Cultural intelligence and job performance: a comprehensive investigation with some counter-intuitive interaction effects

Nikos Bozionelos (), Sumona Mukhuty, Sanjay Kumar Singh and Georgios Bozionelos
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Nikos Bozionelos: EM - EMLyon Business School
Sumona Mukhuty: Leeds Beckett University (United Kingdom, Leeds)
Sanjay Kumar Singh: University of Dundee
Georgios Bozionelos: Sotiria General Hospital (Greece, Athens)

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Abstract: Purpose: To provide a comprehensive investigation into the relationship of cultural intelligence (CQ) with job performance using primary data. Of special interest were the interactions between meta-cognitive CQ (MCQ) with the other three facets of CQ. Design/methodology/approach: Participants were 182 expatriates working in Abu Dhabi. Their line managers evaluated them on the measures of job performance: Organizational citizenship behaviour-Help (OCB-H), OCB-Change (OCB-C) and task performance. Findings: All testing took place with Emotional Intelligence as a control. Most interactions of MCQ with cognitive CQ (CCQ × MCQ), motivational CQ (MCQ × MoCQ) and behavioural CQ (BCQ × MCQ) were related to the measures of job performance. However, interaction patterns were more nuanced than expected. For example, lower motivational CQ was associated with higher OCB-H and task performance when MCQ was weak. Global CQ was related to all performance measures, but the relationships of the four facets of CQ differed across measures, with cognitive CQ showing the greatest consistency. Finally, global CQ was more strongly related to OCB-H and OCB-C than to task performance, with the results for CQ facets demonstrating the same tendency. Practical implications: Higher scores on all facets of CQ may not always be advantageous for job performance in highly culturally diverse environments. Originality/value: The first study with specifically collected data to test the interactions between CQ facets, providing evidence for their interplay. The study adds to evidence on how cultural intelligence relates to job performance, along with its nomological validity.

Keywords: Task performance; Organizational citizenship; Emotional intelligence; Person-environment fit; Adaptive expertise; Interactions; Facets; Cultural intelligence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-09-09
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05756282v1
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Published in Personnel Review, In press, pp.26. ⟨10.1108/PR-12-2025-1427⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05756282

DOI: 10.1108/PR-12-2025-1427

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