How Chinese expatriates’ cultural intelligence promotes supervisor-subordinate Guanxi with Thai Employees: The mediating effect of expatriates’ benevolence

This research examines the role of the cultural intelligence (CQ) of Chinese expatriates in supervisory positions at subsidiaries in Thailand, concerning the quality of the supervisor-subordinate guanxi they establish with their Thai employees. Based on the framework of supervisor trust-building, this research tests whether the effect of Chinese expatriates’ CQ on the guanxi established with Thai employees can be mediated by the Chinese expatriates’ benevolence characteristic. This study also examines whether supervisor-subordinate guanxi predicts the Chinese expatriates’ leadership effectiveness. Survey data were collected from 201 dyads of Chinese expatriates and Thai employees at the subsidiaries of Chinese multinational enterprises in Thailand and were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling. The subsequent results do not significantly support a direct link between the Chinese expatriates’ CQ and supervisor-subordinate guanxi with their Thai employees. However, the effect of Chinese expatriates’ CQ on supervisor-subordinate guanxi is shown to be fully mediated by supervisor benevolence. The analysis also indicates that supervisor-subordinate guanxi significantly explains the leadership effectiveness of Chinese expatriates.