Abstract

In intercultural encounters, resonance cannot exist without dissonance. Leaders learn to navigate this rhythm. This presentation brings Western theories of cultural intelligence (CQ) into dialogue with Japanese ideas of context, relation, and becoming. Such a bridge reframes the either-or dichotomy as a relational interplay in which learning takes place. Drawing on twenty in-depth interviews with seasoned executives from Western companies, it integrates CQ with Japanese concepts of Shu-Ha-Ri (developmental mastery) and Wa-Ma-Ba (relational attunement). The paper arrives at a relational-developmental model of cultural intelligence that brings together trait-based epistemology (what I have) and a developmental and relational ontology (how I become with others). By bringing “me” closer to “we,” it opens up a view of cultural intelligence as a movement of learning how to hold and use the creative tension of dissonance and resonance in intercultural life.

Biosketch

Sierk Horn is Professor for Business Communication and Intercultural Competence at Munich University of Applied Sciences. He has worked in various roles in European and Asian Business Schools and as an executive in commercial semiotics. He holds a PhD and Habilitation in Japanese Studies. Throughout his career, his work has been shaped by a sustained engagement with uncertainty, how it emerged, is lived, and negotiated in organisational and intercutural contexts.