With the growing number of Chinese expatriates in the construction industry, understanding the factors affecting their job performance, particularly the roles of cultural intelligence (CQ), is crucial. This study investigates how CQ dimensions—cultural knowledge, cross-cultural skills, and cultural metacognition—predict job performance among expatriates in the Chinese construction industry. Grounded in the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, the study employs a cross-sectional design and snowball sampling to data to collect data from 235 Chinese expatriates in Malaysia. The findings reveal that all three CQ dimensions significantly enhance job performance, with cultural metacognition demonstrating the strongest impact. However, this study has several limitations, including its industry-specific and geographically focused sample, reliance on self-reported data, and the constraints of a cross-sectional design. Future research should adopt longitudinal approaches to validate these findings. Practically, organizations are encouraged to integrate CQ training into their HR strategies, with a particular emphasis on developing cultural knowledge and metacognition to improve expatriate performance in cross-cultural environments.
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