By Cristina Ciocirlan

One of the first things we teach International Business students is to avoid stereotyping people in business interactions abroad. Stereotyping means characterizing a person based on their sex, religion, race, ethnic ancestry, family background, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, etc.

It’s the thinking, “You are Italian, therefore you must like your spaghetti..” Or, “You’re Chinese, you must be excellent in math!”

While stereotyping is a way for our brain to simplify reality, it can also lead to erroneous opinions about people, and it can even be hurtful sometimes.

Most readers are familiar with the concept of cognitive intelligence, measured by IQ, or with the concept of emotional intelligence (EQ), but they may not be familiar with that of cultural intelligence (CQ). The Harvard Business Review defines CQ as “an outsider’s natural ability to interpret someone’s unfamiliar and ambiguous gestures the way that person’s compatriots would.” In a nutshell, it is our ability to interpret an Italian’s behavior just as accurately as an Italian would.

CQ is an important competency for every international manager: While, in our global world, our cities start looking identical from a commercial perspective. (You’re just as likely to find a Zara, an H&M, a Tommy Hilfiger, or a McDonald’s in New York City, as you are to find them in Beijing, or in Rome;) Cultural differences are still alive and kicking, and sometimes can get you in trouble.

Having spent my sabbatical semester in Italy, I will talk here about some cultural differences I observed in Italy.

Most Americans may be familiar with the Italian stereotype of la dolce far niente (sweet idleness, or the sweetness of doing nothing), popularized in the 1960 movie “La dolce vita” by Federico Fellini, and enabled by the economic boom that followed the WWII. Mention this concept to an Italian, however, and it is as foreign to them as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Most Italians work incredibly hard to achieve their “Italian dream,” which consists of having the discretionary income to eat out at the ristorante and spend their summer vacations at the beach. Due to inflation, economic recessions, shrinking middle class, the pandemic, and the Russian war, the Italian dream has been harder and harder to achieve in recent years.

Now, hard work has become just as ingrained in the Italian psyche as their artisanal pizza. A couple of quick and raw examples: My colleague, professor at the University of Sassari, has been named in the Stanford University’s ranking of the top 2% most-cited scientists worldwide; in supermarkets, the cashiers work every weekend, having only three free Sundays per year, apart from the legal holidays.

I also have learned that not all Italians like the traditional Panettone for Christmas, or the Colomba for Easter, and not all of them like to sip their espresso slowly and linger in a caffè for hours. Also, drinking a glass of vino with dinner, which they eat at 8:30-9:00 pm, is not as common as I thought. And no, Latin is not taught in schools and many Italians do not like opera.

Another competency that will help you in interactions abroad is that of self-motivation, of resilience. Learning the local language and culture requires a willingness to put yourself in embarrassing situations, situations where you know from the start that you may fail but you do so anyway. I remember how embarrassed I felt when, trying to converse in Italian, I confidently said the word for ‘breasts’ instead of the one for ‘roofs,’ a one-vowel difference! Or, when I used the wrong gender pronoun for the washing machine. (It’s feminine). Or, when I asked for the electric bill instead of the dinner bill at the restaurant!

The laughter that followed echoed all the way to the Colosseum … but I dusted myself off and stayed in the game.

The point is, it is important to get to know a culture beyond the surface, beyond the cultural stereotypes and generalizations. Understand what they are passionate about, what they are preoccupied about, understand the source of their fears, aspirations, and dreams. Pick yourself up after failing. Learn to adapt. Something Starbucks inherently understood, while Domino’s didn’t (selling pizza to the Italians? Hmmm…)

If you stay in the game long enough, you will learn that, whether we eat dinner at 6 p.m. or at 9 p.m., whether we call our tribe ‘family’ or ‘la famiglia’, whether we eat an omelet or a cornetto for breakfast, we all have certain things in common: We all care about our loved ones, we all complain about inflation and the cost of living, and we all grumble about our teenagers spending too much time on the telephone.

Cristina Ciocirlan is an Associate Professor of Business at Elizabethtown College and Director of the International Business program within the School of Business. She is also a U.S. Fulbright Scholar.