SELF-MONITORING, CULTUL TINING AND PRIOR INTERNATIONAL WORK EXPERIENCE AS PREDICTORS OF CULTUL INTELLIGENCE – A STUDY OF INDIAN EXPATRIATES

!e present study examined the role of self-monitoring, expatriate training, and prior international work experience on the cultural intelligence of expatriates. !e data was collected "om 223 Indian expatriates through a questionnaire survey. !e results of data analysis indicated that self-monitoring has a signi#cant impact on the cultural intelligence of the expatriates. Further analysis was done to examine the e$ect of these independent variables on individual dimensions of cultural intelligence. !e #ndings signify that self-monitoring has a signi#cant e$ect on all the three cultural dimensions, namely, cognitive, emotional/motivational and behavioral, and that expatriate training has a signi#cant impact on the emotional/motivational dimension, but not on the other two. Prior international work experience was found not to have a signi#cant e$ect on cultural intelligence and its dimensions. !ese #ndings provide signi#cant insights into organizations for selecting and training the expatriates leading to their e$ective adjustment and performance in a di$erent culture context. !is paper contributes to expatriate management literature highlighting the e$ect of personality variables along with expatriate training. Further, it is a contribution to the research in cultural intelligence which is a relatively nascent area of research.


Introduction
With the advent of globalization, and breakdown of trade barriers, innovation in communication mechanism etc. have facilitated organizations across the globe to enter the various markets. As a result, employees in organizations are now exposed to unfamiliar cultural contexts and culturally diverse workforces. ese cross-cultural interactions are challenging for individuals and their organizations since cultural di erences increase con icts and frictions (Black et al., 1991;Caligiuri, 2000a;Gabel et al., 2005;Lievens et al., 2003;Takeuchi et al., 2002). e inability to acclimatize and understand a di erent culture can lead to inappropriate use of language and behavior, which can negatively impact both relationship building and individual and organizational performance. ere is abundant evidence that international assignment managers experience severe problems in terms of e ectiveness and meeting organizational and personal expectations (e.g., Caligiuri, 2000a;Ones & Viswesvaran, 1997;Harvey et al., 2002;Yan et al., 2002). e meta-analysis carried out by Bhaskar-Shrinivas et al. (2005) of over 50 determinants and consequences of expatriate adjustment, signi ed that cultural adjustment "is perhaps the strongest determinant of disengagement and withdrawal decisions" (p. 273). e failure of international assignment results in signi cant direct and indirect costs (e.g., Harzing, 1995;Osland, 1996 ) and loss of business con dence and damaged relations to the host country market (Harzing, 2002;Selmer, 2002).
Research on expatriate management has recognized that various individual variables, like personality traits, ability, skill, gender, marital status, prior international experience, local language uency etc. are important predictors of expatriate e ectiveness in their international assignment (Caligiuri, 2000b;Hechanova et al., 2003;Holopainen & Bjőrkman, 2005;Kim & Slocum, 2008). Landis and Brislin (1983) suggested that it is necessary to train people in order to help them to t in the diverse global environment, and work e ectively. Further studies have demonstrated that cultural intelligence (CQ) is vital for expatriates working on international assignments (Alon & Higgins, 2005). However, there is dearth of studies examining the combined e ect of individual and organizational factors on expatriates adjustment with another culture. e aim of the present study was to examine the cultural intelligence of expatriates, which is considered to be one of key factors in uencing their adjustment with another culture. A further objective was to investigate the independent and interactive e ect of self monitoring, expatriate training and prior international work experience on the cultural intelligence of expatriates. Earley and Ang (2003) proposed the Cultural Intelligence (CQ) term to capture the ability to adapt across cultures, and they stated that it reveals a person's capability to gather, interpret, and act upon radically di erent cues to function e ectively across cultural se ings. Although CQ is a relatively new concept, concepts related to it have been studied for a long time, including intelligence ( orndike, 1936), culture (Hofstede, 1984(Hofstede, , 1997, global mindset (McCall & Hollenbeck, 2002) and crosscultural competence (Tubbs & Schulz, 2006). CQ has been the rst e ort to separate out and focus on the unique characteristics and behaviors that di erentiate a culturally intelligent individual ( omas, 2006). e concept of CQ is not simply social intelligence or emotional intelligence with slight modi cations for multiculturalism (Ang et al., 2007;Earley & Ang, 2003). CQ is a multidimensional construct that includes the four fundamental components: meta-cognitive facet (CQ-strategy), cognitive facet (CQ-Knowledge), motivational facet (CQ-Motivation), and behavioral facet (CQ-Behavior) (Ang et al., , 2007Earley & Ang, 2003Ng & Earley, 2006). e essence of these domains can be summarized by asking three questions: "Do I know what is happening? . . . Am I motivated to act? . . . [and] Can I respond appropriately and e ectively?" (Early & Ang, 2003). ese questions re ect the three core elements of CQ: cognition, emotion/motivation and behavior (Ng & Earley, 2006). e cognitive aspect of CQ refers to the information-processing aspects of intelligence, and can be conceptualized by the self-concept theory (Earley, 2003). e emotion/motivation aspect of CQ re ects a self-concept, and directs and motivates adaptation to new cultural surroundings (Earley & Peterson, 2004). e behavioral aspect implies that adaptation is not only having the understanding of 'what and how' (i.e., the cognitive element) and 'having the willingness' (motivation) but also the response needed for a given situation in one's behavioral repertoire. us, CQ refers to a person's ability to acquire or adapt behaviors appropriate for a new culture (Earley & Peterson, 2004).

Cultural intelligence (CQ)
Research suggests that expatriates having high cultural intelligence are more likely to e ectively function and develop e ective social relations with other host country individuals. According to Kim et al. (2006), for the expatriate with high cultural intelligence it is easier to understand unfamiliar cultures compared to the expatriates who lack this ability. Expatriates high in cultural intelligence have the ability to seek pertinent information about the host country, recognize culture speci c behaviors, adjust easily, and interact e ectively with individuals from other cultures (Brislin et al., 2006). CQ has a unique explanatory power in predicting intercultural e ectiveness; cultural judgment and decision making; cultural adaptation and task performance (Ang et al., 2007). It might contribute to the level of expatriate adjustment which leads to higher performance (e.g., Earley & Ang 2003;Lin et al., 2012;Ramalu et al., 2011).
Studies have demonstrated that the variations in the success of international assignment are also in uenced by personality related factors. In order to understand the role of personality variables in successful adjustment with cross cultural se ings, Ang et al. (2006) investigated the relationships between the Big Five personality traits and cultural intelligence. e ndings of the study signi ed that openness to experience is signi cantly related to a person's capability to function e ectively when interacting with individuals from di erent cultural backgrounds. Ang et al. (2007) suggested examining the e ect of various other potential individual predictors of CQ, including self-monitoring.

Self-Monitoring
Self-monitoring is considered to be a central concept in the analysis of social interaction (Anderson, 1987;Furnham & Capon, 1983). It entails both sensitivity to situational cues and the ability to adapt to situational demands (Bell et al., 2000). According to self-monitoring theory, people are internally or externally motivated (Snyder, 1974). Internally motivated individuals are characterized as low self-monitors (LSM), and externally motivated individuals are characterized as high self-monitors HSM. HSMs are a entive to contextual cues and they adjust their behavior accordingly, while LSMs mostly operate from internal states (Nelson & Quick, 1994). HSMs have the orientation driven by the situation to be the right person, in the right place, at the right time (Snyder, 1987) and mentally construct carefully tailored images and use these images as guides to engage in the appropriate behaviors. LSMs use internal a itudes, values, and beliefs as guides to behavior and are consistent in their expressions across situations (Snyder & Monson, 1975). Most of the time, high self-monitors have a tendency to be more involved in their jobs, have higher levels of cognitive ability, perform at higher levels, are rated as be er managers, and are more likely to emerge as leaders (Day & Schleicher, 2006).
Studies have reported that self-monitoring in uences the adaptation to other culture. High self-monitors have be er interaction and adjustment to their host culture than the low self-monitors did (Harrison et al., 1996). A study of 162 Polish immigrants indicated that self monitoring was positively related to socio-cultural and psychological adaptation (Kosic et al., 2005). Day and Schleicher (2006) stated that a self-monitoring personality is an important construct in understanding how relationships in di erent culture are formed and maintained.

Expatriate Training
Literature on expatriates has pointed out that the problem which expatriates, their families, organizations, and subsidiary employees come across is when expatriates do not have required cross-cultural skills (Forster, 2000;Osman-Gani, 2000;Sargent & Ma hews, 1998;Zakaria, 2000). Hence cross-cultural training before taking up an expatriation appointment has o en been viewed as a way to increase the likelihood of success during the assignment (e.g., Bolino & Feldman, 2000;van Emmerik & Euwema, 2009;Hurn, 2007;Qin & Baruch, 2010). Studies have indicated the positive relationship between cross-cultural training and job satisfaction (Bozionelos, 2009), lower failure rate and reduce culture shock (Deal & Kennedy, 1982) when expatriates are trained before the expatriate assignment. e justi cation for providing cross cultural training is the conviction that management skills are not necessarily generalizable and expatriate managers need to integrate their existing management skills with cross-cultural skills to a ain intercultural ine ectiveness (Osman-Gani, 2000). According to Zakaria (2000), cross-cultural training could switch a itude from home-cultural management mind-set to diverse-cultural management mind-set which helps expatriates adapt be er. It is also regarded as a means of reducing pressure and uncertainty, and enhances the expatriates' ability to t in the new environment and prevent failures (Befus, 1988;Caligiuri et al., 2001;Zakaria, 2000). Some researchers have reported a weak relationship between cross-cultural training and expatriate adjustment in the host workplace (e.g., Hechanova et al., 2003;Bozionelos, 2009); others have suggested that there may be indirect impact, and not immediate (van Eerde et al., 2008). Studies also have examined the impact of the type of training on di erent dimensions of CQ. Rehg et al. (2012) reported that training using a lecture format signi cantly improved mean levels of CQ on the cognitive and behavioral dimensions, while less signi cantly improving motivational CQ. Further, Kate (2003) pointed out the need of examining the cross-cultural training in emerging economies as most of the studies had been conducted in western rms.

Proposed Model and Hypotheses
e literature review indicated that studies have examined the role of self-monitoring on cultural adaptation and adjustment and another group of studies demonstrates the impact of expatriate training on cultural adjustment. Lee and Suckoco (2010) reported that prior international working and travel experience moderate the e ects of CQ on cultural adjustment and cultural e ectiveness. e present study examines the independent and interactive e ect of self-monitoring, cultural training and prior international work experience on cultural intelligence. It further investigates the e ect of these variables on individual dimensions of cultural intelligence, namely, cognitive, emotional and behavioral. e study proposed the following model ( Figure 1) for investigation.

Cultural Intelligence Cognitive Dimension Emotional Dimension Behavioral Dimension
Prior experience

Self-Monitoring
Expatriate Training FIGURE 1. Proposed Model for the Study e hypotheses that were framed to examine the relationship among study variables are as follows: H1. Expatriates with high self-monitoring will have higher cultural intelligence compared to expatriates with low-self-monitoring.
H2. Expatriates who have been given intensive training will have higher cultural intelligence than others who were not given any training or were given the basic training.
H3. Expatriates who have prior international work experience will have higher cultural intelligence than those who do not have prior experience. H4: Self-monitoring will a ect di erently the di erent dimensions of cultural intelligence (cognitive, emotional and behavioral dimensions).
H5: Training will have a di erent impact on di erent dimensions of cultural intelligence: (cognitive, emotional and behavioral dimensions).
H6: Prior international work experience will have a di erent impact on di erent dimensions of cultural intelligence (cognitive, emotional and behavioral dimensions).
H7. ere will be a signi cant interactive e ect of self-monitoring, expatriate training and prior international work experience on cultural-intelligence.
H8. ere will be a signi cant interactive e ect of self-monitoring, expatriate training and prior international work experience on di erent dimensions of cultural-intelligence (cognitive, emotional and behavioral dimensions).

Participants
e participants were 223 Indian expatriates in US and European countries. e majority were from Information Technology sector (around 65%) and the rest were from various sectors such as electronics, retail, chemical, pharmaceutical, etc. 49.4% belonged to the age group of 26-30 years, followed by 19.8% from 31-40 years, 8.4% from 21-25 years age group and the rest (7.2%) were 40 and above years of age category. 59.7% have work experience less than ve years, and others (40.3%) have work experience more than ve years. Male respondents accounted for 79.8% of the sample and 22.2 % were females (Table 1).

Cultural Intelligence
Culture intelligence was measured using the instrument designed by Early and Mosakowski (2004). It is a 12-item instrument and assesses three dimensions, namely, cognitive dimension, emotional/motivational dimension, and behavioral dimension of cultural intelligence. e participants were asked to rate each item on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Higher scores indicated higher cultural intelligence. In the current sample, the Cronbach alpha for the instrument was 0.82.

Self-Monitoring
It was measured with 13-items taken from the Lennox and Wolfe's (1984) scale. Responses were measured on a ve-point Likert scale ranging from (5) = always true to (1) = always false. Items 9 and 12 were reverse scored. Higher scores indicated higher self-monitoring. e scale shows reliability coe cient of 0.70.

Cultural Training
e participants were asked about what type of training was imparted to them before international assignments. ey were asked to indicate their responses on one of the three options, namely: a) not given any training, b) given the basic training c) given intensive cross-cultural training.

Prior experience of International assignment
e participants were also inquired about whether they have prior international work experience. e responses indicated that 78% expatriates have prior experience of international assignment while for 22% expatriates it was the rst international assignment.

Analysis
Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. Hypotheses were tested using Analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Descriptive Statistics
e means and standard deviations for cultural intelligence, its dimensions and selfmonitoring are presented in Table 2. e mean scores indicate that on average the expatriates have high cultural intelligence.

Cultural Intelligence, Self-monitoring, Expatriate Training and Prior International Work Experience
ANOVA was applied to assess the main and interaction e ect of self-monitoring, training and prior international work experience on cultural intelligence. For self-monitoring questionnaire, individuals' item scores were summed and totals divided by the mean to convert them into high and low category on the self-monitoring scale. e mean score for the sample was 3.57. e respondents with a score higher than the mean value were categorized as high on self-monitoring (n= 101) and the respondents with a score lower than the mean value as low on self-monitoring (n = 122). To examine the impact of training on cultural intelligence, the respondents were divided into three groups on the basis of training they were provided. Out of 223, 139 were not given any type of training before the expatriate assignment, 41 were imparted language training and basic information of the host country, and 43 were given intensive cross-cultural training and were sensitized about the di erences in home country and host country culture. With reference to prior international work experience, 49 participants did not have prior international work experience and 174 had the prior experience of international assignment. Signi cant results of ANOVA for cultural intelligence and dimensions of cultural intelligence are reported in Table 3 and Table 4 respectively. Mean scores for cultural intelligence and dimensions of cultural intelligence as a function of selfmonitoring, expatriate training and prior experience of international assignment are reported in Annex 1. between high and low self-monitoring expatriates for cultural intelligence, which supports the hypothesis (H1) ( Table 3). e Mean scores indicate that expatriates high in self-monitoring have be er cultural intelligence (M = 4.25), compared to the expatriates low in self-monitoring (M = 3.75) (Annex 1). For expatriate training the main e ect was signi cant at .07 level, while it is low compared to the generally expected criteria (.05 and .01 signi cance level) to reject and accept the hypothesis. However, this gives some indication that expatriate training has some e ect on cultural intelligence.
For prior international work experience the results of ANOVA were also not signi cant. ese ndings do not support the stated hypotheses (H2 and H3) for the e ect of expatriate training and prior experience of international assignment on cultural intelligence. e interactions between self-monitoring, expatriate training and prior international work experience were not signi cant and do not support the stated hypothesis (H7).
Further analysis was done to examine the impact of self-monitoring, expatriate training and prior international work experience on individual dimensions of cultural intelligence.
e results of the analysis indicated signi cant di erences between high self-monitoring and low-self monitoring expatriates for cognitive dimension, (F (1,213) = 18.91, p<.000), emotional/motivational dimensions (F (1,213) = 53.74, p <.000), and behavioral dimension (F (1,213) = 24.56, p<.000) and support the stated hypothesis (H4) ( Table 4). Expatriates with high self-monitoring were found high in cognitive, emotional and behavioral dimensions (M = 4.25; 4.39; and 4.10, respectively) compared to low on self-monitoring ((M=3.78; 3.82; and 3.65, respectively) (Annex 1). e type of training signi cantly in uenced the emotional dimension (F (2,213) = 5.83, p<.003) of cultural intelligence, which partially supports the hypothesis (H5). Expatriates who were imparted intensive cross-cultural training, were be er in emotional dimension of cultural intelligence (M =4.38) compared to those who were not given any training or were given only basic training (M=.4.04; M =3.84, respectively). ere was no signi cant e ect of prior international experience on the cultural intelligence of expatriates and this does not support the hypothesis proposed for the investigation (H6). e interaction between prior international experience and expatriate training was found to be signi cant, and it partially supports the stated hypothesis (H8). e expatriates who did not have prior international work experience and were not given any training were found low on cultural intelligence (M =3.95) compared to those who had prior experience and were given intensive cultural training (M =4.20).

Discussion and Conclusions
Historically, 80% of all companies selected their international managers on the basis of technical expertise and ignored the personal traits and other competency considerations. Later studies (e.g., Brownell, 2006;Chin et al., 2001) suggested that organizations should consider the various other capabilities that will enable employees to function e ectively in multiple contexts. e novelty of the present study is that it examined the e ect of self-monitoring, cross-cultural training and prior experience of international assignment on cultural intelligence in the emerging economy. e ndings of the study support the propositions made by numerous scholars who emphasize the importance of non-technical factors in explaining the e ectiveness of international assignment (e.g., Caligiuri, 1997aCaligiuri, , b, 2000a. ese ndings become very important given the greater cultural distance between India, US and European countries (Hofstede & Bond, 1988;Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 1997), which emphasizes the learning of the skills that would help expatriates to achieve intercultural competence. e study proposed eight hypotheses for the investigation. e summary of the accepted and rejected hypotheses is reported in Table 4. e ndings suggest that selfmonitoring is a signi cant predictor of cultural intelligence and its dimensions, which supports the hypotheses related to the relationship of cultural intelligence with selfmonitoring. ese ndings suggest that the self-monitoring skill o ers an individual a superior ability to adapt their approach resulting in greater in uence over others in another culture context, hence choose people who already possess some of the skills for international assignment. is is consistent with the literature that argues that in addition to technical competence, expatriates should be chosen who exhibit personality traits which make them more suitable for expatriate posting (Tung, 1981(Tung, , 1990. e impact of prior international work experience on cultural intelligence and its dimensions was not signi cant suggesting that prior experience with other cultural contexts does not improve the capability of an expatriate to understand the other culture. However, when expatriates with prior experience are provided intensive training, it improves their e cacy, con dence and a ect for another culture. Regarding the e ect of training on cultural intelligence, the result was found signi cant only for the emotional dimension of cultural intelligence. e ndings suggest that intensive crosscultural sensitivity training has a more signi cant e ect on the emotional dimension of cultural intelligence of expatriates than the basic training about the language and information about the country. ese ndings are in alignment with the ndings of the recent study with Korean expatriates who reported that comprehensiveness rather than length of the pre-departure cross-cultural training was more positively related to CQ (Moon et al., 2012).
is study also has limitations that o er crucial venues for future research. First, the sample size was not large enough to generalize the ndings; therefore, the study needs to be replicated using a larger sample of employees. Second, common method bias may be a concern since both predictor and criterion variables are from the same source in this study. Future study should be more concerned about common method variance. ird, in this study criterion variables of cultural intelligence were not included. Future study should explore more extended models of cultural intelligence and self-monitoring by adding cultural adjustment and job performance as criterion variables.
e present study gives some indication that expatriate training in uences cultural intelligence, but results were not signi cant at generally expected criteria. One reason of it may be that the number of expatriates who have been given intensive cultural

Hypotheses Accepted
Hypotheses Rejected H1. Expatriates with high self-monitoring will have higher cultural intelligence compared to expatriates with low self-monitoring.
H2. Expatriates who have been given intensive training will have higher cultural intelligence than others who were not given any training and were given only basic training. H4. Self-monitoring will a ect di erently the di erent dimensions of cultural intelligence (cognitive, emotional and behavioral dimensions).
H3. Expatriates who have prior international work experience will have higher cultural intelligence than those who do not have prior experience. H5. Training will have a di erent impact on di erent dimensions of cultural intelligence: (cognitive, emotional and behavioral dimensions). -Training was found to have a signi cant e ect on emotional dimension but not on cognitive and behavioral.
H6. Prior international work experience will have a di erent impact on di erent dimensions of cultural intelligence (cognitive, emotional and behavioral dimensions).
H8. ere will be a signi cant interactive e ect of self-monitoring, expatriate training and prior international work experience on di erent dimensions of cultural-intelligence (cognitive, emotional and behavioral dimensions). -e interaction between expatriate training and prior experience of international assignment on emotional dimension was found signi cant.
H7. ere will be a signi cant interactive e ect of self-monitoring, expatriate training and prior international work experience on culturalintelligence.
training was very low (N = 41) compared to those who were not given any training at all (N = 139). Future studies need to re-examine the relationship with a representative sample of trained and not-trained expatriates.
In conclusion, the study has implications for cross-cultural management practice. It would help human resource professionals in creating culturally competent workforce. By demonstrating the relationship between cultural intelligence and self-monitoring, this study allows organizations to improve their sta ng system. Organizations can use the cultural intelligence test to identify the candidate who would be the best t for expatriate assignments. e present study also indicates that expatriate training to prepare the employees for international assignments needs to be improved in India as the responses of the sample expatriates suggest that expatriate training is rarely provided and, where it is, tends to be very much ad hoc in nature. In very few cases extensive training has been provided before the departure for international assignment.