Written by: Wallace Kamau on February 3, 2019

I have worked with many nationalities both at the corporate level and in the ministry as a pastor and missionary to confirm that cultural intelligence is an important competence for leaders. This is especially for leaders who aspire to serve in cross cultural settings and to grow in their leadership capabilities. As a CPA with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and as a senior manager in the Insurance industry, I had the opportunity to work in different cultural settings. Additionally as a pastor and missionary, I have worked with many nationalities and travelled widely across continents. Through all these experiences, I have had many encounters that forced me to seek help in working with cultural intelligence and I have learnt through the many mistakes that I have made in assuming that I did not need to understand the cultures of the people that I have to work with. Many times, I have assumed that I can navigate any culture as long as I can figure out the personality traits, capabilities and qualifications of the people and align them accordingly in the organization to my disappointment.

Reading Erin Meyer’s book[1] was therefore an eye opener and made me realize how many times I have misunderstood people’s intentions and way of doing things and made wrong decisions in ignorance. This has especially been in my interaction with American missionaries and I realize too that there are many times that they misunderstand Kenyans because of their cultural differences. Meyer in describing her 8-scale model[2] identifies communication as one key area that she defines in a spectrum comprising low context and the other extreme as high context. She puts America at the extreme right at low context and Kenya at the left side of high context. I totally agree with her categorization because we tend to be indirect in communicating and there is wide usage of local proverbs and many contextualized phrases that can only be understood by the locals. Its also true that different English words have different meanings to different cultures.

There are many instances that I have had to explain to the missionaries when they do not understand the use of English words that are used to mean different things in their contexts. It’s has become clear to me that without cultural intelligence, you cannot be effective in leading and influencing people in the organization to effectively achieve the organizational objectives. Christopher[3] Earley and Soon Ang emphasize the importance of cultural intelligence in working effectively across cultures which are a major determinant of success or failure in working in cross cultural settings. The highlight the three facets of cultural intelligence as: “Cognition, ability to develop patterns from cultural cues; Motivation, the desire and ability to engage others; and Behavior, the capability to act in accordance with cognition and motivation.”[4]

I see the need to understand my topic of interest, Financial Literacy from different cultures by looking at how people manage their finances and the level of financial literacy in different cultures. It will be of great interest to me how the different levels of financial literacy is affected by the culture prevailing in different parts of the world. Of particular interest to me is the level of financial literacy in developed countries like the USA and how it affects peoples ability to effectively manage their financial resources and compare with my context in a developing country and how the diff ENT aspects of cultural differences play in financial literacy and ability to manage finances. I’m currently searching through the Dave Ramseys Financial peace university model as I read through his book, The Total Money makeover[5]. I will seek to see its applicability in my Local African context in light of the differences in culture and other aspects. American is largely defined by its consumerism culture as opposed to the subsistence and basic survival nature of most of the African economies.

As the church of Jesus Christ, its important to note that people’s lives are significantly affected by their financial status and this is an important consideration in people’s understanding and interaction with God. It’s my believe that scripture is rich in the necessary financial knowledge that can transform peoples financial literacy in ways that would bring them closer to God. This means that the understanding of a biblically based financial literacy will be a great tool of evangelism when its readily available to the ministers of the Gospel, especially when its contextualized to factor the cultural differences as appropriate.

[1] Meyer, Erin (2016). The Culture Map(Intl Ed). Decoding How People Think, Lead, and Get Things Done Across Cultures. Public Affairs, 2016 January 5. UK.

[2] Meyer, Erin (2016). The Culture Map(Intl Ed). Decoding How People Think, Lead, and Get Things Done Across Cultures. Public Affairs, 2016 January 5. UK. Pg 15

[3] Earley, P Christopher & Ang, Soon (2003). Cultural Intelligence: Individual Interactions Across Cultures. Stanford University Press. 2003. USA.

[4] Ibid…

[5] Ramsey, Dave (2003). The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness.

About the Author

Wallace Kamau

Wallace is a believer in Christ, Married to Mary Kamau (Founder and Executive Director of Missions of Hope International) and father to 3 Wonderful children, Imani Kamau (Graduate student at London School of Economics, UK), Victory Kamau (Undergraduate student at Portland state University, Oregon, USA) and David Kamau ( Grade student at Rosslyn Academy). Founder and Director, Missions of Hope International (www.mohiafrica.org), CPA, BAchelor of Commerce (Accounting) from University of Nairobi, Masters of Arts (Leadership) from Pan African Christian University.

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