The Impact of Cultural Intelligence on Employee Voice Considering the Mediation of Transformational Leadership

Document Type : Articles

Authors

• hajieh rajabi farjad ¹
• hananeh jahangirii ²

¹ 1. Associate Professor, Department of Human Resource Management, Amin Police University, Tehran, Iran.

² M.Sc., Public Management, Azad University, South Tehran Branch

https://doi.org/10.22067/tmj.2021.30671.0

Abstract

1- INTROUDUCTION
Hospitals staff have direct contact with their patients, and in many cases, they deal with patients' lives. Since patients have different cultures and backgrounds, the need for staff `s cultural intelligence to deal with multicultural situations is very necessary. These organizations are often environments for increasing stress. Accordingly, the main question of this study is whether cultural intelligence affects employees’ voice given the mediation of transformational leadership.
2- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Detert and Burris (2007) define employee voice as the relationship between management and employee. In other words, employees have the opportunity to express their concerns and interests. Employee`s voice can have positive behavioral results on employee performance directly or indirectly. Cultural intelligence is defined by Earley and Ang (2003) as the ability to learn new patterns in cultural interactions and to provide correct behavioral responses to these patterns. In the related literature, transformational leadership is considered as a factor which is capable of mediating the relationship between cultural intelligence and employee voice. Transformational leaders encourage their employee intellectually to explore opportunities, challenge current situations, and see old problems from new perspectives (Jyoti & Cour, 2015).
3- METHODOLOGY
This research was a descriptive-correlation study. The statistical population was comprised of two parts: one, 35 officials of different specialized departments, and the other, 550 nurses of Shohadaye Tajrish Hospital. The main tool for data collection was a standard questionnaire and obtained data was analyzed by structural equation modeling in SmartPLS software.
4- RESULTS & DISCUSSION
Research findings indicated that cultural intelligence affected employee voice mediated by transformational leadership. In other words, by applying transformational leadership style and relying on cultural intelligence, the acceptance of positive relationships with others was facilitated, and thereby, the voice of employees can be understood in a better way. In explaining this result, it can be said that transformational leaders encourage their employees intellectually to explore opportunities, challenge current situations, and see old problems from new perspectives. Employees with more cultural intelligence solve problems more appropriately in culturally diverse situations due to their excellent competence in discovering, absorbing, and reasoning.
 
 5- CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONS
Due to the effect of cultural intelligence on employee voice, it can be said that information and knowledge-based education is not enough and hospital education systems should provide metacognitive skills needed to learn in different situations. Considering the effect of cultural intelligence on transformational leadership, it is suggested to pay more attention to the issues of intercultural interactions in education. Considering the effect of transformational leadership on employee voice, it is recommended to hold workshops based on the scientific content of new theories of leadership and management in order to create necessary leadership potential for hospital managers.

Keywords

• Cultural intelligence
• Staff voice
• Transformational leadership
• Hospital

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