Emotional Intelligence Matters.

Introduction

Homicide of George Floyd forced us to revisit ethics and values. After so many landmarks of mankind, haven't we moved forward that much? This might be the feeling when examining the depth and breadth of the controversies of the homicide of George Floyd and #blacklifesmatters movement. This article reviews a few frameworks which will be worthwhile to understand for humanity.

Culture Matters

Professor Edward T. Hall stated that a person's visible behavior is just a tip of the iceberg and there are hidden emotions, thoughts, values and beliefs beneath the surface that play a big role to drive the visible behavior (Edward T. Hall, 1976). These fundamentals are related to so-called culture.

Culture is unwritten norms which are shared by members of a group (Daft, 2010). Further, it is learnt from the social environment, and programming the humans such that distinguishes group members from other populations (Hofstede, 2010). This difference causes humans to perceive the world in different ways. While this creates diversity, if unaware, it can create ethical problems at the same time (Thorne & Saunders, 2002).

Understand and Accept the Cultures

Everything that we experience related to human behaviors can be interpreted based on the culture. To accept diversity and avoid ethical problems, everyone should be aware of the cultural dilemmas in multicultural society and behave ethically. While cultural dilemmas cannot be interpreted as right or wrong, if unaware, they might be more or less susceptible to different ethical problems. Professor Hofstede's (Hofstede, 2010) 5 dilemmas of differentiating cultures are worthwhile for better understanding of different cultures and accepting them. They are:

1. Hierarchy vs Equality,
2. Individualism vs Collectivism,
3. Performance vs Caring/Quality of Life,
4. Uncertainty Avoidance vs “Let it Be”, and
5. Flexibility vs Discipline.

A detailed explanation about these cultural dilemmas was given by Fernando Lanzer from the following TED talk:

Once understood the cultural dilemmas, self-aware individuals can identify the composition of cultural dilemmas in their own culture and others. This helps to identify their own biases and how to value others' behavior. Further, it will promote learning of other cultures as well.

Emotional Intelligence and Multicultural Harmony

The self-awareness is the base of multicultural harmony. Self-awareness is one of the dimensions of emotional intelligence (otherwise known as emotional quotient or EQ) (Salovey and Mayer, 1990). Emotional intelligence of a person can be defined by 4 attributes in relation to multicultural harmony:

1. Self-awareness – Recognition of own cultural dilemmas and how they affect own thoughts/emotions and behavior. This helps to know own biases, strengths and weaknesses, and make self-confidence.
2. Self-management – The ability to control impulsive feelings and behaviors, manage own emotions, and adapt to changing circumstances in healthy ways when encountering multicultural diversity.
3. Social awareness – The feeling of empathy. The understanding of the emotions, needs, and concerns of other people related to cultural dilemmas and cultural diversity.
4. Relationship management – The understanding of how to develop and maintain good relationships, communicate clearly, inspire and influence others, work well in a team, and manage conflict with good cultural awareness.

Therefore, emotional intelligence (EQ) provides a moral compass to promote multicultural harmony (Moon, 2010). The individual's emotional intelligence will determine how they want to be part of multicultural harmony beyond merely obeying the law.

Conclusions

Homicide of George Floyd forced us to revisit ethics and values. A person's ethics and values are determined by their culture. Culture causes humans to perceive the world in different ways. While culture creates diversity, if unaware, it can create ethical problems as well in multicultural interactions. Therefore, it is important to be aware of cultural dilemmas in multicultural society. This awareness is part of the emotional intelligence (EQ) and a moral compass to multicultural harmony. Therefore, it is important to develop emotional intelligence from a cultural intelligence perspective.

References

Daft, R.L., Murphy, J. and Wilmott, H. (2017). Organization theory & design : an international perspective. Hampshire, United Kingdom: Cengage Learning Emea.

Edward T. Hall (1976). Beyond culture. New York, Ny: Anchor Books.

Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and organizations: software of the mind. London, McGraw-Hill.

?Hofstede, G. (2010). The GLOBE debate: Back to relevance. Journal of International Business Studies, 41(8), pp.1339–1346.

??Moon, T. (2010). Emotional intelligence correlates of the four-factor model of cultural intelligence. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 25(8), pp.876–898.

Salovey, P. and Mayer, J.D. (1990). Emotional Intelligence. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 9(3), pp.185–211.

?Thorne, L. and Saunders, S.B. (2002). The Socio-Cultural Embeddedness of Individuals’ Ethical Reasoning in Organizations (Cross-cultural Ethics). Journal of Business Ethics, 35(1), pp.1–14.