INTERNATIONAL-SURVEYING-RESEARCH-JOURNAL-ISrj-ISrJ-Vol-11-Year-2022

CQ and behavioural CQ, expatriates from SEA, America, and Europe scored higher than others. It indicated
that even though Malaysia is well known for its multicultural society, it does not help them to cultivate the CQ.
Table 6. Average Score on CQ Based on Birth Countries Regions (N= 163)
Cultural Intelligence Malaysia
(N=63)
South East Asia
(Exclude Malaysia)
(N=35)
South Central,
Eastern & Western
Asia and Middle East
(N=34)
America &
Europe
(N=31)
Total Metacognitive 22.63 22.51 20.74 23.26
Total Cognitive 30.60 30.86 28.88 29.19
Total Motivational 27.62 28.63 27.26 28.65
Total Behavioural 24.94 26.80 24.62 26.45
Total CQ score 105.79 108.80 101.50 107.55
Mann-Whitney U test was conducted to compare Malaysian with other expatriates based on the regions
grouping and the result was shown in Table 7. Surprisingly, the overall CQ level of Malaysian expatriates
differed significantly from expatriates in other SEA countries (p=.004). Total motivational CQ (p=.002) and
behavioural CQ (p=.003) were found to be significantly different between Malaysian expatriates with SEA
expatriates. However, no significant differences were found when Malaysian were associated with expatriates
from South Central Asia, Eastern Asia, Western Asia, Middle East, America and Europe.
According to the mean rank showed in Table 8, it was apparent that Malaysian expatriates were less enjoy
when interacting with people from different cultures (MOT1, p=.008). They were also less confident to socialise
with locals in a culture that is unfamiliar (MOT2, p=.023) and dealing with the stresses of adjusting to a culture
that is new to them (MOT3, p=.027). Even in adapting to the shopping conditions in a different culture (MOT5,
p=.038), Malaysian expatriates also were found significantly lower confidence in adapting when compared to
expatriates from other SEA countries. Malaysian expatriates were also observed to have a substantially lower
ability to pause and silence differently (BEH2, p=.002), vary their rate of speaking (BEH3, p=.014), change
their nonverbal behaviour (BEH4, p=.021) and alter their facial expressions when a cross-cultural interaction
required it (BEH5, p=.004) if compared with SEA expatriates. Medians between Malaysian expatriates and
expatriates from other SEA region are not equal on the CQ level (p=.011), especially in motivational CQ
(p=.000) and behavioural CQ (p=.003). The majority of the expatriates from Malaysia were having a lower CQ
score than the median. It was proved that growing up in a multicultural society did not help much to cultivate
the CQ level of the expatriates.
Table 7. Inferential Statistics on CQ Level Between Malaysian and Expatriates from Other Regions (N=163)
South East Asia
(Except Malaysia)
(N=35)
South Central, Eastern &
Western Asia and Middle
East (N=34)
America & Europe (N=31)
Cultural Intelligence Mann- Median Mann- Median Mann- Median
Whitney U
Whitney U
Whitney U
Test
Test
Test
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