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You get anxious in unfamiliar situations. You can't stand not knowing what is coming next. You hate it when people keep you waiting.

You may have a career-threatening cultural IQ.

In addition to other indicators of ability, such as social intelligence and emotional intelligence, employers are now paying more attention to the cultural intelligence of their staff, as workplaces become increasingly diverse and companies conduct more business abroad. Yet most people don't know how they measure up.

Now, an international research team led by Simon Fraser University has created an online test to assess individuals' cultural IQ.

"We have lots of anecdotal evidence of people who are smart ... and seemingly have good social skills, but who still don't do well when they're interacting with people who are culturally different from them," said David Thomas, professor of international management at the university and principal investigator of the project. "It isn't something where we can just stick a thermometer in you [and measure]."

People with high cultural intelligence are able to adapt quickly across cultures and are sharply attuned to nuances regardless of the country, Dr. Thomas said. In contrast, people with low cultural intelligence are often unaware when they make a cultural faux pas and are left bewildered when their business dealings fail as a result.

Dr. Thomas said he has come across numerous cases in which business deals have suffered because of a lack of cultural intelligence.

In one instance, a Canadian company sent a group of negotiators to Israel to make an acquisition, only to have them return perplexed by their Israeli counterparts' emotional communication style.

"When they returned, the boss asked, 'How did it go?' And they said, 'We don't know. They were just screaming at us the whole time,' " Dr. Thomas said.

The online test, developed over the past three years by Dr. Thomas and 12 other business and psychology scholars from around the world, assesses a variety of skills and traits, including people's tolerance for uncertainty and their adaptability, empathy and cultural knowledge. It also measures people's cultural metacognition, or self-awareness of how they think about other cultures.

The test, which takes about 30 minutes to complete, asks subjects to rate how much they agree or disagree with a series of statements, such as "I try to understand exactly what I am trying to accomplish," and "I worry about the outcomes of any new procedure."

Test subjects are also asked to watch and interpret short video clips. Their verbal responses are recorded online, and later coded and analyzed by the research team.

Finally, subjects are given a numeric value of their cultural intelligence. A higher score indicates a greater level of cultural IQ.

The test can be used for a wide range of purposes, from determining who is best to lead a corporation's overseas operations and which employees need cultural sensitivity training, to assessing the efficacy of individual peacekeepers, diplomats and even world leaders, the researchers said.

The project team is seeking companies, government and law enforcement agencies to try out the test, and is considering developing it for commercial use.

There is hope for people who do lack cultural intelligence, the team said.

Researchers do not know to what extent cultural intelligence is innate or acquired, but they believe increased contact with other cultures can help boost it.

"We think [cultural intelligence] is learned. We certainly know it can be developed," Dr. Thomas said.

"But there may be people who are just born better at this."

SIZING UP CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE

Here are sample statements used to measure cultural intelligence. Subjects are asked whether they strongly agree, agree, disagree or strongly disagree.

A) I am good at understanding other people's feelings.

B) I accept delays without becoming upset.

C) Ordinarily, I am very calm and relaxed in conversations with a person from a different culture.

D) I become anxious when I cannot find out what is coming next.

E) Before criticizing somebody from another culture, I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place.

F) I always notice when someone is in trouble.

With the exception of statement D, strong agreement indicates higher cultural intelligence.

Wency Leung