The contribution of cultural intelligence to team processes and innovation in multicultural teams : the case of restaurant business in Thailand

Abstract

In many big cities characterized by multicultural environments which are also major tourist destinations of Thailand, many restaurants hire multicultural teams to help them achieve successful innovation. Even though cultural diversity among team members can potentially foster the innovative performance of multicultural teams, it can also cause challenges that would inhibit them from successful innovation. In particular, cultural diversity existing in teams can create unpleasant relationships and tension among team members, thereby limiting team synergy, which is a key factor in achieving team innovations. Given that cross-cultural diversity in a team could be productive and counterproductive to team performance, it is crucial to understand some characteristics of members in cross-cultural teams that might motivate them to overcome negative perceptions caused by cultural dissimilarity, and to work together effectively to produce an innovative performance for a restaurant. Among key characteristics that are crucial to enhance cross-cultural collaboration and performance, cultural intelligence (CQ) is frequently proposed in research as a crucial competency that makes members from diverse cultural backgrounds develop healthy relationships with each other thereby facilitating effective cross-cultural interaction and collaboration. Despite this crucial role of CQ, no research investigated the contribution of CQ to team innovation in the restaurant business. Therefore, this research investigated the contributions of team CQ to team innovation by considering the mediating roles of relationship conflict, intra-team trust, and team knowledge-sharing in the context of multicultural teams in the restaurant business. Survey data were collected from 103 cross-cultural teams (a total of 620 team members from diverse cultural backgrounds) of restaurants located in five popular tourist cities in Thailand, including Bangkok, Pattaya, Chiang Mai, Krabi, and Phuket. Data were collected from multiple sources to prevent common method bias. The data that measured team CQ, team relationship conflict, intra-team trust, and team knowledge-sharing were collected from all members in each team and were averaged to create the aggregate measures at the team-level. Team innovative performance was evaluated by the team supervisor. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used for data analysis. The results indicated that the teams demonstrating high CQ tended to exhibit a lower degree of team relationship conflict and the higher degree to intra-team trust, and team knowledge-sharing, and received a higher degree of innovative performance evaluation than the team demonstrating low CQ. The results also showed that team conflict and team knowledge-sharing mediated the relationship between team CQ and team innovation. Besides, intra-team trust can indirectly connect team CQ to team innovation by either reducing team conflict or increasing team knowledge sharing, as well as team relationship conflict that can also indirectly help team CQ to increase team innovation that a lower degree of team relationship conflict driven by a higher degree of team CQ can increase team knowledge-sharing that eventually foster team innovation. The contribution of CQ in the cross-cultural team using team-level CQ provided additional evidence to prior CQ research that rarely investigated CQ at the aggregate level, especially the contribution of CQ at the team level to innovation in intercultural teams as well as the mechanism between them focusing on the roles of relationship conflict, intra-team trust, and knowledge sharing. Moreover, this research also provided insight and a guideline for restaurant management and human resource teams to promote the innovative performance of their multicultural teams. The research suggested that CQ should be integrated into the process of talent discovering and acquisition, performance management and reward systems, and human resource management routines. This could enable organizations to develop and retain the global talents needed in maintaining their competitive advantages in today’s business environment.