Thesis On Cultural Intelligence:

Cross cultural diversity is a common aspect of today’s world. This cultural diversity has been seen to have great influence on individual’s performance in a workplace. It is a highly researched field but with very few results. The biggest problem associated with this particular research is the difficulty to link individual’s cultural diversity with performance. For the case of IATA, cultural diversity is a factor that could greatly be linked to its success, however, it has proved itself difficult to quantify such information in a form that could be easily understood and used as a basis of forming solid conclusion about conclusive data. There have been several ways that have been proposed, which could be used to establish the relation between individual cultural diversity and his or her performance. They include the use of interviews with employees of IATA, to get first hand information about their personal, information relating to their personal, cultural as well professional back grounds. The other measure was to evaluate the individual’s performance in the organization. Having this information would facilitate the link between the two aspects.
However, there exist alternative solutions that could be used to get more information that would shed more light about the relationship and individual performance. It has been researched that one of the biggest leadership problems in big organizations in the world is the process of overcoming the difficulty in adapting to cross cultural diversity in a work place. In fact the most successful leaders in such organization have been seen to posses great abilities in cultural intelligence that has to help in management of people from different cultures.

Alternative one

Advantages
This alternative is suitable because acquisition of information would be cheap. And
Would be less time consuming compare to other forms such as interviews.
Disadvantages
Biased information would lead to ineffective results and therefore, invalid conclusions
Lacks first hand information specific to IATA organization
Alternative two
Another alternative solution to gathering information about linking cultural intelligence and individual performance in an organization would be observation. Observation is a very important data collection and analysis tool that could be used in such a scenario. Observation of various aspects of the organization such as management, customer relations, leadership characteristics and how these factors relate to individual’s global mindset in terms of how cultural intelligence in employees influence their performance. Observation links various interrelations within the organization that paint a clear picture of how thing works and would be a good source of conclusive data about cultural intelligence and performance. It is also a cheaper method of collecting data, but would be limited by the amount of time needed to observe a significant amount of activities in the organization. It would take up a lot of time in terms of days but if thoroughly done would lead to establishment of great results that would help the research.
Advantages

It covers broad aspect of the research and provides more data

It is also a cheaper way of obtaining relevant information
Disadvantages

It is very time consuming because coverage is wide

Alternative three
Another alternative solution would be use of reporting. This is more like interview but is usually backed by legal factors. It would need liaising with management officials of the organization. Given the importance of this research for an organization such as IATA, joining efforts to gather information would be very effective in providing results that the organization would use for increasing performance. Reporting would therefore, make it mandatory for employees to cooperate in answering question and would lead to a smooth data collection with minimum costs incurred in for of time and resources.
Advantages

More data is collected

The is more cooperation during collection of data since it is mandatory
Disadvantages

It disrupts normal activities

Can be expensive as far as time and resources is concerned
Cost/ benefit analysis
Use of SWOT analysis on the alternative
Use of previous literature
Strengths
Previous literature is useful because of its wide range of information on the topic. It could help provide different viewpoints of people from different parts of the world, there by shedding more light on the link and whether it is positive or not.

It is also a suitable method because it does not have any costs associated with it

Weaknesses
Previous literature is not always certain and could be biased and so complete reliance on this form would lead to establishment of invalid results.

Information from literature could be unsuitable because it could be obsolete and out of date

Opportunities
It bears opportunities of acquiring more insight about the topic as a result of different view points
Threats
It may contain biased information which would jeopardize the whole research and lead to establishment of invalid conclusions
Use of observation
Strengths

Observation is simple and easy carry out

It covers wider aspects of the organization and therefore provide more information about the interrelation between cultural intelligence and employee performance

Weaknesses

It is very time consuming
It could be very hectic given the amount of aspects to cover
Opportunities
It would provide opportunities for gathering more information which would be very helpful and efficient
Threats
It could be very hectic and therefore result to bias
Use of reporting by employees
Strengths

Reporting makes work easier and increases cooperation by employees because it is mandatory

It facilitates for collection of data that is more specific to the research
Weakness
It can be time consuming for the organization because it disrupts normal activities of the organization
Could be expensive to undertake
Opportunities
It could lead to cooperation with the organization that could be helpful in the whole research in terms of acquisition of information for the research
Threats
It is a mandatory activity and therefore, the employees would limit their honesty about their personal, social and economic information which would result to limitations in the amount of data collected