Surviving the culture shock syndrome: the role of responsible leadership and emotional intelligence in enhancing expatriates’ performance

Marques, Tânia M. G.; Miska, Christof; Crespo, Cátia Fernandes; Jesus, João

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/8920

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Authors

Marques, Tânia M. G.

Miska, Christof

Crespo, Cátia Fernandes

Jesus, João

Abstract(s)

Expatriates are increasingly being challenged to execute their roles with a higher sense of responsibility. However, there is a lack of studies that have empirically examined the impact of the recent responsible leadership (RL) approach on expatriates’ performance. Using Anxiety and Uncertainty Management Theory, this study examines the relationship between RL and expatriates’ performance (EP) and the influence of the culture shock (CS) on the relationship. In addition, the moderation effect of both emotional intelligence (EI) and cultural intelligence (CQ) are also examined. A web-based survey was administered to collect data from a sample of 204 expatriates and PLS-SEM was used to analyse the data. The results show that RL is negatively associated with culture shock and culture shock is negatively associated with expatriate performance. Moreover, RL is positively associated with expatriate performance and the results show that this relationship is moderated by the expatriate’s emotional intelligence. Overall, we emphasize the reducing anxiety and uncertainty ability of expatriates’ supervisors when supervisors demonstrate RL. Moreover, although cultural intelligence has been emphasized considerably in extant research, it seems less relevant than emotional intelligence when RL is concerned in the expatriation setting. Thus, we provide a different perspective for studying leadership complexities in the expatriation context. Our study contributes to illustrate that responsible leadership can reduce psychological complexities and increase performance in international assignments, highlighting the reinforcement role of expatriates’ EI for the success.

Description

The 49th Annual Conference of the European International Business Academy – EIBA will take place at ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics & Management, from the 15th to the 17th December, 2023.