The Challenges of Globalization: The Changing Role of Cultural Intelligence in the 21st Century

As a result of inexorable globalization and European integration processes people have to face challenges deriving from cultural differences. A strong correlation exists between the capabilities of individuals to face these challenges and their cultural intelligence. The main goals of this paper are to define factors influencing cultural intelligence being one of the key competences of the 21th century. In an open economy like the Hungarian, workers and business partners alike find themselves, ever more often, facing challenges that arose due to cultural differences. Our empirical research is based on relationship between the success attitude and the cultural intelligence of full-time university students. The success attitude of university students ultimately refers to their preferences for a sense of success which is the drive that governs their thoughts and actions. We identified the indicators of success attitude in a previous study. The indicators were classified into five components using factor analysis. A strong, significant connection between the main components of success attitude and the factors of cultural intelligence has been established. We found the strongest connection between the motivation factor of cultural intelligence and the main component that encompasses positive feelings, speaking foreign languages or opportunities abroad. In addition, the main components of success attitude are in a positive relationship not only with the motivational factor, but also with all the factors of cultural intelligence. Thus based on the research analysis, it can be claimed that motivation plays an important role in shaping cultural intelligence.