Investigation of cultural intelligence and communication skills of sport sciences academicians

Sports involves the effort to carry out games, contests and winning activities based on physical activity under certain rules. While individuals who are interested in sports often encounter different cultures, they also experience communication processes. One of the factors that make communication effective and strong is cultural intelligence. Cultural intelligence includes talents that make it easier for individuals to be successful and compatible in multicultural settings. People with advanced cultural intelligence can communicate with individuals from different cultures in tolerance and understanding. Communication skills and cultural intelligence are important for academics who give sports education and the people they train in order to be active in expressing themselves and in the field of sports training. The study conducted in this direction aims to reveal the communication skills and cultural intelligence levels of academicians working in the field of sports.The research carried out by the correlational survey model includes 340 academics working in different universities in Turkey. In the research, "Conversational Skills Rating Scale" and "Cultural Intelligence Scale" were used. In the analysis of the data, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Shapiro-Wilk Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis H tests and descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean and standard deviation) were used. As a result of the research, it was determined that the communication skills level of the academics working in Turkey is 'very high' (x̄=4,19) and their cultural intelligence level is 'high' (x̄=3,67). In addition, it was found that there is a linear relationship between communication skills levels and cultural intelligence levels, and this relationship is a significantly "high" (x̄=3,57) and positive relationship. It was seen that as the level of communication of academics increases, their level of cultural intelligence increases. At the end of the study, some practices were recommended to be carried out to increase the communication and cultural intelligence competencies, which are assumed to be important for the professional efficiency of academics working in the field of sports.