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BCCC professor champions companies’ growing need for employees with high CQ
Posted: April 28, 2008
Contact:
Bill Fleming
410-986-5507
wfleming@bccc.edu
Diversity Expert Richard Bucher Shows Students How to Build “Cultural Intelligence”—and How This Skill Is Crucial to the Bottom Line.
As a Baltimore City educator for 30 years working to ensure open-access education and expanded opportunities for his students, Baltimore City Community College professor of Sociology Richard D. Bucher has been recognized locally, nationally and internationally for his expertise.
But this otherwise low-key foot soldier for diversity and the power of multiculturalism, both to enhance the bottom line and transform the skills of those responsible for shaping it, comes with a message: In the age of globalization and unprecedented intercultural exchange, one of the most crucial determinants of an individual’s or organization’s success will be cultural intelligence, or CQ.
Professor Bucher’s new book, “Building Cultural Intelligence (CQ): Nine Megaskills” (Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008) is a participatory primer for those interested in linking the general subject of diversity to the practical skills necessary for functioning in the new global workplace. Through reader-involved aids such as “Your Turn,” “Reflect Before Reading,” “Individual Action Plan,” and “Where Am I Now?,” Bucher aims to turn readers’ vague appreciation for diversity into full mastery of CQ, which he deems the most important work aptitude of the 21st century.
“I want to be able to give people something they can use,” he says. “Too often, we are mired in ‘cultural cruise control,’ oblivious to cultural differences. There’s no sugarcoating this subject: The book is going to stretch you; it will push you beyond your comfort zone.”
Presenting CQ as a skill to be learned, developed and managed, professor Bucher directs readers to focus on nine megaskills comprising CQ which are:
- Understanding cultural identity;
- Checking cultural lenses;
- Global consciousness;
- Shifting perspectives;
- Intercultural communication;
- Managing cross-cultural conflict;
- Multicultural teaming;
- Dealing with bias;
- Understanding the dynamics of power
On bias, he takes us a step further. Utilizing a nondescript silhouetted figure with raised arms, professor Bucher asks, “How would knowing more information about [this] person—his sexual orientation, for instance, whether he is over 70 years of age or whether he is a former welfare recipient—affect your ability to communicate with him or value his ideas? How would it affect your ability to work closely with him on a project?"
Throughout his book, professor Bucher poses—and challenges us to provide real answers for—the general question, “How prepared are we to excel in the new and more common setting where multicultural scenarios are increasing in frequency and importance?” Moreover, do we have the necessary motivation and knowledge—and wisdom to apply this knowledge—to embrace and leverage cultural differences?
Clearly, people across society’s spectrum need to build their CQ. And professor Bucher asserts this aptitude directly affects the bottom line. How will your company reach increasingly diverse customers harboring real spending power—or strengthen internal processes critical to a product or market appeal? CQ is the answer. According to Bucher, it is not some common-sense, ultimately vain notion of intercultural understanding; rather, an acquired skill that requires practice, practice, and more practice.
As a professor of Sociology at BCCC, Dr. Bucher teaches a variety of courses, including Introductory Sociology, Cultural Diversity in the Workplace, and Race and Ethnic Relations. Recently, the National Institute for Staff and Organization Development (NISOD) honored him for teaching excellence. He served as the first director of BCCC's Institute for Intercultural Understanding. Under his leadership, the group gained national recognition as an innovative diversity education program.
In 1993, he received BCCC’s College Excellence Award. In 2000, he was honored as the Maryland Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). In 2007, Bucher was named an Oxford Round Table Scholar and lectured at Oxford University, England, as a participant in that internationally recognized “think tank” of fifty scholars from around the world invited to exchange ideas and principles for global humanitarian advancement.
Dr. Bucher’s interest in diversity issues began as an undergraduate student more than 30 years ago. He received his B.A. from Colgate University, M.A. from New York University, and Ph.D. from Howard University. At Howard, his field of specialization was race and ethnic relations, with a minor in education.
In 2009, the third edition of another book by Bucher titled, “Diversity Consciousness: Opening Our Minds to People, Cultures, and Opportunities” (Prentice Hall) will be coming out.
Bucher’s literary accomplishments are an example of the tradition of teaching and learning—which BCCC promotes to its faculty and staff—to change lives and build communities. With an enrollment of more than 20,000 credit and noncredit students, BCCC is the only community college in the city of Baltimore and is Maryland’s only state- sponsored community college. The College enrolls more Baltimore City residents as undergraduates than any other college or university in the state and is the largest provider of undergraduate higher education in Baltimore City.
For more information on the book, professor Bucher’s pioneering work on diversity or upcoming projects, contact the BCCC Office of Communications or professor Bucher at (410) 462-7667, or rbucher@bccc.edu.