The Role of Cultural Intelligence in the Success of Western Managers in Turkey

Background: Turkey is an attractive market for expat managers originating from the West. The cultural differences pose challenges and opportunities. Current research suggests that cultural intelligence can help to navigate those challenges and to exploit opportunities. However, there is a lack of focus on Turkey which poses a unique culture due to its geographical location on both the European and the Asian continents. Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate how expat managers from the West can leverage cultural intelligence to maximize their managerial performance. Findings: Based on a sample of four managers, several combinations of cultural intelligence dimensions and managerial performance dimensions were identified, in which the performance of the latter is directly affected by the performance in the respective cultural intelligence dimension. Some dimensions of cultural intelligence are more important than others and some managerial duties cannot be improved by applying cultural intelligence. Conclusion: Leveraging the metacognitive and behavioral dimensions of cultural intelligence has a direct impact on managerial performances that are closely related to interpersonal dealings and communications.