Assessing cultural intelligence of Malaysian expatriates in Netherlands

Abstract

Organizations could suffer losses due to the ineffectiveness of the expatriates to comprehend their host culture. Previous studies suggest that the important measures to identify expatriate effectiveness primarily focus on the individual-level factors which are personality traits, gender, and prior international experience. Therefore, this study aims to investigate whether the Big Five personality model namely openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism have any influence on cultural intelligence. Using purposive sampling method, a total of 320 questionnaires were distributed via email to Malaysian expatriates in Hague, Netherlands. Results from multiple regression analysis indicate that personality traits of agreeableness, openness and extraversion are significant to Malaysian expatriate’s cultural intelligence.

Keywords: big five personality; cultural intelligence; expatriate