Cultural intelligence as a predictor of individuals’ adaptive performance: A study in a multicultural environment

Abstract

As the work environment is changing rapidly, organizations need more adaptable employees who can work creatively, learn new skills and adapt to diverse social contexts and novel environments. Individual differences such as prior experience and self-efficacy have been extensively examined as predictors of adaptive performance. In contrast, the role of cultural intelligence in promoting adaptive performance has been overlooked. The primary goal of this study was to examine cultural intelligence that may account for adaptive performance beyond prior experience and self-efficacy. Moreover, we examined the moderating role of self-efficacy in terms of the relationship between cultural intelligence and adaptive performance. We tested our hypothesis with multisource data in a sample of 132 military personnel assigned in a multinational military organization. Hierarchical regression analysis demonstrated that cultural intelligence, together with self-efficacy and prior experience, was important predictors of adaptive performance. Specifically, cultural intelligence explained additional variance in adaptive performance over and above that of prior experience and self-efficacy. These findings suggested the importance of cultural intelligence as a critical predictor of adaptive performance in multicultural contexts.