Cultural Intelligence and Social Capital: Investigating expatriates’ working relationships in Malaysia

This thesis examines the effect of Cultural Intelligence on expatriates’ relationship quality with their culturally diverse host national work colleagues in Malaysia from a social capital perspective. Malaysia presents a highly culturally diverse host country which has increasingly become attractive for global organizations over the last few decades. A high-quality relationship with host national employees allows expatriates to access valuable resources which facilitate their adjustment and performance. Such resources represent expatriates’ social capital. However, it is still unknown why some expatriates are more successful in developing higher level of social capital with Host Country Nationals than others. Prior research shows that expatriates with higher level of Cultural Intelligence often feel more comfortable to interact with Host Country Nationals (HCNs). Therefore, Cultural Intelligence would be expected to have a positive impact on expatriates’ relationship quality with HCNs and, hence, improving social capital. The relationship between Cultural Intelligence and social capital is, however, under researched especially with little focus given to the effect of metacognitive, cognitive, motivational, and behavioural dimensions of Cultural Intelligence. Following mixed methods approach, this thesis uses quantitative survey and Multiple Linear Regression to identify general relationships between the four dimensions of Cultural Intelligence and expatriates’ social capital. Additionally, qualitative semi-structured interviews and Thematic Analysis are used to explore how and why Cultural Intelligence may influence expatriates’ development of social capital. The results suggest that expatriates’ metacognitive, motivational, and behavioural Cultural Intelligence have a positive effect on expatriates’ development of social capital. However, the effect of cognitive Cultural Intelligence is very limited. The qualitative findings provide insights on the challenges in expatriates’ work relationship with HCNs due to their cultural differences, and how the different dimensions of Cultural Intelligence may help to solve them, thereby contributing to expatriates’ development of social capital. One important finding concerns the mediating role of recognition and appraisal respect in facilitating expatriates’ development of social capital with their host national colleagues. This thesis contributes to the expatriate literature by being the first to examine how and why expatriates’ metacognitive, cognitive, motivational, and behavioural Cultural Intelligence may influence the development of social capital with their host national work colleagues. The findings of this thesis also have practical implications concerning the selection of future expatriates and the design of more effective training programs to enhance expatriates’ probability of success by receiving more useful resources from HCNs.