Personality Traits as Predictors of Cultural Intelligence ... · Personality Traits as Predictors...

Personality Traits as Predictors of Cultural

Intelligence

Case Study: Employees in International NGO's in

the Gaza Strip

السمـــات الشخصيــــــة كمتنبئات للذكـــاء الثقافـــي دراسة حالة: موظفي المؤسسات الدولية غير الحكومية في قطاع غزة

By:

Asma Jamal Naim

Supervised by:

Dr. Sami Ali Abou-Al-Ross

Associate Professor in Human Resource Management

A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Master of Business Administration.

April, 2018

ـــزةـغـــبـــــة الجامعـــــة اإلسالميــــــــ

اـالبحث العلمي والدراسات العلي عمـادة

ــــــــــــــارةــــــــــــة التجـــــــــــكليــــــ

ــــــــــــــــالاألعمـــــــقســــــــــم إدارة

The Islamic University of Gaza Deanship of Research & Graduate Affairs

Faculty of Commerce

Business Administration Department

I

إقــــــــــــــرار

:تحمل العنوانأنا الموقع أدناه مقدم الرسالة التي

Personality Traits as Predictors of Cultural Intelligence

Case Study: Employees in International NGO's in the Gaza Strip

السمـــات الشخصيــــــة كمتنبئات للذكـــاء الثقافـــي

موظفي المؤسسات الدولية غير الحكومية في قطاع غزةدراسة حالة:

أقر بأن ما اشتملت عليه هذه الرسالة إنما هو نتاج جهدي الخاص، باستثناء ما تمت اإلشارة إليه حيثما ورد، وأن

خرين لنيل درجة أو لقب علمي أو بحثي لدى أي مؤسسة و أي جزء منها لم يقدم من قبل اآلهذه الرسالة ككل أ

.تعليمية أو بحثية أخرى

DECLARATION

I understand the nature of plagiarism, and I am aware of the University's policy on

this. The work provided in this thesis, unless otherwise referenced, is the researcher's

own work, and has not been submitted by others elsewhere for any other degree or

qualification.

Student's name: Asma J. Naim

Signature:

Date:

اسم الطالبة: أسماء جمال نعيم

التوقيع:

التاريخ:

II

RESULT

III

DEDICATION

To my beloved mother, my first teacher, who believed in me even when

I didn't believe in myself.

To my cherished father, who built me up to be strong, aspirant &

ambitious.

To Abdulrahman, my great man & best friend, who supports me

whatever path I took.

To Maha, my precious daughter, to whom I seek to be a continual

source of pride & inspiration.

To my parents in law, whose encouragement, support & patience are

true models for all.

To my brother & seven sisters who surrounded me with a strong love

shield that always protected me.

IV

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, my deep gratitude would be to Allah, our Almighty God,

the source of all knowledge and wisdom, for His guidance and munificence to

complete my research.

My utmost appreciation would go to Dr. Sami Abou-Al-Ross for his valuable

advices and rich suggestions, his persistent encouragement and endless

patience throughout the process of composing this research.

My sincere thankfulness would be extended to the examination panel for their

kind acceptance to discuss my research and enriching it with their useful

feedback afterwards.

Sincere gratitude is expressed to the international NGOs who welcomed me

warmheartedly and facilitated the questionnaire's distribution process and

required data collection which provided valuable input to conduct this

research.

Finally, yet importantly, I reiterate my endless acknowledgement and high

appreciation to everyone contributed to the success of this research.

V

LIST OF CONTENTS

Declaration I

Result II

Dedication III

Acknowledgement IV

List of Contents V

List of Tables VII

List of Figures IX

List of Abbreviations X

Abstract XI

Abstract (Arabic Version) XII

Chapter One | RESEARCH GENERAL FRAMEWORK 2

1.1. Introduction 2

1.2. Research Problem Statement 3

1.3. Research Variables 4

1.4. Research Hypotheses 5

1.5. Research Objectives 6

1.6. Research Importance and Contribution 6

Chapter Two | LITERATURE REVIEW 8

2.1. Section One | CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE 9

2.1.1. Introduction 9

2.1.2. Definition of Cultural Intelligence 9

2.1.3. Importance of Cultural Intelligence 12

2.1.4. Antecedents of Cultural Intelligence 13

2.1.5. Intercultural Competence Models 15

2.1.6. Cultural Intelligence Model 16

2.1.7. Requirements of Cultural Intelligence Implementation 19

2.1.8. Outcomes of Cultural Intelligence 20

2.2. Section Two | PERSONALITY TRAITS 23


2.2.2. Definition of Personality 23

2.2.3. Personality Traits Models 25

2.2.4. MPQ as Model Used in this Study 28

2.2.5. Personality Traits of the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) 28

2.2.6. Personality in Relation to Cultural Intelligence 30

2.2.7. Readiness for International Cultural Adaptation 32

2.3. Section Three | INTERNATIONAL NON-PROFIT ORGANIATIONS 34


2.3.2. INGO Definition 34

2.3.3. Characteristics of INGOs 35

2.3.4. Role of INGOs 36

VI

2.3.5. INGOs in the Gaza Strip 37

2.3.6. INGOs and CQ 39

Chapter Three | PREVIOUS STUDIES 42

3.1. Introduction 42

3.2. Local Studies 42

3.3. Arabic Studies 47

3.4. Foreign Studies 48

3.5. General Commentary on the Reviewed Studies 57

Chapter Four | RESEARCH PRACTICAL FRAMEWORK 62


4.2. Research Design and Procedures 62

4.3. Research Methodology 63

4.4. Data Sources 64

4.5. Research Population 64

4.6. Research Sample 64

4.7. Questionnaire Design and Procedures 65

4.8. Pilot Study 66

4.9. Data Measurement 66

4.10. Validity of the Questionnaire 67

4.11. Reliability of the Questionnaire 73

4.12. Test of Normality 74

4.13. Statistical Analysis Tools 74

Chapter Five | DATA ANALYSIS & HYPOTHESES TESTING 77

5.1 Introduction 77

5.2. Analysis of Personal Characteristics 77

5.3. Data Analysis 80

5.4. Hypotheses Testing 99

Chapter 6 | CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 111


6.2. Conclusions 111

6.3. Recommendations 113

6.4. Proposed Future Studies 115

REFERENCES 117

APPENDICES 131

Appendix I: List of Referees 132

Appendix II: Request for Questionnaire's Assessment 133

Appendix III: Request for Questionnaire's Assessment in Arabic Language 134

Appendix IV: Questionnaire 135

Appendix V: Questionnaire in Arabic Language 139

VII

LIST OF TABLES

Table (2.1): Scales constructed from IPIP items 25

Table (2.2): INGOs working in Gaza classified according to original country 39

Table (2.3): INGOs working in Gaza classified according to services provided 39

Table (3.1): Previous Studies Tools Data Collection Tools 58

Table (4.1): Questionnaire's Dimensions and their Number of Items 66

Table (4.2): Measurement Scale 67

Table (4.3): Correlation coefficient of each item of Cultural Empathy and the total of this

dimension 67

Table (4.4): Correlation coefficient of each item of Flexibility and the total of this

dimension 68

Table (4.5): Correlation coefficient of each item of Social Initiative and the total of this

dimension 68

Table (4.6): Correlation coefficient of each item of Emotional Stability and the total of this

dimension 69

Table (4.7): Correlation coefficient of each item of Open-Mindedness and the total of this

dimension 69

Table (4.8): Correlation coefficient of each item of Meta-Cognitive CQ & the total of this

dimension 70

Table (4.9): Correlation coefficient of each item of Cognitive CQ and the total of this

dimension 70

Table (4.10): Correlation coefficient of each item of Motivational CQ and the total of this

dimension 71

Table (4.11): Correlation coefficient of each item of Behavioral CQ and the total of this

dimension 72

Table (4.12): Correlation coefficient of each dimension and whole of the questionnaire 72

Table (4.13): Cronbach's Alpha for each dimension of the questionnaire 73

Table (4.14): Kolmogorov-Smirnov test 74

Table (5.1): Analysis of Gender 77

Table (5.2): Analysis of Age 78

Table (5.3): Analysis of Qualification 78

Table (5.4): Analysis of Tenure 79

Table (5.5): Analysis of Position Type 79

Table (5.6): Analysis of Managerial Position 80

Table (5.7): Means and Test values for Cultural Empathy 81

Table (5.8): Means and Test values for Flexibility 82

Table (5.9): Means and Test values for Social Initiative 84

Table (5.10): Means and Test values for Emotional Stability 85

Table (5.11): Means and Test values for Open-Mindedness 87

Table (5.12): Means and Test values for Personality Traits 88

Table (5.13): Means and Test values for Meta-Cognitive CQ 89

Table (5.14): Means and Test values for Cognitive CQ 91

Table (5.15): Means and Test values for Motivational CQ 94

VIII

Table (5.16): Means and Test values for Behavioral CQ 95

Table (5.17): Means and Test values for Cultural Intelligence (CQ) 97

Table (5.18): Correlation coefficient between personality traits and the level of cultural

intelligence 99

Table (5.19): Result of multiple linear regression analysis 101

Table (5.20): Independent Samples T-test of the fields and their p-values for gender 104

Table (5.21): ANOVA test of the fields and their p-values for age 105

Table (5.22): Independent Samples T-test of the fields & their p-values for qualification106

Table (5.23): ANOVA test of the fields and their p-values for tenure 107

Table (5.24): Independent Samples T-test of the fields & the p-values for position type 108

Table (5.25): ANOVA test of the fields and their p-values for managerial position 109

IX

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure (1.1): Research Conceptual Framework 5

Figure (2.1): Components of Cultural Intelligence 11

Figure (2.2): The Four-Factor Model of Cultural Intelligence 17

Figure (4.1): Research Methodology Flowchart 63

X

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CQ Cultural Intelligence (Quotient)

CQS Cultural Intelligence Scale

EQ Emotional Intelligence (Quotient)

INGO International Non-Governmental Organization

IQ Individual's General Intelligence (Quotient)

MPQ Multicultural Personality Questionnaire

NGO Non-Governmental Organization

PA Palestinian Authority

PLC Palestinian Legislative Council

PNGO Palestinian Non-Governmental Organization

XI

ABSTRACT

This research investigates the relationship between the five traits of the Multicultural

Personality Questionnaire (MPQ); cultural empathy, flexibility, social initiative, emotional

stability and open mindedness and the four dimension of the Cultural Intelligence Model

(CQ); metacognitive CQ, cognitive CQ, motivational CQ, and behavioral CQ. In

particular, it examines whether the personality traits predict the level of cultural

intelligence; denoted as the capability to interact effectively in a culturally diverse

environment.

Following a descriptive analytical approach, statistical analyses were conducted on data

collected from 123 employees out of 187 employees forming the study population,

working in INGOs in the Gaza Strip, after controlling for age, gender, position type and

tenure in interacting with others from multicultural backgrounds.

Overall, this research provides strong empirical evidence of the value of using a

coherent organizing framework such as the MPQ model in linking traits of personality with

CQ. Results show significant positive impact of personality traits on all four factors of CQ,

as they indicate that 63.9% of the variation in the level of CQ is explained by all of the

independent variables together (personality traits). The intriguing finding of this study is

that emotional stability was the only traits that was insignificantly related to CQ. Results

show that personality traits are crucial characteristics that predict employees' capability to

function effectively in diverse cultural work environments.

These results have implications for INGOs and businesses alike, as they seek to

compete in the global marketplace. In the light of the research conclusions, senior leaders

at INGOs have to see CQ as a priority and define goals for its development. Specified sub-

strategies have to embrace tailored training programs to enhance employees' multicultural

knowledge, emphasize social engagement to increase multicultural interaction, and

appreciate highly culturally intelligent employees to enhance the organization's

performance in international assignments. Higher education institutions are encouraged to

incorporate study abroad programs and internships to train prospective students to handle

multicultural work environments. Individuals could increase their CQ through international

work experiences, learning other languages in addition to English, and/or obtaining an

undergraduate degree from a foreign country.

XII

ABSTRACT IN ARABIC LANGUAGE

الملخص

وهي ؛ (MPQ)العالقة بين السمات الخمسة الستبيان الشخصية متعددة الثقافات تهدف هذه الدراسة إلى معرفة

الثقافي ءالذكا نموذجنفتحة، وبين الم يةوالعقل ،التعاطف الثقافي، والمرونة، والمبادرة االجتماعية، واالستقرار العاطفي

(CQ)، ةمحاور رئيسي أربعةوالذي يشمل(CQ) تحفيزيال ءالذكا و ،يدراكإلا ءالذكا ، والمعرفي بعدما ءوهي الذكا ؛

أ بمستوى سمات الشخصية تتنب الما إذا كانت هذه الدراسة تبحث ، فإنتحديدالسلوكي. على وجه ال ءالذكا و،)الدوافع(

.اتثقافال عددةالتفاعل بفعالية في بيئة متالقدرة والتمك ن من على ل دالذي يالذكاء الثقافي،

عة على وصفي،التحليلي النهج استنادا على الم موظف 123 قامت الباحثة بجمع البيانات من خالل االستبانات الموز ا

مع األخذ بعين االعتبار الدولية غير الحكومية في قطاع غزة، ؤسساتفي المممن يشكلون مجتمع الدراسة 187من بين

.ثقافاتال متعددة ةعمل في بيئالخبرة في الوسنوات وطبيعة الوظيفة عمر والجنس ال

م دليال قد فإن هذه الدراسة ت عام، بشكل علميا في ربط MPQ مثل نموذج نموذج متكاملاستخدام أهميةعلى قويا

إيجا تأثيرا ر النتائج هت ظالثقافي. و ءمستوى الذكا سمات الشخصية معال محاور كافةالشخصية على لسماتل ا ركبي بيا

المتغيرات المستقلة معا الثقافي تفس ره ءالذكا ٪ من التباين في مستوى63.9إلى أن تشيراألربعة، حيث الثقافي ءالذكا

الثقافي، ءال صلة له بمستوى الذكاهذه الدراسة هو أن االستقرار العاطفي وأبرز ما توصلت إليه )سمات الشخصية(.

أ بقدرات خصية هي خصائص حاسمة تتنب سمات الشال النتائج أن تؤكد .على عكس باقي السمات الشخصية المدروسة

متعددة الثقافات.عمل الموظفين على العمل بفعالية في بيئات

إلى المنافسة في لسعيهمسواء، غير الحكومية والشركات على حد ؤسسات الدوليةعلى المهامة هذه النتائج لها آثار

استنتاجات الدراسات، توصي هذه الدراسة اإلدارات العليا في المؤسسات الدولية غير ءوفي ضوالسوق العالمية.

تضمن ت الثقافي أولوية في إدارتهم وتحديد أهداف خاصة لرفع مستواه بين الموظفين، بحيث ءالحكومية على اعتبار الذكا

لتعزيز المعرفة متعددة الثقافات ا صخصي برامج تدريبية مصممة تشملاستراتيجيات فرعية الخطة االستراتيجية على

الموظفين ذوي الذكاء الثقافي العالي لتعزيز ر، وتقد بين الثقافاتية لزيادة التفاعل لمشاركة االجتماعتدعم اللموظفين، و

ة دراسبرامج الوتكثيف إيجادتشجع مؤسسات التعليم العالي على الدراسة كذلك، فإن أداء المؤسسة في المهام الدولية.

مستوى ذكائهم يمكن لألفراد زيادة والطالب على التعامل مع بيئات عمل متعددة الثقافات. ةلتهيئفي الخارج والتدريب

إلنجليزية ، أو الحصول على درجة جامعية من ل باإلضافة أجنبيةتعلم لغة وأمن خالل خبرات العمل الدولية، الثقافي

بلد أجنبي.

Chapter One

RESEARCH

GENERAL FRAMEWORK

1.1. Introduction

1.2. Research Problem Statement

1.3. Research Variables

1.4. Research Hypotheses

1.5. Research Objectives

1.6. Research Importance and Contribution

2

1. Chapter One | RESEARCH GENERAL FRAMEWORK

1.1. Introduction

The world is becoming increasingly globalized, the organizations are becoming more

culturally diverse and the global organizational environment is becoming more

complex, dynamic, and competitive. Not only is the organizational environment

increasingly diverse and complex, it is also fast-moving and unpredictable. Cultural

shifts occur suddenly, with dramatic implications on the ever-expanding phenomenon of

global civil society, including the dizzying array of organizations that can be called

"nonprofit, charitable, voluntary, independent, philanthropic, associational, people's or

third sector" (Smith, 2017).

International non-governmental organizations (INGOs) are influential actors in

globalization. They are now an important economic player around the world, accounting

for over 5 percent of the gross domestic product and over 4 percent of employment,

according to the most definitive study that tracks civil society in three dozen countries

(Steger, 2017). Many individuals within these global organizations are required to

connect internationally on a daily basis; working with colleagues from a wide variety of

backgrounds, working with newcomers to their home countries or working in a foreign

country with a different culture. In order to achieve the organizations' objectives, it is

critical for organizations to demonstrate cultural sensitivity and readiness for working

effectively within multicultural situations. Thus, there is a growing need for global

employees, who are capable of being efficient in foreign work assignments; more

precisely people who possess specific knowledge, skills and abilities, necessary to

manage and lead anywhere around the world.

With this continuing globalization of the workplace, understanding why some

organizations associate effectively within the global context, and why some people have

the ability to function effectively in different cultural diversities, called Cultural

Intelligence (CQ), has gained therefore increasing importance as never before.

CQ is a relatively new concept, that refers to the competence to handle culturally

diverse contexts effectively (Ang & Van Dyne, 2008). CQ explains why certain

individuals can adapt to different cultural circumstances more efficiently than others.

The higher culturally intelligent employees, the more likely they gain new

opportunities, earn higher wages, and experience success working in today's diverse,

globalized world (Earley & Mosakowski, 2004).

Nevertheless, CQ has a structure directly affected by personality traits because it is

thought that CQ is shaped on the basis of personality traits (Tufekci, 2014). This case

applies anywhere; however, one of the places in which it occurs is the INGOs'

environment in the Gaza Strip in Palestine. As many international organizations are

working and living in the Gazan community; approximately 80 organizations, acquiring

a different set of perspectives, knowledge and skills is important in order to succeed.

These organizations, with a multicultural board of managers, need to be prepared to

3

communicate and work with people from different backgrounds, races, societies,

religions, traditions and cultures. These differences effect on managers' behavior and

make them as a subject to multicultural contexts in which they are supposed to enhance

their capability to interact competently. Gaining knowledge about other cultures is no

longer optional. It is necessary to learn, understand and deal with different situations

competently. Developing a sense of cultural intelligence is important to learn how to

interact positively with people from different cultures.

Responding to this need, this research contributes to global knowledge by assessing

some factors affecting the existence of CQ in some individuals' personalities naturally.

It uses the concept of personality traits as an efficient analysis framework for studying

the extent to which managers hold the necessary cultural intelligence to face future

intercultural interactions. The research aims to generate more insight regarding the

impact of the existence of some personality traits has on CQ, as well as developing a

better understanding of the antecedents that predict cultural intelligence. It particularly

focuses on determining the effect of personality traits of employees working in INGOs

in the Gaza Strip on their CQ capabilities using scientific information methods. The

framework of this research has been formed to tackle the subject of CQ and personality

traits, to investigate the proposed hypotheses about personality traits impact on CQ, to

target the INGOs working in the Gaza Strip and to make useful conclusions.

1.2. Research Problem Statement

Recently, cultural intelligence (CQ) has caught the attention of global leaders and

researchers alike. Relatively little research, however, focuses on factors that could

improve cultural capabilities (Gelfand, Erez, & Aycan, 2015). Particularly, research on

individual capabilities for intercultural effectiveness is sparse and unsystematic;

primarily due to newness of the construct, leaving an important gap in our

understanding of why some individuals are more effective than others in culturally

different conditions. Thus, this research studies some factors that possibly affect the

existence of CQ in some individuals' personalities naturally.

According to three managers working in senior positions in international NGO's in

the Gaza Strip; namely Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Norwegian People's Aid (NPA)

and Mercy Corps, cultural intelligence is vital to successfully performing in these

organizations. The researcher has interviewed three managers to explore the

multicultural environments they work in; how cultural difference is expressed in their

workplaces and what difficulties result from such environments.

The interview questions were set by the researcher after a deep review of related

scientific papers and resources. These questions helped the researcher to get an overall

impression about the current actual situation of the research sample; the INGOs

working in the Gaza Strip, and how the research's topic; Cultural Intelligence, is

generally applied.

4

Generally agreed among all three interviewees, employees who show a high level of

cultural intelligence play an important role in bridging divides and knowledge gaps in

the organization, where the Palestinian employees meet and integrate with foreign

mangers or colleagues on a regular basis. These employees contribute to educating their

colleagues about different cultures, transferring knowledge between otherwise disparate

groups, helping to build interpersonal connections and smooth the interpersonal

processes in the multicultural workforce. Culturally intelligent employees apparently

demonstrate remarkable abilities to incorporate diverse resources; hence they might

possess greater potential to express innovation and creativity. Consequently, this leads

to assist INGOs to make best use of the multiple perceptions that a multicultural

workforce brings to the workplace. From their observations, such abilities go beyond

simply being intelligent, emotionally mature, or having good general social skills. Most

probably, these abilities derive from the employees' different personality attitudes,

besides improving them through new experiences.

Working in multicultural environment can create struggling challenges with

managing the cultural diversity. While the interviewees have shown their belief in the

benefits offered by the workforce diversity, they agreed that managing this diversity is

complex, which can only be realized if the workforce has the knowledge, skills and

abilities required to deal with such challenges. Developing CQ among employees will

go a long way to ensure that the organization is able to nimbly navigate across cultural

boundaries. Thus, the research studies if INGOs should pay more attention to the

employees' cultural intelligence which has become a major concern for the successful

performance of the organizations nowadays.

Accordingly, the research problem can be stated in the following question: "To what

extent do personality traits predict cultural intelligence among employees in

international NGO's in the Gaza Strip?"

1.3. Research Variables

While previous studies have examined potential outcomes of cultural intelligence,

possible antecedents are examined herein. Ang, Van Dyne, and Koh (2006)

demonstrated that the four-factor model of CQ; which is comprised of metacognitive,

cognitive, motivational, and behavioral dimensions (Earley & Ang, 2003), is distinct

from, and yet related to, more distal personality traits in conceptually meaningful ways.

Based on previous discussion, the research variables are:

1. Independent variable: There are many personality traits affecting CQ. The

Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ), consisting of the following five

main personality traits was chosen to be examined through this research:

a. Cultural Empathy

b. Flexibility (Adaptability)

c. Social Initiative

d. Emotional Stability

e. Open Mindedness

5

2. Dependent variable: The level of cultural intelligence (CQ) among managers

working in international organization in the Gaza Strip, with its four components:

a. Metacognition

b. Cognition

c. Motivation

d. Behavior

Figure (1.1): Research Conceptual Framework

Source: Articulated by the Researcher, 2017, based on Earley & Ang (2003) & Van der Zee (2000).

1.4. Research Hypotheses

Drawing from the above discussion, this research therefore proposes the below

hypotheses:

1. H1: There is a statistical significant correlation at level α ≤ 0.05 between personality

traits and the level of cultural intelligence (CQ).

a. There is a statistical significant correlation at level α ≤ 0.05 between cultural

empathy and the level of CQ.

b. There is a statistical significant correlation at level α ≤ 0.05 between flexibility

and the level of CQ.

c. There is a statistical significant correlation at level α ≤ 0.05 between social

initiative and the level of CQ.

d. There is a statistical significant correlation at level α ≤ 0.05 between emotional

stability and the level of CQ.

e. There is a statistical significant correlation at level α ≤ 0.05 between open

mindedness and the level of CQ.

2. H2: There is a statistical significant impact at level α ≤ 0.05 of personality traits on

the level of cultural intelligence (CQ).

3. H3: There is a statistical significant difference at level α ≤ 0.05 in the responses of

the research sample due to the following personal characteristics; gender, age,

qualification, tenure, occupation type and managerial position.

Dependent

variable:

The level of

Cultural

Intelligence among

employees in

INGOs in the

Gaza Strip

Independent

variables:

Personality

Traits

Emotional

Stability

Social Initiative

Flexibility

Cultural

Empathy

Open

Mindedness

6

1.5. Research Objectives

This research is undertaken to investigate the relationship between a set of

personality traits and cultural intelligence, accordingly the main objective of the

research is to understand the role of personality traits in enhancing the level of cultural

intelligence among mangers working in multi-cultural environments in international

organizations in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. Moreover, the detailed objectives of this

research are:

1. To investigate antecedents that predicts cultural intelligence among employees of

international NGOs in the Gaza Strip.

2. To explore the relationship between personality traits and CQ levels among

employees in international NGOs in the Gaza Strip.

3. To assess the prediction level of cultural intelligence through personality traits

among employees in international NGOs in the Gaza Strip.

4. To suggest recommendations that may help managers in international NGOs in

developing the level of cultural intelligence among employees.

1.6. Research Importance and Contribution

Little is currently known about factors that cause individuals to hold more positive

intentions towards working with multicultural colleagues from various cultural

backgrounds. Therefore, this research will assist to enhance the understanding of the

impact of some personality traits on the level of CQ. The importance of the research

comes from the following aspects:

1. For the international organizations:

a. This research targets a vitally important affective sector in Palestinian institutions

which is the international non-profit organizations.

b. This research provides empirical support for the validity of some personality traits

in enhancing levels of cultural intelligence.

c. This research provides an understanding of how individuals perform in

multicultural environments, which could be useful for managers in formulating

new motivational strategies to enhance the performance of employees.

d. This research gives awareness for senior managers about the necessity to define

the employee's competencies to sustain its long-term success and competitive

advantage.

2. For the other researchers and the scientific research:

a. This research extends current knowledge and enhance ongoing research about

cultural intelligence, which currently represents an area of great interest in

research but is still lacking empirical studies.

b. This research can be used as an additional resource to researchers investigating

similar research variables.

c. This research provides a groundwork for future researches in the Gaza Strip and

West Bank.

3. For the society:

a. This research contributes immensely to the building of knowledge of cultural

intelligence to improve employees' integration in multicultural environments.

7

d. This research contributes to increase the awareness of organizations to give more

attention to its employees' competencies and personality traits.

4. For the researcher:

a. This research contributes to develop the researcher's abilities, skills and

knowledge regarding to cultural intelligence and personality traits.

b. The researcher studies other factors that meaningfully affect cultural intelligence

levels.

c. The researcher will participate in local conferences and publish the research in an

international journal.

Chapter Two

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Section One: CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE

1.1.1. Introduction

1.1.2. Definition of Cultural Intelligence

1.1.3. Importance of Cultural Intelligence

1.1.4. Antecedents of Cultural Intelligence

1.1.5. Intercultural Competence Models

1.1.6. Cultural Intelligence Model

1.1.7. Requirements of CQ Implementation

1.1.8. Outcomes of Cultural Intelligence

1.1.9. CQ Success Cases

2.2. Section Two: PERSONALITY TRAITS

2.2.1. Introduction

2.2.2. Definition of Personality

2.2.3. Personality Traits Models

2.2.4. MPQ as Model Used in this Study

2.2.5. Personality Traits of the Multicultural Personality

Questionnaire (MPQ)

2.2.6. Personality in Relation to CQ

2.2.7. Readiness for International Cultural Adaptation

2.3. Section Three: INTERNATIONAL NON-PROFIT

ORGANIATIONS

2.3.1. Introduction

2.3.2. INGO Definition

2.3.3. Characteristics of INGOs

2.3.4. Role of INGOs

2.3.5. INGOs in the Gaza Strip

2.3.6. INGOs and CQ

9

2.1. Section One | CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE

2.1.1. Introduction

This section provides review of the cultural intelligence (CQ) definitions, historical

concept development, contemporary interests and research, importance and value of

CQ, the main intercultural competence models, detailed outline of the CQ model, and

the main requirements to actually apply it. Furthermore, appealing outcomes and

cultural intelligence successful applications in the real life are covered. Throughout this

chapter an extensive review of the literature and arguments will be presented to provide

the reader with a comprehensive view of the topic.

Over the last 20 years, research has proven that an individual's cultural intelligence is

often a more accurate predictor of success than the individual's general intelligence (IQ)

or emotional intelligence (EQ) (Imai & Gelfand, 2010). Success is rather interpreted by

the capability to communicate ideas and interact within cultural circumstances, though

high levels of intellectual intelligence (Earley & Peterson, 2004).

The concept of intelligence is not a new concept. This concept has been known for a

long time by the scholars. At first, the concept of intelligence is the human brain's

ability to process information to solve problems (Gardner & Hatch, 1989). Early

research tended to view intelligence narrowly focused in academic settings. Later, this

concept about intelligence experienced some diversification. Gardner's (2002) theory of

multiple intelligences originated the concepts of interpersonal and intrapersonal

intelligences, basically focusing on social intelligence (Cantor & Kihlstrom, 1985) and

emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1995).

Social intelligence refers to one's ability to understand the thoughts, feelings and

behaviors in social personal conditions, to build good interaction and act appropriately

with other people accordingly (Crowne, 2013). The other type of intelligence is

emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence refers to a one's abilities to know and

manage self-emotions, motivate oneself, identify others' emotions, manage relationships

and use emotions to attain effective performance (Crowne, 2009). However, these

concepts assume common beliefs and shared cultural settings resulting in similar

interpretations of what is appropriate or not, thus too general to be applied in

multicultural situations as they are not designed to provide necessary information and

prediction of the individual's cognition, motivation, and behavior in culturally diverse

setting (Ang & Van Dyne, 2008). Consequently, cultural intelligence has emerged as an

extension of Gardner's (1993) multiple facets of intelligence, complementing the two

preceding types of intelligence (Earley & Ang, 2003).

2.1.2. Definition of Cultural Intelligence

Although hard to define and difficult to put a finger on it, culture is extremely

influential. Broadly, culture is the social heritage of a group, such an organized

community or society. Turning to a dictionary definition (Cambridge Advanced

Learner's Dictionary, 2008), culture is "the transmitted social manners, beliefs, behavior

10

patterns, arts, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought" and

further, it is the way of life, especially the common customs and beliefs, of a certain

group of people at a certain time. Consistently, the American Heritage Dictionary

(2000) identifies culture as those "patterns, traits, and products considered as the

expression of a particular period, class, community, or population". Dictionary

definitions of culture can incorporate multiple elements such as history of evolution,

common behaviors, traditions, languages, religions, races, geographical sites, music,

agriculture, and art. Nevertheless, it can be further considered as what people think,

what they do, or how they feel, including insights based on elements of human

psychology, sociology, or anthropology.

Culture encompasses all learned and shared, explicit or tacit, underground streams of

values, norms, knowledge, assumptions, beliefs, traditions, rituals as well as attitudes,

behavior, that developed progressively as individuals work together, solve problems,

and confront challenges (McClenney & Peterson, 2007). The reactions exposed,

developed, or conceived during the human's history of dealing with arising

complications, are referred to as culture, whether evolving from direct interfaces

between individuals, or between them and their external settings. These responses are

passed on to the new generations through immersion and teaching, as they are perceived

the correct common way to feel, think, and act (Livermore & Van Dyne, 2015).

Working across cultures is naturally challenging (Molinsky, 2013). Thus, raising

awareness and deepen knowledge of diverse cultures assists managers and employees

from multicultural backgrounds cooperate more effectively. Cultural intelligence (CQ)

emphases mainly the intercultural competence to handle problems and work across

cultures properly (Earley & Ang, 2014).

Cultural intelligence (CQ) explains why certain individuals are capable to adapt to

different cultural contexts more efficiently than others. Fundamentally, the construct of

cultural intelligence (CQ) was developed based on preceding theories of intelligence

(Sternberg & Detterman, 1986). It is a theoretical extension of existing concepts and

models anchored on the theory of multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1987). It emerged

gradually, meeting the increasing consensus to display this intelligence in culturally

diverse settings. This growing interest in "real world" intelligence emphasizes on the

practical implications of intelligence. In 2003, Early and Ang (2003) introduced the

concept of cultural intelligence (CQ) that acknowledges those practical realities of

globalization with a special interest in multicultural environments.

The CQ concept is developed and detailed in subsequent studies; Earley & Ang

(2003), Ang, Van Dyne, Koh, Ng, Templer, Tay & Chandrasekar (2007), Van Dyne,

Ang & Koh (2008) and Ng, Van Dyne, Ang, & Ryan (2012). Basically, Earley and Ang,

the authors of the concept, defined cultural intelligence as "the individual's competence

to adjust and interact effectively in a culturally diverse environment". Since that, a lot of

definitions of CQ were emerging. Earley and Mosakowski (2004) defined it as "an

11

outsider's seemingly natural ability to interpret someone's unfamiliar and ambiguous

gestures the way that person's compatriots would". Another definition was proposed by

Peterson & Anand (2004), which defined CQ as "the ability to engage in a set of

behaviors that uses skills (i.e. language or interpersonal skills) and qualities (e.g.

tolerance for ambiguity, flexibility) that are tuned appropriately to the culture-based

values and attitudes of the people with whom one interacts". Thomas (2006) defined it

as "the ability to interact effectively with people who are culturally different".

Moreover, going consistent with Schmidt and Hunter's (2000) definition of general

intelligence as "the ability to grasp and reason correctly with abstractions (concepts) and

solve problems", Ang and colleagues (2007) defined CQ as "a specific form of

intelligence focused on capabilities to grasp, reason, and behave in situations

characterized by cultural diversity". Finally, Thomas and colleagues (2008) have

defined CQ as "a system of interacting knowledge and skills, linked by cultural

metacognition that allows people to adapt to, select, and shape the cultural aspects of

their environment".

Numerous studies show that the three primarily components to CQ are (Clark, 2008):

1. Intelligence Quotient (IQ),

2. Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ),

3. The Resultant Combination of Personal Experiences.

Figure (2.1): Components of Cultural Intelligence (CQ)

Source: Clark, Major T. J. (2008), Developing a Cultural Intelligence Capability, Army Command

and General Staff College, USA.

Cultural Intelligence (CQ)

Personal Experiences

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

Emotional Intelligence

Quotient (EQ)

12

Even though there are a lot of definitions, basically CQ is about an individual's

ability to adapt and interact successfully with other people from different culture or in

new culture environment. The indicator of effective CQ is how people interact in

multicultural contexts effectively. Effective intercultural interactions have the following

characteristics: can adjust behavior and character so someone can feel comfortable, have

good relationship, and perform effectively when interacting with people from different

cultures (Thomas et al., 2008).

In conclusion, this research introduces CQ as a concept consisting of four

components; metacognitive, cognitive, motivational and behavioral. The researcher

defines CQ as "the ability to interact effectively in culturally diverse contexts".

2.1.3. Importance of Cultural Intelligence

Changes, that are taking place globally and locally, in cities and communities all

around the globe, require culturally intelligent employees. Cultural Intelligence (CQ) is

believed to represent an essential intercultural capability that is significant for

employees working internationally within contemporary organizations (Alon &

Higgins, 2005). Here are the points, which show the importance of CQ:

1. Communication effectiveness: CQ is important for the communication effectiveness

with people from different cultural backgrounds. Knowledge of cultural differences

prepares individuals for proper verbal and non-verbal communication. Cultural

intelligence helps to know what is or is not desirable in specific culture regarding to

its culture-bound behaviors, norms, religious and other beliefs, marriage systems,

arts and crafts (Ang & Van Dyne, 2008).

2. Multicultural team effectiveness: Attempts to work internationally are hindered by

different languages, preferences and understanding of the situation. An individual

with high CQ has a "apparently natural ability to understand other's unfamiliar and

ambiguous behavior in just the way that nationals from his homeland would" (Earley

& Mosakowski, 2004).

3. Competitive advantage: Livermore (2015) conceived that the cultural intelligence of

the individuals is what determines whether the organization's diversity promotes or

deters innovation. Furthermost, leading executives from multiple countries identify

multicultural skills as one of the most important competencies needed to compete in

the global world. In commercial institutions, risks are reduced because more

culturally intelligent managers have greater knowledge of cultural attributes of the

markets, behavioral flexibility and intrinsic motivation to fully engage with culturally

distant markets.

4. Productive global assignments: Defined broadly as an individual's capability to

effectively deal with people from different cultural backgrounds (Ang et al., 2004),

CQ holds great promise to explain why some people interact and adapt more

effectively in foreign cultures than others, beyond just an ability to understand the

language of a culture (Earley & Peterson, 2004).

5. Intercultural collaboration: CQ is another complementary form of intelligence that

can explain variability in coping with diversity and functioning in new cultural

13

settings; the collection of knowledge, skills, and abilities that enable an individual to

detect, assimilate, reason, and act on cultural cues appropriately. It increases

awareness of the differences with the other culture and enables the person to make

use of appropriate behavior, while stimulating understanding of the cognitive

differences in the culture (Bücker et al., 2014). Simply put, the greater one's cultural

intelligence, the more likely one is able to effectively manage culturally diverse

settings (Ang et al., 2007). This applies to both; domestic as well as international

situations, requiring multi-disciplinary leadership effectiveness (Rockstuhl et al.,

2011).

6. Rational decisions: CQ can act as a cognitive lens for executives and influences the

way they process information about and from the environment. This influence has

three dimensions; (1) the information they look for, (2) the types of informational

resources they rely on and (3) the overall quality of information that they are able to

gather from the environment. (Ljubica & Dulcic, 2012).

7. Strategic expansion into culturally diverse markets: Even though "some workers may

never work outside their country of citizenship, many will interact with customers,

clients, suppliers, and co-workers who are themselves outside their home country"

(Crowne, 2008). Cultural intelligence is a valuable tool for managing any form of

cultural diversity, whether gender, nationality, race, generation, sexual orientation,

health status or other subculture, to turn risks into strategic strengths.

2.1.4. Antecedents of Cultural Intelligence

Since CQ remarkably affects someone's capability to adapt and act effectively in

multicultural contexts, how to improve someone's CQ becomes important. In this

regard, it is meaningful to identify which factors influence the existence and

development of CQ.

Recent empirical studies have demonstrated that CQ is positively related to cross-

cultural adaptation (Putranto, Gustomo, & Ghazali, 2015), global leadership (Alon &

Higgings, 2005) and effective performance in multi-cultural environment (Templer, Tay

& Chandrasekar, 2006). Previous studies have found many antecedents of CQ in

various aspects, which have been frequently reported to have positive influences on

leaders' CQ; such as:

1. language proficiency (Shannon & Begley, 2008),

2. role clarity (Shaffer & Riordan, 2003),

3. communication ability (Holopainen & Bjorkman, 2005),

4. previous international experiences (Tarique & Takeuchi, 2008),

5. self-monitoring (Ang, 2008),

6. work experience in home country prior to foreign assignment (Takeuchi et al., 2005),

7. situational characteristics, e.g. the number of employees from the host country and

the degree of interaction with local employees (Caligiuri, 2000).

Outside of personality traits, several antecedents of CQ were studied. Knowing the

antecedents of CQ is also essential to understand why some individuals may face

14

diverse cultural situations in a more effective way than other (Duff, Tahbaz & Chan,

2012). Crowne (2014) answers the question: "What leads to higher levels of CQ?"

Firstly, he emphasizes CQ importance regarding its benefit in firms' development and

conducting business facilitation. Thus, firms have to consider enhancing their

employees' CQ. Then, he discusses how these issues relate to education and internships,

training, expatriation, and global leadership:

1. Education and internships: Some firms utilize such ideas, but more organizations

have to create them to enhance cultural understanding in the workplace. In other

words, they have to work for increasing the pool of future employees who are high in

CQ. One of the effective strategies is studying abroad in which firms support

studying abroad programs at universities, to encourage students to take advantage.

Additionally, organizations may use internships strategy in which they create

partnership with universities to screen or train prospective employees who have high

degree of CQ. Ahn and Ettner (2013) state that the most important attributes that

increase an individual's CQ are international work experience, learning an additional

language other than English, and/or obtaining an undergraduate degree from a

foreign country.

2. Training: An appropriate individual training for international assignments is

considered as an essential approach, not only for those who are expatriates, but also

for those who interact with individuals from other countries. Training programs have

to be designed in a way that fits the differing levels of employees CQ. To illustrate,

Rehg, Gundlach and Grigorian (2012) found that training using a lecture format

significantly improved mean levels of CQ on the cognitive and behavioral

dimensions while less significantly improving motivational CQ. Senior leaders have

to see CQ as a priority and define goals for its development. They also have to

embrace training program to enhance employees' culture-specific knowledge such as

allowing employees to interact by utilizing cross-cultural simulation exercises, real-

time coaching and feedback. Nevertheless, specific training is important to

understand some of values that may drive behavior, knowing that people recognize

the visible part of a culture, whereas the important aspects of culture (opinions,

viewpoints, attitudes, philosophies, values, and convictions) are unseen (Smith,

2014).

3. Expatriation: Being exposed to other cultures positive influence on cultural

intelligence. Accordingly, multinational organizations should consider hiring

individuals with previous international experience, specifically who have worked or

studied abroad. Otherwise, they may to look for those with several vacationing

experiences abroad because they have a higher level of motivational CQ and the

desire to learn about other cultures. On the other hand, Moon (2013) concludes that

CQ is positively related to expatriates' previous working experiences with foreign

nationals and in an overseas department in their home country. Finally, it is

important to notice that expatriates with greater openness to experience,

conscientiousness, and emotional stability were better able to adjust to their

assignments (Evans, 2012).

15

4. Global leadership: Choosing appropriate employees with high levels of CQ to

interact with foreign firms should have positive outcomes on the organization (Tay et

al., 2008). Global leadership should be applied as a way of success in global

organizations. Overall, firms should empower those who have multiple global

assignments and some education abroad. Even if this leader does not intend to leave

his home country.

2.1.5. Intercultural Competence Models

The researcher reviews four models related to the field of this study: The Cultural

Intelligence Model (CQ), the Business Cultural Intelligence Quotient (BCIQ), the

Global Mindset and the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity. These

models have attracted considerable attention in organizational research. Below, a brief

overview of each model is provided:

1. Cultural Intelligence Model (CQ): The cultural intelligence model developed by

Earley and Ang (2003) is a multidimensional construct that defines an individual's

capacity to function and manage effectively in culturally diverse settings (Ang &

Inkpen, 2008). In other words, CQ measures the individual's performance in

situations involving "cross-cultural interactions arising from differences in race,

ethnicity, or nationality" (Ang et al., 2006). The cultural intelligence model

comprises four factors:

a. Metacognitive cultural intelligence; i.e. the mental capability to acquire and

understand cultural knowledge.

b. Cognitive cultural intelligence; i.e. the detailed knowledge about cultures and

cultural differences.

c. Motivational cultural intelligence; i.e. the ability to direct and sustain energy

toward functioning in intercultural situations.

d. Behavioral cultural intelligence; i.e. the ability of behavioral flexibility in

intercultural interactions.

Based on the CQ model, Ang, Van Dyne and Koh (2006) studied the personality

correlations with the various dimensions of CQ, thus developed a four-factor,

twenty-items model titled Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS), which is highly

internally as well as structurally consistent across multinational samples.

2. Business Cultural Intelligence Quotient Model (BCIQ): This new instrument

measures cultural intelligence in a business context. It was developed by Ilan

Alon, Michele Boulanger, Judith Meyers and Vasyl Taras (2016). This tool helps in

measuring, assessing, and developing cross-cultural intelligence. The BCIQ has three

key characteristics which differentiate it from other tools; it only measures CQ in a

business context that makes all items in the model applicable in workspace and

international management settings, it uses a more developed factor structure, in

addition to using both quasi-direct observations and objective direct measurements.

BCIQ measures items closer to actual behavior and skills and creates an efficient and

inexpensive way for directly measuring CQ. Number of right and wrong questions

takes place at the beginning of the questionnaire measuring actual cultural

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ilan_Alon&action=edit&redlink=1

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ilan_Alon&action=edit&redlink=1

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Michele_Boulanger&action=edit&redlink=1

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Judith_Meyers&action=edit&redlink=1

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vasyl_Taras&action=edit&redlink=1

16

knowledge. Rest of the questions investigates behaviors, attitudes and ideas (Alon et

al., 2016).

3. Global Mindset Model: The concept of global mindset was explored two decades

ago. It was characterized as the cognitive filter that embraces the complexity and

paradoxes inherent in global interactions. Some scholars link global mindset to

organizational performance. Yet others focus on the knowledge and skills related to

culture and intercultural issues. Experts developed the Global Mindset Inventory

(GMI) through an extensive literature review and interviews. This model consists of

nine sub dimensions organized into three major forms: (a) psychological, (b) social,

and (c) intellectual. In addition, this model combines:

a. traits such as passion for diversity and quest for adventure,

b. worldviews such as a cosmopolitan outlook,

c. capabilities (such as diplomacy).

It is clear that the term "global mindset" reflects cognitive origins (a mindset) to a

broader set of factors (traits, worldviews, and capabilities). Finally, this set of nine

sub dimensions is supported by the confirmatory factor analysis on the 50-item GMI

(Leung, 2014).

4. Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity: Bennett's (2004) Developmental

Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS), with cultural worldviews as its conceptual

basis. Moreover, Hammer & Bennett (2011) developed the Intercultural

Development Inventory (IDI) to measure level of intercultural competence.

Intercultural Competence takes place across six stages which characterized by a

complex understanding of cultural commonalities and differences and the ability to

shift between cultural perspectives. These six distinct stages are:

a. Denial,

b. Defense,

c. Reversal,

d. Minimization,

e. Acceptance,

f. Adaptation.

Moreover, the level of intercultural development significantly and positively

predicts variables such as satisfaction with studying abroad. Finally, people with

higher levels of intercultural development are also less anxious in intercultural

(Leung, 2014).

2.1.6. Cultural Intelligence Model

The CQ Model is a framework that builds the capability cultural intelligence. This

model underpins CQ assessment, CQ training and CQ coaching sessions. This model

can be applied to culturally intelligent policy development, program design, client and

community engagement.

The CQ Model highlights the importance of developing an overall collection of

understanding, strategy, skills and motivation that enables one to move in and out of

17

lots of different cultural contexts (Ang & Van Dyne, 2008). Cultural intelligence as a

construct has been extensively developed and operationalized by Dr. David Livermore.

Besides the definition, the several scholars also have different dimensions for CQ.

Early and Ang (2003) mentioned that CQ is consist of cognitive ability, motivational,

and behavioral. Alike, Earley and Mosakowski (2004) divided CQ dimensions into

three factors: the cognitive (head), the physical (body) and the emotional/motivational

(heart). Then, Thomas (2006) proposed three similar dimensions of CQ: knowledge,

mindfulness, behavior. Additionally, Thomas, Ekelund and Elron (2012) also proposed

three dimensions of CQ: cultural knowledge, cross-cultural skills, and cultural meta-

cognition. Finally, the researchers (Ang et al., 2007) have developed CQ as a

multidimensional concept, targeted at situations involving cross-cultural interactions

arising from differences in race, ethnicity and nationality. Built on the increasing

consensus that investigation of intelligence should go beyond mere cognitive abilities

(Ang & Van Dyne, 2015), Ang and colleagues (2007) have theorized that CQ comprises

four distinct, but linked dimensions; metacognitive, cognitive, motivational and

behavioral. Metacognition, cognition, and motivation are mental aptitudes that exist

within the head, while engaging actions are behavioral ones (Sternberg & Detterman,

1986).

Figure (2.2): The Four-Factor Model of Cultural Intelligence

Source: Van Dyne, L., Ang, S., Ng, K. Y., Rockstuhl, T., Tan, M. L., & Koh, C. (2012). Sub‐

dimensions of the four-factor model of cultural intelligence: Expanding the conceptualization and

measurement of cultural intelligence. Social and personality psychology compass, 6(4), 295-313.

They believe that these dimensions structure an individual's ability to learn about other

cultures, the ability to learn about how to learn about culture, the desire to interact

across cultures and the ability to modify behavior to do so successfully. The dimensions

are clarified as follows:

1. The Meta-Cognitive CQ (Strategy): This dimension reflects the individual's mental

capability to acquire and understand cultural knowledge and how to make sense of

those inter-cultural diverse experiences (Earley & Ang, 2003). It consists of the

cognitive strategies that are used to acquire and generate coping strategies (Ng &

Earley, 2006). Ang and colleagues (2006) further remark meta-cognitive CQ as the

level of cultural awareness and consciousness, thus individuals are able to question

cultural assumptions to adjust their mental simulations in intercultural situations. It

includes processes such as planning, monitoring and revising mental models of

Cultural Intelligence (CQ)

Motivational CQIntinsicEtinsic

Self-Effective

Cognitive CQCultural SystemsCultural Norms

& Values

Metacognitive CQAwareness

PlanningChecking

Behavioral CQVerbal

Non-verbalSpeech Act

18

cultural norms for different countries or groups of people (Ang et al., 2008). This

dimension helps to answer questions as:

a. What's the goal for this action?

b. What is the initial plan?

c. What cultural assumptions seem to be at play - both yours and others?

2. The Cognitive CQ (Knowledge): This dimension reflects knowledge of the norms,

customs and traditions in different cultures acquired from both the personal

experience as well as formal education, those universal as well as culture-specific

(Ang et al., 2008). It reflects the person understandings of how cultures are similar

and how cultures are different. This dimension of cultural intelligence represents an

individual's ability to use the basic facts acquired in the meta-cognitive step to

distinguish between the differing norms, values, beliefs, and attitudes of unfamiliar

cultures (Imai & Gelfand, 2010). That involves more than awareness of distinctions

in customs, appearance and language. However, it includes knowledge about the core

cultural differences, economic and legal systems, norms for social interaction,

religious beliefs, aesthetic values, and language in different cultures (Reisinger &

Turner, 2012). Those with high cognitive CQ understand similarities and differences

across cultures which they interact (Brislin, Worthley & MacNab, 2006). This

dimension helps to answer questions as:

a. Do I know anything about the new culture and how it can affect the business

life?

b. Do I understand how culture shapes peoples' behaviors in general?

c. Can I see in what ways cultures differ from one another?

3. The Motivational CQ (Drive): This dimension refers to the desire, drive and interest

to direct attention and energy towards exploring and handling multicultural

situations, reflecting the individual's confidence in functioning effectively in

culturally diverse contexts (Ang et al., 2007). This dimension emphasizes the

motivation behind cognitive processes and knowledge, beyond just recognizing

cultural differences. Imai and Gelfand (2010) referred to this as the intrinsic

motivation and self-efficacy that is necessary to propel individuals with cultural

knowledge to go out and engage new cultures. It includes the ability to overcome

explicit or unconscious bias, the willingness to work with others from diverse

backgrounds and the capacity to persist in challenging intercultural settings; even

when the individual feels frustrated, confused, or burnt out (Earley & Ang, 2003).

This dimension of CQ includes three primary motivators: growth (wanting to

challenge and improve oneself), enhancement (wanting to feel good about oneself),

and continuality (the desire for continuity and predictability in one's life) (Earley et

al., 2006). This dimension helps to answer questions as:

a. What's the motivation for this task?

b. Am i prepared to adapt cross-culturally?

c. Do i have the self-confidence it takes?

4. The Behavioral CQ (Action): This dimension links the capability to adjust behaviors

according to cognition and motivation based on cultural values of specific settings.

This includes having the capability to display appropriate verbal and nonverbal

19

gestures when interacting with others from different cultural backgrounds (Imai &

Gelfand, 2010). Those with high behavioral CQ are capable to express situational

proper behaviors based on their broad range of verbal and nonverbal competencies.

Behavioral CQ helps individuals respond to diverse others in a manner that conveys

respect and builds trust and rapport (Ang et al., 2007), through displaying culturally

appropriate words, tone, gestures, and facial expressions, which decreases the risk of

miscommunication (Ward, & Fischer, 2008). This dimension helps to answer

questions as:

a. Do I sense a need to adjust the verbal and nonverbal actions as I move through

the situation?

b. What exactly do I need to adapt to do this effectively?

The four dimensions that form CQ are not abstract ideas. Researchers and scientists

verified that those competencies map to particular regions of the brain. Studies denoted

CQ dimensions as important predictors of performance in diverse cultural settings,

including better problem solving and decision-making (Earley & Ang, 2003), better task

performance and improved well-being (Ang et al., 2007). In fact, CQ is a better

predictor of efficacy in diverse situations than personality, emotional intelligence (EQ)

demographic characteristics, cognitive ability and international experience.

2.1.7. Requirements of CQ Implementation

A financial services' senior executive said: "Today, I am scared for the future of our

business because our employees don't relate to or with the emerging client base… In

fact, we are losing the diverse members of our workforce to these same competitors

because we lack the cultural intelligence to keep them" (Lopis, 2011).

Understanding, predicting and developing CQ is very essential in the workplaces

which become increasingly global. In addition, incorporating CQ approach in

international project management achieves many benefits such as enriching cultural

differences management and more effective intercultural interactions between teamwork

members. One of the most important attribute is enhancing person's capability to

accomplish tasks and achieve goals while interacting with people from different cultural

backgrounds. Also, CQ improves communication in culturally challenging situations

through increasing trust and building relationships among teams (Kiznyte, Ciutiene &

Dechange, 2015).

Developing CQ will enhance the individual and organizational ability in navigating

across cultural boundaries. CQ is a system consisting of three interactive components:

(a) cultural knowledge, (b) cross-cultural skills and (c) metacognition. These

components are developed in different ways as following (Forbes, 2015):

1. Cultural Knowledge: which emphasizes on the knowledge of other cultures, such as

how people act in disagreements and when they communicate with each other, how

other cultures' social relations happen and what other cultures value and consider

significant. It is gained from various channels, such as newspapers, movies, having

20

friends with people from a different culture. Individuals may utilize this knowledge

to know what is unique in cultures and analyze this uniqueness.

2. Cross-Cultural Skills: which include a broad set of skills influential in intercultural

effectiveness such as tolerance of uncertainty (dealing with uncertainties, ambiguities

and unexpected changes in an intercultural interaction), relational skills (interacting

with people from other cultures), empathy (putting yourself in other person's shoes in

culturally different situations), adaptability (changing your behavior according to the

cultural demands), perceptual acuity (understanding people's feelings during

intercultural interactions). It can be developed through experiential learning in which

you experience cultural skills in a foreign culture through trail-and-error. By

acquiring cross-cultural skills, how to behave appropriately in that culture would be

easy.

3. Cultural Metacognition: which refers to the knowledge of and control over one's

thinking and learning activities in the specific domain of cultural experiences and

strategies. Individuals need to pay attention to how others interact in several

situations. In addition, this helps in testing the effectiveness behavior.

2.1.8. Outcomes of Cultural Intelligence

A wide range of cultural intelligence outcomes are studied by numerous researches.

Studies use many predictors such as general cognitive ability, emotional intelligence

and Big Five personality. Outcomes are classified according to the degree of specificity

into general job performance (including task performance, organizational citizenship

behaviors, and adaptive performance), domain-specific performance (including global

leadership and negotiation), and specific demonstrated behaviors (Ang et al., 2013).

Outcomes include task performance, cultural judgment and decision making (CJDM),

cultural tolerance, cross-cultural adjustment, job satisfaction and well-being (Smith,

2012). Previous studies have shown mainly the following outcomes:

1. CQ reduces the level of anxiety, which results from the ambiguous environment and

the unfamiliar corporate culture.

2. CQ relates positively to job satisfaction, which is an important outcome that

functions as a driver to sustain communication in cross-cultural interactions (Bücker

et al., 2010).

3. Metacognitive and behavioral cultural intelligence positively enhance task

performance in culturally diverse settings. Individuals with high degree of

motivational cultural intelligence act with an intrinsic interest, socio-cultural sense of

adjustment, and feel of confidence regarding their skills and abilities to adjust to a

culturally diverse workforce (Ang et al., 2007).

4. Motivational CQ facilitates learning the role expectation while behavioral cultural

intelligence is used to exhibit appropriate verbal and nonverbal behaviors to meet the

role expectation of others (Earley & Ang, 2003).

5. Metacognitive and cognitive cultural intelligence are applied in cultural judgment

and decision-making process. The outcomes here are decisions in which many

mental processes are used e.g. critical thinking, problem solving, evaluation of

information, and comparison of alternative outcomes (Smith, 2012).

21

6. Yeke and Semerciöz (2016) found that individuals with high level of cultural

intelligence are more socially tolerated and behave with high intercultural

communication competence.

7. CQ plays an important role in successful expatriate adjustment, which in turn,

impacts performance (Huff et al., 2013) and helps as an intercultural competency that

support their job performance in international contexts.

2.1.9. CQ Success Cases

Each company has its very distinctive culture and sometimes subcultures. New

employees need time to adapt with different cultural environments. CQ facilitates

interactions among employees; e.g. the sales with engineers and the PR with lawyers.

Nevertheless, CQ helps in alleviating confusion in understanding each department,

division or geographical regions manners, meanings, histories, and values (Earley &

Mosakowski, 2014).

In addition, involving with other cultures is likely leading to developing a better

cultural understanding. Also, it has been found that high degrees in CQ associated with

obvious global perspective and international career aspirations. For example, managers

of a small U.S financial company with a foreign office in Great Britain need a period of

time (6 months) to understand the British culture and interact comfortably with others in

the British office. Moreover, a yes response from a Japanese manager means complete

agreement from US manager perspective, whereas, it did not necessarily indicate this

(Crowne, 2013).

In business field, many of top executives agree that working effectively across

cultures addresses organizational concerns. For instance; IKEA's CEO, Mikkel Ohlsson,

believes that CQ is both the right thing to apply and something that makes business

sense. Likewise, the CEO of the South African insurer Discovery Health, Jonathan

Bromberg, states that one of its most valuable sources of ingenuity and innovation is the

cultural diversity at the work environment. Moreover, Robert Mortiz, chairman of PWC

embraces CQ as a core behavior in his organization and essential to navigate today's

increasingly global and diverse business environment. Nevertheless, Ajay Banga, CEO

of MasterCard, and Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America reflect that

understanding culture differences in thinking, working facilitates managing diversity in

workplace which is directly linked to customer satisfaction. As a result, organizations

are supposed to know how to communicate increasingly diverse customers' needs

through designing and adapting products and services that meet these needs (Livermore,

2015).

Nevertheless, IBM; which is the traditional established company that takes place in

the United States is an additional success case. By time, it has clients in 170 countries

and now does two-thirds of its business outside the United States. Hence, it improves its

strategies and culture. It embraces a unique strategy in which it focuses on teamwork. It,

also, enters emerging markets and discover new cultures by sending its employees for

voluntary projects in various areas such as Turkey, Tanzania, Vietnam, Ghana, and the

22

Philippines. One of these teams consisted of number of IBM employees from six

countries. Their voluntary mission was to join Green Forest, a furniture manufacturing

team in Timisoara, Romania. They helped Green Forest to increase its business by being

more computer-savvy. They guided the organization to be a paperless company in 3

years, by providing computer systems to enhance productivity and consultancy to

improve sales strategies and increase exports to Western Europe. The team services

were for free; however, IBM believes these multicultural, multinational teams are good

investments. IBM managers found that such programs help IBMers develop

multicultural team skills as Stanley Litow; the IBM VP said: "We want to build a

leadership cadre that learns about these places and also learns to exchange their diverse

backgrounds and skills" (Robbins & Judge 2007).

From a militant perspective, Coles (2006) mentions that CQ have to be considered

within the joint intelligence doctrine in order to gain the best knowledge, make

decisions and understanding the people and leaders in the area in operations area. He,

also, said that CQ helps to avoid what he calls "mirror-imaging" in which one think that

foreigners will act the same like him. In addition, as a leader of many military

campaigns especially in Southwest Asia he narrates number of learned historical lessons

regarding the relation between CQ and mission's success. Some of these cases are

Napoleon's campaign in Spain and operation in Iraqi in which the military conflict

ended quickly, whereas, forces found difficult problems regarding stabilization.

Nevertheless, Vietnam War and Somalia's operations provided many applicable lessons

related to difficulties in operations such as humanitarian relief. It is found that the key

factor is the understanding of the local populations in each country.

Finally, it is essential to observe that increasing cultural diversity of the workforce

and being aware of employees CQ helps in achieving organizational goals especially for

international intercultural ones. In the context of INGOs working in the Gaza Strip,

employees are supposed to act with high cultural sensitivity, adaptation abilities and

specific knowledge to manage and lead at this special piece of land.

23

2.2. Section Two | PERSONALITY TRAITS

2.2.1. Introduction

This section will provide a review of the personality definitions, theoretical

perspectives, historical backgrounds, brief overviews of the personality traits models

and a deeper outline of the multicultural personality model used as well as the examined

relations between personality and cultural intelligence. Throughout this chapter an

extensive review of the studied personality traits will be presented to provide the reader

with a comprehensive literature review.

For more than a century, psychologists have attempted to identify and understand

systematic, observable differences between individuals that seem stable over time.

Among these individual differences, personality and intelligence have received

widespread attention, not only in an academic, but also in professional forums. Studying

personality traits driving intercultural environments is crucial to successfully manage

cultural diversity and execute strategic decisions.

There are employees who have different attributes and various capabilities in

companies. The difference of personality traits among employees influences thoughts

and behaviors of employees. In a global world, organizations correspondingly include

employees who have various cultures. Understanding employees who have various

cultures is crucial for organizations, which wish to hold these capable employees.

2.2.2. Definition of Personality

Personality has been conceptualized at various levels of abstraction or breadth and

from a variety of theoretical perspectives. Each of these levels has remarkably

contributed to our understanding of individual differences in behavior and experience.

Loosely defined, personality is the totality or whole of the person. It refers to stable

patterns of behaviors or traits that predispose an individual to act in a specific manner.

In popular usage, personality is usually associated with social skills and competencies.

Less superficially though, psychologists use it to refer to the characteristic pattern of

thinking, feeling and acting (Millon, Lerner, & Weiner, 2003). By characteristic pattern,

it is meant to the consistent and distinctive ways the ideas, feelings and actions are

organized. In a classic early textbook, Allport (1961) reviewed definitions of the

concept of personality. He called it "one of the most abstract words in our language"

and discussed its broad connotations. Allport recorded fifty distinct meanings; some

from theological, literary, juristic, philosophical and sociological traditions and others

stressing external appearance or psychological constructs. The definition he proposed;

that personality encompasses all those psychophysical systems that control the unique

adjustments to the external environment, was a synthesis of several psychological

meanings of the concept. In this classic but still influential working definition, the idea

of organization is central to the definition.

24

As the science matures, there is a growing consensus about more modestly findings

and concepts that are broadly acceptable. Thus, Pervin (1996) defined personality as the

compound set of affects, perceptions and behaviors that inherently guides individuals'

life in coherent pattern. Like the physical body, personality consists of both processes

and structures, as it also reflects both nature (genes) and nurture (experience).

Personality is shaped by the memories and experiences of the past, besides

constructions of the present and future. Consistent with that definition, Funder (2001)

provided a more down-to-earth rendition; as he identifies personality as "an individual's

characteristic patterns of thought, sentiment, and behavior, together with the

psychological mechanisms creating those patterns". Funder's definition refers

simultaneously to characteristics that are endorsed to individuals, constant over time,

and psychological in nature. Yet it also acknowledges that mechanisms explaining these

traits may be difficult to isolate and measure.

The term personality is used in a number of ways, including the apparent features of

individuals. Some definitions emphasize more external types of attributes, such as the

role one assumes or the status one has achieved in society, one's external appearance;

including personal attractiveness, and the reactions of others to the individual as a

stimulus; that is, the person's social stimulus value (Johnson, Barrick & Ryan, 2003). In

work settings, of course, appearances are important. Moreover, Triandis (2001)

proposes that communalist cultures consider external factors more important to

personality than are the internal traits emphasized in individualist cultures. Individual

differences in externally defined attributes may be interlinked with individual

differences in temperamental traits.

As discussed above, individual variations embrace the core part of the definition of

this field, but they are not all of it. I should not be limited to study only the personal

differences and their various behavior, rather it should also focus on the ways they

shape their conditions of lives, their thought and depending actions. (Mischel, Shoda &

Ayduk, 2007).

Highlighting the interpersonal skills and abilities, personality is "the unique,

relatively enduring pattern of recurrent interpersonal situations which characterize a

human life" (Millon, 2003). Moreover, it embraces a set of characteristics within an

individual influencing his cognitions and behaviors in different contexts (Hussain et al.,

2012). This includes all aspects; internally and externally, that affects the indivdual's

behavior in different situations.

This expanded view recognizes that human tendencies are a crucial part of

personality. But it also recognizes the need to study the basic processes of cultural

adaptation through which people interact with and change the conditions of their lives,

and how those conditions, in turn, influence them and their behavior in multi-cultural

situations. Personality thus includes the person's unique patterns of coping with, and

transforming, the multi-cultural environment. This view of personality focuses more on

25

the processes to influence the individual's distinctive patterns of cultural adaptation

throughout the life span.

To end with, this study focuses on personality traits as a success factor for employees

in different workplaces. Nevertheless, personality can be considered as an important

factor affecting CQ, as mentioned before. The researcher defines personality traits, on

light of reviewed literature and current study goals, as "the person's unique patterns of

coping with, and acting in multi-cultural environment".

2.2.3. Personality Traits Models

The researcher reviews five models related to the field of this study: The

International Personality Item Pool (IPIP), the Big Five Personality Traits, the NEO

Personality Inventory (NEO-PI), the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) and the

Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). These models have been developed and

studied considerably in organizational research. Below, a brief overview of each model

is provided:

1. International Personality Item Pool (IPIP): The International Personality Item Pool

(IPIP) was created to establish a set of personality items that free researchers from

copyrights related to personality inventories. The IPIP initial set was 1252 items and

it grows to over 2000 items as new sets of items are added each year. Currently, there

are nearly 300 scales constructed from IPIP items. Roughly 175 constructs take place

in number of quite similar scales derived from broad inventories were measured (e.g.

activity level, borderline personality disorder, complexity, empathy, impulse control,

impression-management, irrational beliefs, locus of control, self-monitoring). The

following table shows these scales:

Table (2.1): Scales constructed from IPIP items

No. Scale Author

1. The NEO-PI-R Costa & McCrae, 1992

2. 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) Conn & Rieke, 1994

3. California Psychological Inventory (CPI) Gough & Bradley, 1996

4. Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) Hogan & Hogan, 1992

5. Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) Cloninger, 1994

6. Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire

(MPQ). Tellegen, in press

7. Jackson Personality Inventory (JPI-R). Jackson, 1994

8. Six-Factor Personality Questionnaire (6FPQ) Jackson, Paunonen, & Tremblay,

2000

9. HEXACO Personality Inventory Lee & Ashton, 2004

10. Lexical Big-Five factor structure Goldberg, 1992

11. Components of Emotional Intelligence Barchard, 2001

Source: Goldberg L. R., Johnson J., Eber H.W. & Gough H.G. (2006), the international personality

item pool and the future of public-domain personality measures, Journal of Research in Personality

(40), 84–96.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Personality_Item_Pool

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Personality_Item_Pool

26

2. Big Five Personality Traits Model: This personality model is seen as the most

important classification of personality traits. It describes self and others in an

errorless and unbiased way. Also, it is considered as one of the most strongly

supported models in theoretical terms in psychology of personality traits.

Nevertheless, this consists of the big five traits called; agreeableness,

conscientiousness, extraversion, openness to experience and emotional inconsistence

(emotional instability or neuroticism). They can be explained as follows (Tufekci &

Dinc, 2014):

a. Agreeableness indicates individual differences in cooperation and social

harmony.

b. Conscientiousness is about individuals' ways of controlling, regulating and

directing their impulses.

c. Extraversion indicates a strong participation into the external world.

d. Openness to Experience separates imaginative and creative individuals from

realistic and traditional individuals.

e. Emotional Instability indicates the tendency to experience negative emotions.

The Big Five personality traits model is considered as an inappropriate tool to

measure the research variables, due to its broadness, despite of its usefulness in

interpreting how general personality traits influence expatriates' cross-cultural

adjustment (Ones & Viswesvaran, 1997). For example, Peltokorpi & Froese (2012)

argued that the Big Five Personality Traits Model fails specifically identify the

influence of personality traits on expatriates' cross-cultural adjustment and job

performance. Prior research identified many negative, positive, and non-significant

relationships between extraversion and cross-cultural adjustment (Schneider et al.,

1996). In several studies, some personality traits were proved to be positively

impacting all three cross-cultural adjustment aspects (Shaffer et al., 2006). Yet, other

studies upon expatriates show significant correlations among extraversion and

feelings of boredom and depression (Peltokorpi & Froese, 2012). Furthermore,

conscientiousness has been multiple times proved in industrial and organizational

(I/O) psychology research to be the only Big Five Factor that keeps predictive

validity across jobs and organizations (Ones et al., 1994) and that narrower

personality traits more accurately predict behavior in many work-related

environments (Huang et al., 2005).

3. NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R): The NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-

R; Costa & McCrae, 1992) is the updated version of the NEO PI (Costa & McCrae,

1985). The NEO PI-R is one of the most well-known and widely used inventories

developed to measure the Big Five personality traits as one of a growing family of

instruments (Schmitt, 2007), covering the domains of neuroticism, openness to

experience, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness (Chan et al., 2012).

The FFM is a robust model of normal personality, with a factor structure that has

been replicated across many languages and cultures (McCrae et al., 2005).

Information on these factors can be useful for understanding emotional,

interpersonal, attitudinal, and motivational characteristics that are important for a

variety of applications, including psychotherapy, counseling, and employment

27

decisions. The NEO PI-R has also become a major research tool for examining the

relationship between personality and behavioral, physical, and mental health

variables. It is not intended, however, to assess overt or severe psychopathology, and

it is not necessarily diagnostic of any specific psychiatric disorder found in the

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM; American Psychiatric

Association, 2000). The NEO PI-R has two different forms: Form S and Form R. In

each, participants are asked to respond to 240 items using a 5-point scale.

Approximately 30 to 40 minutes is required for completion.

4. Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI): The 10-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI;

Gosling, Rentfrow, & Swann, 2003) measures the Big-Five personality dimensions

and largely based on Goldberg's (1992) list. Each of the items on the scale is rated on

a 7-point scale with only 2 items for each of the 5 scales (extraversion,

agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness) (Muck &

Gosling, 2007). The measure was created to be finished within a minute. Although

somewhat inferior to standard multi-item instruments, the instruments reached

adequate levels in terms of:

a. convergence with widely used Big-Five measures in self, observer, and peer

reports,

b. test–retest reliability,

c. patterns of predicted external correlates,

d. convergence between self and observer ratings.

TIPI is recommended due to its approximately equal administration time and

superior psychometric properties.

5. Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ): Due to the weaknesses of previous

models, Van der Zee and Van Oudenhoven's (2000, 2001) have recently developed

the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). MPQ is considered as an

important tool to measure the characteristics of individuals to describe individuals

and their behavior when interacting with others in a multicultural context. This

model consists of five dimensions of human personality: cultural empathy (CE),

flexibility (F), social initiative (SI), emotional stability (ES) and open-mindedness to

new (O) (Popescu, 2014). MPQ is significantly and positively associated with:

a. sociocultural adjustment, psychological well-being, mental health, and physical

health of international students and expatriates,

b. multicultural activity, expatriate job satisfaction and examination grades of

students working in culturally diverse teams,

c. international aspirations of students and employees.

Finally, CQ model and the multicultural personality model provided the most

promising evidence as intercultural competence models. Both have demonstrated

similarity of factor structure and measurement equivalence across multiple cultures and

have predicted a range of behavioral, psychological, and performance outcomes (Leung,

2014).

28

2.2.4. MPQ as Model Used in this Study

The researcher noticed that the main Big Five Factor model or other derived models

depending on the same constructs are not the appropriate set of traits to rely on. On light

of the weaknesses of Big Five Personality Factors Model, the MPQ model is found to

be the most appropriate to be utilized in current research because of number of

mentioned justifications such as it focuses on people interaction in multicultural

contexts.

This research investigates personality traits in culture related situations. According to

Peltokorpi and Froese (2012) the Big Five fails to provide the level of accuracy required

to understand the influence of personality traits on cross-cultural adjustment or analyzes

behavior in various work-related contexts which requires narrower personality traits.

On the other hand, MPQ scales offer a new way to indirectly understand the

intercultural skills from practical perspective (Van der Zee, 2001). Nevertheless, it is

constructed specifically to describe one's behavior when interacting with people from

different cultures and how to adjust to it. It is a reliable, valid, and suitable instrument

because the five dimensions have consistently emerged from exploratory and

confirmatory factor analyses and explained more variance on multicultural success than

the Big Five.

The MPQ research in various settings also shows consistent results on dimensions

related to multicultural success. In studies with students، higher MPQ scores are

associated with psychological and social well-being (Van Oudenhoven et al., 2001) and

fewer negative reactions to potentially stressful situations involving cross-cultural

contact (Van der Zee, Van Oudenhoven, & de Grijs, 2004). The MPQ dimensions were

also more predictive of the physical، psychological، and social well-being of foreign

students than of local students (Van Oudenhoven & Van der Zee, 2002).

Considering the abovementioned justifications, this research will use MPQ to

examine the impact of employees' personality traits on cultural intelligence.

2.2.5. Personality Traits of the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ)

Personality traits of individuals differ from each other, thus the employees'

perspectives to cultural differences vary consequently. Some people do not

accommodate to individuals who are culturally diverse, but conversely quickly

accommodate to same culture. Hence personality traits of individuals are a considerable

factor to understand different cultures.

The Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) is a personality assessment

questionnaire that was constructed specifically to describe behavior when one is

interacting with people from different cultures. The MPQ may be used to predict how

easily people are likely to accept other cultures and feel comfortable dealing with them.

29

Each of the five personality factors assessed by the MPQ can be described as

following (Van der Zee & Van Oudenhoven, 2000):

1. Cultural Empathy: This is the most frequently mentioned dimension of cultural

effectiveness. These authors define cultural empathy as being the capacity to clearly

project an interest in others, as well as to obtain and to consider a reasonable

complete and accurate sense of another's thought, feelings, and/or experiences. This

scale assesses the capacity to identify with the feelings, thoughts, and behavior of

individuals from different cultural backgrounds. To function effectively with people

of other cultures, it is important to acquire some understanding of those cultures, and

cultural empathy seems important to "reading" other cultures. People who score high

on cultural empathy are able to identify with the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of

people and groups who are part of different cultures. People with a low score have

difficulties in identifying with the feelings, thoughts and behaviors of people and

groups with different cultural backgrounds. The cultural empathy dimension scale

includes items such as: understanding other people's feelings, trying to understand

other people's behavior.

2. Flexibility (Adaptability): This scale is associated with people's ability to adjust their

behavior to new and unknown situations. When working in another culture it is

important to be able to change strategies because customary and trusted ways of

doing things do not always work in a new cultural environment. People who score

high on flexibility perceive new and unknown situations as a challenge. They are

able to change behavioral patterns in response to unexpected or constrained

circumstances within another culture. People who score low are quicker to see new

and unknown situations as a threat. In addition, they tend to stick to trusted

behavioral patterns. Consequently, they are less able to adjust their behavioral pattern

in reaction to unexpected or constrained circumstances in another culture. Items that

characterized this dimension are: working mostly according to a strict scheme,

working according to a plan and working according to strict rules.

3. Social Initiative: Social initiative denotes people's tendency to approach social

situations actively and to take initiative. This determines the degree to which they

interact easily with people from different cultures and make friends within other

cultures. People who score high on this scale have a tendency to be active in social

situations and to take initiative. They will tend to be out-going when in another

culture. People who score low on this scale are less inclined to take initiative. They

will be rather reserved and stay in the background. The social initiative dimension

scale includes items such as: the ability to speak out and leadership.

4. Emotional Stability: This scale assesses the degree to which people tend to remain

calm in stressful situations. When working in another culture it is important to be

able to cope well with psychological and emotional discomfort. A variety of factors

(political system, procedures, lack of means and resources, impediments) may cause

things in different cultures not to work in the same way as they do in one's own

culture. When things do not go the way, they do in one's own culture; this may lead

to frustration, tension, fear, social detachment, financial problems, and interpersonal

conflicts. People who score high on this scale tend to remain calm in stressful

30

situations. People who score low on this scale exhibit strong emotional reactions to

stress. This dimension takes into consideration behavior attributes as: put setbacks in

perspective, keep calm at ill luck or consider problems solvable.

5. Open Mindedness: Matsumoto & Juang (2016) include open mindedness dimension

among the relational skills and those use elements related to racial, ethnic tolerance.

This scale assesses people's capacity to be open and unprejudiced when encountering

people outside of their own cultural group and who may have different values and

norms. This ability, just like cultural empathy, seems vital to understanding the rules

and values of other cultures and to coping with them in an effective manner. People

who score high on open-mindedness have an open and unprejudiced attitude towards

other groups, cultural values and norms and are open to new ideas. People who score

low are characterized by a predisposed attitude and a tendency to judge and

stereotype other groups. The open mindedness dimension scale includes items such

as: interest in other cultures, fascination of other people's opinions.

2.2.6. Personality in Relation to CQ

Although various antecedents of managers' cultural intelligence have been addressed,

personality traits have been most frequently examined (Şahin, 2014). Personality traits

contribute to each dimension of cultural intelligence. Several traits have influence on

cultural intelligence by different ways. Hence, the necessity of examining personality

traits as predictors of managers' CQ can be found in the context of international non-

governmental organizations (INGOs) working in the Gaza Strip. Undoubtedly,

employees' cultural adaptation is relevant to INGOs working in the Gaza Strip, with

many of them either working with foreign colleagues or sending their employees to

foreign countries for international assignments.

Personality traits and international experiences has been examined deeper as

antecedents of cultural intelligence. Studies examined narrower traits as predictors of

cultural intelligence beyond the broad Big Five personality traits; e.g. (Ang et al., 2012):

1. The six sub facets of openness to experience; i.e. intellectual efficiency, ingenuity,

curiosity, aesthetics, tolerance, and depth.

2. Tolerance and curiosity which predicted cultural intelligence the strongest and other

research has linked narrower traits, such as need for closure.

3. Traits from the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire; i.e. emotional stability,

flexibility, social initiative, cultural empathy, and open-mindedness.

4. Traits from the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory; i.e. flexibility/openness,

emotional resilience, perceptual acuity, and personal autonomy.

Early research exploring personality in relation to culture focused on personality as a

general indicator of cross-cultural adjustment (Church, 1982) rather than cultural

intelligence. Personality descriptions of the "potentially" good adjusters were commonly

accepted; however, they were based primarily on face validity rather than empirical

support. The development of improved personality measures has provided more

opportunities to precisely examine relationships between personality factors and cross-

31

cultural adjustment (McAdams, 1995). Existing research on employees' adjustment

identifies different aspects of personality as antecedents to cross-cultural adaptation

(Ward et al., 2004) with a general consensus that individuals exhibiting greater

emotional stability and social tendencies are more likely to experience positive cross-

cultural adjustment (Swagler & Jome, 2005).

A significant body of literature has examined the relationship between specific

personality traits and cross-cultural adjustment (Peltokorpi, 2008). Recent studies also

found that personality traits impact employees' outcomes in multi-cultural working

environments. The meta-analysis conducted by Mol and colleagues (2005) found that

personality traits are significantly related to employees' performance, reflecting their

ability to adapt in multi-cultural environments. Those with self-confidence and

sociability seek opportunities to interact with those who have different cultural

backgrounds, learn about other cultures in the process, and are not reticent to exhibit

flexible behavior (Shaffer et al., 2006). These individuals are also dispositionally open

to learning new things and are willing to seek out and try out novel activities (Ang et al.,

2006).

However, given that personality traits affect a person's choice of behaviors and

experiences, some personality traits might relate to cultural intelligence. Deeper

research has found that personality and CQ are distinct although related constructs; each

associated with its own unique set of individual differences (Ward and Fischer, 2008).

While personality characteristics are trait-like individual differences that describe broad

and stable predispositions, CQ is state-like individual differences that describe

malleable capabilities, skills, and behaviors to deal effectively in situations

characterized by cultural diversity (Ang et al., 2006). Yet, very limited research has

empirically investigated personality traits as predictors of cultural intelligence. Of those,

some studies examined personality traits represented by the model of Big Five

personality factors; openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion,

agreeableness, and neuroticism (Seibert & DeGeest, (2017). They found that they had

not only a significant impact on the successful employees' cross-cultural adjustment and

foreign adaptation (Kim et al., 2008), but also are antecedents of CQ (Ward et al.,

2011). Much of the research examining the relationships between personality

characteristics and cultural intelligence favor those individuals having high levels of

openness to experience and extroversion. For example, Ward, Leong & Low (2004)

demonstrated that openness to experience and extroversion were significantly related to

cross-cultural adjustment.

Nevertheless, managing cultural diversity and understanding personality traits

influencing intercultural communication are crucial to successfully execute strategic

decisions in any organization. Personality traits of the employees are different from

each other and this difference influences thoughts and behaviors of them. Employees

who internalize cultural differences and show tolerance towards these differences have

an important capability, which the international organizations would hold to. Thus,

32

some significant personality traits have been chosen and examined throughout this

study.

2.2.7. Readiness for International Cultural Adaptation

The organizational change (OC) during global transition represents a conversion of

dominant culture of the organization to a more flexible, complex, and multi-level

culture (Jackson, 2006). As organizations internationalize, they integrate diverse

identities and cultures into the work systems; individual characteristics that are

adaptable to the multicultural environment and supportive attitude toward OC become

important to deal with the change (Chen & Wang, 2007). Literature shows that the

multicultural dispositions' profound effect on effectiveness in an international context is

recognized (Van der Zee & Brinkmann, 2004) and organizations are strongly

recommended to consider personality characteristics while selecting the change

recipients for global positions and/or provide employees with training programs to cope

with such a change (Oreg et al., 2011). The workforce's intercultural competencies were

found to be positively correlated with performance in international assignments

(Repečkienė et al., 2011). Similarly, global mindset is positively correlated to the

performance of international tasks (Levy et al., 2007). Cultural sensitivity, global

citizenship, and resilience (Fernández & Sánchez, 2011); language skills and

international experiences are also mentioned as the indicators of the success in

international assignments (Caligiuri et al., 2009).

These studies show that multicultural characteristics enable international assignees to

be open to new cultures and handle stressful situations abroad and forecast success in

international jobs and adjustment into the cross-cultural job contexts. However, only a

few attempts have been made to measure the multicultural personality characteristics

(social initiative, flexibility, emotional stability, open-mindedness, cultural empathy) of

employees in the context of OC. Moreover, effort to gauge individual readiness of

employees is among these unique initiatives. Research that measures individual

readiness through multicultural personality questionnaire (MPQ) shows that social

initiative correlates with international working experiences, travel experiences, and

interaction with individuals from different cultural backgrounds (Kim & Slocum, 2008).

Flexibility predicts orientation for an international career (Van der Zee & Van

Oudenhoven, 2000). Emotional stability and open-mindedness were found to be related

with the number of foreign languages spoken (Korzilius et al., 2011). Multicultural

dispositions are available more in employees who do work in international environment

(i.e. expatriates, international students, and employees) with high international

experiences and language skills (Van der Zee & Brinkmann, 2004). These findings

indicate the importance of the workforce's characteristics in international assignments

(Rafferty et al., 2012).

Within the global context, in general, and within the community of international

NGOs in the Gaza Strip in specific, it is thought that CQ is shaped on the basis of

personality traits. Moreover, the researcher discusses the role of personality traits to

33

achieve readiness for international cultural adaptation and reflects its' association with

many variables such as psychological and social well-being.

34

2.3. Section Three | INTERNATIONAL NON-PROFIT ORGANIATIONS

2.3.1. Introduction

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are now recognized as essential key of

development, human rights, humanitarian action, environment, and many other public

areas (Lewis, 2009). They are widely regarded as empowering people because they

support local people initiating the development process and its participatory approaches

(Sammour, 2014).

At the international level, large numbers of NGOs concentrate on issues such as

human rights, women's rights, and environmental protection. At the same time,

international NGOs have become important actors in world affairs within the UN and

other forums (Karns, 2017). Today the defining characteristic for any organization to be

considered an international NGO is mainly its role in international development

(Deresky, 2017).

Nevertheless, NGOs play a fundamental role in the Palestinian struggle for liberation

and development, since the beginnings of the last century. They are affected by

changing socio-political environment. Also, they were influential in relief activities,

capable of operating under exceptional circumstances and adapt with a distinctive

performance in providing basic services (Scott & Davis, 2015). They are supporting

Palestinians for a long time through relief operations, development projects, cultural

activities, etc.

2.3.2. INGO Definition

The term non-governmental organization (NGO) is a post-World War II expression

and scholars applied the term international NGOs to international bodies according to

UN criteria and within the UN context. Recently, especially since the 1980, the term

NGO, has become popular outside UN, internationally and nationally and has

beenadopted more broadly (Martens, 2002). By the early 21st century, there were some

6,000 recognized international NGOs (Karns, 2017).

The international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) have the same definition

as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), but they extended internationally to deal

with different issues in any countries (Al Hafi, 2015). They have members or

contributions from three countries or more. In other words, if NGOs are dependent upon

and responsive to individuals or resources from more than one country, so that they

cannot be tied to the agenda of only one state (Bloodgood & Schmitz, 2012).

The World Bank defines the NGO as "a private organization that pursue activities to

relieve suffering, promote the interests of the poor, protect the environment, provide

basic social services, or undertake community development" (Werker & Ahmed, 2007).

The Code of Conduct Coalition (2008) defines Palestinian NGO as "an independent

body established by no less than seven persons in order to achieve legitimate objectives

35

for the public welfare on a non-profit basis". It must be legally registered at the

Palestinian Ministry of Interior according to the Charitable Societies' Law No. 1 issued

in the year 2000. A NGO should have free, independent and voluntary mission aiming

at promoting community services on a nonprofit basis.

In addition, the Palestinian law defines the INGO as any society or foreign body that

has its headquarters located outside Palestinian Territories or most its members are

foreigners (PLC, 2000). It consists of several elements (Abo Habeeb, 2013):

1. A group of members and countries.

2. Continuous and permanent characters.

3. Self- will which is related to the organization.

4. International character.

5. Treaty and international convention.

6. Common / shared goals.

Finally, on light of these definitions, the researcher defines Palestinian INGO in this

research as "independent, non-profitable organization, working in the Palestinian

society with an international scope and aims at achieving socio-economic positive

changes".

2.3.3. Characteristics of INGOs

INGOs are different from other types of organizations in terms of number of global

operations, their size, scale, geographic reach, access to funds, budgets, and roles in

development (Karns, 2017):

1. Membership of global consortia: A key factor that distinguishes INGOs from

national is that they have global operations. INGOs usually have multiple

autonomous national offices operate together as members of global consortia.

Examples for such organizations are:

a. Oxfam Canada is a member of the Oxfam International confederation that has

16 other member organizations.

b. CARE USA is a member of CARE International, a confederation of 14-

member organizations.

2. Global reach: INGOs have widespread global reach as a result of their membership

of global confederations. For instance:

a. Save the Children works in 120 countries globally.

b. World Vision International in 98 countries.

c. Oxfam International in more than 90 countries.

3. Size and scope: INGOs are generally much larger than other national organizations,

in terms of budgets, number of staff, and operations. In addition, larger budgets

INGOs command comes as a result of a variety of factors, including increased

capacity for fundraising, greater legitimacy and influence and greater capacity to use

funds at economies of scale.

4. Organizational capacity: INGOs' larger budgets and staff mean a full range of

operations and programming, e.g. organizational management, development program

implementation and management, humanitarian assistance, fundraising,

36

communications and media, human resource management, finance and accounting,

and policy and campaigning.

5. Range of partnerships: INGOs work across a broader range of partnerships, and it

can bring great financial resources, expertise and knowledge. In addition,

partnerships extended to other institutions such as the private sector, academic and

research centers and other INGOs.

6. Legitimacy and influence: INGOs' characteristics and abilities afford them a level of

professionalism, credibility and legitimacy. Moreover, they often have great

visibility and reputation among the public, the government and other donors. They

are also better placed and can draw on great resources to demonstrate their

legitimacy and to undertake continued fundraising. As a result, they are strongly

influence both the domestic and international development policy agendas.

Marzooq (2006) and Bader (2009) mention that international NGOs are distinguished

from other organizations in several characteristics:

1. INGOs are formal organizations introduce direct or indirect services to satisfy the

needs of the community.

2. They depend on the voluntary efforts of a group of people who are interested in

public services.

3. They are social non-governmental institutions faraway of competition and markets.

4. Each organization derives its philosophy from its statute and has the right regulations

and legislations.

5. They don't have alliances with political parties; despite some attitudes towards

certain political issues.

6. They should be non-legacy organizations and their membership is voluntary that

means distant from religion, relatives or race.

2.3.4. Role of INGOs

Delivering services requires a very wide number of activities carried out by NGOs in

different fields. Therefore, a particular NGO is rarely restricted to a single role, and

many organizations engage in three types of activities at once (Lewis and Kanji, 2009).

Moreover, their roles can change according to changing needs or circumstances

(Sammour, 2014).

The purpose of INGOs is to provide services that the state is unable or unwilling to

provide for their people. They play a significant role in the social and economic

development process in all regions of the World. Also, in the Gaza Strip, which is a

very critical area that needs lots of external and international effort, it comes to enable

people completing their life in a proper way (Al Banna, 2017). In the last ten years, this

besieged part of Palestine has suffered a lot, with increasing number of martyrs, poor

people and high unemployment rates. As a result, INGOs role becomes more vital and

essential.

INGOs contribute to the growth of a Palestinian society. Their consistent presence

contributes in empowering good and sound Palestinian NGOs to stimulate a progression

37

in the Palestinian society. Commonwealth Network (2017) said that many successful

domestic, localized NGOs have come about as result of funding and capacity-building

initiatives carried out by INGOs. Nevertheless, they keep co-ordination of Palestinian

NGOs among themselves and with the Palestinian National Authority. Moreover, they

can act as a bridge between the civil and political dimensions of the Palestinian society.

In the case of Palestine, it is possible to classify the NGOs according to five basic

categories (Bordin, 2016):

1. Charitable societies.

2. Grassroots societies and organizations that try to organize the public, such as the

labor unions.

3. Developmental organizations, such as agricultural or medical committees.

4. Research centers, such as PASSIA.

5. Institutions that defend the rights of specific groups in the society as (Women's

organizations and the Union of the Handicapped, which struggles for the rights of the

disabled).

Some of these organizations may disappear when they achieve their goals while

others may continue. Additionally, INGOs can play a vital role in encouraging the

dialogue and the meeting among peoples in the Mediterranean area, enhancing the

awareness Middle East tragedies and facilitating the peace process (Marciacq,

Flessenkemper & Pulko, 2017).

Moreover, INGOs have become channels for knowledge-sharing through their

networking, seminars, policy papers, joint operations and various other initiatives (NGO

Development Center, 2010). Finally, they involve people in the development process

through raising local awareness and enhancing managerial abilities e.g., groups

forming, and leadership. They, also, provide content of delivered training programs

(Sammour, 2014).

2.3.5. INGOs in the Gaza Strip

Since a long time INGOs are supporting Palestinians. This support is clearly shown

in solidarity activities and campaigns, emergency/relief operations, development

projects, cultural activities, etc. Moreover, it plays a vital role in improving the lives of

the poorest and most marginalized peoples and operates as an irreplaceable complement

to official programs. Nevertheless, INGOs actions carry apolitical contribution

(regarding the Peace Process) alongside the humanitarian and relief practices (Bordin,

2016)

INGOs' integral role is obvious in the Palestinian struggle for liberation and

development. Its development is changing according to socio-political environment in

Palestine. During the First Intifada of 1987 the Palestinian NGOs (PNGOs) sector was

prolific whereas it faces wide politically and sociologically changes after the PA has

been established. In general, INGOs accommodate to the new developments constantly.

Moreover, INGOs are contributory in relief activities and in providing basic services, as

38

they adapt with Palestinian exceptional circumstances and operate with high

performance to provide broaden range of services with great impact on development.

They also operate with clear awareness of the community role (NGO Development

Center, 2015). On the other hand, Shalabi (2011) mentions that the main problem which

faces PNGOs is the lack of professional qualified staff and poor relations with donors

and new NGOs (locally and external), which has a negative influence on financial

capacity practical and experiences. Nevertheless, he also concluded that PNGOs have to

work at enhancing financial support, institutional building, professional trained staff and

a network in order to support local rural communities and play a part in Palestinian

development (Shalabi, 2011). In general, the PNGOs work at the three following main

aims (Bordin, 2016):

1. To respond to the humanitarian needs of the people and serve society.

2. To strengthen democracy and civil society.

3. To work towards a constitutional government in their role as intermediaries between

interest groups and the government.

Palestinian NGOs become a vital part of the Palestinian business community and

civil society. They defend citizens' interests, acting as platforms for self-expression, and

introducing its services to the poor and marginalized (NGO Development Center, 2010.)

In order to succeed the Gazan community, INGOs have to work with various

perspectives, knowledge and skills as many international organizations do. Also, their

multicultural boards of managers have to deal with people from different backgrounds,

races and cultures in the workplace. So that, knowing about other cultures is necessary

in order to learn, understand and deal with multicultural contexts successfully. In other

words, employees at INGOs have to operate with a sense of cultural intelligence in

order to positively interact with people from different cultures. INGOs around the world

are using many practices for developing more culturally intelligent organizations.

According to the Ministry of Interior of Palestine (2017), statistics show that a large

number of associations and non-governmental organizations are working in the Gaza

Strip, totaling more than 860 NGOs. Some of these organizations are Arab and

international organizations covering various sectors with nearly half of them working in

the field of relief. Due to the special political and security conditions in the Gaza Strip,

NGOs are working in marginalized and border areas and in areas governmental

organizations are unable to reach. Moreover, the registered number of INGOs in the

Gaza Strip reached 83 organizations, with average 6 employees.

The 83 registered INGOs are from various countries all around the world. Arabic,

American, European and Turkish organizations deliver their services in the Gaza Strip.

The classification is as follows:

39

Table (2.2): INGOs working in the Gaza Strip classified according to original country

No. Category Number

1. American 14

2. Arabic 21

3. Australian 3

4. European 34

5. Southeast-Asian 2

6. Turkish 9

Total 83

Source: Articulated by the Researcher, based on the reports of the Ministry of Interior, 2017.

Moreover, the registered INGOs differentiate in the nature of services they provide;

e.g. humanitarian aid, educational services or religious facilities. The researcher

classified the organizations accordingly, as follows:

Table (2.3): INGOs working in the Gaza Strip classified according to services provided

No. Category Number

1. Childhood Care 6

2. Educational Services 5

3. External Affairs 2

4. Handicapped Care 3

5. Human Rights 3

6. Humanitarian Aid 42

7. Infrastructure 2

8. Medical Services 14

9. Religion 3

10. Youth Development 3

Total 83

Source: Articulated by the Researcher, based on the reports of the Ministry of Interior, 2017.

Balousha (2013) mentions that some organizations were shut down because of hard

relations between the Gaza government controlled by Hamas and the civil institutions

including accusations exchanging and issues related to their patriotism and

administrative and financial corruption.

2.3.6. INGOs and CQ

If an organization decides to incorporate CQ in its management system, senior

leaders have to consider it as a priority. Also, organizations have to include CQ

development in their goals and be aware of its impact on the individual and

organizational success in multicultural environments. Managers usually have to deal

with various cultures because projects may take place in several countries at the same

time and the team may consist of members from various countries or cultures. In

multicultural projects it is found that culture influence project management; e.g.

decision making and problem solving, requires a combination of experiences,

40

approaches and skills with high cultural awareness. Otherwise, low cultural awareness

might cause misunderstandings, conflicts or decreasing motivation of employees

(Kiznyte et al., 2015).

In communication with the public, all INGOs have to respect other cultures. They

also maintain a culture of tolerance and open spirit when solving problems (Code of

Conduct, 2008). Moreover, they have to carefully deal with the characteristics of the

hosting country and of the society where they are working. INGOs in Palestine

contribute with original experiences to create a new practical and operational

knowledge in order to help in constructing the state and society. In the Palestinian case,

the civil society has its own specificity and conform its own model of development. As

a result, INGOs should consider this specificity and take this model into account

(Marciacq, Flessenkemper & Pulko, 2017).

To sum up, INGOs around the world are using many practices for developing more

culturally intelligent organizations, leaders have to take care about the following

(Livermore, 2015):

1. The practices, policies, and marketing messages of the organization to reflect a

culturally intelligent approach.

2. The represented /underrepresented cultures and to what degree the, organization have

diverse representation from various cultures.

3. Making assessment of the cultural intelligence of your team.

4. Valuing, demonstrating, and promoting culturally intelligent behavior.

5. Hiring and promoting according to individual's CQ.

Chapter Three

PREVIOUS STUDIES

3.1. Introduction

3.2. Local Studies

3.3. Arabic Studies

3.4. Foreign Studies

3.5. General Commentary on the Reviewed Studies

42

3. Chapter Three | PREVIOUS STUDIES

3.1. Introduction

This chapter includes a deep review of the previous studies that have explored

cultural intelligence or personality traits or both. Numerous published studies and

scientific papers from certified resources are read and summarized to achieve the

purpose of this research. However, since local studies concerning the field of this

research are limited, it depends on studies that match study population (INGOs).

Reviewing the previous studies, whether local, Arab or foreign enriched the researcher's

knowledge and deep understanding of the research's variables and helped to accomplish

the research in many ways; such:

1. They facilitated the researcher's mission to understand and pinpoint CQ and

personality traits and the related concepts, components and relationships with other

variables.

2. They enhanced the literature review and enabled the researcher to connect the

research's gap with previous studies in a coherent and relevant way, by building

evaluations and comparisons, illustrating examples and discussing related case

studies.

3. They simplified the process of designing the questionnaire with deep focus on MPQ

and CQ models.

4. Some of them tackled the topic in the Palestinian INGOs context, which enabled the

researcher to be familiar with such environment and helped in the sample selection.

The researcher included in this chapter 27 studies; comprising 10 local and Arabic

studies and 17 foreign studies. The studies are classified according to their geographical

implementation, beginning with the local studies, followed by the Arab studies and

ended by the foreign ones. The studies were arranged chronologically; from the newest

(2017) to the oldest (2006). The most important and relevant results and

recommendations are summarized and listed below.

3.2. Local Studies

1. Al-Masri (2017), Level of Cultural Intelligence among Talented Students

Participating Program of Summer Talent Enrichment due to some

Demographic Variables.

This study aimed to assess the level of cultural intelligence among talented students

participating program of summer talent enrichment, and whether this level varies

according to talented gender, the educational level of the father and mother, the number

of brothers, economic level, or housing type. The sample consisted of 156 gifted and

talented students. The researcher used the Cultural Intelligence Scale, consisting of 23

items distributed on four areas to determine the level of CQ. Validity and reliability

were obtained.

The most important results of the study are:

a. Talented students possess high level of cultural intelligence, "meta-cognition",

ranked first, while "cognition" ranked last.

43

b. There is no statistical significant difference due to the demographic variables.

The most important recommendation of the study is:

a. It is necessary to enhance the level of cultural intelligence among talented students

participating in talent enrichment programs.

2. Al Hafi (2015), The Impact of Ethical Consideration on Decision-Making

Process at International NGOs in the Gaza Strip.

This study aimed to examine the impact of ethical consideration on the decision-

making process at INGOs in the Gaza Strip. The researcher used the descriptive

analytical method to study the impact of the ethical consideration through its four

dimensions; social environment, legal environment, corporate environment and personal

environment. The study is applied on 116 of the top and the middle levels managers

who work in INGOs at the Gaza Strip. The total number of the registered international

nongovernmental organizations in the Gaza Strip is 58 organizations.


a. The impact of ethical consideration on the decision-making process is clear.

b. There is a significant positive effect of the four dimensions (social environment,

legal environment, corporate environment and personal environment) on the INGOs'

manager decisions.

c. INGO's managers take over their decisions in dilemma and the lowest respondents

that managers don't follow the low spirit.

d. The majority of INGO's decision makers promote ethical activities at the

organization and the personal environment is the most effective factor that effects on

decision maker.

The most important recommendations of the study are:

a. Adding sub-strategy to the international NGOs' main strategy which includes setting

the ethical standards and related to social, legal, corporate and personal environment.

b. Setting up an external or internal social and ethical committee in order to build an

ethical awareness. It should make an ethics report which include the activities of the

social and ethics committee and the annual measurement of the company's decisions.

c. The INGOs' managers have to be more flexible to change or cancel decisions

specially if it have negative feedback.

3. Skaik (2014), The Relationship between Information Overload and Managers

Decision-Making Process at International NGOs in the Gaza Strip.

The study aimed to present the impact of information overload on the decision-

making process among managers at INGOs. The researcher depended on the descriptive

analytical method to describe the effect of information overload, comprising three

aspects; email overload, information characteristics and information & communication

technology.

44

The researcher used a questionnaire as a data collection tool, distributed on the study

sample of 106 managers (top and middle levels of management) at INGOs that work in

the Gaza Strip. However, only 86 questionnaires were collected due to the restricted

organizations' policies regarding confidentiality and privacy of work environment. All

collected questionnaires were retrieved and analyzed.


a. Information overload is significantly related to the managers decision making

process.

b. Information characteristics are significantly related to the managers decision making

process.

c. Information & communication technology is significantly related to decision making

process.


a. INGOs should consider information overload as an important asset in the

organization to track the up-to-date progresses in the world of information

technology and communications to facilitate its overcome.

b. INGOs should recruit specialists in information management, and attract employees

qualified to deal with information overload.

c. INGOs should design tailored training and education programs especially for those

prospective to experience information overload.

d. INGOs should encounter the phenomenon of information overload as a part of the

general organization's strategy.

4. Abu Amra (2013), Predicting Pro-Change and Anti-Change Behaviors: The

Role of Perceived Organizational Justice and Organizational Identification in

International Non- Governmental Organizations.

This study aimed to predict the role of both organizational justice and organizational

identification on the change behavior; i.e. pro-change and anti-change behaviors in

international non-governmental organizations. This study surveyed the employees in

UNRWA the Gaza Field office.


a. Both organizational justice and organizational identification have their roles in

predicting a pro-change behavior and anti-change behavior.

b. Employees claim that there is no distributive justice existed in UNRWA, and almost

most of them consider the problem in the performance assessment system and

financial incentives distribution. This leads to predict the anti-change behavior in

UNRWA Field Office.

c. There exists an interactional justice which can be used to predict change behavior

due to personal dealings and how to provide explanations to employees.

d. Organizational identification predicts the anti-change behavior.

e. Personal characteristics have no effect on predicting change behavior.

45


a. Promoting and consolidating the organizational justice and organization

identification concepts at the employees.

b. Adopting a sound professional way in determining salaries and incentives and

improving organizational procedures and guidelines to be fair to all employees.

c. Creating a vision which brings together the beliefs, values and interests of the

employees and to exhibit a trust in the employees to contribute to solving

organizational problems.

5. Al Derawi (2012), The Role of Personal Traits for Project Managers in the

Successes of Non-Governmental Organization NGOs.

The study aimed to explore the role of personal traits for project managers in the

success of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) projects in the major 100 NGOs

in the Gaza Strip. The study targeted the chairman of board of directors, members of

board of directors, executive directors and deputy of the executive directors for every

NGO. The research used the descriptive analytical method, depending on primary and

secondary sources in the process of data collection. A structured questionnaire was

specifically designed for this study. 300 questionnaires were collected and analyzed.

The most important result of the study is:

a. There is an essential role for the personal traits of project managers in the success of

NGO's project in the Gaza Strip, which includes (intelligence, leadership, self-

understand, productivity efficiency, the ability of project manager in training projects

team and work ethics.


a. The Gaza NGO'S should enhance and take care of the training processes from the

planning stage, followed by training need assessment and training evaluation.

b. It is necessary to develop different types of intelligence like emotional intelligence,

mathematical intelligence and social intelligence of project managers, and the

enhancement of the concepts related to NGO'S work ethics, and its roles in serving

the society.

6. Abu Afash (2011(, Effects of Emotional Intelligence on Decision Making and

Problem-Solving Skills of UNRWA the Gaza Field Managers.

This study intended to inspect the relationship between emotional intelligence and

the managers' ability to make thorough decisions as well as their problem-solving skills.

Goleman model was used depending on the five components; emotional regulation,

self-awareness, empathy, assertiveness and other social skills. The entire society

composed of 94 UNRWA managers.


a. Emotional intelligence and the manger's decision making and problem-solving skills

are positively correlated.

46

b. Social skills are positively correlated to the managers' skills to make decisions and

solve problems attributed to the education level and the number of subordinates.

c. However, emotional intelligence is insignificantly correlated as to the other four

components (self-awareness, self-regulation, assertiveness, and empathy) attributed

to educational level and number of subordinates.


a. The UNRWA has to design tailored training programs to increase awareness and

knowledge about emotional intelligence.

b. The UNRWA should incorporate emotional intelligence into the recruitment and

selection process.

c. The UNRWA has to consider emotional intelligence as an important asset in the on-

going organizational development initiative.

7. Shatali (2011), Effect of Emotional Intelligence on Leadership Behavior a Case

Study on UNRWA-Gaza Health Centers.

The study aimed to detect the role of emotional intelligence in shaping the behavior

of the UNRWA managers in health centers, particularly focusing on its impact on the

managers' ability to direct and lead subordinates to achieve organizational objectives, as

well how emotional intelligence affects their facility to assemble efforts of employees.

The study intended to explicate the concept of effective leadership and the required

proficiencies and competencies. Petrides model of emotional intelligence traits with its

four components was used. The researcher adapted a descriptive analytical approach.

The questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 293 managers working in the UNRWA

health centers.


a. Emotional intelligence of leaders significantly relates to their leadership style.

b. The relationship appears on all facets of the emotional intelligence construct, except

on the management by exception component of transactional leadership.

c. The study proved that the relationship between emotional intelligence and laissez

faire leadership style is significantly negative.


a. Health centers should apply emotional intelligence at the workplace.

b. Health centers should increase awareness of the emotional intelligence concept and

its importance among the leadership and supervisory roles.

c. Health centers should design and implement suitable training for health center

managers to clarify the significant role of emotional intelligence traits in their

personnel management.

d. Health centers should develop tools to measure the level of emotional intelligence

and other personal skills as a basis for the recruitment process of potential managers.

47

3.3. Arabic Studies

1. Bouras and Khazzar (2015), A Study of Western Expatriates Performance in

Algeria: The Role of Cultural Intelligence.

This study investigated the concepts of the multiple dimensions of dynamic

intercultural competency of Cultural Intelligence (CQ) and their influence on the

expatriates' job performance. The study analyzed 332 expatriates residing and working

in Algeria using hierarchical regression.


a. Cultural Intelligence (CQ) is a crucial intercultural capability that enhances the job

performance and accomplishment of expatriate in international assignments.

b. Expatriate in Algeria with greater metacognitive and behavioral CQ performed better

in multicultural contexts.

c. The study concluded that greater behavioral CQ leads to better performance on

international assignment.


a. Organizations may enhance CQ by implementing adequate training programs to

prepare potential candidates for international assignments.

2. Bukaiei (2015), The Big Five Personality Traits in Relation with Job Satisfaction

among UNRWA Teachers in the Educational Area of Irbid.

This study aimed at exploring the relation between the big five personality traits and

the job satisfaction level among UNRWA schools in the educational area of Irbid. It

also aimed at identifying the most common personality trait and the degree of job

satisfaction according to the variables of sex, teaching experience, qualification and the

grades that are taught by UNRWA teachers. To achieve the aims of this study, the

gauge of the big five personality traits of John, Donahue & Kentle (1991) was applied.

The sample of this study consisted of 187 male and female teachers that were selected

on the basis of random cluster.


a. The commonest personality trait is agreeableness and the least common one is

neuroticism.

b. There are significant differences in the traits of extraversion and consciousness

attributed to the variable of sex in favor of females; there are also differences in the

trait of extraversion according to the variable of teaching experience in favor of those

getting the highest experience.

c. There are significant differences in the trait of agreeableness attributed to the

variable of the grades in favor of the first three grades.

d. There are no significant differences in the level of job satisfaction in terms of all the

variables of this study except a difference in job satisfaction attributed to the variable

of sex in favor of females.

48


a. Investing the personality traits of the UNRWA teachers to develop the education

process in the area of Irbid.

b. Improving the conditions which increase the UNRWA teachers' job satisfaction.

3. Abdul-Hassanawi (2010), A Comparative Study of Social Tolerance in

Accordance with Levels of Cultural Intelligence among University Students.

This study researched the possible effects of cultural intelligence in social tolerance.

It has also aimed at measuring cultural intelligence and social tolerance of the Arabic

Iraqi students in Saladeen University. Two scales have been developed for the cultural

intelligence and social tolerance. The two scales have been applied on a sample of 300

male and female students.


a. The students have a degree of cultural intelligence higher than a medium.

b. The students have a medium degree of social tolerance.

c. The students of high level of cultural intelligence are more socially tolerated than

those of low level of cultural intelligence.


a. Enhancing the level of social tolerance among students and create programs for such

purpose.

b. Governmental media have to play its role in improving the concept of accepting

others among all Iraqi people.

3.4. Foreign Studies

1. Depaula, Azzollini, Cosentino & Castillo (2016), Personality, Character

Strengths and Cultural Intelligence: "Extraversion" or "Openness" as Further

Factors Associated to the Cultural Skills.

This study concentrated on the development and operation of cultural intelligence in

terms of their associations with certain aspects of personality. However, it is claimed

that studies on expatriates have not yet found the predictive power of personality traits

on these cultural skills. The study discussed the results of three investigations in which a

sample of military students was analyzed to study the connotations among the factors of

the big five model personality, the variable cultural intelligence, and the character

strength.


a. Openness is a positive predictor of general cultural intelligence of students.

b. The character strength of social intelligence positively predicts the cultural

intelligence much more than other predictors that were part of the analyzed model.

49


a. Checking possible associations between character strengths and the different

dimensions that integrate cultural intelligence (reflexive-motivational, behavioral and

cognitive-linguistic).

2. Yeke and Semercoz (2016), Relationships between Personality Traits, Cultural

Intelligence and Intercultural Communication Competence.

This study intensively reviewed the relationship between personality traits, cultural

intelligence and intercultural communication competence. The study was conducted on

4 senior employees of two firms operating in automotive industry in Turkey. To

examine the relations, interviews was done with 3 senior employees working in German

origin firm and 1 senior employee working in South Korean origin firm. The obtained

data from the interviews were evaluated through the depth examination.


a. Cultural intelligence has positively influence on intercultural communication

competence and personality traits on the cultural intelligence and intercultural

communication competence.

b. Effect of personality traits decrease on intercultural communication competence

when cultural intelligence is clearly considered.

c. Meta-cognitive, motivational, cognitive and behavioral intelligence have positively

influence on intercultural communication competence.

d. The different personality traits influence cultural intelligence and intercultural

communication competencies.


a. Researcher might explore the mediator effect of cultural intelligence on relations

between personality traits and intercultural communication competence, as cultural

intelligence is more critical for intercultural communication competence than

personality traits.

3. Ang, Rockstuhl and Ling Tan (2015), Cultural Intelligence and Competencies.

This study aimed at understanding why some people thrive in intercultural contexts

more than others have never been more crucial. In this entry, it takes stock of the

growing stream of research on cultural intelligence. Particularly, it reviewed the

conceptualization, measurement, and empirical evidence for the nomological network of

cultural intelligence. It also discusses recent theoretical extensions related to cultural

intelligence.


a. Cultural intelligence refers to the potential ability to handle varying cultural contexts

effectively.

b. Cultural intelligence research has demonstrated that cultural intelligence is a distinct

capability that accounts for significant performance variance in intercultural

contexts.

50


a. Future research needs to validate recent theoretical extensions e. g, sub-dimensions

of cultural intelligence, neurological correlates of cultural intelligence, as well as

organizational-level conceptualizations of cultural intelligence.

b. Explore team composition models of cultural intelligence (i.e., how should cultural

intelligence within a team be distributed?

4. Huff, Song and Gresch (2014), Cultural intelligence, Personality, and Cross-

Cultural Adjustment: A Study of Expatriates in Japan.

This study is considered as a comparative study between cultural intelligence role or

the role of the five-factor model of personality in the diverse reactions of expatriates and

their personal variance in cross-cultural adjustment. Hierarchical regression was used to

analyze collected data from questionnaire responses distributed to 154 expatriates in

Japan.


a. Differences in expatriate general interaction and work adjustment are better

explained by motivational CQ than the five-factor model of personality.

b. However, other dimensions of CQ; meta-cognitive, cognitive, and behavioral are not

significant predictors of cross-cultural adjustment.

c. CQ dimensions are not correlated to length of time in Japan, while the study

concluded that it significantly predicts general, interaction, and work adjustment.

d. Performance is significantly enhanced by CQ as it positively impacts the expatriates'

adjustment.


a. Research might explore CQ in future studies using other measures than self-report.

5. Popescu and Baesu (2014), A Study on Multicultural Personality.

This study aimed to characterize the multicultural personality (behavior dimensions)

in the case of two groups of students in order to identify ways for their multicultural

skills development. The study sample allowed the results comparison between a witness

group consists of Romanian students from the second year of study in engineering and

an experimental group of students of different cultures, from the second year of study in

the same engineering specialization. The study tool used was the Multicultural

Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). The behaviors dimensions considered and analyzed

were: cultural empathy, flexibility, social initiative, emotional stability and openness.


a. Members of the experimental group have high level of multicultural skills.

b. Members educational performances (shown by their partial transcript of records for

the first and second year of study) are higher than for the witness group.

c. Experimental group has a higher educational performance for the students with high

scores for emotional stability.

51


a. The Big Five Model is not the ideal set of traits to rely on in research on issues such

as multicultural success.

6. Tufekci and Dinc (2014), A Research on Determining the Effects of Five Factor

Personality Traits of Turkish Football Referees on Cultural Intelligence.

This study aimed to define the influence of five factor personality traits on cultural

intelligence assuming an existing relationship between personality traits and cultural

intelligence. Thus, a research has been conducted by asking the opinions of top ranking

football referees who referee matches within different cultures.


a. There are personality traits that affect the dimensions of cultural intelligence.

b. Openness to experience and conscientiousness are the most personality traits

affecting all dimensions of cultural intelligence.

c. Cultural Intelligence is of great importance with regard to the results of the research.


a. Possible future studies can focus on dynamic competencies representing the

knowledge and skills which are acquired via education and which change over time.

b. Relations between dynamic activity areas such as flexibility, cultural empathy, social

enterprise, consumer behaviors, consumer trends, ethnocentrism and CQ can be

studied.

7. Ahn and Ettner (2013), Cultural Intelligence (CQ) in MBA Curricula.

This study inspected the role of cultural intelligence in MBA curricula.

Organizational performance depends largely on the comprehensive corporate culture

that is shaped by the influential shared values, beliefs and crowd behavior, which is

passed to new staff despite changes in the organization. The researchers used the

Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS); measuring metacognitive, cognitive, motivational,

and behavioral dimensions, to collect data from questionnaires distributed to the

population. The sample consisted of MBA students attending three universities in the

USA.


a. MBA students greatly understand the significance of CQ in the increasingly

globalized world. Moreover, they possess high motivation and strong desire to

interact with other cultures.

b. However, MBA students lack in-depth cognitive CQ about other cultures, e.g. the

values, beliefs, and practices.

c. International work experience, learning languages, studying in foreign countries lead

to increase an individual's CQ.

52


a. Researchers might use more peer assessments and observations as they are more

objectively measuring CQ.

b. Researchers might conduct further studies aiming to assess CQ among other

populations in diverse circumstances.

8. Moon, Choi and Jung (2013), Comprehensive Examination on antecedents of

Cultural Intelligence: Case of South Korea.

This study comprehensively investigated expatriates' cultural intelligence (CQ) to

identify antecedents of CQ through comparing previous working experiences at their

original homeland prior to expatriation, and if related to the number of co-expatriates

from their home country and local employees from the host country, their personal

motives for expatriation and self-monitoring. Moreover, this study examined

expatriates' familiarity and level of interaction with local employees as mediators

affecting the length of expatriation assignment. Self-reported surveys were distributed

and collected from 165 South-Korean expatriates. Multiple hierarchical regression

analyses were utilized to test the hypotheses.


a. A significant positive relationship exists between the level of CQ and the expatriates'

previous working experiences with foreigners or in an overseas department in their

home country.

b. A significant positive relationship exists between the level of CQ and the number of

local employees in the host country, whereas the relationship between the level of

and the number of co-expatriates from home country is negative.

c. A significant positive relationship exists between the level of CQ and the expatriates'

motives for expatriation opportunities and self-monitoring.

d. Expatriates' familiarity and level of interaction with local employees affect the

length of expatriation assignment.


a. Researchers might conduct studies to find mediator variables in the relationships

between the antecedents and CQ, such as position level or educational qualifications.

9. Rehg, Gundlach and Grigorian (2012), Examining the Influence of Cross-

Cultural Training on Cultural Intelligence and Specific Self-Efficacy, Cross

Cultural Management.

The study aimed to examine the correlation between cultural intelligence (CQ) and

specific self-efficacy (SSE), as well as the impact of training programs on cultural

intelligence. This study was conducted by comparing pre- and post-tests distributed to

110 US government contracting trainees, through four different training environments.

The surveys were used to measure whether training programs affect mean CQ and SSE

scores. T-test were used to perform the statistical analyses measuring the significant

change in means of CQ and scores of SSE across training sessions.

53


a. Mean levels of CQ, especially the cognitive and behavioral dimensions are notably

improved after lecture training, as contrary to other dimensions as the motivational

one.

b. SSE scores varied from pre- to post-training which indicates a significant impact of

training on SSE.

c. CQ and SSE are only positively correlated in post- training results.

d. Levels of CQ can be improved by enhancing levels of SSE among employees

potentially assigned to perform cross-cultural tasks, consequently improving cross-

cultural performance.


a. Proper selection and training of prospective international employees in in cross-

cultural assignments can significantly diminish the likelihood of less effective

outcomes, mission failure, and even fatalities in public sector organizations.

10. Smith (2012), Study of Ethnic Minority College Students: A Relationship

among the Big Five Personality Traits, Cultural Intelligence, and Psychological

Well-Being.

This study examined theory of the Big Five personality traits as a predictor of the

level of cultural intelligence theoretical model, and whether it remains constant with

ethnic minority college students attending a southeastern United States Historically

Black College or University. Moreover, it investigated if there is a predictive

relationship between cultural intelligence and the psychological well-being of ethnic

minority college students.

An online survey that included demographic questions and the Cultural Intelligence

Scale was sent to minority college students to collect data required for the study.


a. The study concluded that the antecedent relationship between the Big Five

personality traits and the cultural intelligence model remained constant.

b. Minority college students' cultural intelligence and psychological well-being are not

significantly related.


a. Researcher might conduct further empirical studies to examine the link of cultural

intelligence with ethnic minority college students.

11. Evans (2012), Expatriate Success: Cultural Intelligence and Personality as

Precedents for Cross-Cultural Adjustment.

This study aimed to reveal the personal features that enable adjustment in cross-

cultural settings. Furthermore, the study examined whether personality and cultural

intelligence played significant role in both psychological and socio-cultural adjustment.

The researcher compared cultural intelligence (CQ) with personality related to better

54

cross-cultural adjustment, assuming that CQ is incrementally valid more than

personality alone. The measure used were CQS, personality (50-item IPIP), and cultural

adjustment components. 111 foreign expatriates from Tennessee, United States working

in various countries completed the surveys.


a. Openness to experience, emotional stability and conscientiousness, lead to greater

assignment adjustment. However, there is no significant relationship between

extroversion and agreeableness and psychological adjustment.

b. There exists a significant positive impact of personality on socio-cultural adjustment.

c. There are no significant differences between CQ and personality in their incremental

validity in the prediction of psychological adjustment.


a. Senior managers should consider CQ in the expatriate selection process.

b. Researchers should continue to study CQ using these new measures in expatriate

adjustment research.

12. Peltokorpi and Froese (2012), The Impact of Expatriate Personality Traits on

Cross-Cultural Adjustment: A Study with Expatriates in Japan.

This study focused on personality as one of the influencing factors affecting

expatriate cross-cultural adjustment. This study evolved from the cultural fit hypothesis

and the socio-analytic theory to research the impact of personality traits of expatriates

on the general-, interaction-, and work-related features of cross-cultural adjustment. The

Multicultural Personality Questionnaire was used to conduct analysis among 181

expatriates in Japan.


a. Open mindedness and interaction adjustment, as well as social initiative and work

adjustment and also emotional stability and cultural empathy and general adjustment

are positively related.

b. Problems arising from poor cross-cultural adjustment can be diminished by

appropriate expatriates' selection based on personality traits, e.g. low task

performance, communication complexities with local employees, suppliers, and

customers, and premature return.

c. Senior management should incorporate personality traits in pre-departure and on

assignment training.


a. Research might use performance evaluation archives, general adjustment and

interaction to assess expatriates' cultural adjustment.

b. Personality traits should be integrated in further studies with other factors affecting

employees' adjustment or work-related pressure.

55

13. Petrovic (2011), How Do Teachers perceive their Cultural Intelligence?

The main objectives of this study were to examine the level of cultural intelligence

among teachers and to identify predictors of cultural intelligence. 107 elementary school

teachers (86.9% female and 13.1% male) from four towns in Serbia comprised the

study's sample.


a. Teachers demonstrate a high level of cultural intelligence and that significant

predictors of teachers' cultural intelligence are enjoyment of intercultural

communication, experiencing multicultural classes as a challenge, openness to

cultural learning and contacts with people from other cultures.

b. Enjoyment of intercultural communication is the most important predictor of cultural

intelligence.


a. Curricula for teacher training should incorporate and promote factors such as

openness to intercultural interaction and intercultural learning, readiness to

recognize, utilize multiculturalism and cultural diversity as a learning resource,

mutual respect mindfulness in order to increase future teacher's cultural intelligence.

b. Serbian teachers should rise their cultural intelligence to understand students with

various cultural and ethnic backgrounds and teach them effectively.

14. Moon (2010), Emotional Intelligence Correlates of the Four-Factor Model of

Cultural Intelligence.

This study examined the existing relationships between emotional intelligence and

the cultural intelligence model consisting of four dimensions; meta-cognitive CQ,

cognitive CQ, motivational CQ, and behavioral CQ. Data was collected from 381

students in Korea to conduct hierarchical regression and factor analyses.


a. The four-factor model of cultural intelligence scale (CQS) is discriminately valid to

be used for assessing emotional intelligence (EQ).

b. CQ is explained by social competencies of EQ such social awareness and

relationship management rather than self-competences of EQ such self-awareness,

and relationship management.

c. There exists a significant positive relationship between EQ factors and CQ

dimensions, particularly interpersonal EQ factors affecting CQ more than

intrapersonal ones.


a. HR departments have to incorporate CQ in the recruitment and selection processes,

especially of prospective expatriates working on international assignments, besides

evaluating their language proficiencies, international work experience, and

personality characteristics.

56

b. The cultural intelligence scale (CQS) might be used in the selection process to assess

the most prepared employees for expatriation and international assignments.

15. Elenkov and Manev (2009), Senior Expatriate Leadership's Effects on

Innovation and the Role of Cultural Intelligence.

This study aimed at examining the influence of senior expatriates' visionary-

transformational leadership on the innovation adoption rate, assuming cultural

intelligence to play a mediating role in this relationship. It was applied on the

organizations or units they manage as head positions. The sample consisted of 153

senior expatriate managers and 695 subordinates from various corporations, chosen

from all 27 European countries.


a. Senior expatriates' visionary-transformational leadership directly impacts the rate of

innovation adoption.

b. Cultural intelligence is considered a mediator variable in the relationship between the

senior expatriates' leadership and organizational innovation but does not affect

product-market innovation.


a. Investigating the effects of leadership and other psychological and behavioral aspects

of senior expatriate management.

b. Studying the effects of potential interfaces of cultural intelligence with other

psychological characteristics of expatriate managers (e.g., social intelligence and

emotional intelligence) on expatriate leadership and innovation.

16. Maj (2008), Developing a Cultural Intelligence Capability.

This study addressed the need for militant personnel that can operate globally to

accomplish missions. The contemporary areas of operation place United States military

forces in foreign lands. The effect of cultural ignorance is directly linked to mission

accomplishment. Therefore, the military must improve its collective cultural capabilities

to address this threat to military operations. The solution is to address this issue by

developing the level of cultural intelligence. Cultural intelligence is composed of two

main aspects: cognitive and emotional intelligence.


a. The contemporary operating environment requires personnel that are culturally

intelligent.

b. The U.S. military, while making definite attempts to gain cultural intelligence, lacks

this attribute as an institution.

c. There are successful methods--although not necessarily military-oriented--of

developing a more culturally intelligent organization.

57


a. The U.S. military must adapt to the world's requirements and, using available

resources, create an internal cultural intelligence capability.

17. Ang, Van Dyne and Koh (2006), Personality Correlates of the Four-Factor

Model of Cultural Intelligence.

This study examines the relationships between Big Five personality and the four-

factor model of cultural intelligence (CQ); meta-cognitive CQ, cognitive CQ,

motivational CQ and behavioral CQ. The sample consisted 338 business undergraduates

in Michigan, United States. Age, gender, and years of experience were controlled to

conduct hierarchical regression analyses on data collected.


a. Conscientiousness and meta-cognitive CQ, agreeableness and emotional stability

with behavioral CQ, extraversion with cognitive, motivational, and behavioral CQ

and finally openness with all four factors of CQ are significantly related.

b. Previous research found only few significant relationships between openness and CQ

dimensions, while this study proved significant relationship between openness and

all four dimensions of CQ.

c. The individual's capability to handle diverse cultural settings effectively; called

(CQ), is greatly influenced by personal openness to experience.


a. Additional research on personality and CQ is required.

b. Researchers have to consider further studies specially on openness to experience and

adaptive performance.

3.5. General Commentary on the Previous Studies

Reviewed studies show that there is insufficient focus on tackling cultural

intelligence (CQ) and personality traits in local and Arabic studies. Up to the researcher

knowledge, this is the first local study that studies the relationship between the both

variables. The researcher built on prior research to develop the research's variables,

hypotheses and relevant literature review, as well as designing the customized

questionnaires. Furthermore, the researcher linked the previous studies to the current

research to determine the knowledge gap. Following are the researcher's general

comments on it:

1. Regarding the variables: All reviewed studies discussed the variables determined in

this study separately; as (Al Masri, 2017), (Popescu and Baesu, 2014), (Ahn and

Ettner, 2013), (Petrovic, 2011), (Maj, 2008), and their relation with other variables,

e.g. job satisfaction (Bukaiei, 2015), successes (Al Derawi, 2012), social tolerance

(Abdul-Hassanawi, 2010), intercultural communication competence (Bouras and

Khazzar, 2015), competencies (Ang et. al., 2013), cross cultural

management/training (Rehg et al., 2012), cross-cultural adjustment (Evans, 2012),

emotional intelligence (Moon, 2010). Other studies used the same variables as this

thesis; e,g. (Depaula et al, 2016), (Yeke and Semercoz, 2016), (Tufekci and Dinc,

58

2014), (Huff et al., 2013), (Smith, 2012) and ( Ang et al., 2006). This study differs

from the previous studies in that it discusses a topic that no local studies have

studied, up to researcher's knowledge. It connects the variables of cultural

intelligence and personality traits to examine the relationship and impact between

them.

2. Regarding the environment: Studies are varied in the environment of applying them.

Some of them were applied in educational, militant or managerial environments. This

study focuses on the environment of international non-profit organizations, which

encompasses local and foreign staff from different cultural backgrounds.

3. Regarding the location: Foreign studies are varied from different countries, some of

them are from the European Union, USA, or from other countries as Turkey

Argentina, Serbia, South Korean, Japan and Singapore. On the other hand, Arabic

studies are from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Algeria and Iraq. This study focuses on

INGOs placed in the Gaza Strip and the researcher aims to use the results of this

research to contribute in such field.

4. Regarding the field of work: Researchers tackling their studies in different fields of

work as following:

a. non-governmental organizations; which are applied in similar context of the

recent study, as (Al Hafi, 2015), (Skaik, 2014), (Abu Amra, 2013) and (Abu

Afash, 2011),

b. educational field; as (Al Masri, 2017), (Ahn and Ettner, 2013), (Abdul-

Hassanawi, 2010), (Bukaiei, 2015), (Popescu and Baesu, 2014), (Ahn and Ettner,

2013), (Smith, 2012), (Rehg et al., 2012), (Petrovic, 2011), (Ang et al., 2006),

(Moon, 2010),

c. military field; as (Depaula et al., 2016), (Maj, 2008),

d. sports field; as (Tufekci and Dinc, 2014) and

e. industry; as (Yeke and Semercoz, 2016).

5. Regarding to methodology and research tools: Descriptive and analytical approaches

were commonly used to conduct the studies. The most frequent data collection tool

was the questionnaire. Some of these questionnaires were designed by the

researchers themselves and may take different forms e. g. pre- and post-test surveys

such as (Rehg et al. 2012) and online surveys as (Tufekci and Dinc, 2014) and

(Smith, 2012), while few studies utilized the interviews e. g. (Yeke and Semercoz,

2016). In more details, the following table illustrates different tools and models used

in previous studies:

Table (3.1): Previous Studies Tools Data Collection Tools

Tool Study No.

Cultural Intelligence Tools (Scales)

Hiaga CQ questionnaire (2014) Al Masri, (2017) 1.

Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS; Ang et

al., 2007)

Depaula et al., (2016), Bouras and

Khazzar, 2015, Tufekci and Dinc,

(2014), Ahn and Ettner, (2013), Huff et

al., (2013), Maj, (2008), Elenkov and

2.

59

Tool Study No.

Manev, (2009)

CQS by (Ang et al., 2004). Moon, (2010), Ang et al., (2006) 3.

Cultural Intelligence Scale (Ang &

Earley, 2003) Smith (2012), Evans (2012) 4.

Personality Traits Tools (Scales)

Multicultural Personality Questionnaire

(MPQ; Van der Zee & Van Oudenhoven,

2000, 2001)

Popescu and Baesu, (2014), Peltokorpi

and Froese, (2012) 1.

Big Five Personality Inventory IPIP

(Goldberg, 1999) Evans, (2012), (Smith, 2012) 2.

Personality Trait Questionnaire (John et

al.,1991)

Depaula et al., (2016), Bukaiei, (2015),

Tufekci and Dinc, (2014) 3.

Five Factor Model of Personality Mini-

IPIP Scales Huff et al., (2013) 4.

Personal Characteristic Inventory (PCI):

Mount & Barrik, 1995 Ang et al., (2006) 5.

Source: Articulated by the Researcher based on Previous Studies.

6. Regarding the populations: The previous studies varied in the investigated study

populations, as following:

a. managers and senior employees; as (Al Hafi, 2015), (Skaik, 2014), (Al Derawi,

2012), (Abu Afash, 2011) and (Elenkov and Manev, 2009), (Yeke and Semercoz,

2016),

b. students; as (Abdul-Hassanawi, 2010), (Al Masri, 2017), (Ahn and Ettner, 2013),

(Smith, 2012), (Depaula et al., 2016), (Moon, 2010), (Ang et al., 2006) and

(Popescu and Baesu (2014),

c. teachers; as (Bukaiei, 2015) and (Petrovic, 2011), and

d. expatriates residing or working in different countries as (Bouras and Khazzar,

2015), (Moon et al., 2013), (Huff et al., 2013), (Evans 2012), (Peltokorpi and

Froese, 2012), (Elenkov and Manev, 2009).

7. Regarding the results: Many studies assured the essential role for the personal traits

and cultural Intelligence of managers in their success. Maj (2008) emphasizes that

the contemporary operating environment requires personnel that are culturally

intelligent. Also, there was a common agreement among researchers to further study

cultural intelligence and related factors.

Furthermore, there are personality traits that affect the dimensions of Cultural

Intelligence of NGOs and INGOs as mentioned in Al Derawi (2012), Tufekci and

Dinc (2014) and Smith (2012). In more details, Ang et al. (2006) shows the relation

among personality traits and CQ dimensions, referring to a significant impact of

conscientiousness on the metacognitive dimension, agreeableness and emotional

stability on the behavioral dimension, extraversion on the three dimensions

cognitive, motivational, and behavioral and finally the impact of openness on all four

dimensions of CQ. Lastly, studies confirm that high level of cultural intelligence are

60

correlated to other preferred consequences e.g. social tolerance as (Abdul-

Hassanawi, 2010), talent as (Shatali, 2011), job performance as (Bouras and

Khazzar, 2015).

Previous studies gathered general knowledge about the experience of Arab and

foreign organizations in handling or applying cultural intelligence and its impact on the

organizations' performance and management. Additionally, previous studies assisted the

researcher in collecting the theoretical literature, designing the research questionnaire,

choosing the applicable statistical methods as well as comparing data analyses from the

research methodology testing with prior research. Furthermore, these studies supported

interpreting the results and making recommendations. This study will contribute in

providing specific recommendations that may help the INGOs improving the work

environment and enhancing preferred outcomes.

Nevertheless, this study is distinguished from other previous studies by the following

points:

1. Previous studies show that there is a scarcity of the Arabic and local studies which

tackled the topic of Cultural Intelligence.

2. This study discusses the relationship between CQ and personality traits of the MPQ.

Both Arabic and foreign studies are few in such combinations. Moreover, there are

no regional studies that combine either some or all variables of the research together.

3. Up to researcher's knowledge, this study is considered the first research to discuss

these variables in the INGOs in the Gaza Strip. As a result, it may serve as a base for

future studies in the same field.

4. It utilizes the MPQ model to measure the characteristics of individuals including its

five dimensions of human personality: cultural empathy (CE), open-mindedness to

new (O), social initiative (SI), emotional stability (ES) and flexibility (F). It agrees

with (Popescu and Baesu, 2014) and (Peltokorpi and Froese, 2012). It is the newest

model and more accurate compared to previous models of personality traits.

5. The research population focused on employees who work in intercultural contexts in

the international non-governmental organizations in the Gaza Strip in Palestine.

6. This research differs from other previous studies, it helps in discovering the work

environment in INGOs working in unstable area such as the Gaza Strip with high

degree of risk and difficulties resulted from a crippling Israeli siege, the humanitarian

crisis and the ongoing electricity crisis.

Chapter Four

RESEARCH PRACTICAL

FRAMEWORK

4.1. Introduction

4.2. Research Design and Procedures

4.3. Research Methodology

4.4. Data Sources

4.5. Research Population

4.6. Research Sample

4.7. Questionnaire Design and Procedures

4.8. Pilot Study

4.9. Data Measurement

4.10. Validity of the Questionnaire

4.11. Reliability of the Questionnaire

4.12. Test of Normality

4.13. Statistical Analysis Tools

62

4. Chapter Four | RESEARCH PRACTICAL FRAMEWORK

4.1. Introduction

This chapter aims to identify the research methodology implemented to examine the

chosen personality traits as predictors of cultural intelligence (CQ) among employees in

international NGO's in the Gaza Strip. Several techniques were utilized to accomplish this

research and achieve the research objectives, including an overview of the research

methodology, research design and procedures, research population and sample,

questionnaire design and procedures, data measurement, test normality and the used

statistical data analysis tools. Moreover, it includes the analysis of pilot study to examine

the questionnaire's validity (internal, external and structural) and reliability.

4.2. Research Design and Procedures

The following are the phases through the research design and implementation process:

1. The first phase was the thesis proposal, which included identifying the problem and

hypotheses, setting objectives and explaining the importance of the study as well as

development of the research plan.

2. The second phase was conducting a comprehensive literature review research at which

the researcher made sure to read the previous literary works that discussed the various

aspects of the research topic; cultural intelligence, personality traits and nature of

INGO's.

3. The third phase was to go through the previous studies that discussed similar topics in

order to use them as a base of the study and to compare the results at the end.

4. The fourth phase focused on developing a specifically designed questionnaire to

measure the determined variables.

5. The fifth phase was devoted to the alteration of the questionnaire design, through

distributing the questionnaire to pilot study, in order to test and prove that the

questionnaire items are clear to be answered in a way that helps to achieve the

objectives of the research.

6. The sixth phase involved distributing questionnaire on the sample, to retrieve and

collect data required for the accomplishment of the research objectives. One hundred

and thirty-five questionnaires were distributed to the research population and one

hundred and twenty-three were collected.

7. The seventh phase was about conducting the data analysis and discussing the results

using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to perform the required

analysis.

8. The eighth and final phase comprehended presenting and writing the conclusions and

recommendations based on the analysis of the data.

63

Figure (4.1) shows the summarized methodology flowchart, that leads to the

accomplishment of the research objectives.

Figure (4.1): Research Methodology Flowchart

Source: Articulated by the researcher, 2018, based on Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, "Research

Methods for Business Students", Pearson Education, 2011.

4.3. Research Methodology

For the data analysis, the descriptive analytical approach was utilized to interpret and

discuss the basic outcomes of the statistical tests on the data collected. Descriptive analysis

focuses on describing the phenomenon, determining patterns in the data in order to provide

answer to the questions that related to who, what, where, when, and to what extent. It is

considered as an essential for almost every research as it offers what can be known about

needs, methods, capacities, policies, practices, populations, and settings in a way that is

appropriate to particular research hypotheses (Loeb et al., 2017). After getting the results,

the researcher aims to relate them to the previous studies in order to show the similarities

and differences and to provide the chance for further researches in the future. The

researcher depends on the questionnaire as a data collection tool, using the Statistical

Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 25) for data analysis.

Identify the Problem

Define the Problem

Establish Objectives

Conduct primary

interviews

Pilot

Questionnaires

Questionnaires

Validity

Questionnaires

Reliability

Research Proposal

Topic Selection

Literature Review

Questionnaires Design

Questionnaires Distribution

Data Analysis & Results

Conclusions &

Recommendations

Develop

Research Plan

64

4.4. Data Sources

The research utilized the analytical descriptive approach besides the statistical analysis.

In order to have accurate and reliable results, data were collected from different resources:

1. Secondary data were obtained based on desk review, including books and references,

journals and periodicals, published papers and previous studies, and available

manuscripts in the internet. Moreover, data about the working INGO's in the Gaza Strip

were collected from the local governance records.

2. Primary data were retrieved by designing a customized questionnaire specifically for

this research and distributing it on the research sample. Multiple data collection tools

and measures from prior research; e.g. questionnaires and tests were reviewed, adjusted,

translated, combined and modified to fit the purpose of this research, ending up in one

tailored questionnaire distributed to 135 respondents, who were asked to provide

accurate opinions on the variables of this research.

4.5. Research Population

Research population represents the individuals or group of members the researcher

targets to conduct the research (Saunders et al., 2011). In the current research, the

researcher focused on the administrative employees working in INGO's in the Gaza Strip.

According to the Ministry of Interior, 83 INGOs are working in the Gaza Strip at the time

of conducting the research. The researcher depended on the following criteria to exclude

unfit organizations for the research objectives:

1. Number of employees is at least five employees.

2. Working for at least two years in the Gaza Strip.

3. Employing individuals from different cultural backgrounds.

These criteria were chosen according to many reviews to ensure that the chosen sample

will conform to the needs of this research. Respondents should have dealt with others from

multicultural backgrounds for reasonable periods of time. Thus, selecting only INGOs

conforming to the before mentioned criteria, the number of the INGOs constructing the

research sample is 29 organizations, consisting of a total number of 187 employees. This

population included diversity in gender, age, educational qualification, tenure, position

type and the managerial position.

4.6. Research Sample

The researcher used a random sample to select the sampling units (employees) from the

population (INGOs). Due to the nature of research which aims to study whether personality

traits predict cultural intelligence among employees working in INGOs in the Gaza Strip,

then the sample size can be obtained, based on the following formula:

1. Equation for the Sample Size Determination:

2

2

Zn

m

=

(1)

Where:

Z = Z value (e.g. 1.96 for 95% confidence level).

m = confidence interval (margin of error), expressed as decimal (e.g., .05 = ±5).

65

2. Equation for the Correction for Finite Population

n corrected = 1+ −

nN

N n (2)

Where: N = Population size

Using Equation (1), the sample size is:

21.96

3842 0.05

=

n

Suppose that the population size is 187, the corrected sample size using equation (2) is:

n corrected = 1261384187

187384

−+

Consequently, the minimum sample size required comprises at least 126 respondents.

Taking into account the non-responses or incomplete responses, the researcher has

randomly distributed 135 questionnaires, representing 71.1% of the research population.

However, the organizations returned 123 completed and correct retained questionnaires

with a response rate 92.5%, where some organizations returned not all of their specified

number of questionnaires.

4.7. Questionnaire Design and Procedures

The researcher designed the questionnaire carefully to fit the research purpose and

facilitate the collection process, in addition to maximize the reliability and validity of data

collected from respondents.

The following are the steps followed to design the used questionnaire:

1. The researcher designed an initial questionnaire based on previously developed models.

Multiple models were reviewed, combined and modified to develop the required one. It

was initially developed in English, and subsequently translated to the Arabic language.

2. The questionnaire was carefully reviewed and adjusted by the researcher's supervisor.

3. The modified copy was given to 10 academic referees from different universities and

non-governmental organizations to be reviewed and evaluated. Referees list is attached

in Appendix (I).

4. The research modified further the questionnaire based on the referee's comments.

5. Based on the referee's alterations, the questionnaire was ready to be disseminated to the

target respondents; attached in Appendix (IV).

Yet it is noteworthy that the questionnaires were distributed in both languages; English

and Arabic, based on the respondent's preference. The researcher in both copies depended

on a clear and simple language. The questionnaires were distributed with a covering letter,

which clarified the research purpose, the responding way, the research aim and the

information security in order to have high response rate; attached in appendices IV and V.

66

The research questionnaire is composed of the following sections:

1. Section (1): included the personal and organizational characteristics of the respondents;

including gender, age, qualification, tenure, occupation type and managerial position.

2. Section (2): It included 40 questions assessing the independent research variables; the

five chosen personality traits, including Cultural Empathy, Flexibility, Social Initiative,

Emotional Stability and Open-Mindedness,

3. Section (3): It included 34 questions assessing the dependent research variables; the four

dimensions of Cultural Intelligence (CQ); including Meta-Cognitive CQ, Cognitive CQ,

Motivational CQ and Behavioral CQ.

Table (4.1): Questionnaire's Dimensions and their Number of Items

No. Dimensions Number of items

Section Two: Personality Traits

1. First Trait: Cultural Empathy 8

2. Second Trait: Flexibility 8

3. Third Trait: Social Initiative 8

4. Fourth Trait: Emotional Stability 8

5. Fifth Trait: Open Mindedness 8

Section Three: Cultural Intelligence

1. First Dimension: Meta-cognitive CQ 8

2. Second Dimension: Cognitive CQ 10

3. Third Dimension: Motivational CQ 7

4. Fourth Dimension: Behavioral CQ 9

Total 74

4.8. Pilot Study

A pilot sample of the research was conducted before distributing the whole number of

questionnaires, consisting of 30 respondents selected randomly from the research

population. It provided an initial impression about the questionnaire, which involves

testing the wordings of question, classifying ambiguous questions, testing the data

collection techniques used besides measuring the effectiveness of standard invitation to

respondents. The collected questionnaires from the pilot sample were added to the research

sample.

4.9. Data Measurement

In order to be able to select the appropriate method of analysis, the level of

measurement must be understood. For each type of measurement, there is/are an

appropriate method/s that can be applied and not others. In this research, scale 1-10 is used,

where 1 represents the highest degree of disagreement, and 10 represents the highest

degree of agreement. The numbers assigned to the importance (1, 2, 3, …..., 10) do not

indicate that the interval between scales are equal, nor do they indicate absolute quantities,

they are merely numerical labels.

67

Table (4.2): Measurement Scale

Item Strongly

Disagree

Strongly

Agree

Scale 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

4.10. Validity of the Questionnaire

Validity represents to what extent does the measuring tool measure what it is supposed

to measure (Thatcher, 2010). The questionnaire was evaluated through various aspects and

assessment approaches; including external, internal and structural validity. Following are

the validity tests used in this research:

1. External Validity: is referred to as content validity, and examines the extent to which

the data collection tool delivers adequate coverage of the research questions (Saunders

et al., 20011). The external (content) validity of the questionnaire is examined to

determine any general ambiguities in the questionnaire and to identify potential

misunderstandings for each item. After getting supervisor's approval, the researcher

presented the developed questionnaire to some academics and professionals to ensure its

relevance and stability and to assure high levels of the questionnaire's reliability and

validity. A panel of expert referees from various universities and non-governmental

organizations (see Appendix I), reviewed the questionnaire to evaluate the paragraph

lengths, order and the validity of its trends. According to their comments and

suggestion, the necessary adjustments on the questionnaire were implemented via

merging, deletion, addition and rephrasing the mentioned questions to ensure the

legibility and appropriateness of the questionnaire. Appendix (IV) shows the

questionnaire in its final shape.

2. Internal Validity: referred to as criterion-related validity, is used to evaluate instrument

validity. Internal validity of the questionnaire is the first statistical test that used to test

the validity of the questionnaire. It is the strength of correlation between the degree of

every items of the test with its dimension and the degree of correlations between every

dimension and the total score of test.

a. Internal Validity for the Personality Traits Section:

i. Internal validity for the first trait; Cultural Empathy: Table (4.3) clarifies the correlation

coefficient for each item of the "Cultural Empathy" and the total of the dimension.

Table (4.3): Correlation coefficient of each item of Cultural Empathy and the total of this dimension

No. Item

Pearson

Correlation

Coefficient

P-Value

(Sig.)

1. Is a good listener 0.668* 0.000

2. Enjoys other people's stories 0.604* 0.000

3. Senses when others get irritated 0.708* 0.000

4. Notices when someone is in trouble 0.596* 0.000

5. Getting to know others profoundly 0.573* 0.000

6. Pays attention to the emotions of others 0.808* 0.000

68

7. Sympathizes with others 0.695* 0.000

8. Sets others at ease 0.552* 0.000

* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level.

The p-values (Sig.) are less than 0.05, so the correlation coefficients of this dimension

are significant at α ≤ 0.05, so it can be said that the items of this dimension are consistent

and valid to be measure what it was set for.

ii. Internal validity for the second trait; Flexibility: Table (4.4) clarifies the correlation

coefficient for each item of the "Flexibility" and the total of the dimension.

Table (4.4): Correlation coefficient of each item of Flexibility and the total of this dimension

No. Item Pearson Correlation

Coefficient

P-Value

(Sig.)

1. Works according to strict rules 0.772* 0.000

2. Works according to plan 0.682* 0.000

3. Works according to strict scheme 0.628* 0.000

4. Looks for regularity in life 0.601* 0.000

5. Likes routine 0.604* 0.000

6. Wants predictability 0.488* 0.001

7. Functions best in a familiar setting 0.346* 0.014

8. Has fixed habits 0.335* 0.017

* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level




iii. Internal validity for the third trait; Social Initiative: Table (4.5) clarifies the correlation

coefficient for each item of the "Social Initiative" and the total of the dimension.

Table (4.5): Correlation coefficient of each item of Social Initiative and the total of this dimension


Coefficient

P-Value

(Sig.)

1. Takes the lead 0.575* 0.000

2. Leaves initiative to others to make contacts 0.449* 0.002

3. Finds it difficult to make contacts 0.587* 0.000

4. Takes initiative 0.620* 0.000

5. Is inclined to speak out 0.258 0.054

6. Is often the driving force behind things 0.290* 0.035

7. Makes contacts easily 0.689* 0.000

8. Is reserved 0.277* 0.048


69




iv. Internal validity for the fourth trait; Emotional Stability: Table (4.6) clarifies the

correlation coefficient for each item of the "Emotional Stability" and the total of the

dimension.

Table (4.6): Correlation coefficient of each item of Emotional Stability and the total of this dimension


Coefficients

P-Value

(Sig.)

1. Worries 0.620* 0.000

2. Gets upset easily 0.645* 0.000

3. Is nervous 0.607* 0.000

4. Is apt to feel lonely 0.678* 0.000

5. Keeps calm when things don't go well 0.710* 0.000

6. Is insecure 0.750* 0.000

7. Is under pressure 0.688* 0.000

8. Is not easily hurt 0.634* 0.000





v. Internal validity for the fifth trait; Open-Mindedness: Table (4.7) clarifies the

correlation coefficient for each item of the "Open-Mindedness" and the total of the

dimension.

Table (4.7): Correlation coefficient of each item of Open-Mindedness and the total of this dimension


Coefficients

P-Value

(Sig.)

1. Tries out various approaches 0.506* 0.000

2. Is looking for new ways to attain his or her

goal 0.687* 0.000

3. Starts a new life easily 0.619* 0.000

4. Likes to imagine solutions to problems 0.656* 0.000

5. Is a trendsetter in societal developments 0.729* 0.000

6. Has feeling for what's appropriate in culture 0.380* 0.008

7. Seeks people from different backgrounds 0.542* 0.000

8. Has broad range of interests 0.704* 0.000





70

b. Internal validity for Cultural Intelligence (CQ) Section

i. Internal validity for the first dimension; Meta-Cognitive CQ: Table (4.8) clarifies the

correlation coefficient for each item of the "Meta-Cognitive CQ" and the total of the

dimension.

Table (4.8): Correlation coefficient of each item of Meta-Cognitive CQ & the total of this dimension

No. Item Correlation

Coefficients

P-Value

(Sig.)

1.

I am conscious of the cultural knowledge I use when

interacting with people with different cultural

backgrounds

0.704* 0.000

2. I am conscious of the cultural knowledge I apply to cross-

cultural interactions. 0.779* 0.000

3. I adjust my cultural knowledge as I interact with people

from a culture that is unfamiliar tome. 0.610* 0.000

4. I check the accuracy of my cultural knowledge as I

interact with people from different cultures. 0.863* 0.000

5. I am aware of my cultural values when I interact with

people from very diverse countries and cultures. 0.361* 0.011

6.

When I communicate with people from culturally diverse

backgrounds, I ask questions to make sure I have heard

and understood all of the relevant details.

0.591* 0.000

7. I seek feedback from others regarding my ability to

manage cross-cultural situations. 0.606* 0.000

8. Cultural intelligence plays an important role in bridging

divides and knowledge gaps in the organization. 0.691* 0.000




and valid to be measure what it was set for

ii. Internal validity for the second dimension; Cognitive CQ: Table (4.9) clarifies the

correlation coefficient for each item of the "Cognitive CQ" and the total of the

dimension.

Table (4.9): Correlation coefficient of each item of Cognitive CQ and the total of this dimension


Coefficients

P-Value

(Sig.)

1. I know the legal and economic systems of other

cultures. 0.655* 0.000

2. I know the religious beliefs of other cultures. 0.797* 0.000

3. I know the marriage systems of other cultures. 0.871* 0.000

4. I know the arts and crafts of other cultures. 0.826* 0.000

5. I know the rules (e.g., grammar) of other languages. 0.680* 0.000

6. I know the rules for expressing non-verbal behaviors

in other cultures. 0.778* 0.000

71


Coefficients

P-Value

(Sig.)

7. I pay attention to how information is exchanged in a

new cultural setting 0.699* 0.000

8. I see problems from a cultural perspective other than

my own. 0.711* 0.000

9. I am prepared to work cross-culturally because of my

academic training 0.587* 0.000

10. I am prepared to work cross-culturally because of my

professional experiences. 0.587* 0.000





iii. Internal validity for the third dimension; Motivational CQ: Table (4.10) clarifies the

correlation coefficient for each item of the "Motivational CQ" and the total of the

dimension.

Table (4.10): Correlation coefficient of each item of Motivational CQ and the total of this dimension


Coefficients

P-Value

(Sig.)

1. I enjoy interacting with people from different cultures. 0.823* 0.000

2. I enjoy living in cultures that are unfamiliar to me. 0.863* 0.000

3. I am confident that I can socialize with locals in a culture

that is unfamiliar to me. 0.858* 0.000

4. I am confident that I can get accustomed to the shopping

conditions in a different culture. 0.721* 0.000

5. I am confident that I can get accustomed to cultural and

social conditions in a different culture. 0.756* 0.000

6. I am sure I can deal with the stresses of adjusting to a

culture that is new to me. 0.838* 0.000

7. I deal effectively with the stress of working in different

cultures. 0.709* 0.000





72

iv. Internal validity for the fourth dimension; Behavioral CQ: Table (4.11) clarifies the

correlation coefficient for each item of the "Behavioral CQ" and the total of the

dimension.

Table (4.11): Correlation coefficient of each item of Behavioral CQ and the total of this dimension


Coefficients

P-Value

(Sig.)

1. I change my verbal behavior (e.g., accent, tone) when a

cross-cultural interaction requires it. 0.543* 0.000

2. I change my non-verbal behavior when a cross-cultural

situation requires it. 0.743* 0.000

3. I use pause and silence differently to suit different cross-

cultural situations. 0.472* 0.001

4. I vary the rate of my speaking when a cross-cultural

situation requires it. 0.720* 0.000

5. I alter my facial expressions when a cross-cultural

interaction requires it. 0.656* 0.000

6. I understand why it may be necessary for me to change my

nonverbal behaviors in a new cultural setting. 0.656* 0.000

7. In a new cultural setting, I vary my verbal and nonverbal

language when necessary. 0.729* 0.000

8. I adapt to the customs and social behavior of those in other

cultures. 0.649* 0.000

9. I adjust my communication style to meet the demands of a

cross-cultural business meeting. 0.698* 0.000





3. Structural Validity: The structural validity test is used to assess the questionnaire's

structural validity. This test is conducted through measuring the validity of each

dimension and the validity of the whole questionnaire. Further, the test tests the

correlation coefficient of each dimension at first and then among all the dimensions of

the questionnaire with the same level of scale. Table (4.12) clarifies the correlation

coefficients for each dimension and the whole questionnaire.

Table (4.12): Correlation coefficient of each dimension and the whole of the questionnaire

No. Dimension Correlation

Coefficients

P-Value

(Sig.)

1. Cultural Empathy 0.516* 0.000

2. Flexibility 0.609* 0.000

3. Social Initiative 0.602* 0.000

4. Emotional Stability 0.424* 0.003

5. Open-Mindedness 0.523* 0.000

Personality Traits 0.839* 0.000

73

No. Dimension Correlation

Coefficients

P-Value

(Sig.)

1. Meta-cognitive CQ 0.735* 0.000

2. Cognitive CQ 0.875* 0.000

3. Motivational CQ 0.844* 0.000

4. Behavioral CQ 0.770* 0.000

Cultural Intelligence (CQ) 0.908* 0.000


The p-values (Sig.) are less than 0.05, so the correlation coefficients of all the dimensions

are significant at α ≤ 0.05, which verifies the validity of the questionnaire's dimensions to

measure what it was set for to accomplish the research's objectives.

4.11. Reliability of the Questionnaire

To examine the questionnaire's reliability, the researcher tested the degree of

consistency of the dimensions to measure the aspect it is proposed to measure. Higher

reliability is encountered the less variation the data collection tool produces in repetitive

tests of an aspect. Reliability is equivalent to the stability, consistency, or dependability of

a data measurement tool. The test is repeated to the same sample of people on two

occasions and then compares the scores obtained by computing a reliability coefficient

(George & Mallery, 2006). Cronbach's Coefficient Alpha was calculated for each

dimension of the questionnaire, to examine the questionnaire's reliability. This test is

designed as a measure of internal consistency, between each dimension and the mean of

the whole dimensions of the questionnaire. The normal range of Cronbach's coefficient

alpha value between 0.0 and +1.0, and the higher values reflects a higher degree of internal

consistency.

Table (4.13): Cronbach's Alpha for each dimension of the questionnaire

No. Dimension Cronbach's Alpha

1. Cultural Empathy 0.763

2. Flexibility 0.648

3. Social Initiative 0.630

4. Emotional Stability 0.806

5. Open-Mindedness 0.749

Personality Traits 0.784

1. Meta-cognitive CQ 0.799

2. Cognitive CQ 0.885

3. Motivational CQ 0.903

4. Behavioral CQ 0.820

Cultural Intelligence (CQ) 0.932

All items of the questionnaire 0.881

Table (4.13) shows that the values of Cronbach's Alpha were in the range from 0.630

and 0.932. This range is considered high; which verifies the reliability of each dimension

74

of the questionnaire. Cronbach's Alpha equals 0.881 for the entire questionnaire which

indicates a good reliability of the entire questionnaire.

Thereby, it can be said that the researcher proved that the questionnaire was valid,

reliable, and ready for distribution for the research sample.

4.12. Test of Normality

Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to examine normality. Table (4.14) shows the results.

Table (4.14): Kolmogorov-Smirnov test

Dimension Kolmogorov-Smirnov

Statistic P-value

Cultural Empathy 0.805 0.537

Flexibility 0.939 0.341

Social Initiative 1.011 0.258

Emotional Stability 0.572 0.899

Open-Mindedness 0.665 0.769

Personality Traits 0.888 0.410

Meta-cognitive CQ 0.523 0.948

Cognitive CQ 0.621 0.835

Motivational CQ 0.787 0.566

Behavioral CQ 0.686 0.735

Cultural Intelligence (CQ) 0.645 0.799

All items of the Questionnaire 0.663 0.771

From Table (4.14), the p-value for each variable is greater than 0.05 level of

significance, thus the distributions for these variables are normally distributed.

Consequently, statistical data analysis can be performed using parametric tests.

4.13. Statistical Analysis Tools

Qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods were utilized. The data was analyzed

by (SPSS 25), using the multiple statistical analysis methods:

1. Kolmogorov-Smirnov Goodness-of-Fit Test was applied to test the normal distribution.

2. Pearson Correlation Coefficient for Validity to measure the strength of the linear

correlation among the research variables.

3. Cronbach's Alpha for Reliability Statistics to measure internal consistency, indicating

how closely related a set of items are as a group.

4. Frequency and Descriptive analysis, including frequencies and measures of central

tendency (also called averages).

5. Multiple Linear Regression Model for predicting the impact of independent research

variables on dependent research variables.

6. T-test is used to determine if the mean of a paragraph is significantly different from a

hypothesized value 6. If the P-value (Sig.) is smaller than or equal to the level of

significance, α ≤ 0.05, then the mean of a paragraph is significantly different from the

hypothesized value 6. The sign of the Test value indicates whether the mean is

significantly greater or smaller than the hypothesized value 6. On the other hand, if the

75

P-value (Sig.) is greater than the level of significance, α ≥ 0.05, then the mean a

paragraph is insignificantly different from the hypothesized value 6.

7. The Independent Samples T-test is used to detect the statistical differences between

participants' mean responses about the variables of the research according to their

personal characteristics (i.e. gender, educational qualification or position type).

8. The One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is used to determine the statistical

differences between participants mean responses about the variables of the study

according to their personal characteristics (i.e. gender, educational qualification or

position type).

Chapter Five

DATA ANALYSIS &

HYPOTHESES TESTING

5.1. Introduction

5.2. Analysis of Personal Characteristics

5.3. Data Analysis

5.4. Hypotheses Testing

77

5. Chapter Five | DATA ANALYSIS & HYPOTHESES TESTING

5.1. Introduction

This chapter reviews the analyzed data, which was gathered using the questionnaire in

order to examine the degree that a chosen set of personality traits predict the level of

cultural intelligence, which was implemented on 133 randomly selected employees of the

INGOs in the Gaza Strip, 123 responded to the distributed questionnaire. This chapter

includes three main sections; the descriptive analysis of the respondents' statistics (the

personal characteristics), the data analysis which includes the discussion and interpretation

of each dimension's items, and the third section describes the hypotheses testing. Previous

studies reviewed earlier in Chapter 3 will be linked to the current findings that respond to

this research questions and objectives, by further discussions and comparisons.

5.2. Analysis of Personal Characteristics

The researcher discusses the results according to each personal characteristic.

1. Gender

Table (5.1): Analysis of Gender

Gender Frequency Percent

Male 69 56.1

Female 54 43.9

Total 123 100.0

Table (5.1) shows that 43.9% of the sample are females and 56.1% of the sample are

males. The result shows that males' number in the sample is greater than females. This

reflects the general recruitment status in Palestine where the working force is mainly male

due to many societal factors (PCBS, 2014). However, the female employment percentage

in INGOs is comparatively higher than other organizations; e.g. governmental, private or

public ones.

It is remarkably noticed that there is no big difference between the two genders, which

reflects that INGOs are aware of gender equity policy regarding the opportunity of work

between male and female. INGOs commonly encourage gender balance through a clear

recruitment policy, which assures hiring both genders fairly through a transparent

recruitment process without any kind of discrimination. The Code of Conduct Coalition

(2008) illustrates that both genders; male and female should be given the same opportunity

to improve their prosperity or maintaining it. Equal opportunities should be offered to

individuals or groups, whether beneficiaries or staff.

This result consistently agrees with the studies of (Al Hafi, 2015), (Skaik, 2014), (Abu

Amra, 2013) and (Al Derawi, 2012), who studied equivalent populations and draw similar

results regarding the gender characteristic. However, it disagrees with the study of

(Popescu & Baesu, 2014) where 66% of the witness group (Romanian engineering

students) were females.

78

2. Age

Table (5.2): Analysis of Age

Age Frequency Percent

Less than 25 years 16 13.0

From 25 years to less than 35 years 65 52.8


45 and above 12 9.8

Total 123 100.0

Table (5.2) shows that 65.8% of the sample are less than 35 years, while 34.2% are

above 35 years. This result presents that the majority of the respondents are from youths,

while those who are 45 years and above are the least segment. This indicates that INGOs

enhance the participation of the youth and is interested in employing young employees.

Young employees are attracted to work in INGOs, as INGOs are continuously growing

and need for active employees, who are continuously seeking new knowledge, energetic to

perform effectively to improve themselves and are able adapt to the challenging work

conditions and requirements. However, INGOs also recruit senior employees for top level

positions that necessitate more work experience and capability to pass on these experiences

to younger generations to enhance their skills to manage the work effectively.

This result agrees with the study of (Tufekci & Dinc, 2014). Moreover, Skaik (2014)

found nearly the same age distribution among managers who work in the INGOs. On the

other hand, it disagrees with (Albanna, 2017), who finds that the age of the employee is not

the main criterion in the level of employment in such organizations.

3. Qualification

Table (5.3): Analysis of Qualification

Qualification Frequency Percent

Diploma or less 2 1.6

Bachelor 72 58.5

Master 48 39.0

PhD 1 0.8

Total 123 100.0

Table (5.3) shows that 1.6% of the sample are Diploma or less holders, 58.5% of the

sample are bachelor holders, 39.8% are master & PhD holders. The result shows that the

majority holds a bachelor's degree and a considerable ratio hold higher degrees, reflecting

to the relative highly educated staff working at INGOs.

This can be explained due to overall interest among INGOs in paying higher salaries

and financial rewards, therefore INGOs tend to employ highly educated employees

qualified to handle the post educational requirements and high set of standards of the jobs.

Consequently, some employees are interested to invest in their educational improvement to

match their career development.

79

Moreover, educational diversity can help employees improve their performance by

creating a workplace free of judgments and stereotypes, besides providing employees with

a level of understanding in the workplace. Furthermore, the educational diversity might

help in finding common ground in an environment rich with variety of opinions and

perspectives.

This result agrees with most local studies; (Al Hafi, 2015), (Bouras & Khazzar, 2015),

(Skaik, 2014), (Abu Amra, 2013), (Al Derawi, 2012) and (Abu Afash, 2011), who studied

similar populations and retrieved similar distribution of educational qualification levels.

4. Tenure

Table (5.4): Analysis of Tenure

Tenure Frequency Percent

Less than 5 years 37 30.1



15 years and above 19 15.4

Total 123 100.0

Table (5.4) shows that 65.1% of the sample have experience less than 10 years, while

34.9% of the sample have experience more than 10 years in international positions. This

means that about 70% of respondents have worked for more than five years, and

experienced several posts during their work, which reflects their valuable experience,

loyalty and commitment. Moreover, the considerable ratio of those who have less than 5

years' experience reflects the renewable employment in the INGOs.

This result agrees with the studies of (Abu Amra, 2013) and (Skaik, 2014), who also

found nearly the same years of experience distribution among managers who work in the

INGOs. On the other hand, it disagrees with (Abu Afash, 2011), where most of his sample;

UNRWA managers, have more than 15 years of experience, which can be explained due to

the specific study objectives targeting top level managers.

5. Position Type

Table (5.5): Analysis of Position Type

Position Type Frequency Percent

International position 70 56.9

Local position 53 43.1

Total 123 100.0

Table (5.5) shows that 56.9% of the respondents hold an international position and

43.1% hold local position. This can be explained due to INGOs nature and field of work.

80

To work in international organizations, especially in the managerial positions,

employees are required to interact globally and deal with various intercultural work

situations. INGOs largely depend on international work assignments to deliver their

outcomes and achieve their goals.

This result is consistently agreeing with the study of (Moon et al., 2013), where the

population held international work assignments, working in expatriation with foreigner and

in international departments of their organizations.

6. Managerial Position

Table (5.6): Analysis of Managerial Position

Managerial Position Frequency Percent

CEO 3 2.4

Programs\Projects Manager 36 29.3

Program\Project's Manager\Coordinator 39 31.7

Other (Project Staff) 45 36.6

Total 123 100.0

Table (5.6) shows that 2.4% of the sample have CEO positions, 61% of the sample are

Programs or Projects Managers or Coordinators and 36.6% have other positions within the

project staff. This result agrees with the INGOs hierarchy and the variety of work

requirements.

As most of the respondents are from project coordinators and manager, this result

reflects that INGOs mostly depend on those two levels in the implementation of their

programs in the field. INGOs generally form their overseas international assignments as

time-constrained projects with specific objectives to achieve within a limited budget. This

notably helps the organizations to achieve the objectives successfully.

This result is consistent with the studies of (Al Hafi, 2015), (Skaik, 2014), (Abu Amra,

2013), (Al Derawi, 2012) and (Abu Afash, 2011), who studied populations at NGOs,

INGOs or UNRWA, and found that the working personnel heavily depended on project

staff.

5.3. Data Analysis

The following tables summarize the analysis of the respondents' opinions. The

researcher depended on the following criteria in order to determine the degree of

proportional means for the research sample response on the questionnaire. These findings

are discussed and interpreted to provide an overview of responses and increase the

understanding of study variables. Moreover, the findings are compared to the previous

studies findings identifying the differences and similarities and explain the reasons for each

field's.

81

5.3.1. First Section; Personality Traits

1. Cultural Empathy

Table (5.7) shows respondents' opinions towards the first dimension; Cultural Empathy.

Table (5.7): Means and Test Values for Cultural Empathy

Item

Mea

n

S.D

Pro

po

rtio

nal

mea

n

(%)

Tes

t v

alu

e

P-v

alu

e (S

ig.)

Ra

nk

1. Is a good listener. 8.53 1.15 85.28 24.29* 0.000 3

2. Enjoys other people's stories. 7.61 2.00 76.10 8.91* 0.000 8

3. Senses when others get irritated. 8.20 1.23 81.95 19.75* 0.000 6

4. Notices when someone is in trouble. 8.38 1.18 83.82 22.44* 0.000 4

5. Getting to know others profoundly. 8.20 1.03 82.03 23.68* 0.000 5

6. Pays attention to the emotions of others. 8.72 1.01 87.24 29.89* 0.000 2

7. Sympathizes with others. 8.76 1.06 87.64 28.81* 0.000 1

8. Sets others at ease. 7.80 1.94 78.03 10.27* 0.000 7

All items of the field 8.28 0.88 82.77 28.77* 0.000

* The mean is significantly different from 6

As shown in table (5.7), the opinions of respondents about "Cultural Empathy" were as

follows:

a. The mean of item #7 "Sympathizes with others" equals 8.76 (87.64%), Test-value =

28.81, and P-value = 0.000 which is smaller than the level of significance α ≤ 0.05. The

sign of the test is positive, so the mean of this item is significantly greater than the

hypothesized value 6. We conclude that the respondents agreed to this item.

b. The mean of item #2 "Enjoys other people's stories" equals 7.61 (76.10%), Test-value =




c. The mean of the field "Cultural Empathy" equals 8.28 (82.77%), Test-value = 28.77,

and P-value = 0.000 which is smaller than the level of significance α ≤ 0.05. The sign of

the test is positive, so the mean of this field is significantly greater than the

hypothesized value 6. We conclude that the respondents agreed to field of "Cultural

Empathy".

The result remarkably reveals the high tendency of most of the respondents to

sympathize with others' feelings, thoughts, and behavior from diverse cultures, as shown in

item #7. It is clear, that they interact effectively with people of other cultures e.g. "know

others profoundly" and "notices when someone is in trouble".

This reflects the employees' high interest to understand the thoughts, feelings and

experiences of others in multicultural contexts in a reasonable, complete and accurate way.

82

Respondents show great empathy members of diverse cultural backgrounds. Furthermore,

it is remarkable that being empathic is a complex, demanding, and strong yet subtle and

gentle way of being. In some sense, to be with another in this way means that for the time

being, the empathic employees are secure enough in themselves to lay aside their pre-hold

views and values in order to enter the strange or bizarre world of the others without

prejudice.

This result can be explained due to the requirement of working in intercultural context

where attain full understanding of different cultures is necessary. Nevertheless, INGOs'

environment in the Gaza Strip is affected with the social customs and style of

communication, which promote identifying and interacting effectively with others. Thus,

cultural empathy seems important to interpret and read other cultures.

This finding is consistent with the study of (Bukaie, 2015), who found that the

commonest personality trait is agreeableness (empathy). Moreover, it agrees with the study

of (Moon et al., 2013), which indicates that the frequent interaction among expatriates and

local employees in the working environment is desirable as the level of the expatriates'

interactions with local employees is considered a moderator variable in the relationship

between CQ and the number of local employees. On the contemporary, it disagrees with

(Abu Afash, 2013), who concluded that empathy appears of low importance between

UNRWA managers, mainly because the study focused on decision making and problem-

solving skills, which require more assertive managers.

2. Flexibility

Table (5.8) shows respondents' opinions towards the second dimension; Flexibility.

Table (5.8): Means and Test Values for Flexibility

Item

Mea

n

S.D

Pro

port

ion

al

mea

n

(%)

Tes

t valu

e

P-v

alu

e (S

ig.)

Ran

k

1. Works according to strict rules. 3.24 1.66 32.40 -11.75* 0.000 5

2. Works according to plan. 3.02 1.62 30.20 -13.55* 0.000 6

3. Works according to strict scheme. 2.98 1.36 29.80 -16.43* 0.000 7

4. Looks for regularity in life. 2.75 1.56 27.50 -16.06* 0.000 8

5. Likes routine. 6.32 2.58 63.20 5.63* 0.000 1

6. Wants predictability. 5.11 2.07 51.10 -0.61 0.543 2

7. Functions best in familiar settings. 3.3 1.79 33.00 -10.51* 0.000 4

8. Has fixed habits. 3.99 1.91 39.90 -5.84* 0.000 3

All items of the field 3.83 0.91 38.3 -14.22* 0.000


83

Note: This dimension has been measured with a reverted data measure, where 1 is the

highest rank, while 10 is the lowest. The lower the mean, the higher flexibility the

employees demonstrate.

As shown in table (5.8), the opinions of respondents about "Flexibility" were as follows:

a. The mean of item #4 "Looks for regularity in life" equals 2.75 (27.5%), Test-value = -


sign of the test is negative, so the mean of this item is significantly greater than the


b. The mean of item #5 "Likes routine" equals 6.32 (63.2%), Test-value = -5.63, and P-

value = 0.000 which is smaller than the level of significance α ≤ 0.05. The sign of the

test is positive, so the mean of this item is significantly smaller than the hypothesized

value 6. We conclude that the respondents disagreed to this item.

c. The mean of the field "Flexibility" equals 3.83 (38.3%), Test-value = 14.22, and P-value

= 0.000 which is smaller than the level of significance α ≤ 0.05. The sign of the test is

negative, so the mean of this field is significantly greater than the hypothesized value 6.

We conclude that the respondents agreed to field of "Flexibility ".

The result is equivalent to a proportional mean of 71.69%, which refers to the moderate

respondents' ability to adjust their behavior with any situation e.g. behaving according to

plan, strict rules, etc. It is obvious that, on one hand, they "like routine" as shown in item

#5, which indicates their willing to be familiar with multicultural work environment and

response to various circumstances; such as unexpected or constrained circumstances, in a

constant pattern. On the other hand, they are not "looking for regularity in life" as shown in

item #4, which reflects their tendency to be flexible and interest to work in different

cultures requires facing new and unknown situations.

Being flexible signals that employees value diversity in the workplace. Diversification

of the workplace is the new norm. Differing cultures, religions, and social customs mean

that the employees must accommodate diversity when it comes to working, thinking and

interacting with others. This result above show that the employees clearly understand that

being flexible will enable them to accommodate the needs of the diverse workforce more

readily, as well as to adopt new work approaches and strategies easily because ordinary

routine ways of working are continuously adjusted to new cultural contexts.

INGOs' circumstances in the Gaza face daily unstable changes and conditions, hence

any work team has to act with a high degree of flexibility and to be more responsive to the

environment's changeability. The shifting dynamics of the workplace obliges employees to

adapt and respond to change, quickly. Resisting this can lead to undue stress. Recognizing

and embracing flexibility assists employees to familiarize with difficult situations more

easily.

This result is consistent with (Maj, 2013), who concluded that the modern battlefield

requires flexible leaders that can adroitly adjust the organizational focus. Moreover,

(Popescu & Baesu, 2014) found that multicultural students have higher degrees of

flexibility than Romanian local students.

84

3. Social Initiative

Table (5.9) shows respondents' opinions towards the third dimension; Social Initiative.

Table (5.9): Means and Test Values for Social Initiative

Item

Mea

n

S.D

Pro

po

rtio

nal

mea

n

(%)

Tes

t v

alu

e

P-v

alu

e (S

ig.)

Ra

nk

1. Takes the lead. 8.08 1.32 80.81 17.54* 0.000 3

2. Leaves initiative to others to make

contacts. 6.47 1.71 64.72 3.06* 0.003 7

3. Finds it easy to make contacts. 6.30 2.33 63.00 1.41 0.161 8

4. Takes initiative. 7.94 1.46 79.43 14.73* 0.000 4

5. Is inclined to speak out. 8.20 1.23 82.03 19.79* 0.000 2

6. Is often the driving force behind things. 8.45 1.46 84.47 18.58* 0.000 1

7. Makes contacts easily. 7.68 1.80 76.83 10.35* 0.000 5

8. Is open. 7.53 1.97 75.25 8.46* 0.000 6



As shown in table (5.9), the opinions of respondents about "Social Initiative" were as

follows:

a. The mean of item #6 "Is often the driving force behind things" equals 8.45 (84.47%),

Test-value = 18.58, and P-value = 0.000 which is smaller than the level of significance

α ≤ 0.05. The sign of the test is positive, so the mean of this item is significantly greater

than the hypothesized value 6. We conclude that the respondents agreed to this item.

b. The mean of item #3 "Finds it easy to make contacts" equals 6.30 (63.00%), Test-value

= 1.41, and P-value = 0.161 which is greater than the level of significance α ≤ 0.05.

Then the mean of this item is insignificantly different from the hypothesized value 6.

We conclude that the respondents (Do not know, neutral) to this item.

c. The mean of the field "Social Initiative" equals 77.59 (75.88%), Test-value = 22.14, and

P-value=0.000 which is smaller than the level of significance α ≤ 0.05. The sign of the

test is positive, so the mean of this field is significantly greater than the hypothesized

value 6. We conclude that the respondents agreed to field of "Social Initiative ".

This result shows that this field is acceptable where most of the INGOs managers are

posted in their managerial positions regarding to their various abilities especially the

leadership abilities such as social initiative. Moreover, the respondents present themselves

as the driving force behind things, as shown in item #6, which emphasizes that they are

working at leading and displaying initiative in their organizations. This reflects that such

employees typically won't need to be micromanaged and will be more likely to come up

with new ideas and be self-motivated to interact with others from different cultural

85

backgrounds. It also reveals their active approach of social situations, their sense of

initiative and leadership tendency.

As shown above, employees easily interact with others in multicultural settings and

make friends from diverse cultural backgrounds, however, respondents have an

insignificant opinion about the item "finds it easy to make contacts", as shown in item #3,

which comes as a result of the cultural gap between the individuals outside the working

environment, where long-lasting friendships do not last.

This result is consistent with the study of (Popescu and Baesu, 2014) found that

multicultural students have higher degrees of social initiative than Romanian local

students. Additionally, it agrees with (Abu Afash, 2011), who stated that social skills are

the only component positively affecting the ability to take decisions and solve problems.

4. Emotional Stability

Table (5.10) shows respondents' opinions towards the fourth dimension; Emotional

Stability.

Table (5.10): Means and Test Values for Emotional Stability

Item

Mea

n

S.D

Pro

port

ion

al

mea

n

(%)

Tes

t valu

e

P-v

alu

e (S

ig.)

Ran

k

1. Worries. 4.91 2.43 49.10 -0.41 0.683 3

2. Gets upset easily. 4.79 2.22 47.90 -1.05 0.294 4

3. Is nervous. 4.5 2.29 45.00 -2.40* 0.018 6

4. Is apt to feel lonely. 4.51 2.55 45.10 -2.11* 0.037 5

5. Keeps calm when things don't go well. 4.23 2.45 42.30 -3.45* 0.001 7

6. Is insecure. 3.58 2.20 35.80 -6.97* 0.000 8

7. Is under pressure. 5.23 2.42 52.30 -1.05 0.297 2

8. Is easily hurt. 5.45 2.49 54.50 -1.97* 0.025 1

All items of the field 4.66 1.68 46.6 -2.22* 0.029


Note: This dimension has been measured with a reverted data measure, where 1 is the

highest rank, while 10 is the lowest. The lower the mean, the higher emotional stability the

employees show.

As shown in table (5.10), the opinions of respondents about "Emotional Stability" were

as follows:

a. The mean of item #6 "Is insecure" equals 3.58 (35.8%), Test-value = -6.97, and P-value

= 0.000 which is smaller than the level of significance α ≤ 0.05. The sign of the test is

86

negative, so the mean of this item is significantly greater than the hypothesized value 6.

We conclude that the respondents agreed to this item.

b. The mean of item #8 "Is not easily hurt" equals 5.45 (54.5%), Test-value = -1.97, and P-

value = 0.025 which is smaller than the level of significance α ≤ 0.05. The sign of the

test is negative, so the mean of this item is significantly smaller than the hypothesized

value 6. We conclude that the respondents agreed to this item.

c. The mean of the field "Emotional Stability" equals 46.6 (46.65%), Test-value = -2.22,


the test is negative, so the mean of this field is significantly greater than the

hypothesized value 6. We conclude that the respondents agreed to field of "Emotional

Stability".

The result is equivalent to a proportional mean of 63.35%, which impressively reveals

the common low feelings of emotional stability for every citizen who is living in the Gaza

Strip as it reflects the case of "insecurity" as shown in item #6. However, employees

working in international organization are qualified enough to deal with stressful situations

and psychological and emotional discomfort. Regardless of the circumstances and when

presented with a problem, they are able to maintain calm and not let emotions control

actions, rather tolerate minor daily stresses and strains, as shown in item #8. Moreover,

they are able to improvise as the situation requires. The respondents agree that having a

good attitude at work, being emotionally stable and recognizing the emotional needs of

others all contribute to effective workplace relationships and overall organization's success.

Yet, in the Gaza's unpredictable work context, sometimes, things do not go the way they

want according to their own cultures. This might cause nervous feelings, worries, upset,

and being easily hurt. Accordingly, it is notable that the respondents' agreement about

"Emotional Stability" is not strong, with a low proportional mean of 63.35%, which

denotes the hard conditions and impediments local as well as international employees are

constantly facing in the Gaza as a result of Palestinian-Israeli continuous conflict. This

could create a feel of low self-esteem due to the conflict. Most are unable to feel pride in

their nation or themselves, and instead are desperate and hopeless.

This result agrees with (Al Hafi, 2015), who concludes that employees feel tension and

anxiety to work with foreign managers as a result of intercultural communication barriers.

While, it disagrees with the study of (Evans, 2012), who used the CQS to conclude that

expatriates were more able to adjust to their international assignments when they showed

higher levels of behavioral CQ.

87

5. Open-Mindedness

Table (5.11) shows respondents' opinions towards the fifth dimension; Open Mindedness.

Table (5.11): Means and Test Values for Open-Mindedness

Item

Mea

n

S.D

Pro

po

rtio

nal

mea

n

(%)

Tes

t v

alu

e

P-v

alu

e (S

ig.)

Ra

nk

1. Tries out various approaches. 7.77 1.43 77.72 13.74* 0.000 5

2. Is looking for new ways to attain his or

her goal. 7.94 1.43 79.43 15.04* 0.000 3

3. Starts a new life easily. 6.51 2.12 65.12 2.67* 0.009 8

4. Likes to imagine solutions to problems. 7.58 1.59 75.77 10.97* 0.000 6

5. Is a trendsetter in societal

developments. 7.40 1.92 73.98 8.06* 0.000 7

6. Has feeling for what's appropriate in

culture. 7.85 1.66 78.54 12.40* 0.000 4

7. Seeks people from different

backgrounds. 8.03 1.70 80.33 13.20* 0.000 2

8. Has broad range of interests. 8.30 1.41 82.95 18.02* 0.000 1



As shown in table (5.11), the opinions of respondents about "Open Mindedness" were

as follows:

a. The mean of item #8 "Has broad range of interests" equals 8.30 (82.95%), Test-value =




b. The mean of item #3 "Starts a new life easily" equals 6.51 (65.12%), Test-value = 2.67,


the test is positive, so the mean of this item is significantly greater than the hypothesized


c. The mean of the field "Open-Mindedness" equals 7.67 (76.74%), Test-value = 17.12,



hypothesized value 6. We conclude that the respondents agreed to field of "Open-

Mindedness".

This result approves that the majority of employees possess open-minded thinking and

behavior. Respondents show an open and tolerant attitude towards cultural values and

norms of others in multicultural environments. Moreover, respondents show desire to try

new ideas, have broad range of interests and look for new ways to attain their goals.

88

As shown above, in situation where INGOs' managers interact with employees outside

of their own cultural group with different cultural values and norms, they proved their

capability to be open, tolerant and unprejudiced. Employees believe that open-mindedness

crucial to understand others' cultural norms, traditions and customs in order to effectively

cope and interact with them.

Moreover, the result expects open-minded employees to be more driven to try new and

unfamiliar cultural experiences since they possess an inherent level of curiosity. This

tendency embedded in openness of being curious and imaginative suggests that employees

will pursue searching and positively acting on new experiences, besides involving new

daily habits. This result assumes also open-minded employees to revise their own cultural

norms and values, inspect others' cultural preferences, and reconsider their mental models

when handling multicultural situations.

This is consistent with the study of (Popescu et al., 2014), who mentions that open-

mindedness, as well as cultural empathy, to be crucial to understand others' norms,

traditions and values and to effectively meet them. Moreover, it agrees with (Evans, 2012),

who used the CQS to conclude that greater open mindedness among expatriates leads to

higher adjustments to international assignments. Additionally, (Depaula et al., 2016) stated

openness is a positive predictor of general cultural intelligence of students. It is also

consistent with (Tufeki, 2014), who mentioned that the personality traits of openness to

experience and conscientiousness affect all the dimensions of cultural intelligence. Finally,

the study of (Ang et al., 2006), who focused on openness as a predictor of CQ, concluded

that an individual's capability to effectively handle diverse cultural settings is significantly

related to openness to experience.

6. General Analysis of the First Section; Personality Traits.

Table (5.12) shows respondents' general opinions towards the overall independent variable;

Personality Traits.

Table (5.12): Means and Test Values for Personality Traits

Item

Mea

n

S.D

Pro

po

rtio

nal

mea

n

(%)

Tes

t v

alu

e

P-v

alu

e (S

ig.)

Ra

nk

Cultural Empathy 8.28 0.88 82.77 28.77* 0.000 1

Flexibility 7.17 0.91 71.69 14.22* 0.000 4

Social Initiative 7.59 0.80 75.88 22.14* 0.000 3

Emotional Stability 6.34 1.68 63.35 2.22* 0.029 5

Open-Mindedness 7.67 1.08 76.74 17.12* 0.000 2

All Items of Personality Traits 7.41 0.57 74.14 27.39* 0.000

*The mean is significantly different from 6

89

Table (5.12) shows the mean of all items equals 7.41 (74.14%), Test-value = 27.39 and

P-value =0.000 which is smaller than the level of significance α ≤ 0.05. The mean of all

items is significantly different from the hypothesized value 6. We conclude that the

respondents agreed to all items of Personality Traits.

The present results show that respondents in general approve all items of personality

traits; cultural empathy, flexibility, social initiative, emotional stability and open-

mindedness. this indicates that the great majority of the participants have nearly equal

perceptions of personality traits. The chosen personality traits assist employees to feel

comfortable easily whenever they interact with others from diverse cultural background

and are able to adjust their behavior in multicultural environments. Senior mangares should

consider personality traits whenever recruiting or selecting prospective employees for

expatriate international assignments.

These results are consistent with the study of (Al Derawi, 2012), who found a

considerable attention paid to personality traits among NGOs project managers. They agree

also with the study of (Popescu et al., 2014), in which the experimental group (participants

in an international exchange program) has higher scores on cultural empathy, flexibility,

social initiative and open-mindedness than the other witness group, who were Romanian

local students. The results also agree with the study of (Ang et al., 2006), which poved

correlations among personality traits and CQ. Moreover, they agree with the studies of

(Evans, 2012), (Yeke & Semercoz, 2016) and (Peltokorpi & Froese, 2012), who studied

personality traits as effective predictors of expatriate cross-cultural adjustment.

5.3.2. Second Section; Cultural Intelligence (CQ)

1. Meta-Cognitive CQ

Table (5.13) shows respondents' opinions towards the first dimension; Meta-Cognitive CQ.

Table (5.13): Means and Test Values for Meta-Cognitive CQ

Item

Mea

n

S.D

Pro

port

ion

al

mea

n

(%)

Tes

t valu

e

P-v

alu

e (S

ig.)

Ran

k

1.

I am conscious of the cultural

knowledge I use when interacting with

people with different cultural

backgrounds.

8.30 1.36 83.01 18.75* 0.000 3

2.

I am conscious of the cultural

knowledge I apply to cross-cultural

interactions.

8.24 1.41 82.38 17.47* 0.000 5

3.

I adjust my cultural knowledge as I

interact with people from a culture that

is unfamiliar tome.

8.18 1.48 81.79 16.30* 0.000 7

4. I check the accuracy of my cultural 8.21 1.20 82.11 20.51* 0.000 6

90

Item

Mea

n

S.D

Pro

po

rtio

nal

mea

n

(%)

Tes

t v

alu

e

P-v

alu

e (S

ig.)

Ra

nk

knowledge as I interact with people

from different cultures.

5.

I am aware of my cultural values when

I interact with people from very diverse

countries and cultures.

8.85 1.14 88.54 27.87* 0.000 2

6.

When I communicate with people from

culturally diverse backgrounds, I ask

questions to make sure I have heard and

understood all of the relevant details.

8.24 1.34 82.44 18.59* 0.000 4

7.

I seek feedback from others regarding

my ability to manage cross-cultural

situations.

7.48 1.95 74.80 8.41* 0.000 8

8.

Cultural intelligence plays an important

role in bridging divides and knowledge

gaps in the organization.

8.87 1.36 88.70 23.39* 0.000 1



As shown in table (5.13), the opinions of respondents about "Meta-Cognitive CQ" were

as follows:

a. The mean of item #8 "Cultural intelligence plays an important role in bridging divides

and knowledge gaps in the organization" equals 8.87 (88.70%), Test-value = 23.39, and

P-value = 0.000 which is smaller than the level of significance α ≤ 0.05. The sign of the

test is positive, so the mean of this item is significantly greater than the hypothesized


b. The mean of item #7 "I seek feedback from others regarding my ability to manage

cross-cultural situations" equals 7.48 (74.80%), Test-value = 8.41, and P-value = 0.000

which is smaller than the level of significance α ≤ 0.05. The sign of the test is positive,

so the mean of this item is significantly greater than the hypothesized value 6 . We

conclude that the respondents agreed to this item.

c. The mean of the field "Meta-cognitive CQ" equals 8.30 (82.97%), Test-value = 27.17,



hypothesized value 6. We conclude that the respondents agreed to field of "Meta-

cognitive CQ ".

This result clarifies that the sample has a high degree of meta-cognitive CQ. They take

in consideration the meta-cognitive CQ role in explaining different behaviors taking place

in multicultural contexts. Meta-cognitive CQ is notably relevant to the practices used to

91

obtain and understand cultural knowledge. Meta-cognitive CQ makes people more alert

looking for explanations of unexpected reactions or behaviors of the person they are

interacting with (Bucker, 2014). To observe what's going on inside our own and other

people's heads, meta-cognitive CQ endorses carefully slowing down long enough and

analyze observations attained.

On the light of the sample personal characteristics, mentioned above, 56.9% of the

respondents work in international positions, which explains the high degree meta-cognitive

CQ. It reflects their strong ability to reexamine their self-thought processes and depend on

cultural knowledge to understand diverse cultural contexts and confront challenges

effectively in that situation. This comes as a result of their constant interaction with

multiple cultures, where they experience various perspectives and knowledge gaps.

Despite of their agreement about seeking feedback from others, respondents seem to be

able enough to manage cross-cultural situations themselves. All in all, the researcher

expects that employees in INGOs gain cumulative cultural knowledge as a result of their

years of experience in this field; as the majority has more than 5 years' experience. This

means that they are capable of interpreting others cultural behaviors and actually being

able to practice effective communications with them accordingly.

This result agrees with the studies of (Crowne, 2008) and (Elenkov & Manev, 2009),

who concluded that those who worked in more foreign countries tended to have higher

levels of meta-cognitive CQ, as well as with the study of (Bouras & Khazzar, 2015), who

studied expatriates in Algeria with high degrees of metacognitive CQ. Moreover, the study

of (Ahn & Ettner, 2013), confirmed that the students clearly understand the significance of

CQ in an increasingly globalized world, and are highly driven to interrelate with other

cultures, which is equivalent to meta-cognitive CQ.

2. Cognitive CQ

Table (5.14) shows respondents' opinions towards the second dimension; Cognitive CQ.

Table (5.14): Means and Test Values for Cognitive CQ

Item

Mea

n

S.D

Pro

po

rtio

nal

mea

n

(%)

Tes

t v

alu

e

P-v

alu

e (S

ig.)

Ra

nk

1. I know the legal and economic systems

of other cultures. 6.24 2.02 62.44 1.34 0.183 9

2. I know the religious beliefs of other

cultures. 6.48 1.96 64.80 2.72* 0.007 6

3. I know the marriage systems of other

cultures. 6.50 1.89 65.04 2.95* 0.004 5

4. I know the arts and crafts of other

cultures. 6.28 1.94 62.79 1.58 0.116 8

92

Item

Mea

n

S.D

Pro

po

rtio

nal

mea

n

(%)

Tes

t v

alu

e

P-v

alu

e (S

ig.)

Ra

nk

5. I know the rules (e.g., grammar) of

other languages. 6.33 2.13 63.33 1.73 0.086 7

6. I know the rules for expressing non-

verbal behaviors in other cultures. 6.63 1.99 66.26 3.50* 0.001 4

7. I pay attention to how information is

exchanged in a new cultural setting. 7.23 1.71 72.28 7.95* 0.000 2

8. I see problems from a cultural

perspective other than my own. 7.03 1.75 70.33 6.54* 0.000 3

9. I am prepared to work cross-culturally

because of my academic training. 5.94 2.52 59.43 -0.25 0.802 10

10.

I am prepared to work cross-culturally

because of my professional

experiences.

7.40 1.82 73.98 8.51* 0.000 1



As shown in table (5.14), the opinions of respondents about "Cognitive CQ" were as

follows:

a. The mean of item #10 "I am prepared to work cross-culturally because of my

professional experiences" equals 7.40 (73.98%), Test-value = 8.51, and P-value = 0.000

which is smaller than the level of significance α ≤ 0.05. The sign of the test is positive,

so the mean of this item is significantly greater than the hypothesized value 6. We

conclude that the respondents agreed to this item.

b. The mean of item #9 "I am prepared to work cross-culturally because of my academic

training" equals 5.94 (59.43%), Test-value = -0.25, and P-value = 0.802 which is greater

than the level of significance α ≤ 0.05. Then the mean of this item is insignificantly

different from the hypothesized value 6. We conclude that the respondents (Do not

know, neutral) to this item.

c. The mean of the field "Cognitive CQ" equals 6.61 (66.05%), Test-value = 4.63, and P-

value=0.000 which is smaller than the level of significance α ≤ 0.05. The sign of the test

is positive, so the mean of this field is significantly greater than the hypothesized value

6. We conclude that the respondents agreed to field of "Cognitive CQ ".

This result shows that the respondents have low degrees of Cognitive CQ. Bucker

(2014) mentions that cognitive CQ considers acquired knowledge from educational and

personal experiences about norms, customs and conventions in different cultures. It

emphasizes that CQ is altered not merely from book learning but depends more on daily

communications and interactions. This clearly appears at the research's case, as

93

professional experiences seem to play a vital role in shaping respondents' cross-cultural

performance, while academic training seems not to be a top priority. However, it also

indicates a probable shortage in training programs which INGOs design regarding cultural

interaction.

Moreover, these findings may come as a result of the unconscious transition of cultural

knowledge, for instance cultural systems cannot be recognized to be understood by us in a

way which we can explain to others because we participate in it unconsciously. The results

reflect respondents' awareness of information exchanging according to cultural settings and

they tackle problems from different cultural perspectives.

In the case of the Gaza strip, recognizing norms, practices, and conventions of the

society is an essential issue for both international and local managers. This is reflected in

the findings, as they reveal a comprehensive understanding by the employees of the

cultural systems and the set of cultural norms and values of diverse cultural contexts, but

by varying proportions. It appears that employees are more familiar with the social and

religious systems, unlike the legal, economic or cultural systems. Thus, they are expected

to interact better with people from culturally different backgrounds socially, but probably

face difficulties whenever living in other cultural environments, which explains the low

proportional mean (66.05%).

This result is consistent with (Elenkov & Manev, 2009), who concluded that cognitive

CQ is at high importance as senior expatriates have to gain specific knowledge and

comprehend effectively about their cultural environment. Moreover, it agrees with the

study of (Rehg et al., 2012), who found that training using a lecture is significantly

positively related to enhance mean levels of cognitive CQ. The study of (Ahn & Ettner,

2013) investigated the population of MBA students, who lacked a deep knowledge of other

cultures' values, beliefs, and systems. Whereas, they are inconsistent with (Moon et al.,

2013), who states that cognitive CQ is not influenced by the expatriate's previous working

experience with foreigners in international assignments. Additionally, it disagrees with

(Huff et al., 2014), who mentioned that studied the relationship between the dimensions of

CQ and the level of cross-cultural adjustment. Likewise, this result disagrees with

(Albanna, 2017), where respondents reflect agreement about the importance of training and

capacity building in INGOs in the Gaza Strip and most of the organizations allocate special

budget for that. However, this is understood as training is highly appreciated in INGOs, but

it still is scarce in the field of cultural intelligence.

94

3. Motivational CQ

Table (5.15) shows respondents' opinions towards the second dimension; Motivational CQ.

Table (5.15): Means and Test Values for Motivational CQ

Item

Mea

n

S.D

Pro

po

rtio

nal

mea

n

(%)

Tes

t v

alu

e

P-v

alu

e (S

ig.)

Ra

nk

1. I enjoy interacting with people from

different cultures. 8.35 1.49 83.50 17.52* 0.000 1

2. I enjoy living in cultures that are

unfamiliar to me. 7.86 1.69 78.62 12.25* 0.000 7

3.

I am confident that I can socialize with

locals in a culture that is unfamiliar to

me.

8.18 1.30 81.80 18.46* 0.000 2

4.

I am confident that I can get

accustomed to the shopping conditions

in a different culture.

7.99 1.67 79.92 13.25* 0.000 5

5.

I am confident that I can get

accustomed to cultural and social

conditions in a different culture.

7.90 1.46 79.02 14.42* 0.000 6

6. I am sure I can deal with the stresses of

adjusting to a culture that is new to me. 8.10 1.38 80.98 16.91* 0.000 4

7. I deal effectively with the stress of

working in different cultures. 8.11 1.24 81.15 18.82* 0.000 3



As shown in table (5.15), the opinions of respondents about "Motivational CQ" were as

follows:

a. The mean of item #1 "I enjoy interacting with people from different cultures" equals

8.35 (83.50%), Test-value = 17.52, and P-value = 0.000 which is smaller than the level

of significance α ≤ 0.05. The sign of the test is positive, so the mean of this item is

significantly greater than the hypothesized value 6. We conclude that the respondents

agreed to this item.

b. The mean of item #2 "I enjoy living in cultures that are unfamiliar to me" equals 7.86

(78.62%), Test-value = 12.25, and P-value = 0.000 which is smaller than the level of

significance α ≤ 0.05. The sign of the test is positive, so the mean of this item is

significantly greater than the hypothesized value 6. We conclude that the respondents

agreed to this item.

c. The mean of the field "Motivational CQ" equals 8.07 (80.68%), Test-value = 18.99, and



value 6. We conclude that the respondents agreed to field of "Motivational CQ ".

95

This result presents that respondents have high degree of "Motivational CQ". This

dimension includes the interest and energy to interact with with others and the drive to

cope to other cultures. These meanings are reflected in the results when respondents show

that they enjoy interacting with multicultural employees and are capable to socialize with

locals in an unfamiliar culture. Here, motivation includes showing interest, confidence, and

drive to adapt or socialize in cross-cultural settings. Multicultural managers working in

INGOs have to direct their attentions and energies to performing in culturally diverse

settings and learning about those settings. Nevertheless, it is clear that managers were

trying to overcome the cultural gap as possible as they can.

The result is consistent with (Elenkov & Manev, 2009), who mentions that higher levels

of motivational CQ enables senior expatriate managers to effectively motivate, inspire, and

direct subordinates, confront intra-organizational challenges, and stimulate organizational

improvement. Also, these results agree with (Huff et al., 2013), who found that expatriates'

level of effective adjustment in cross-cultural settings depends on motivational CQ.

Moreover, it agrees with (Al Hafi, 2015), who concludes that host country employees are

highly motivated to work for a foreign company because it gives them incentives in the

form of status and (higher) salary.

4. Behavioral CQ

Table (5.16) shows respondents' opinions towards the second dimension; Behavioral CQ.

Table (5.16): Means and Test Values for Behavioral CQ

Item

Mea

n

S.D

Pro

port

ion

al

mea

n

(%)

Tes

t valu

e

P-v

alu

e (S

ig.)

Ran

k

1.

I change my verbal behavior (e.g.,

accent, tone) when a cross-cultural

interaction requires it.

7.89 1.41 78.94 14.87* 0.000 4

2. I change my non-verbal behavior when

a cross-cultural situation requires it. 7.93 1.19 79.27 17.98* 0.000 3

3. I use pause and silence differently to

suit different cross-cultural situations. 7.55 1.80 75.53 9.58* 0.000 7

4. I vary the rate of my speaking when a

cross-cultural situation requires it. 7.73 1.41 77.32 13.63* 0.000 6

5. I alter my facial expressions when a

cross-cultural interaction requires it. 7.84 1.26 78.37 16.21* 0.000 5

6.

I understand why it may be necessary

for me to change my nonverbal

behaviors in a new cultural setting.

8.08 1.16 80.81 19.96* 0.000 1

7.

In a new cultural setting, I vary my

verbal and nonverbal language when

necessary.

7.98 1.22 79.76 17.99* 0.000 2

96

Item

Mea

n

S.D

Pro

po

rtio

nal

mea

n

(%)

Tes

t v

alu

e

P-v

alu

e (S

ig.)

Ra

nk

8. I adapt to the customs and social

behavior of those in other cultures. 6.25 1.68 62.52 1.66* 0.033 9

9.

I adjust my communication style to

meet the demands of a cross-cultural

business meeting.

7.50 1.42 74.96 11.67* 0.000 8



As shown in table (5.16), the opinions of respondents about "Behavioral CQ" were as

follows:

a. The mean of item #6 "I understand why it may be necessary for me to change my

nonverbal behaviors in a new cultural setting" equals 8.08 (80.81%), Test-value =




b. The mean of item #8 "I adapt to the customs and social behavior of those in other

cultures" equals 6.25 (62.52%), Test-value = 1.66, and P-value = 0.033 which is smaller

than the level of significance α ≤ 0.05. The sign of the test is positive, so the mean of

this item is significantly greater than the hypothesized value 6. We conclude that the

respondents agreed to this item.

c. The mean of the field "Behavioral CQ" equals 7.64 (76.39%), Test-value = 21.32, and



value 6. We conclude that the respondents agreed to field of "Behavioral CQ ".

This result shows a moderate degree of "Behavioral CQ" among the respondents. The

clearest item concentrates on controlling one's "nonverbal behaviors in a new cultural

setting". In other words, it relates to body language which is professionally used by highly

qualified employees who often take place in senior positions. Nevertheless, employees are

aware of verbal and nonverbal expressions in different cultural contexts, which reflects the

high consciousness of the cultural situation of others, and they are more likely to modify

their behaviors to adapt to these situations.

Whereas, the result shows low agreement about adapting to others' norms, customs and

social behavior, which is mostly due to religious differences rather than cultural ones.

Imitating other cultures is in many cases restricted by religious doctrine, as well as

discarded by the Palestinian community, mainly in the social system where citizens

strongly adhere to local customs and traditions.

97

This result agrees with (Eidy & Abdul-Hassan, 2010), who found that Iraqi students

have the ability to identify with others and understand verbal and nonverbal

communications as a result of their CQ. This result is also consistent with (Bouras &

Khazzar, 2015), who mentioned that flexibility of coping verbal and nonverbal behaviors

to meet others' expectations depends on high levels of behavioral CQ. Moreover, they

agree with (Huff et al. 2013), who explained that behavioral CQ is the capability to adjust

verbal and nonverbal gestures when working in cross-cultural settings and it is positively

associated with cross cultural interaction and work adjustment. They also agree with

(Elenkov & Manev, 2009), who emphasized that sensitivity to and flexibility towards new

cultural settings (behavioral CQ) proved to be crucially important for enhancing the

leadership effectiveness of senior expatriate managers. The study of (Bouras & Khazzar,

2015) is also consistent with this result as it states that expatriates working on international

assignments is related to greater behavioral CQ.

5. General Analysis of the Second Domain; Cultural Intelligence (CQ).

Table (5.17) shows respondents' general opinions towards the overall dependent variable;

Cultural Intelligence.

Table (5.17): Means and Test Values for Cultural Intelligence (CQ)

Item

Mea

n

S.D

Pro

port

ion

al

mea

n

(%)

Tes

t valu

e

P-v

alu

e (S

ig.)

Ran

k

Meta-cognitive CQ 8.30 0.94 82.97 27.17* 0.000 1

Cognitive CQ 6.61 1.45 66.05 4.63* 0.000 4

Motivational CQ 8.07 1.21 80.68 18.99* 0.000 2

Behavioral CQ 7.64 0.85 76.39 21.32* 0.000 3

All Items of Cultural Intelligence (CQ) 7.58 0.90 75.78 19.41 0.000

*The mean is significantly different from 6

Table (5.17) shows the mean of all items equals 7.58 (75.78%), Test-value = 19.41 and

P-value = 0.000 which is smaller than the level of significance α ≤ 0.05. The mean of all

items is significantly different from the hypothesized value 6. We conclude that the

respondents agreed to all items of Cultural Intelligence (CQ). This result, which shows the

respondents' agreement to all items of Cultural Intelligence (CQ), indicates that

respondents pay great attention to CQ and have the ability to interact effectively in

multiple cultures.

Regarding the ranking of the cultural intelligence dimensions, these results agree with

Al-Masri (2017), who studied the four factors of cultural intelligence, where Meta-

cognitive CQ ranked first and Cognitive CQ came last.

On the light of international positions ratio, those managers have, indeed, experienced

different types of expatriations; including international assignments, educational training,

98

abroad vocations, or other experiences. INGOs provided the opportunity for individuals to

be exposed to other cultures through many means, such as working with people from

different cultures, where employees with local positions interact with others from various

multicultural backgrounds at workplace. As a result, they have a high level of multicultural

skills. Cultural intelligence research has demonstrated that it is a distinct capability that

accounts for significant performance variance in intercultural contexts. Narrower cultural

intelligence sub-dimensions are better predictors of narrower outcomes (Ang et al., 2008).

According to the results, meta-cognitive CQ has the highest proportional mean

(82.97%), while the motivational CQ comes as the second dimension with a proportional

mean of (80.68%). Having meta-cognitive CQ was also shown to influence motivational

CQ. We could argue, therefore, that high levels of meta-cognitive CQ reflects the

employees' conscious awareness of the cultural situation of others, and they are more

interested and motivated to modify their behaviors to adapt to these situations. Individuals,

who are intrinsically motivated, might be inclined to modify and adapt to the different

cultural situations.

The rather low proportional mean of cognitive CQ (66.05%) reflects the quite low

awareness of potential differences across different cultures, which consequently explains

the relatively moderate proportional mean of the behavioral CQ is (76.39%). Thus, an

individual who is not adequately aware of potential differences across different cultures

cannot modify his behavior to accommodate the differences.

Moreover, findings show that that having meta-cognitive or motivational CQ does not

necessarily translate into actions and behaviors, probably because the awareness and

motivation should be aligned with appropriate knowledge (cognitive CQ).

These results agree with the study of (Eidy & Abdul-Hassan, 2010), who found that

Iraqi students in Salah-Al Deen University have high degree of CQ. Nevertheless, the

results agree with the studies of (Moon et al., 2013), (Bouras & Khazzar, 2015) who found

a significant positive relationship between CQ levels and time spent among local

employees working with expatriates. As well as, the study of (Abdul-Hassanawi, 2010)

referred to a high degree among university students. They also agree with (Maj, 2013),

who describes CQ of the U.S. military as a key component of the modern battlefield which

is akin to taking a knife to a gunfight. Moreover, they agree with (Al Hafi, 2015), who

concludes that, to a great extent, CQ is a key variable supporting employees working in

international organizations. Likewise, the studies of (Depaula et al., 2017), (Yeke &

Semercoz, 2016), and (Tufekci & Dinc, 2014) stated that some personality traits are to

some degree related to CQ. Furthermore, they agree with (Al Masri, 2017) who found that

the level of cultural intelligence among students - the beneficiaries of the summer stimulus

program- was high. Finally, this result consistently agrees with the study of (Ang et al.,

2015), who demonstrated that CQ is a distinct capability that accounts for significant

performance variance in intercultural contexts.

99

5.4. Hypotheses Testing

In the following, the researcher conducts the relevant inferential statistical tests to judge

the three main research hypotheses which were stated in Chapter One. The researcher

obtained the Pearson's correlation coefficients to measure the correlation between the

personality traits and the level of cultural intelligence among employees in INGOs. The

results are given in the following tables to test the three main hypotheses and their sub-

hypotheses.

1. First Hypothesis (H1): There is a statistical significant correlation at level α ≤ 0.05

between personality traits and the level of cultural intelligence (CQ).

This hypothesis was tested by applying Pearson correlation coefficient test to figure out

the relationship between the two variables, personality traits and the level of cultural

intelligence (CQ). The below table illustrates this:

Table (5.18): Correlation coefficient between personality traits and the level of cultural intelligence

Item Pearson Correlation

Coefficient

P-Value

(Sig.)

Relationship between Cultural Empathy and the

level of cultural intelligence (CQ) 0.273* 0.001

Relationship between Flexibility and the level of

cultural intelligence (CQ) 0.378* 0.000

Relationship between Social Initiative and the level

of cultural intelligence (CQ) 0.189* 0.018

Relationship between Emotional Stability and the

level of cultural intelligence (CQ) 0.016 0.429

Relationship between Open-Mindedness and the


Relationship between personality traits and the



Table (5.18) shows that the correlation coefficient between personality traits and the

level of cultural intelligence (CQ) equals 0.405 and the P-value (Sig.) = 0.000. The p-value

(Sig.) is less than 0.05, so the correlation coefficient is statistically significant at α ≤ 0.05.

We conclude that there exists a significant relationship between personality traits in

general and the level of cultural intelligence (CQ). The researcher examined the first main

hypothesis through the examination of the following sub hypothesis:

a. There is a statistical significant correlation at level α ≤ 0.05 between cultural empathy


Table (5.18) shows that the correlation coefficient between cultural empathy and the

level of cultural intelligence (CQ) equals 0.273 and the P-value (Sig.) = 0.001. The p-

value (Sig.) is less than 0.05, so the correlation coefficient is statistically significant at α

≤ 0.05. We conclude that there exists a significant relationship between cultural

empathy and the level of cultural intelligence (CQ).

100

Cultural Empathy is significantly related to CQ. Cultural empathy seems vital to

interpret and read other cultures. This makes sense because those who empathic and

able to sympathize with the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of others are easy going in

their social behavior in multicultural work frameworks.

b. There is a statistical significant correlation at level α ≤ 0.05 between flexibility and the

level of CQ.

Table (5.18) shows that the correlation coefficient between flexibility and the level of

cultural intelligence (CQ) equals 0.378 and the P-value (Sig.) = 0.000. The p-value

(Sig.) is less than 0.05, so the correlation coefficient is statistically significant at α ≤

0.05. We conclude that there exists a significant relationship between flexibility and the

level of cultural intelligence (CQ).

The result shows that flexibility is related to CQ. Employees being flexible will enable

them to accommodate the needs of the diverse workforce more readily, as well as to adopt

new work approaches and strategies easily because ordinary routine ways of working are

continuously adjusted to new cultural contexts.

c. There is a statistical significant correlation at level α ≤ 0.05 between social initiative and

the level of CQ.

Table (5.18) shows that the correlation coefficient between social initiative and the



≤ 0.05. We conclude that there exists a significant relationship between social initiative

and the level of cultural intelligence (CQ).

This result reveals that self-confident and social employees seek more interaction

opportunities with others from diverse cultural backgrounds, are willing to acquire new

information about other cultures, and are capable to display social flexible behavior,

which relates to all dimensions of CQ.

d. There is a statistical significant correlation at level α ≤ 0.05 between emotional stability


Table (5.18) shows that the correlation coefficient between emotional stability and

the level of cultural intelligence (CQ) equals 0.016 and the P-value (Sig.) = 0.429. The

p-value (Sig.) is more than 0.05, so the correlation coefficient is statistically

insignificant at α ≤ 0.05. We conclude that there exists an insignificant relationship

between emotional stability and the level of cultural intelligence (CQ).

Contrary to expectations, emotional stability has an insignificant relationship to CQ.

Most probably, lower emotional stability levels indicating even-tempered dispositions

could lead to individuals conveying less their verbal and nonverbal expressions.

Emotional instability could give the employees a bad sign of their incapability to handle

social behaviors in unfamiliar cultural environments.

101

e. There is a statistical significant correlation at level α ≤ 0.05 between open mindedness


Table (5.18) shows that the correlation coefficient between open mindedness and the



≤ 0.05. We conclude that there exists a significant relationship between open

mindedness and the level of cultural intelligence (CQ).

This result indicates that open mindedness is related to CQ. Higher levels of CQ on

all dimensions is influenced by the open-mindedness, as it involves the continuous

seeking of employees to learn new things and their desire and interest to try out novelty.

Open-minded employees remarkably tend to have a broad range of interests and

experiences, looking for different cultural knowledge about traditions, practices, norms,

and social behavior of other cultures.

These results agree with (Ang et al, 2006), who found that specific traits of personality

are significantly related to specific dimensions of CQ and with (Yeke & Semercoz, 2016),

who found that personality traits have influence on cultural intelligence. The findings are

also consistent with (Smith, 2012), who demonstrated a significant positive relationship

between ethnic minority college students' Big Five personality traits and cultural

intelligence.

Nevertheless, the results also agree with (Moon et al., 2013), who concluded that there

exists a positive relationship between the dimensions of CQ and ability to monitor, modify

and control self-expressive behaviors, showing sensitivity to the expressive behaviors of

others and self-presentation and to levels of expatriates' adaptation. As they investigated

the big five personality traits, Tufekci and Dinc (2014) concluded that CQ displays the

strongest relationship with openness to experience among the Big Five factors. He adds

that personality traits of openness to experience and conscientiousness affect all the

dimensions of Cultural Intelligence.

2. Second Hypothesis (H2): There is a statistical significant impact at level α ≤ 0.05 of

personality traits on the level of cultural intelligence (CQ).

To test this hypothesis, the Multiple Linear Regression Model was used, and the below

table illustrates this.

Table (5.19): Result of multiple linear regression analysis

Variable B T Sig. R R-

Square F Sig.

(Constant) 2.768 3.206 0.002

0.762 0.639 18.287* 0.000

Cultural Empathy 0.672 8.425 0.000

Flexibility 0.153 2.043 0.043

Social Initiative 0.239 2.532 0.013

Emotional Stability 0.033 0.888 0.376

Open-Mindedness 0.588 8.520 0.000

* The relationship is statistically significant at 0.05 level

102

Level of Cultural Intelligence (CQ) = 2.768 + 0.672 (Cultural Empathy) + 0.153

(Flexibility) + 0.239 (Social Initiative) + 0.033 (Emotional Stability) + 0.588 (Open-

Mindedness)

The Multiple correlation coefficient R = 0.762 and R-Square = 0.639. This means

63.9% of the variation in level of cultural intelligence (CQ) is explained by all of the

independent variables together; cultural empathy, flexibility, social initiative, emotional

stability and open-mindedness.

The researcher finds that 63.9% is an acceptable value to explain the variation in CQ,

whereas the shortcomings might come two points: First, the Cultural Intelligence Scale is

relatively limited, thus it may not fully assess the knowledge, skills, and abilities associated

with CQ. Second, since it is a self-report questionnaire, it may not be the best way to assess

CQ dimensions (Huff et al., 2013).

These findings are also consistent with (Ang et al., 2006), who mentions that personality

traits relate to cultural intelligence, because traits are broad and relatively stable individual

differences that affect choices of behaviors and experiences.

The Analysis of Variance for the regression model F=18.287, p-value (Sig.) less than

0.05, so there is a significant relationship between the dependent variable "cultural

intelligence" and the independent variables "Cultural Empathy, Flexibility, Social

Initiative, Emotional Stability and Open-Mindedness".

a. For the variable "Cultural Empathy", the t-test = 8.425, the P-value (Sig.) less than 0.05,

hence this variable is statistically significant. Since the sign of the test is positive, then

there is a significant positive impact of the variable cultural empathy on level of cultural

intelligence (CQ).

This result reflects the importance of interacting, feeling and identifying with others

from different cultures. It indicates the need for every employee willing to develop

his/her cultural intelligence to put him-/herself in a culturally different person's shoes

and imagine the situation from his or her perspective. Attaining good understanding of

other cultures is vital to effectively function in cross-cultural work environments.

Cultural empathy seems crucial to interpret and read other cultures. High levels of

cultural empathy reflect strong competencies of employees to recognize the feelings,

thoughts, and behaviors of others in multicultural settings. Likewise, lower levels of

cultural empathy lead to poor sympathy with the feelings, thoughts and behaviors of

others in diverse cultural backgrounds.

b. For the variable "Flexibility", the t-test = 2.043, the P-value (Sig.) less than 0.05, hence

this variable is statistically significant. Since the sign of the test is positive, then there is

a significant positive impact of the variable flexibility on level of cultural intelligence

(CQ).

103

Being flexible indicates that employees value diversity in the workplace.

Diversification of the workplace is the new norm. Differing cultures, religions, and

social customs mean that the employees must accommodate diversity when it comes to

working, thinking and interacting with others. The results above show that being

flexible will enable them to accommodate the needs of the diverse workforce more

readily, as well as to adopt new work approaches and strategies easily because ordinary

routine ways of working are continuously adjusted to new cultural contexts. This result

is presented by employees' capability to cope with new standards and procedures in new

cultural environments.

c. For the variable "Social Initiative", the t-test = 2.532, the P-value (Sig.) less than 0.05,

hence this variable is statistically significant. Since the sign of the test is positive, then

there is a significant positive impact of the variable social initiative on level of cultural

intelligence (CQ).

This result reflects that the independent variable "Social Initiative" has a positive

significant impact on the dependent variable (CQ). Socially initiative employees show

relatively higher motivational CQ, that enables them to approach others and handle

social interactions. They tend to show comfortable adaptation with others, despite

differences in the values, norms or else. However, less social initiative would predict

difficulties to interact with multicultural employees.

This result agrees with (Moon, 2010), where he mentioned that CQ is significantly

explained by social-awareness and relationship management traits. It is also consistent

with (Peltokorpi & Froese, 2012), who found that social initiative was positively related

with work adjustment.

d. For the variable "Emotional Stability", the t-test = 0.888, the P-value (Sig.) more than

0.05, hence this variable is statistically insignificant and there is an insignificant impact

of the variable emotional stability on level of cultural intelligence (CQ).

This result reflects that the independent variable "Emotional Stability" has no effect

on the dependent variable (CQ). This is explained due to the stressful and unstable

conditions that local as well as international employees face daily in the environment of

the Gaza Strip. Emotional stability essentially depends on personal characteristics as

behavioral skills shown in social situation when communicating others. Thus, emotional

stability is expected to relate only to behavioral CQ, rather than the other mental

dimensions including metacognitive and cognitive, or motivational dimensions of CQ.

This result disagrees with (Peltokorpi & Froese, 2012), who concluded that, in Japan,

high emotional stability predicts better expatriates' adjustment with unfamiliar,

challenging situations in foreign assignments. Also, this result disagrees with (Evans,

2012), who concluded that expatriates level of adjustment is greater the greater

emotional stability is.

104

e. For the variable "Open-Mindedness ", the t-test = 8.520, the P-value (Sig.) less than

0.05, hence this variable is statistically significant. Since the sign of the test is positive,

then there is a significant positive impact of the variable open-mindedness on level of

cultural intelligence (CQ).

This result agrees to some extent with (Ang et al, 2006), that mentions the significant

relationship between open mindedness and the capability to effectively function in

cross-cultural backgrounds. Openness to experience is the tendency to be imaginative,

creative, and adventurous (Costa & McCrae, 1992). The result above shows that deep

understanding of other cultures and effective coping with others is essentially depending

on the ability to be open, accepting and unprejudiced when communicating others

outside of our own cultural group, holding different cultural values, traditions and

norms. Open-minded individuals seek opportunity to build friendship relationships with

others and feel comfortable within interpersonal interactions. Their spontaneous,

expressive, gregarious and less inhibited nature enables them to adjust their behavior

more effectively than those who are less open-minded.

Moreover, it is consistent with (Peltokorpi & Froese, 2012), who concluded that

expatriates with higher levels of open mindedness adapt better to cultural differences in

their international expatriation. Likewise, this result agrees with (Evans, 2012), who

reflects that expatriates with greater openness to experience were better able to adjust in

their work.

f. In addition, based on the P-value (Sig.), the most significant independent variable is

Open-Mindedness, then Social Initiative, then Flexibility, then Cultural Empathy and

Emotional Stability.

This finding is consistent with (Smith, 2012) who indicated that openness to

experience had the greatest significance for cultural intelligence, he also concluded that

openness to experience emerged as the greatest predictor of overall cultural intelligence.

3. Third Hypothesis (H3): There is a statistical significant difference at level α ≤ 0.05

in the responses of the research sample due to personal characteristics; gender,

age, qualification, tenure, position type and managerial position.

To test this hypothesis, the Independent Samples T-test and Analysis of Variance

(ANOVA) was used, and the following tables illustrate this. This hypothesis can be

divided into the following sub-hypotheses:

1. There is a statistical significant difference at level α ≤ 0.05 in the responses of the

research sample due to gender.

Table (5.20): Independent Samples T-test of the fields and their p-values for gender

No. Field Means Test

Value Sig.

Female Male

1. Cultural Empathy 8.22 8.32 -0.662 0.509

2. Flexibility 7.38 7.01 2.268* 0.025

3. Social Initiative 7.53 7.64 -0.747 0.457

105

No. Field Means Test

Value

Sig.

4. Emotional Stability 6.39 6.30 0.289 0.773

5. Open-Mindedness 7.60 7.73 -0.673 0.502

Personality Traits 7.43 7.40 0.207 0.836

1. Meta-cognitive CQ 8.42 8.20 1.315 0.191

2. Cognitive CQ 6.62 6.60 0.076 0.940

3. Motivational CQ 8.12 8.03 0.426 0.671

4. Behavioral CQ 7.61 7.66 -0.363 0.717

Cultural Intelligence (CQ) 7.61 7.55 0.376 0.708

All items of the questionnaire 7.51 7.47 0.363 0.717

* The mean difference is significant a 0.05 level

a. Table (5.20) shows that the p-value (Sig.) is smaller than the level of significance α ≤

0.05 for the field "flexibility", then there is significant difference among the respondents

toward this field due to gender. We conclude that the personal characteristic "gender"

has an effect on this field.

b. For the other fields, the p-value (Sig.) is greater than the level of significance α ≤ 0.05,

then there is insignificant difference among the respondents toward these fields due to

gender. We conclude that the personal characteristic "gender" has no effect on the other

fields.

This result is explained due to the respondent positions nature in which there is no

difference in interactions and work duties resulted from gender. However, as shown in

results, gender affected employee flexibility because of the physical characteristics which

distinct males' performance.

This result agrees with (Al Masri, 2017), where he found that gender has no effect on

the CQ dimensions as a result of the population. Talented Students were interacting

together and participating in different activities without any distinction according to

gender. On the other hand, they disagree with (Peltokorpi & Froese, 2012) in which MPQ

studies concluded that men showed higher emotional stability than women, whereas

women had higher cultural empathy than men.


research sample due to age.

Table (5.21): ANOVA test of the fields and their p-values for age

No. Field

Means

Test

Value Sig.

Less

than 25

years

From 25

years to

less than

35 years

From 35

years to

less

than 45

years

45

and

above

1. Cultural Empathy 8.00 8.33 8.30 8.27 0.627 0.599

2. Flexibility 6.71 7.37 6.98 7.20 2.942* 0.036

3. Social Initiative 7.44 7.72 7.44 7.45 1.273 0.287

106

4. Emotional Stability 6.68 6.43 5.68 6.98 2.489 0.064

5. Open-Mindedness 7.82 7.67 7.68 7.49 0.210 0.889

Personality Traits 7.33 7.50 7.24 7.48 1.689 0.173

1. Meta-cognitive CQ 8.47 8.22 8.34 8.38 0.363 0.780

2. Cognitive CQ 6.47 6.55 6.70 6.84 0.225 0.879

3. Motivational CQ 8.21 8.07 8.11 7.77 0.311 0.817

4. Behavioral CQ 7.56 7.62 7.69 7.73 0.143 0.934

Cultural Intelligence (CQ) 7.59 7.54 7.64 7.63 0.101 0.959

All items of the questionnaire 7.45 7.52 7.42 7.55 0.229 0.876



0.05 for the field "flexibility", then there is significant difference among the respondents

toward this field due to age. We conclude that the personal characteristic "age" has an

effect on this field.



age. We conclude that the personal characteristic "age" has no effect on the other fields.

The same as in gender field, age didn't affect respondents' opinions towards all the fields

except flexibility. Age plays a rule in tuning flexibility as a result of the characteristics

associated with each age period. This result disagrees with (Peltokorpi & Froese, 2012)

who mentions that other studies showed relationships between age and gender and

personality differences related to multicultural effectiveness. This result agrees with (Al

Hafi, 2015) who confirms that age of decision maker affects his flexibility in the style of

decision making.


research sample due to qualification.

Table (5.22): Independent Samples T-test of the fields and their p-values for qualification

No. Field

Means Test

Value Sig. Bachelor

or less

Master

and PhD

1. Cultural Empathy 8.35 8.18 1.052 0.295

2. Flexibility 7.22 7.09 0.816 0.416

3. Social Initiative 7.51 7.70 -1.236 0.219

4. Emotional Stability 6.25 6.47 -0.720 0.473

5. Open-Mindedness 7.51 7.91 -2.051* 0.042

Personality Traits 7.37 7.47 -0.921 0.359

1. Meta-cognitive CQ 8.22 8.42 -1.167 0.245

2. Cognitive CQ 6.47 6.81 -1.299 0.196

3. Motivational CQ 7.94 8.25 -1.376 0.171

4. Behavioral CQ 7.54 7.78 -1.506 0.135

Cultural Intelligence (CQ) 7.47 7.74 -1.654 0.101

All items of the questionnaire 7.42 7.60 -1.594 0.113


107


0.05 for the field "open-mindedness", then there is significant difference among the

respondents toward this field due to educational qualification. We conclude that the

personal characteristic " educational qualification" has an effect on this field.



qualification. We conclude that the personal characteristic "educational qualification"

has no effect on the other fields.

This result clarifies that open-mindedness is the only field that was affected by

respondents' educational qualification. This comes as a result of the experiences and

knowledge one may acquire in academic institutions which notably affects the

understanding of norms, traditions and practices of other cultures, effective conforming to

other cultures as well as enhancing their ways of thinking.


research sample due to tenure.

Table (5.23): ANOVA test of the fields and their p-values for tenure

No. Field

Means

Test

Value Sig.

Less

than 5

years

From5

years

to less

than 10

years

From10

years to

less

than 15

years

15

years

and

above


2. Flexibility 7.29 7.13 7.13 7.07 0.345 0.793



5. Open-Mindedness 7.69 7.52 7.90 7.71 0.616 0.606



2. Cognitive CQ 6.36 6.45 6.94 7.01 1.447 0.233

3. Motivational CQ 8.10 7.88 8.31 8.12 0.688 0.561

4. Behavioral CQ 7.57 7.67 7.63 7.70 0.132 0.941

Cultural Intelligence (CQ) 7.52 7.44 7.77 7.75 0.977 0.406

All items of the questionnaire 7.52 7.39 7.60 7.52 0.713 0.546


Table (5.23) shows that the p-value (Sig.) is greater than the level of significance α ≤

0.05 for each field, then there is insignificant difference among the respondents toward

each field due to tenure (years of experience). We conclude that the personality

characteristic "tenure" (years of experience) has no effect on any field.

According to the result, tenure (years of experience) has no impact on personality traits

or CQ dimensions. This can be explained due to the previously employees' high

108

qualifications and acquired experiences. This result disagrees with (Albanna, 2017), who

found that the INGOs employees with higher years of experience agree more on the fields

of the questionnaire, which indicates that the more experience of the employees got, the

more efficiency they present at work.

5. There's a statistical significant difference at level α ≤ 0.05 in the responses of the

research sample due to position type.

Table (5.24): Independent Samples T-test of the fields and their p-values for position type

No. Field

Means Test

Value Sig. International

position

Local

Position

1. Cultural Empathy 8.27 8.29 -0.106 0.915

2. Flexibility 7.15 7.19 -0.236 0.814

3. Social Initiative 7.61 7.56 0.308 0.759

4. Emotional Stability 6.03 6.74 -2.355* 0.020

5. Open-Mindedness 7.82 7.48 1.732 0.086

Personality Traits 7.38 7.46 -0.733 0.465

1. Meta-cognitive CQ 8.28 8.32 -0.264 0.792

2. Cognitive CQ 6.61 6.59 0.073 0.942

3. Motivational CQ 8.17 7.93 1.098 0.274

4. Behavioral CQ 7.67 7.60 0.417 0.677

Cultural Intelligence (CQ) 7.61 7.54 0.383 0.703

All items of the questionnaire 7.48 7.50 -0.109 0.914



0.05 for the field "emotional stability", then there is significant difference among the

respondents toward this field due to position type. We conclude that the personal

characteristic "position type" has an effect on this field.



position type. We conclude that the personal characteristic "position type" has no effect

on the other fields.

Results demonstrate that the type of position affects only the "emotional stability" as

one's ability to tolerate in hard conditions; especially in an unstable environment as the

Gaza strip is challenging. Working in the Gaza Strip; specifically, in an international

position, contains various challenges as resources scarcity, poverty, unemployment,

political and military conflicts and insecure economy. As such, international employees

may feel emotionally unstable, which is certainly affecting their tendency to interact with

others from multicultural environments.

109


research sample due to managerial position.

Table (5.25): ANOVA test of the fields and their p-values for managerial position

No. Field

Means

Test

Value Sig.

CE

O

Pro

gra

ms\

Pro

jects

Ma

na

ger

Pro

gra

m\

Pro

ject'

s

Co

ord

ina

t

or

Oth

er


2. Flexibility 7.04 7.00 7.48 7.04 2.313 0.080



5. Open-Mindedness 7.75 8.04 7.61 7.43 2.278 0.083



2. Cognitive CQ 7.23 7.18 6.86 5.89 6.960* 0.000

3. Motivational CQ 9.05 8.49 8.24 7.51 6.319* 0.001

4. Behavioral CQ 7.70 7.78 7.85 7.33 3.273* 0.024

Cultural Intelligence (CQ) 7.99 7.92 7.73 7.15 6.490* 0.000

All items of the questionnaire 7.66 7.64 7.64 7.23 4.851* 0.003



0.05 for the fields "Cognitive CQ, Motivational CQ, Behavioral CQ and Cultural

Intelligence (CQ)" then there is significant difference among the respondents toward

this field due to managerial position. We conclude that the personal characteristic

"managerial position" has an effect on this dimension.



managerial position. We conclude that the personal characteristics "managerial

position" has no effect on the other fields.

It's clear that the managerial position affected most CQ dimensions and CQ in general.

This result can be explained due to the international positions' requirements; e.g. being

bilingual and ready for travelling abroad which vary according to the position.

In general, the previous results disagree with (Abu Amra, 2013), who mentions that

employees' responses show that there is no significant effect of personal characteristics on

behavior change at all.

Chapter Six

CONCLUSIONS &

RECOMMENDATIONS

6.1. Introduction

6.2. Conclusions

6.3. Recommendations

6.4. Proposed Future Studies

111

6. Chapter 6 | CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

6.1. Introduction

This chapter includes the most significant findings and conclusions illustrated according

to the previously obtained results. Additionally, the most important proposed

recommendations are listed in light of the conclusions, which contribute towards

promoting and supporting strengths or addressing and correcting weaknesses. Moreover,

topics for future researches are suggested at the end of this chapter in order to improve the

fields of CQ and personality traits in the INGOs in the Gaza Strip. In general, it is hoped

that this research will provide a reference to senior managers in INGOs in the Gaza Strip to

pay attention to employees' personality traits and their CQ as one of the most important

organization's assets to achieve success.

6.2. Conclusions

The main objective of this research is to investigate the relationship between personality

traits and cultural intelligence among employees working in INGOs and to assess the

prediction level of cultural intelligence by personality traits. It also aimed to give insight

for practitioners to contribute to organization's success through improving the existing

level of cultural intelligence, managing multicultural employees, handling multicultural

organizations, besides identifying the factors influencing a harmonized work environment.

Furthermore, it aims to enhance human resources management processes, through valuing

high culturally intelligent managers as one of the most important organization's assets. The

following is a summary of the conclusions that can be drawn from the research:

1. Conclusions Related to Cultural Intelligence (CQ)

The respondents in general agree on all items of Cultural Intelligence (CQ); Meta-

cognitive CQ, Cognitive CQ, Motivational CQ and Behavioral CQ. The great majority of

respondents possess an adequate level of cultural intelligence, counting for a distinct

capability qualifying their significant performance variance in intercultural contexts.

a. Meta-cognitive CQ: the level of meta-cognitive CQ is high among the respondents,

demonstrating employees' strong ability to assess their self-thought practices and

depend on cultural knowledge to build a comprehensive understanding of different

cultural contexts and enhance their problem-solving skills in those situations.

Employees largely possess high awareness of the importance of cultural intelligence in

their multicultural work environments, therefore they continuously seek accurate

cultural feedback from their colleagues to be able enough to interpret others' cultural

behaviors, to use that understanding to communicate them effectively and actually

manage cross-cultural situations.

b. Cognitive CQ: the level of cognitive CQ is low among the respondents, reflecting

employees' slight personal and educational knowledge of norms, practices and

conventions necessary in multicultural work environment to understand the how

cultures differ from one context to the other. Employees general lack cultural familiarity

of social, legal and economic systems of other countries, as well as in-depth knowledge

of other languages. They depend rather on their personal professional experiences than

112

academic training and practical preparation in handling multicultural situations,

indicating a probable shortage in tailored training programs.

c. Motivational CQ: the level of motivational CQ is high among the respondents,

representing employees' notable drive, confidence and energy to interact with others and

the desire to conform behavior to other cultures, trying to overcome the cultural gap as

possible as they can. Employees show great curiosity and interest in unfamiliar cultures,

and enjoy social interactions in cross-cultural contexts, but show less motivation to live

in other cultures permanently.

d. Behavioral CQ: the level of behavioral CQ is moderate among the respondents, assuring

employees' ability to modify their behaviors to adapt to different cultural contexts, and

controlling their verbal and nonverbal expressions in these situations. However,

employees are rather reserved to fully adjust their traditional customs and social

traditions to conform those in other cultures. Behavioral CQ is rather related to the work

relationships not social long-lasting friendships.

2. Conclusions Related to Personality Traits

The respondents in general agree on all items of personality traits; cultural empathy,

open-mindedness, social initiative, flexibility and emotional stability. The great majority of

the participants have nearly equal perceptions of personality traits. They are likely to

possess personality traits enabling them coping with other cultures and creating

comfortable feelings whenever they interact with people from different cultures.

a. Cultural Empathy: the level of cultural empathy is high among the respondents, which

assures the employees' ability to sympathize with the feelings, thoughts, and behavior of

people from diverse cultures. Employees show a great sense of responsiveness to people

of other cultures, but to some extent hold back when getting to closer relationships as

they do not set others at ease.

b. Flexibility: the level of flexibility is moderate among the respondents, which shows the

employees' ability to adjust their behavior with any situation, to accommodate the needs

of the diverse workforce more readily, as well as to adopt new work approaches and

strategies easily. Yet, employees reveal a considerable tendency to routine and

predictable management procedures within multicultural work environments.

c. Social Initiative: the level of social initiative is moderate among the respondents, which

reflects the employees' propensity to actively approach social situations, to show

initiative actions and make contacts easily within multicultural environments.

Employees are likely to come up with new ideas and be self-motivated to interact with

others from different cultural backgrounds. However, they show a reiterated

conservativeness to build deep friendships.

d. Emotional Stability: the level of emotional stability is low among the respondents,

which denotes the hard conditions and insecure impediments employees are constantly

facing in Gaza, creating nervous feelings, worries, upset, and pressure. Still, employees

are to some degree competent enough to cope with stressful situations and

psychological and emotional discomfort. They show a good attitude at work and are

emotionally stable to recognize the emotional needs of others, contributing to effective

workplace relationships and overall organization's success.

113

e. Open-Mindedness: the level of open-mindedness is moderate among the respondents,

which indicates employees' open, unprejudiced and tolerant attitude when dealing with

others outside of their own cultural group, holding diverse cultural values and norms.

Open-minded employees are more willing cope with multicultural contexts and

experiencing new and unfamiliar environments since they show and inherent trait of

curiosity and constantly trying new approaches. Though, they are less motivated to start

new careers or life entirely.

3. Conclusions Related to Research Hypotheses

a. There is a significant relationship between personality traits and the level of cultural

intelligence (CQ) among employees working in INGOs in the Gaza Strip.

b. There is a significant positive impact of the variables Cultural Empathy, Flexibility,

Social Initiative and Open-Mindedness on level of cultural intelligence (CQ) among

employees working in INGOs in the Gaza Strip.

c. There is an insignificant impact of the variable Emotional Stability on level of cultural

intelligence (CQ) among employees working in INGOs in the Gaza Strip.

d. The most significant independent variable is Open-Mindedness, then Social Initiative,

then Flexibility, then Cultural Empathy and Emotional Stability.

e. Multiple Linear Regression shows that 63.9% of the variation in level of cultural

intelligence (CQ) among employees working in INGOs in the Gaza Strip is explained

by all of the independent variables together "Cultural Empathy, Flexibility, Social

Initiative, Emotional Stability and Open-Mindedness".

4. Conclusions Related to Personal Characteristics

There is insignificant difference in the responses of the research sample due to personal

characteristics; gender, age, qualification, tenure, position type and managerial position on

the research variables, except in the following:

a. There is a significant difference in the responses of the research sample in the field of

"Flexibility" due to "Gender" and "Age".

b. There is a significant difference in the responses of the research sample in the field of

"Open-Mindedness" due to "Qualification".

c. There is a significant difference in the responses of the research sample in the field of

"Emotional Stability" due to "Position type".

d. There is a significant difference in the responses of the research sample in the field of

"Cognitive CQ" due to "Managerial position".

6.3. Recommendations

Based on the conclusions that have been reached, the researcher recommends:

1. Recommendation Related to Cultural Intelligence, CQ

a. INGOs are recommended keep the engaging organizational atmosphere between

employees dealing with multicultural contexts to enable them to perform properly

within multicultural contexts with international managers or colleagues.

b. INGOs are advised to increase employees' awareness about multicultural work

environments and importance of easy adjustment between colleagues to enhance

teamwork and collaboration among the organization's staff.

114

c. INGOs are endorsed to prepare potential candidates for international assignments,

besides catering the required cognitive knowledge for multicultural communication

skills, as they are exposed to constant international projects.

d. INGOs are recommended to set up tailored training programs in order to build

employees' capacity in the fields of personal behaviors, aspects and thoughts to increase

the cognitive knowledge of CQ, affecting positively the employees' performance.

e. INGOs are advised to design work procedures conveniently with the diverse nature of

the staff, to simplify interaction between multicultural employees, leading to better

communication and coordination.

f. INGOs are endorsed to provide more space for the employees to enhance cooperation

and collaboration in multicultural work environments, which enables the organizations

to effectively involve employees in the decision-making process.

g. INGOs are recommended to emphasize on cultural intelligence to be institutionalized

and incorporated into the career paths as it proved itself as a success factor in INGOs.

h. INGOs are advised to keep recruiting professionals with high CQ to manage the work

process, to promote employees' social engagement and improve the organization's

performance level.

i. INGOs are recommended to keep appreciating the employees trying to overcome the

cultural gap as it will have great effect to enhance the level of motivation and increases

employees' commitment.

j. INGOs might prepare specified sub-strategies, mainly focusing on cultural interaction

code of conduct, that assures CQ to relate to a wide range of cognitive, affective, and

behavioral outcomes in intercultural contexts to enhance the efficiency of the

organization.

k. INGOs are endorsed to keep programs of change as they improve and develop the work

at the organizations to enhance employees' willingness to accept change and diverse

circumstances.

l. Employees' are guided to practice their strong ability to draw on cultural knowledge to

understand different cultural contexts and enhance their problem-solving skills in those

situations.

m. Employees are suggested to intensify educational cultural knowledge of norms,

practices and conventions necessary in multicultural work environment.

n. It is helpful for employees to participate in multicultural academic training programs,

preferably outside the Gaza Strip to interact with others to increase their cognitive and

meta-cognitive CQ dimensions.

o. Employees could be encouraged to adapt to different cultural contexts and controlling

their verbal and nonverbal expressions in these situations, specifically to focus on their

behavioral CQ dimension.

2. Recommendation Related to Personality Traits

a. INGOs are recommended to keep the suitable organizational environment to enable

employees dealing with high empathy and tolerance in multicultural contexts.

115

b. INGOs are endorsed to pay careful attention to the psychological state of employees

working in multicultural environments and understanding the various differences among

their personalities.

c. INGOs are recommended to enable employees to participate in the development of new

programs of development to benefit their valuable degree of open mindedness.

d. INGOs are advised to provide more social activities to promote long-lasting friendships,

that support bridging the cultural gap between the individuals outside the working

environment.

e. INGOs personnel management are endorsed to measure and monitor managers,

employees and recruited individuals' personality traits in order to enhance their

intercultural performance.

f. INGOs might develop incentives system that promote social tolerance and collaboration

between multicultural employees, to increase motivation among employees.

g. It is helpful for employees to be encouraged to accommodate to the diverse workforce

and adopt new work approaches and strategies, leading to higher job performance and

better goal achievement.

h. It is supportive to give employees more flexible work regulations to enhance their

innovation and novelty in multicultural environment.

3. General Recommendations

a. Higher education institutions are recommended to recognize that cultural intelligence

knowledge can be achieved not only through academic programs, but also through

international study tours, or participation in virtual international projects.

b. It is suggested to incorporate "study abroad" programs in the curriculum of higher

education institutions, which will enhance students' global awareness, and preparing

them to add value to their organizations.

c. Researchers could use these relatively new measures to assess cultural intelligence

related to expatriation, international assignments and other factors.

d. Individuals interacting with others from multicultural backgrounds should enrich their

cultural capabilities since it directly affects their career development.

6.4. Proposed Future Studies

There are multiple interesting research directions conceivable to follow this research:

a. Studying other antecedents and descendants of cultural intelligence.

b. Studying the role of managers' personality traits to enhance employees' cultural

adjustment in non-governmental organizations.

c. Making comparative studies between the INGOs sector with other governmental

organizations such as the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

d. Further insight has to be provided to the consequences of CQ and the effective means of

managing those consequences.

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117

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APPENDICES

132

Appendix I | LIST OF REFEREES

No. Name Job Title

1. Dr. Akram I. Samour Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Commerce, Islamic

University of Gaza.

2. Dr. Alaedin K. Alsayed Assistant Professor, Dean of Faculty of Administration

and Finance at Al-Aqsa University, Gaza.

3. Dr. Bilal Z. Bashiti Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Administration and

Finance, Al-Azhar University, Gaza.

4. Dr. Mohammed Aydi Head of UNRWA Department, Khanyounis.

5. Dr. Mohammed J. Fares Associate Professor, Dean of Faculty of Administration

and Finance at the Al-Azhar University, Gaza.

6. Dr. Rushdi A. Wady Associate Professor at the Faculty of Commerce, Islamic

University of Gaza.

7. Dr. Samir K. Safi Professor at the Faculty of Commerce, Islamic University

of Gaza.

8. Dr. Walid Mousa Programmes Manager at Save the Children, Gaza.

9. Dr. Yasser M. Abo-Jamee Mental Health Specialist, The Gaza Community Mental

Health Programme, Gaza.

133

Appendix II | REQUEST FOR QUESTIONNAIRE'S ASSESSMENT

Islamic University of Gaza

Dean of Postgraduate Studies

Faculty of Commerce

Department of Business Administration

Arbitration of a Questionnaire

Dear Professor, Supervisor, Expert teacher,

The researcher is conducting a study entitled "Personality Traits as Predictors of

Cultural Intelligence (CQ) among Employees in International NGO's in the Gaza

Strip" to obtain a Master's Degree in curriculum and instruction. One of the requirements

of this study is to conduct a questionnaire. Please, you are kindly requested to look

carefully at the attached scale and fill in the following form indicating whether the items of

the test are suitable or unsuitable. Your notes and responses will be highly appreciated and

confidential, so please have a look at the scale and write down your opinion on:

1. The clarity of the scale instructions.

2. The suitability of the scale items.

3. The belonging of each item to its domain.

4. The deletion or addition of items.

Any further comments will be highly appreciated.

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Thanks a lot for your cooperation.

Researcher

Asma Naim

134

Appendix III | REQUEST FOR QUESTIONNAIRE'S ASSESSMENT

(IN ARABIC LANGUAGE)

غزة -الجــامعة اإلسالمــــية

عمــادة الدراســـــات العلـيــا

التجـــــــــــارةكلـــــــــــــــية

قســـــم إدارة األعمــــــــــال

استبيــــان بعنوانخطاب تحكيم

الذكاء الثقافي بين موظفي المنظمات الدولية غير كمتنبئاتالسمات الشخصية "

"الحكومية في قطاع غزة

حفظه الله،،، حضرة الدكتور/

السالم عليكم ورمحة اهلل وبركاته،،،

أتوجه لكم بأطيب التحيات وبوافر التقدير واالحترام.بداية

بناء على الموضوع أعاله، فإنني أضع بين أيديكم هذه االستبانة الخاصة بدراسة تهدف إلى التعرف

لذكاء الثقافي بين موظفي المنظمات الدولية غير الحكومية في لكمتنبئات السمات الشخصية "على

، وذلك كمتطلب للحصول على درجة الماجستير في إدارة األعمال. "قطاع غزة

وعليه فقد قامت الباحثة بتصميم االستبانة المرفقة، ونظرا لخبرتكم العلمية والعملية فإنه يشرفني

مساهمتكم في تحكيم هذه االستبانة، وإبداء رأيكم فيها بناء على خبرتكم الواسعة، وإدراج أي مالحظات

لي يقين باالستفادة من مالحظاتكم بما يخدم الدراسة.ممكنة، وك

وتفضلوا بقبول فائق االحرتام والتقدير...

الباحـــــثة

أسماء نعيم

135

Appendix IV | QUESTIONNAIRE

Islamic University of Gaza

Dean of Postgraduate Studies

Faculty of Commerce

Department of Business Administration

Dear,

The attached questionnaire is gathering research information to examine Personality

Traits as Predictors of Cultural Intelligence (CQ) among Employees in International

NGO's in the Gaza Strip, to be submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for

Master Degree in Business Administration at the Islamic University of Gaza.

The main objective is investigating antecedents that predict cultural intelligence and

exploring the relationship between a chosen set of personality traits and CQ among

employees of international organizations in the Gaza Strip.

This questionnaire takes approximately 10-15 minutes to complete. I really appreciate

your voluntary cooperation and participation. Completing and returning this questionnaire

will be interpreted as your consent to participate.

Please read the instruction associated with each section and each question carefully.

Please answer thoroughly, honestly and subjectively. Your responses will not be disclosed

to anyone within your organization.

Thank you for your sincere cooperation.

Sincerely,

Asma Naim

059 20 80 386

136

Part One: Respondent Information 1. Gender:

⃞ Male ⃞ Female

2. Age:

⃞ Less than 25 years ⃞ From 25 years to less than 35 years

⃞ From 35 years to less than 45 years ⃞ 45 and above.

3. Qualification:

⃞ Diploma or less ⃞ Bachelor

⃞ Master ⃞ PhD

4. Tenure:

⃞ Less than 5 years ⃞ From 5 years to less than 10 years

⃞ From 10 years to less than 15 years ⃞ 15 years and above

5. Position Type:

⃞ International position ⃞ Local Position

6. Managerial Position:

⃞ CEO ⃞ Programs\Projects Manager

⃞ Program\Project's Manager\Coordinator ⃞ Other _________________

Part Two: Personality Traits

Please RANK the items given below from 1-10 (10 is the max.) on your choice of

preference, with regards to four components of personality traits.

No. Item 1-10

Cultural Empathy

1. Is a good listener

2. Enjoys other people's stories

3. Senses when others get irritated

4. Notices when someone is in trouble

5. Getting to know others profoundly

6. Pays attention to the emotions of others

7. Sympathizes with others

8. Sets others at ease

Flexibility

1. Works according to strict rules

2. Works according to plan

3. Works according to strict scheme

4. Looks for regularity in life

5. Likes routine

6. Wants predictability

7. Functions best in a familiar setting

8. Has fixed habits

Social Initiative

1. Takes the lead

2. Leaves initiative to others to make contacts

3. Finds it easy to make contacts

4. Takes initiative

5. Is inclined to speak out

6. Is often the driving force behind things

137

No. Item 1-10

7. Makes contacts easily

8. Is open

Emotional Stability

1. Worries

2. Gets upset easily

3. Is nervous

4. Is apt to feel lonely

5. Keeps calm when things don't go well

6. Is insecure

7. Is under pressure

8. Is easily hurt

Open-Mindedness

1. Tries out various approaches

2. Is looking for new ways to attain his or her goal

3. Starts a new life easily

4. Likes to imagine solutions to problems

5. Is a trendsetter in societal developments

6. Has feeling for what's appropriate in culture

7. Seeks people from different backgrounds

8. Has broad range of interests

Part Three: Cultural Intelligence (CQ) Please RANK the items given below from 1-10 (10 is the max.) on your choice of

preference, with regards to four components of cultural intelligence.

No. Item 1-10

Meta-cognitive CQ

1. I am conscious of the cultural knowledge I use when interacting with

people with different cultural backgrounds

2. I am conscious of the cultural knowledge I apply to cross-cultural

interactions.

3. I adjust my cultural knowledge as I interact with people from a culture

that is unfamiliar tome.

4. I check the accuracy of my cultural knowledge as I interact with people

from different cultures.

5. I am aware of my cultural values when I interact with people from very

diverse countries and cultures.

6.

When I communicate with people from culturally diverse backgrounds, I

ask questions to make sure I have heard and understood all of the relevant

details.

7. I seek feedback from others regarding my ability to manage cross-cultural

situations.

8. Cultural intelligence plays an important role in bridging divides and

knowledge gaps in the organization.

Cognitive CQ

1. I know the legal and economic systems of other cultures.

2. I know the religious beliefs of other cultures.

138

No. Item 1-10

3. I know the marriage systems of other cultures.

4. I know the arts and crafts of other cultures.

5. I know the rules (e.g., grammar) of other languages.

6. I know the rules for expressing non-verbal behaviors in other cultures.

7. I pay attention to how information is exchanged in a new cultural setting

8. I see problems from a cultural perspective other than my own.

9. I am prepared to work cross-culturally because of my academic training

10. I am prepared to work cross-culturally because of my professional

experiences.

Motivational CQ

1. I enjoy interacting with people from different cultures.

2. I enjoy living in cultures that are unfamiliar to me.

3. I am confident that I can socialize with locals in a culture that is

unfamiliar to me.

4. I am confident that I can get accustomed to the shopping conditions in a

different culture.

5. I am confident that I can get accustomed to cultural and social conditions

in a different culture.

6. I am sure I can deal with the stresses of adjusting to a culture that is new

to me.

7. I deal effectively with the stress of working in different cultures.

Behavioral CQ

1. I change my verbal behavior (e.g., accent, tone) when a cross-cultural

interaction requires it.

2. I change my non-verbal behavior when a cross-cultural situation requires

it.

3. I use pause and silence differently to suit different cross-cultural

situations.

4. I vary the rate of my speaking when a cross-cultural situation requires it.

5. I alter my facial expressions when a cross-cultural interaction requires it.

6. I understand why it may be necessary for me to change my nonverbal

behaviors in a new cultural setting.

7. In a new cultural setting, I vary my verbal and nonverbal language when

necessary.

8. I adapt to the customs and social behavior of those in other cultures.

9. I adjust my communication style to meet the demands of a cross-cultural

business meeting.

Thank you for your time and support.

139

Appendix V | QUESTIONNAIRE IN ARABIC LANGUAGE

غزة -الجــامعة اإلسالمــــية

عمــادة الدراســـــات العلـيــا

كلـــــــــــــــية التجـــــــــــارة

قســـــم إدارة األعمــــــــــال

بعنواناستبــانة

الذكاء الثقافي بين موظفي المنظمات الدولية غير كمتنبئاتالسمات الشخصية "

"الحكومية في قطاع غزة

السادة الكرام،،،

السالم عليكم ورمحة اهلل وبركاته،،،

أتوجه لكم بأطيب التحيات ووافر التقدير واالحترام، وأرجو حسن تعاونكم إلتمام هذه الدراسة التي

لذكاء الثقافي بين موظفي المنظمات الدولية ل كمتنبئاتالسمات الشخصية "تهدف إلى التعرف على

عمال، وقد ، وذلك كمتطلب للحصول على درجة الماجستير في إدارة األ"غير الحكومية في قطاع غزة

تم اختياركم لإلجابة على هذه االستبانة لمركزكم الوظيفي ولطبيعة عملكم في إحدى هذه المؤسسات.

لذا آمل من حضرتكم المشاركة في تعبئة االستبانة لتحقيق الهدف المرجو منها، إذ أن تعاونكم يمثل

بأن المعلومات التي سنحصل ع لنجاح هذه الدراسة، علما رئيسا ليها سيتم استخدامها ألغراض سببا

.البحث العلمي فقط

وتفضلوا بقبول فائق االحرتام والتقدير...

الباحـــــثة

أسماء جمال نعيم059 20 80 386

140

القسم األول: المعلومات الشخصية الجنس .1

ذكر ⃞ أنثى ⃞

الفئة العمرية .2

سنة 35أقل من -سنة 25من ⃞ سنة 25أقل من ⃞

سنة فما فوق 45 ⃞ سنة 45أقل من -سنة 35من ⃞

المستوى العلمي .3

بكالوريوس ⃞ بلوم فأقلد ⃞

دكتوراه ⃞ ماجستير ⃞

سنوات الخدمة .4

سنوات 10أقل من -سنوات 5من ⃞ سنوات 5أقل من ⃞

سنة فأكثر 15 ⃞ سنة 15أقل من -سنوات 10من ⃞

طبيعة الوظيفة .5

محلية ⃞ دولية ⃞

المنصب اإلداري .6

مدير برامج/مشاريع ⃞ مدير المؤسسة ⃞ أخرى __________________ ⃞ مدير/منسق برنامج/مشروع ⃞

السمات الشخصية القسم الثاني:

، 10، إذ كلما اقترب التقييم من الرقم 10إلى 1فيما يلي مجموعة من األسئلة يرجى منك تقييم كل بند بوضع رقم من

دل ذلك على موافقة بدرجة كبيرة جدا على البند المطروح.

الرقم البند 1-10

أوال: التعاطف الثقافي

.1 أستمع بشكل جيد لآلخرين.

.2 باالستماع إلى قصص اآلخرين.أستمتع

م اآلخرين بشكل عميق. .3 أتفه

.4 أنتبه عندما وقوع شخص في مشكلة.

.5 أتفهم انزعاج اآلخرين.

.6 أراعي مشاعر اآلخرين.

.7 أتعاطف مع اآلخرين.

.8 أتعامل مع اآلخرين بعفوية.

ثانيا: المرونة

.1 لدي القدرة على العمل في ظل أنظمة صارمة.

.2 أعمل بناء على خطة مرسومة.

.3 أعمل بناء على جداول زمنية محددة.

.4 أسعى لتنظيم حياتي.

.5 أحب الروتين.

.6 أعتمد على حدسي وتنبؤاتي.

.7 أنجز عملي بشكل أفضل في بيئة مألوفة لي.

.8 لدي عادات يومية ثابتة.

ثالثا: المبادرة االجتماعية

.1 أمتلك روح قيادية.

.2 أترك المبادرة لآلخرين لبناء شبكة التواصل.

.3 بسهولة. عالقات مع اآلخرين بنيأ

.4 لدي حس المبادرة.

.5 أميل للصراحة والحديث بوضوح.

141


.6 أعتقد بأن القيادة القوية تسهل تحقيق األهداف.

.7 .سهولةمع اآلخرين ب تواصلأ

.8 أعتبر نفسي شخص محافظ .

العاطفيرابعا: االستقرار

.1 أعتبر نفسي شخص قلق.

.2 أعتبر نفسي أنزعج بسهولة.

.3 أعتبر نفسي شخص عصبي.

.4 أشعر أحيانا بالوحدة.

.5 ال أستطيع الحفاظ على هدوء أعصابي عندما تتعقد األمور.

.6 أعتبر نفسي شخص متردد وغير مستقر .

.7 أعتبر نفسي شخص مضغوط.

.8 يمكن جرح مشاعري بسهولة.

منفتحةالعقلية الخامسا:

.1 أفكر بحلول إبداعية عند الوقوع في المشاكل.

.2 أبحث عن وسائل مختلفة لتحقيق هدفي.

.3 أغير نمط حياتي بسهولة.

.4 أتخيل حلوال عديدة للمشاكل التي أواجهها.

.5 أهتم بأن أكون رائدا في مجال التنمية االجتماعية.

.6 المجتمعأشعر بالقضايا التي تالئم

.7 أتعرف على أشخاص من خلفيات ثقافية مختلفة

.8 لدي اهتمامات واسعة ومتعددة.

القسم الثاني: الذكاء الثقافي

، 10، إذ كلما اقترب التقييم من الرقم 10إلى 1فيما يلي مجموعة من األسئلة يرجى منك تقييم كل بند بوضع رقم من

على البند المطروح. دل ذلك على موافقة بدرجة كبيرة جدا


أوال: الذكاء الثقافي ما بعد المعرفي

.1 أستثمر معرفتي بالثقافات األخرى عندما أتعامل مع أشخاص من خلفيات ثقافية مختلفة عني.

.2 تمكنني خلفيتي الثقافية من التعامل مع التبادل الثقافي بمرونة.

.3 متوافقة مع ثقافتي. أتأقلم مع أشخاص من ثقافات غير

.4 أتأكد من صحة معلوماتي الثقافية عندما أتعامل مع أشخاص من خلفيات ثقافات مختلفة.

.5 أحافظ على اعتزازي وتقديري لقيمي الثقافية عندما أتعامل مع أشخاص من ثقافات مختلفة.

ها عن الثقافات األخرى عندما أتعامل مع أسعى للفهم وللتأكد من جميع التفاصيل التي أتعلم

أبنائها.6.

أطلب تغذية راجعة من اآلخرين لمعرفة مدى قدرتي على إدارة المواقف التي تتعلق بالثقافات

األخرى.7.

أعتقد أن الذكاء الثقافي يلعب دورا أساسيا في سد الفجوات و التقريب بين الثقافات المختلفة

في المؤسسات.8.

الثقافي المعرفي بالثقافات التي يتم التعامل معهاثانيا: الذكاء

.1 لدي اطالع واسع على النظام القانوني واالقتصادي الخاص بالثقافات األخرى.

.2 لدي معرفة جي دة بالمعتقدات الدينية الخاصة بالثقافات األخرى.

.3 األخرى.لدي اطالع على العادات واألعراف االجتماعية الخاصة بالثقافات

.4 لدي اطالع واسع على الفنون والحرف الخاصة بالثقافات األخرى.

لدي معرفة جيدة بالقواعد اللغوية )مثل: المفردات والقواعد والنحو( الخاصة بالبلدان 5.

142


والثقافات األخرى.

.6 لدي معرفة جيدة بلغة التعبير الجسمانية وغير اللفظية الخاصة بالثقافات األخرى.

.7 أنتبه جيدا لطرق تبادل المعلومات بين الناس أصحاب الثقافات األخرى.

.8 أدرس المشاكل من وجهات نظر ثقافية تختلف عن وجهة نظري الشخصية.

.9 أحصل على تدريب يؤهلني للعمل في بيئة متعددة الثقافات.

.10 أمتلك الخبرة المهنية الكافية للعمل في بيئة متعددة الثقافات.

ثالثا: الذكاء الثقافي التحفيزي )الدوافع(

.1 أستمتع بالتعامل مع أشخاص من خلفيات ثقافية مختلفة.

.2 أستمتع بالعيش في مجتمع يختلف عن ي ثقافيا.

.3 أستطيع التأقلم في مجتمع ذي خلفية ثقافية مختلفة.

.4 والتسوق في بيئة ثقافية أخرى.أثق بقدرتي على التأقلم مع التعامالت المادية كالبيع والشراء

لدي القابلية للتعامل مع الضغوطات الثقافية والمجتمعية التي قد أتعرض لها في المجتمعات

ذات الثقافات المختلفة.5.

.6 أثق بقدرتي على االندماج اجتماعيا مع الثقافات المختلفة.

.7 الخلفيات الثقافية المتعددة.أستطيع تجاوز ضغوطات العمل بإيجابية في المجتمعات ذات

رابعا: الذكاء الثقافي السلوكي

.1 أتصف بالمرونة في حديثي )مثل: اللهجة، والنبرة..( عندما أتفاعل في وسط متعدد الثقافات.

.2 أجيد التواصل غير اللفظي جيدا عندما أتفاعل في بيئة متعددة الثقافات.

.3 .الحاجة أثناء التواصل مع أشخاص من ثقافات متعددةألجأ إلى الصمت واإلنصات عند

.4 أغير معدل كالمي وسرعته حسب الحاجة عندما أتفاعل مع أشخاص من ثقافة مختلفة.

.5 أتفاعل بلغة وجهي وشكل مالمحي حسب الحاجة عندما أتفاعل في بيئة متعددة الثقافات.

.6 اللفظية( عندما أكون في بيئة متعددة الثقافات.أتفهم أهمية االتصال غير اللفظي )اللغة غير

.7 أستخدم االتصال اللفظي وغير اللفظي حسب الحاجة في بيئة متعددة الثقافات.

.8 أتبنى عادات وسلوكيات اجتماعية من ثقافات أخرى.

.9 أ عد ل أسلوبي في التواصل لتلبية احتياجات اجتماعات العمل في البيئة المتعددة ثقافيا.

وتفضلوا بقبول فائق االحرتام والتقدير،،،

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