1. Introduction

When people work across cultures and countries, a global perspective in management theory becomes critical. Given the global nature of work people increasingly work in international teams and divisions (Earley and Gibson 2002). However, management literature is populated with numerous tales of ineffective expatriate managers who fail to grasp important nuances of their host culture (Black and Gregersen 1991; Black, Gregersen, Mendenhall, and Stroh 1999). The result of such inability to adapt and understand local culture is significant and costly to organizations.

Many frameworks used to study human interaction in various settings have been developed in North America and Western Europe during the last three decades. One such stream of research has emphasized a fundamental aspect of human cognition, or intelligence (Sternberg 1985, 1997). The tradition of research on intelligence can be traced back one hundred years, with early contributions by theorists such as Binet, Guilford, Spearman, Terman, Thurstone, and Thorndike. The twentieth century reflects an even greater emphasis on the definition, assessment, and measurement of human intelligence, evidenced by such endeavors as the development of the standardized intelligence test (Stanford-Binet) and rise of the Educational Testing Service and its impact on modern education.