Short-term cross-cultural study tours: impact on cultural intelligence

This paper examines whether short-term cross-cultural study tours enhance the four factors of cultural intelligence (CQ): metacognition, cognition, motivation and behavior. CQ has exhibited high correlations between higher levels of CQ and positive attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. As a capability, CQ appears malleable and, thus, open to change and improvement. Data were collected from working professionals in an MBA program both before and after participating in an experientially oriented 11- or 12-day short-term cross-cultural study tour. Results supported three of the four hypotheses, suggesting that short-term cross-cultural study tours exhibited a significant relationship with enhanced metacognitive CQ, cognitive CQ and motivational CQ. The results did not reveal a significant relationship between the study tours and behavioral CQ.