The Influence of Cultural Intelligence in Relation to Organizational Commitment

Research on cultural intelligence (CQ), a multidimensional construct which refers to the ability to be successful with cross-cultural interactions that are frequent owing to differences in nationality, in race and ethnicity, is scarce in an Asian context. Globalization creates a diverse workforce and adaptation of educators is crucial for retention. The present quantitative study focuses on the question, "Does cultural intelligence have an impact on organizational commitment of educators cum entrepreneurs in a Thai cultural context"? The sample consists of 400 educators cum entrepreneurs, of which fifty percent were Thais and fifty percent were non-Thai from three different educational institutions in Bangkok, Thailand. To measure cultural intelligence, the Four Factor Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) developed by Ang et al (2006) consisting of 20 items, with no revered items, on a 7 point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree) was used. To measure organizational commitment the tri-factor model of Allen & Meyer (1990) consisting of 24 items with number 5, 8.6,9,12, 18 and 19 reversed, on a 7 point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree) was used. Pearson's Correlation Coefficient was used for hypotheses 1, 2 and 3 to find out the relationship between the four dimensions cultural intelligence namely, cognitive, metacognitive, behavioural and motivational with the three dimensions of organizational commitment namely, affective, continuance and normative of educators cum entrepreneurs. A positive, significant and moderate correlation was discovered between all dimensions of cultural intelligence and organizational commitment. Therefore hypothesis 1, 2 and 3 were supported by the data. For hypothesis 4, the t-test was utilized to find differences in dimensions of cultural intelligence and organizational commitment between Thais and non-Thais. Thais and non-Thais have approximately similar levels of cultural intelligence and organizational commitment. Therefore hypothesis 4 was not supported by the data. Cultural intelligence is pertinent since organizations need to focus on internal commitment of employee for sustainability and offer training programs and orientations by using practices and policies that can increase self-worth and adjustment to a foreign culture, for retention of the present workforce and to deal with the demand and supply challenges of labour in the market.