Cultural Intelligence in Higher Education: How Leaders Navigate Culturally Diverse Environments

Sammanfattning

Background. In recent years, higher education has experienced significant expansion and internationalization. These developments have contributed to universities becoming increasingly culturally diverse, making interaction among individuals from different cultural backgrounds a central aspect of academic work. Within these increasingly multicultural academic environments, leaders are required to navigate intercultural interaction effectively. In this context, Cultural Intelligence provides a relevant framework for understanding how leaders operate within culturally diverse higher education environments. However, the institutional and organizational distinctiveness of universities suggests that assumptions derived from business contexts may offer some insights, but may not fully capture the complexity and institutional particularities of higher education institutions. Purpose. The aim of this study is to provide a more context-specific knowledge of leadership in culturally diverse settings, by focusing on the distinctive characteristics of higher education institutions. Moreover, this study explores how leaders within higher education institutions enact and use Cultural Intelligence in culturally diverse environments, and how the institutional characteristics of higher education shape the way CQ is practiced within everyday leadership interactions. Method. This study adopts a qualitative research design grounded in an interpretivist epistemology and relativist ontological position. Empirical data collection was conducted through semi-structured interviews and the interviews were conducted with leaders holding formal leadership roles within higher education institutions. Conclusion. The findings suggest that CQ within higher education extends beyond adapting to cultural differences alone and is closely connected to facilitating interaction, participation, trust-building, and collaboration across culturally diverse environments. Rather than relying primarily on formal managerial authority, leaders described using CQ through adaptive communication, mediation, dialogue, participation management, and inclusive interaction. CQ therefore appeared enacted less as a purely managerial capability and more as a relational and facilitative leadership practice embedded within collegial and decentralized academic environments. Overall, the study concludes that CQ within higher education functions not only as an individual capability, but also as a context-dependent leadership shaped by the institutional and organizational characteristics specific to higher education institutions. These findings contribute to complementing the research on cultural intelligence and extending beyond the business context, as well provide insights into leadership within culturally diverse environments in higher education.