A research on the role of cultural intelligence in the management of cultural differences in hospitality industry

Culture and cultural diversities have gradually become noticeable and valid entities among human relations in a world where human interactions from various countries have been increasing day by day. Identify the management according to the cultural differences and to manage existing differences successfully has become one of the components of business management as a necessity nowadays. In this context, there are variety of organizational and individual strategies for managing cultural differences, one of the most important strategies of these strategies is cultural intelligence. The main purpose of this study is to determine the role of cultural intelligence in the management of cultural differences. Thesis project consists of three parts. In the first part of the study; culture, organizational culture, cultural differences and the management of cultural differences are emphasized. In the second part; the concept of cultural intelligence was explained and in the third part; informations, findings and evaluations are presented to determine the relationship between cultural intelligence and the management of cultural differences related to the research conducted in the hospitality industry. In this study, the depth interview was conducted with 10 foreign hotel managers from five star hotels operating in Antalya and İstanbul region and 27 Turkish department managers working depending on them and then three main themes identified after descriptive analysis of the data obtained from semi-structured interviews. In this study, cultural analysis was used. According to the research, it was found that foreign hotel managers' cultural intelligence affect positively the management of cultural differences and this result obtained showed that cultural intelligence has a significant contribution in the management of cultural differences.