This chapter provides the conclusion of this study based on the research findings, and offers suggestions. The results indicate that cultural intelligence is positively associated with job satisfaction. However, this study also showed that expatriates with higher levels of political skill and cultural intelligence had the lowest levels of job satisfaction. Conversely, expatriates with higher levels of cultural intelligence but lower levels of political skill had the highest levels of job satisfaction. In addition, implications, limitations and suggestions for future research are presented in sequence.
Cultural Intelligence and Job Satisfaction
Hypothesis 1 stated that for expatriates, high cultural intelligence is positively associated with job satisfaction. Moreover, the findings of this research were consistent with previous research (Bücker et al., 2014; Yesil, 2013; Sims, 2011).
In accordance with past researches, Livermore (2011) explained that when individuals with high cultural intelligence face culturally diverse circumstances, their cultural intelligence helps them to easily solve them; People would feel less fatigued wheb they acquire higher personal satisfaction. Furthermore, people with higher personal satisfaction will motivate themselves to work harder, and they will feel more energetic while doing their job. This study also indicates an important result: if expatriates can acquire job satisfaction, they can enhance sustained communication in cross-cultural interactions (Bücker et al., 2014).
In other words, cultural intelligence would enhance expatriates’ cross-cultural interaction ability such as collaboration, communication and problem solving, thereby increasing job satisfaction.
Political Skill as Moderator
Hypothesis 2 indicates that political skill moderates the positive relationship between cultural intelligence and job satisfaction. Figure 4.1 indicates differences in the adaptation rate wherein expatriates with different levels of political skill need a different pace to react to cross-cultural interactions with people and the environment; they will spend less time persuading themselves to judge cultural differences and are good at knowing how to observe people’s reactions and determine how to respond to them. Moreover, they are good at observation and use their communication skill to deliver messages to their supervisors, such as their purpose or what they want, so that they might have a great opportunity to get job satisfaction (Harris et al., 2009). In other words, expatriates with higher cultural intelligence acquire and deliver messages smoothly and effectively in different cultural settings and afterwards make sensible judgments in response to the new cultural context (Earley & Ang, 2003). For this reason, expatriates with higher political skill and cultural intelligence will hesitate to reaction immediately and influence their job satisfaction. In contrast, expatriates with lower political skill spend more time persuading themselves to judge cultural differences;
they are not adept at observing people and providing relevant reactions. In other words, expatriates need high cultural intelligence to cultivate them and acquire job satisfaction.
Implications for Research
This study makes a valuable contribution to the understanding of cross-cultural relations.
The present study pointed out that few studies focus on the specific relationship between cultural intelligence and job satisfaction. Ang et al. (2007) also stated that there is a gap on understanding whether cultural intelligence is correlated with job satisfaction. In this study,
we clarified that cultural intelligence serves as a predictor for expatriate’s job satisfaction in a cross-cultural environment. The finding of this study is consistent with previous researches (Bücker et al., 2014; Yesil, 2013; Sims, 2011).
To gain insight into some of the research implications, this study also explored if political skill is a key factor for expatriates facing cross-cultural interactions. Cultural intelligence and political skill can help expatriates to achieve great success at work. This study also provides additional evidence that expatriates with higher cultural intelligence need lower political skill to acquire job satisfaction; in contrast, expatriates with lower cultural intelligence need higher political skill to improve and then obtain job satisfaction.
Implications for Practice
This research provides essential suggestions for practice. Whenever expatriates are unfamiliar with another culture, they may offend others inadvertently. To solve this kind of roblem, it is very important for managers to recognize the importance of expatriates’
intelligence and social skill. Expatriates need the ability to adapt to a cross-cultural environment so as to eliminate conflicts and complete their job assignments. Besides, expatriates should also have the ability to communicate with local workers and acquire support from colleagues and supervisors. Ideally, expatriates in the organization should be able to interact smoothly in a cross-cultural context and gain more satisfaction at work.
However, not every expatriate can adapt to different cultures in different cultural settings and acquire job satisfaction. Expatriate selection tends to become very important for companies.
Baruch (2002) stated that expatriates need to have some qualifications such as intelligence, motivation, adaptability and entrepreneurship. Political skill can serve as a facilitator to
effectively acquire self-worth, enabling individuals to get job satisfaction. Pierce et al. (1989) posit that if organizations can make individuals feel confident about their self-worth and competence, employees will be motivated to perform well at work. Ferris et al. (2007) propose that having political skill leads colleagues to believe in them; they will accumulate all the support from different people. Above all, expatriates with high political skill may have a great opportunity to employ intelligence, motivation, adaptability and entrepreneurship. This study suggests that political skill is a key ability to enhance expatriates’ job satisfaction. Thus, recruiters and managers need to observe applicants; those who have high political skill can be dispatched as expatriate employees.
Limitations of the Study
There are some limitations to this study. Firstly, the data on the three variables were gathered from a self-reported questionnaire, which might result in common method variance.
To avoid common method variance, the questionnaires were anonymous and the measurements were designed in different scales: the 5-point Likert scale and the 7-point Likert scale. Nevertheless, by conducting Harmon’s single factor test, the largest factor accounted for 12.47% of the variances, which was below the threshold of 50%, illustrating that the study did not have a serious CMV problem with the measurements (Podsakoff et al., 2003).
Another limitation is that this study used self-reported questionnaires. This measurement may cause single-source bias. Nevertheless, most social psychology studies indicate that intelligence can be measured through self-reported questionnaires (Ang et al., 2007; Earley &
Ang, 2003). Several researchers also state that self-reported measure has been accepted in the
cultural intelligence measurement (Ang et al., 2007; Earley & Ang, 2003). The measurements used in the present study might, consequently, be more relevant in interpreting actual intelligence.
Finally, purposive sampling, rather than random sampling, was conducted to collect the data. With limited time and resources, it was not easy to conduct random sampling, so the generalizability of the results might be an issue. Secondly, with online questionnaires and snowball sampling, it was difficult to confirm whether participants in our research samples were qualified. Third, only a group of white-collar expatriates comprised the sample in the present study. Other expatriates, such as blue-collar expatriates, were not included in this study.
Future Research Suggestions
The results of this study provide some directions for future research. Firstly, this study was conducted in Taiwan. To enable comparative research, we hope future researches will employ different nations.
Second, there are a number of research questions that arose from our study that currently await future investigation. Although the relationship between cultural intelligence and job satisfaction has been researched to some extent in previous studies (Bücker et al., 2014; Yesil 2013; Sims, 2011), life satisfaction has rarely served as a predictor of job satisfaction. Further research could also focus on different outcome variables, such as life satisfaction, job performance or productivity. Furthermore, researchers could examine the antecedents of cultural intelligence, such as personality and language ability. The results of this study also indicate that political skill negatively moderates the relationship between cultural intelligence
and job satisfaction, when expatriates’ cultural intelligence is high. However, Munyon et al.
(2015) and Bücker et al. (2014) have recently stated that both cultural intelligence and political skill should positively predict job satisfaction, but the correlation between cultural intelligence and political skill has not yet been proved. For this reason, future research might investigate the relationship between cultural intelligence and political skill in depth.
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