The impact of cultural intelligence on communication effectiveness, job satisfaction and anxiety for Chinese host country managers working for foreign multinationals

Abstract

Cultural intelligence (CQ) is an important construct attracting growing attention in academic literature and describing cross-cultural competencies. To date, researchers have only partially tested the relationship between CQ and its dependent variables, such as performance. In this study, the relationship between CQ and communication effectiveness and job satisfaction is measured in a sample of 225 Chinese managers working for foreign multinational enterprises in China. The results show that CQ plays an important role in reducing anxiety and influencing both communication effectiveness and job satisfaction positively. Another outcome is the unexpected influence of anxiety on job satisfaction but not on communication effectiveness. These findings contribute to the development of theory with regard to the CQ construct.