Annual General Assembly 2006 - Dalian

Project Session 1

Globalization, Cultural Intelligence And Maritime Education

Graham Benton, Timothy Lynch

ABSTRACT

While many business leaders and political theorists wrestle with the significance of cultural difference and its impact on transnational relations in the current era of globalization, there is still much work to be done in this field. The concept of Cultural Intelligence (CQ) explores the relevance of cultural intelligence given the increasing globalization of business organizations, and seeks to determine why some individuals are more adept at dealing in situations of cultural diversity than others.
Maritime industries are among the most diverse and global in the world, and as such, elevating cultural intelligence should be a prime goal and objective of maritime academies. At California Maritime, this is accomplished not only through instruction in courses in history, comparative world religions, cultures of globalization, and foreign language study, but also through the experiential opportunity afforded by the Training Ship Golden Bear. This summer, everyone participating in the training cruises was asked to complete a survey designed by the original CQ developers. The compilation of this data will serve to quantify an area of inquiry that by its nature resists easy assessment; furthermore, this data could be used to identify and address shortcomings in maritime education as they pertain to interpersonal dynamics and transcultural knowledge exchanges. Such findings should prove immensely significant in preparing students to adapt to an increasingly globalized workplace.

Keywords: cultural intelligence; CQ; cognition; Meta-cognition; maritime education

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