The influence of cultural intelligence of the supervisor and the cultural similarity between supervisor and employee on employee engagement
- Prof Dr René Schalk and Ms Kirsten van der Linden Tilburg University, The Netherlands
m.j.d.schalk@
uvt.nl +3113 4662368
www.tilburguniversity.edu
O
rganisations increasingly employ managers in multicultural environments. Inevitably, this brings about interactions
and relationships between people who are culturally different. The complexities of cross- cultural leadership, in which culturally-based differences play a role, are therefore important to study. This study examined the influence of the perceived supervisors’ cultural intelligence and the perceived cultural similarity between the supervisor and the employee on employee engagement in a multinational company. Cultural intelligence (CI) is defined as the capability to interact effectively across cultures. It consists of four factors: meta-cognitive CI, Cognitive CI, motivational CI and behavioural CI.
Meta-cognitive CI refers to a supervisors’ level of conscious cultural awareness during cross-cultural interactions.
Cognitive CI refers to the supervisors’ knowledge of norms, practices, and conventions in different cultures that have been acquired from educational and personal experiences.
Motivational CI refers to a supervisors’ capability to direct attention and energy towards learning about and functioning in situations characterised by cultural differences.
62 Management Today | January 2012
Behavioural CI refers to a manager’s capability in exhibiting appropriate speech acts, that is, verbal and nonverbal communication while interacting with people from different cultures.
The similarity between the leader and employee has been found to influence how individuals process information about persons or objects from other cultures, and cultural differences between supervisors and subordinate impact how subordinates respond to their supervisors. Engagement is considered as the illusive force that motivates employees to higher (or lower) levels of performance. It consists of vigour, dedication and absorption.
Data were gathered with questionnaires in a multinational logistics and production company and 815 employees responded. The results show that perceived cultural similarity has a direct effect on employee engagement. A moderating effect of cultural similarity was found on the relationship between behavioural cultural intelligence and dedication. The findings highlight the importance to consider cultural differences between supervisors and employees. Moreover, investing in improving the supervisors’ cultural awareness and cultural intelligence is likely to improve employee engagement in cross-cultural supervisor-employee interactions.
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