective in one situation will not necessarily work in another. The way mission leaders use power can be easily misunderstood by those they lead because of differences in expectations and attitudes regarding how power should be used in a specific context.
In hierarchical cultures such as Nigeria and South Korea, people consider it natural, functional, and correct for leaders to have and exercise more power than those they lead. The expectation is that decisions are made by those in leadership and communication closely follows formal lines of hierarchy. In egalitarian cultures like Australia and the Netherlands, people believe that power should be distributed more equitably; decisions are made as close to the action as possible, and communication often skips hierarchical lines.[vii]
In culturally diverse teams, the specific characteristics of the local culture blend with the varied perspectives of team members as well as the goals and obligations of the organization. This can often lead to complex and sometimes competing interests and expectations that can have outcomes that range from subtle to potent.
Mission leaders must be adept at understanding the characteristics of their situation to adjust their leadership to fit the amount of power they have, the expectations of their followers, and the tasks to be accomplished. These characteristics inform a contextually appropriate way to avoid lording power over others as Jesus instructs by using it instead to serve others in a way that empowers them and communicates trust.
Leadership Strategies for Improving OCQ
In 2022, I conducted research with six international mission agencies to determine if the level of organizational cultural intelligence was related to the way leaders used different types of power with those they lead.[viii] The research considered the five bases of social power proposed in the seminal work of French and Raven (1959).
The five bases of power include (a) coercive power, used to enact the threat of punishment; (b) reward power, used to offer reward or compensation; (c) legitimate power, derived from a person’s official position in an organization; (d) expert power, derived from possessing expertise in a specific field; and (e) referent power, resulting from a person’s admiration or desire to emulate another.[ix]
Expert and referent power were grouped together as informal power; and coercive, reward, and legitimate power as formal power. Formal power is based on the formal position a person holds within the organization’s hierarchy, while informal power is linked to the structure but is based primarily on interpersonal relationships.[x]
My research led to several important insights for mission leaders seeking to improve the way they use their influence to improve the cross-cultural effectiveness of their organizations. The following suggestions from that research can help organizations develop strategies for intentionally increasing the cultural intelligence in the team, ministry, department, or organization.
Move Between Formal and Informal Power
Learn how to use all five types of power well. Start by recognizing and describing your own preferred way of influencing others. Do you think the boss should have the final say? Or do you prefer to make decisions through group consensus? The chances are your preferred way of using power closely resembles how leader’s use power in your home culture.
In today’s global mission organizations, it is not enough to have an egalitarian or hierarchical leadership style – leaders need to have both. Often this means building on your preferred leadership style by learning how to motivate and mobilize people in ways that may be different to those from your own home culture.
Identify and Adapt to Team Members’ Preferences
Discover how team members prefer their leaders use power. In culturally intelligent organizations, leadership involves focusing on followers. As a leader, how are you being perceived by those you lead? If you are in a culture that is not your own, watch carefully how local leaders use their influence successfully. Explain your own leadership style frequently, but also look for ways to adjust the way you use power to the preferences of each person you lead.
Pay close attention to your own interactions to avoid behaviors that trigger silence among individuals that have less power than you.[xi] In diverse teams, defining a set of norms regarding communication, punctuality, conflict resolution, and decision-making as a team can establish a blueprint of expectations regarding how power should be used and how diverse teammates can work together effectively.
Use Informal Power from a Position of Formal Authority
Building trust is an important practice for leaders in all cultures. When mission leaders give their followers freedom to make their own work and ministry decisions, there is an increase in trust that is developed in the relationship, but it also decreases the leader’s formal power. In other words, as leaders give their followers more freedom to make decisions, the leader’s influence shifts from being primarily positional to relational.
Develop your own Cultural Intelligence[xii]
For organizations that work in multiple cultures, the link between the cultural intelligence of its leadership and the effectiveness of the organization is undeniable. Leaders that are high in CQ play a key role in bridging cultural, communication, and power differences that restrict the flow of knowledge to other teams in the organization by building trust, developing positive relationships, and a shared vision.[xiii]
One Size does not Fit All
Global level executive leaders must give local team leaders enough autonomy to make decisions about how the local team will function and what will work best in their context. The effectiveness of a diverse mission team relies on means for managing diversity that are locally specific and, most likely, locally devised. Global mission organizations must be flexible enough in their structure to accommodate local teams with different culturally based preferences for being more hierarchical or egalitarian.
Clarity and Consistency Builds Trust
Formalizing a foundational framework of rules and policies can help organizations clarify the ways that people in different roles in the organization work together and share information with each other. This includes establishing what needs to be defined at a global level and where freedom can be given to local teams to determine their own policies, roles, and rules.
Two extremes which are equally debilitating occur when mission organizations implement, on a global level, a clear set of rules that work well in some contexts but create significant barriers for teams in other contexts and are thus quietly ignored, or when they develop broad principles that do not include enough concrete detail to be consistently applied.
When rules and policies are relevant, clear, and consistently implemented, it helps build relationship-based trust between leaders at different levels, generates cohesion and identity within local teams, and provides a shared framework within which teams that are very different to each other can collaborate effectively.
Build Informal Networks Across the Organization
Intentionally create spaces where people from different teams can meet and interact. Because knowledge within organizations is an interpersonal phenomenon; building informal networks across the organization is crucial for creating and preserving institutional knowledge as well as disseminating best practices and lessons learned from one part of the organization to another.[xiv]
Additionally, the trust built through strong informal networks creates feedback loops outside the formal structure that can counteract the tendency for local teams with strong hierarchies to suppress their opinions and withhold information due to the pervasive belief that those at the top of the hierarchy are sufficiently knowledgeable.
In complex decision-making, such as approving the proposal for a large project or a new ministry, this phenomenon creates the illusion that those lower in the hierarchy are supportive of a proposed decision when they are not. Creating space for informal networks to emerge can be done in several ways such as:
- Scheduling significant downtime and social activities at global events to give people an opportunity to informally get to know colleagues they wouldn’t otherwise meet.
- Forming short-term work teams composed of members from across the organization to work on specific, concrete assignments.
- Assembling reference groups in different languages that can advise global leaders on specific international strategic initiatives. These groups can be intentionally designed to overcome language, age, gender, and cultural barriers in the organization by including local colleagues, both men and women of different ages, who don’t speak the organization’s common language well. Make sure to include at least one bilingual person who can communicate the group’s ideas back to the global leaders.
Intentionally Create Opportunities for Cross-Cultural Learning
When leaders play a proactive role in mobilizing and combining the expertise and experience of individuals from across the organization, it can spur new ideas that respond to and strengthen organizational goals.[xv] This can increase the cultural intelligence of both the organization and its people.
While global mission organizations by nature bring people into closer proximity to cultures that are not their own, increased contact with other cultures doesn’t always result in greater collaboration and learning. Leaders can intentionally promote cross-cultural learning by:
- Building local teams that are composed of a mix of local members and expatriates. The flow of information between local teams and with the global executive leadership is enhanced when local teams are composed of both local members and expatriates who are well connected in the organization.[xvi]
- Developing and offering ongoing training programs that are intentionally multi-cultural. Inviting speakers from different cultural backgrounds helps ensure that the training itself adheres to more than just one cultural paradigm. Make sure that the training opportunities are offered in the major languages spoken by members of the organization.
Sponsoring a short-term (3–6 months) cross-cultural experience for mono-cultural leaders who work in their own culture and are motivated to learn about another can improve their cultural intelligence and expand their network within the organization to include colleagues from other countries. This could include an assignment to a team in another country with a different language.
Incorporate Diverse Voices
Truly value the wisdom and perspective they bring. The concept of inclusion stems from the conviction that working with diverse groups of people who all have unique qualities makes organizations more effective (1 Corinthians 12:21–26). Leaders must take the first step by being available, supportive, open to new ideas, and willing to give away power through shared decision-making.[xvii]
Top-down models of decision-making limit participation to those whom the leader intentionally includes while excluding everyone else. The challenge is to create processes that encourage the participation of diverse team members and leverages their differences to create synergy within the team. When group members work actively to improve their relationships and build trust, they can focus on exploring the full spectrum of creative and alternative viewpoints that relate directly to the group’s task.
Embrace this Unrelenting Journey
The complexity of leading in a global mission organization is an unrelenting journey of learning to which there is no finale. Enhancing team dynamics can start with identifying two to three areas to discuss as a team, and then taking steps together to implement changes that will increase OCQ. Using influence constructively is a challenging affair. It requires much wisdom, discernment, determination, humility, and commitment to regular improvements. A full copy of the research can be requested from the author.
Luke Lundstedt, PhD, (luke.lundstedt@gmail.com) has over 18 years of experience leading multicultural teams in South America. He currently serves as the head of international projects at FEBC Australia. He and his family live in Wollongong, Australia.
[i] Allen Yeh, Polycentric Missiology: 21st-Century Mission from Everyone to Everywhere (IVP Academic, 2016).
[ii] P. C. Earley and S. Ang, Cultural Intelligence: Individual Interactions Across Cultures (Stanford University Press, 2003).
[iii] David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence (2nd ed., AMACOM, 2015).
[iv] P. C. Earley and S. Ang, Cultural Intelligence: Individual Interactions Across Cultures (Stanford University Press, 2003).
[v] David Livermore, Linn Van Dyne, and S. Ang, “Organizational CQ: Cultural Intelligence (CQ) for 21st Century Organizations,” Business Horizons 65, no. 5 (2021): 671–680, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2021.11.001.
[vi] J. E. Lima, “Mission Organization: Five Factors to Evaluate,” Evangelical Missions Quarterly 52, no. 4 (2016): 28–32.
[vii] J. E. Plueddemann, Leading Across Cultures: Effective Ministry and Mission in the Global Church (IVP Academic, 2009).
[viii] Luke Lundstedt, “The Relationship Between Organizational Cultural Intelligence, Social Power, & Organizational Structure in Multinational, Protestant Nonprofit Organizations,” PhD diss. (Columbia International University, 2023), ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global, https://www.proquest.com/docview/2873286065.
[ix] J. R. P. French and B. H. Raven, “The Bases of Social Power,” in Studies in Social Power, ed. D. P. Cartright (Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, 1959), 150–167.
[x] J. M. Peiró and J. L. Meliá, “Formal and Informal Interpersonal Power in Organisations: Testing a Bifactorial Model of Power in Role-Sets,” Applied Psychology 52, no. 1 (2003): 14–35, https://doi.org/10.1111/1464-0597.00121.
[xi] L. W. Lam and A. J. Xu, “Power Imbalance and Employee Silence: The Role of Abusive Leadership, Power Distance Orientation, and Perceived Organizational Politics,” Applied Psychology 68, no. 3 (2019): 513–546, https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12170.
[xii] For those looking to intentionally improve their cultural intelligence, I direct the reader to the previously mentioned book by David Livermore (2015).
[xiii] D. Vlajčić, A. Caputo, G. Marzi, and M. Dabić, “Expatriates Managers’ Cultural Intelligence as Promoter of Knowledge Transfer in Multinational Companies,” Journal of Business Research 94 (2019): 367–377, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.01.033. N. A. Zulkifly, M. Ismail, and S. R. Hamzah, “Predictors of Knowledge Transfer Between Expatriates and Host Country Nationals: Shared Vision as Mediator,” European Journal of Management and Business Economics 29, no. 2 (2020): 199–215, https://doi.org/10.1108/EJMBE-04-2019-0067.
[xiv] H. Phookan and R. R. Sharma, “Subsidiary Power, Cultural Intelligence and Interpersonal Knowledge Transfer Between Subsidiaries Within the Multinational Enterprise,” Journal of International Management 27, no. 4 (2021): 1–17, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2021.100859.
[xv] M. L. Shier and F. Handy, “Leadership in Nonprofits: Social Innovations and Blurring Boundaries,” Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary & Nonprofit Organizations 31, no. 2 (2020): 333–344, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-018-00078-0.
[xvi] N. A. Zulkifly, M. Ismail, and S. R. Hamzah, “Predictors of Knowledge Transfer Between Expatriates and Host Country Nationals: Shared Vision as Mediator,” European Journal of Management and Business Economics 29, no. 2 (2020): 199–215, https://doi.org/10.1108/EJMBE-04-2019-0067.
[xvii] M. L. Shier and F. Handy, “Leadership in Nonprofits: Social Innovations and Blurring Boundaries,” Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary & Nonprofit Organizations 31, no. 2 (2020): 333–344, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-018-00078-0.
EMQ, Volume 60, Issue 2. Copyright © 2024 by Missio Nexus. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from Missio Nexus. Email: EMQ@MissioNexus.org.
