Cultural intelligence and innovative work behavior: the role of work engagement and interpersonal trust

PurposeBecause of the rapidly changing environment and fleeting market opportunities, employee's innovative work behavior is increasingly assuming a pivotal role in enhancing organizational effectiveness and competitive advantage. The success of organizations is largely depended on their employ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEuropean journal of innovation management Vol. 24; no. 4; pp. 1082 - 1109
Main Authors Afsar, Bilal, Al-Ghazali, Basheer M, Cheema, Sadia, Javed, Farheen
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Bradford Emerald Publishing Limited 13.07.2021
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Subjects
Behavior
Business competition
Changing environments
Cultural differences
Culture
Employees
Hypotheses
Innovations
Intelligence
Metacognition
Multiculturalism & pluralism
Workforce
Innovative work behavior
Interpersonal trust
Cross-cultural interaction
Intelligence
Work engagement
Cultural intelligence
Intercultural adaptability
Creativity
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Summary:PurposeBecause of the rapidly changing environment and fleeting market opportunities, employee's innovative work behavior is increasingly assuming a pivotal role in enhancing organizational effectiveness and competitive advantage. The success of organizations is largely depended on their employees' ability to innovate. The role of cultural intelligence to enhance innovative work behavior is yet to be explored in the innovation research. The purpose of this study is to examine how cultural intelligence enhances employees' innovative work behavior through work engagement and interpersonal trust.Design/methodology/approachThe study is a cross-sectional design which utilizes data from 381 participants from multinational corporations in Saudi Arabia.FindingsThe results indicate that cultural intelligence can significantly affect employee's innovative work behavior. It further reveals that both work engagement and interpersonal trust partially mediate the effect of cultural intelligence on innovative work behavior.Originality/valueThis study adds to the literature on intelligence by examining an underexplored type of intelligence (i.e. cultural intelligence) in relation to employee's innovative work behavior. It reveals work engagement and interpersonal trust as the psychological mechanisms that can link cultural intelligence to innovative work behaviors.
ISSN:1460-1060
1758-7115
DOI:10.1108/EJIM-01-2020-0008