Cultural intelligence: Key intelligence of the 21st century? Validation of CQS instrument

Abstract

Since no empirical research regarding cultural intelligence has yet been done in Croatia, the objective of this paper is to determine the basic metric characteristics of the Cultural Intelligence Scale – CQS by Van Dyne et al. (2008), as well as the applicability in research on a sample of N=144 subjects, namely, students attending schools of foreign languages from three different countries: Croatia, Ireland and Serbia. The reliability of the scale was verified using the Cronbach alpha coefficient, while the validity was assessed by factor analysis. The results of the study show the cultural intelligence of the subjects through four factor dimensions, like in the original instrument, but with different factor loadings. Thus, the Cultural Intelligence Scale is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring cultural intelligence with the possibility of practical application on different subject samples.