The Assessment of The Intermediation Role of Emotional Labor Dimensions in The Relationship between Cultural Intelligence and Individual Work Performance

Abstract

Within the organization and market environment, where the number of businesses that provide services focused on a single culture is decreasing, the number of multinational companies that appeal to different customer profiles is increasing, the borders and distances between organizations are reducing, and cultural intelligence and emotional labor concepts are becoming increasingly important in terms of providing vital outputs to organizations. In this study, the data obtained from 261 participants from 50 countries serving for NATO in Afghanistan were evaluated. In the study, the relationship between cultural intelligence, emotional labor, and individual job performance, and the mediating role of emotional labor (surface, deep and genuine acting) in the relationship between cultural intelligence and job performance were examined. The results of the research show that in a multicultural work environment consisting of individuals from different countries and cultures, the cultural intelligence levels of the employees affect their emotional labor behavior and individual job performance. The results also show that the two emotional labor subdimensions (surface and genuine acting) have a partial mediating effect in the relationship between cultural intelligence and individual job performance. The study makes important contributions by addressing the exhibition of emotional labor specifically for public officials (providing security services) and by examining cultural intelligence as the premise of emotional labor and, as a consequent, job performance in an international cultural context.