The effect of job autonomy on the indirect relationships among expatriates’ cultural intelligence, psychological availability, and work outcomes

To understand cultural intelligence’s (CQ) role in expatriates’ work outcomes, we examine the mediation mechanism of psychological availability in the associations between CQ with work engagement and CQ with job satisfaction, along with the moderated mediation effect of job autonomy. We examined data obtained from 546 Taiwanese expatriates. An online survey was established to collect from overseas Taiwanese expatriates. Data were analyzed using the SPSS macro-PROCESS models (Hayes, 2017). The Cronbach’s alphas coefficients were acceptable, ranging from.80 to.94. Our results show that psychological availability positively mediated both the pathway between CQ and work engagement (β =.576***, LLCI =.439, ULCI =.717) and that between CQ and job satisfaction (β =.575***, LLCI =.428, ULCI =.744). Moreover, job autonomy helped expatriates utilize CQ more effectively to generate more resources for work engagement (β =.075, SE =.029, [.010,.125]) and job satisfaction (β =.075, SE =.028, [.011,.025]) through psychological availability. This study confirms that psychological availability serves as an important mediating mechanism in CQ’s effects on expatriates’ satisfaction with their jobs and engagement at work. This study presents two moderated mediation models between CQ and work engagement or job satisfaction (via job autonomy). The findings align with the conservation of resources theory and contribute new empirical evidence to the literature. Furthermore, this study provides suggestions for individuals, human resource departments, and organizations to help achieve better working outcomes and practical management in culturally diverse business environments.