The International Journal of Human Resource Management,

Vol. 20, No. 10, October 2009, 20132029

Predicting excellent management performance in an intercultural

context: a study of the influence of multicultural personality
on transformational leadership and performance
Marianne van Woerkom* and Renee S.M. de Reuver
Department of Human Resource Studies, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands
What makes a manager in an intercultural context an excellent performer? This
question is the subject of the present study. The study examines the influence of the five
dimensions of multicultural personality via transformational leadership on excellent
performance in a sample of managers (N 138) working in an expatriate assignment
or in a job dealing with subordinates of different cultural backgrounds. As expected,
cultural empathy, open-mindedness and social initiative were found to have a positive
effect on transformational leadership. However, no significant effects were found from
emotional stability and flexibility on transformational leadership. Furthermore, a more
transformational leadership style led to higher performance in an intercultural context,
which was measured using management performance appraisals. Since an indirect
effect of cultural empathy, open mindedness and social initiative on performance via
transformational leadership has been found in this study, it seems that both these
dimensions of multicultural personality and transformational leadership are needed for
excellent managerial performance in an international environment.
Keywords: intercultural organizational context; management performance; multicultural personality; transformational leadership

Increasing numbers of companies are expanding beyond national borders and consequently
many managers work in an international context and need to deal with subordinates of
different cultural backgrounds. International managers have a job with international scope,
whether in an expatriate assignment or in a job dealing with subordinates of different
cultural backgrounds (Schaefer 1985). Since a key function of corporate human resources
in an international company is to identify and develop future top managers (Scullion and
Starkey 2000) and there is a lack of job performance criteria for international contexts
(Arasaratnam and Doerfel 2005; Mol, Born, Willemsen and Van der Molen 2005), it is
important to find out what type of managers are high performers in these intercultural
contexts.
Current research on leadership strongly emphasizes that transformational models of
leadership are related to a wide variety of positive individual and organizational outcomes
(Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Moorman and Fetter 1990; Yammarino, Spangler and Bass 1993;
Bycio, Hackett and Allen 1995; Bruce and Hinkin 1998; De Hoogh, Den Hartog and
Koopman 2004). However, although transformational leadership has often been linked
to excellent management performance in general, research on the effectiveness of
transformational leadership in a multicultural context is limited. It can however be argued

*Corresponding author. Email: M.vanWoerkom@uvt.nl

ISSN 0958-5192 print/ISSN 1466-4399 online
q 2009 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/09585190903175589
http://www.informaworld.com

2014

M. van Woerkom and R.S.M. de Reuver

that, in international contexts especially, the exercise of transformational leadership is

needed (Brodbeck et al. 2000; Walumbwa and Lawler 2003) because managers who
energize others with vision and mobilize commitment are more likely to keep employees
of different cultures together. Therefore, this study focuses on the concept of
transformational leadership as a predictor for excellent performance of international
managers.
The next interesting question is why some managers have a transformational
leadership style, while others have not. Transformational leadership is traditionally
viewed as an independent variable, exerting influence downstream (Bommer, Rubin and
Baldwin 2004). However, if we want to understand how to influence and improve the
display of transformational leadership, it is necessary to shift our focus towards the study
of transformational leadership as a dependent variable. According to the trait model,
personality traits are dispositions that account for consistencies in behaviour over time
(Endler and Magnusson 1976). Inspired by the trait model, researchers concerned with the
antecedents of transformational leadership also attribute considerable importance to
personality traits in predicting leader behaviour (Judge, Bono, Ilies and Gerhardt 2002;
De Hoogh, Den Hartog and Koopman 2005). However, although theoretically personality
predicts leadership behaviour, a recent meta-analysis (Bono and Judge 2004) showed that
the big five personality traits agreeableness, extraversion, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience were not consistently related to transformational
leadership. An explanation for these inconsistent findings may be that the context in which
leadership behaviour is assessed may play an important role (De Hoogh 2004).
As in this study we focus on transformational leadership in a very specific context,
namely an international context, we have used the concept of Multicultural Personality
to cover more specifically the aspects of broader (big five) traits that are relevant in
an intercultural context. Multicultural personality includes the personality dimensions;
cultural empathy, open-mindedness, social initiative, emotional stability and flexibility
(Van der Zee, Zaal and Piekstra 2003). Since it is impossible to inspire and motivate
subordinates without being interested in who they are, we expect that in an intercultural
context managers need multi-cultural personality traits to be able to behave like
transformational leaders (Van der Zee and Van Oudenhoven 2000, 2001).
One stream in the literature has concentrated on the relationship between
transformational leadership and performance and another stream has focused on the
antecedents of transformational leadership. Our study brings these two streams together
by arguing that transformational leadership is the mechanism between multicultural
personality and job performance and by investigating the chain of relations between
multicultural personality, transformational leadership and job performance of managers in
a Dutch multinational. Our argument is that, in an international context, managers who
have a multicultural personality are more likely to display transformational leadership
behaviour, while transformational leadership behaviour, in turn, leads to a better job
performance.
The managers included in our study are both expatriates and domestic managers who
work in international contexts and need to deal with subordinates of different cultural
backgrounds. Many studies in the field of multicultural personality have focused on
expatriates (e.g. Black and Porter 1991; Aycan and Kanungo 1997; Van Oudenhoven, Mol
and Van der Zee 2003). Multicultural personality is, however, not only important for
expatriates, but for all managers in a multinational company, since organizations are
becoming more and more global and are no longer limited to single cultures or nations.
By investigating what personality traits are prerequisites for effective management

The International Journal of Human Resource Management

2015

in international contexts, the results of this study may contribute to the selection and
assessment of expatriates and managers working in international contexts.
Transformational leadership
Transformational leaders motivate their followers to accomplish more than they originally
intended or expected and stimulate their followers to go beyond their own self-interest for
the good of the group (Bass 2003). The transformational leader is able to engage the
followers will by merging their personal goals with the organizational goals. Boehnke,
Bontis, DiStefano and DiStefano (2003) argue that visioning, inspiring, stimulating,
coaching and team-building are all transformational leadership behaviours.
Although transformational and charismatic leadership models differ somewhat in the
way the components are conceptualized, they are often treated as equivalents (Yukl 1999).
Most studies in the field of transformational and charismatic leadership are based on the
concept of multifactor leadership, as developed by Bass (1985; Bass, Avolio, Jung and
Berson 2003), which consists of four components. The first two components of
transformational leadership are inspirational motivation and idealized influence.
Inspirational motivation refers to managers motivating followers by providing meaning
and challenge in their work. Idealized influence refers to managers being admired,
respected and trusted and followers identifying with and wanting to emulate their leaders.
These components are seen as central to transformational leadership and can also be seen
as charismatic leadership (De Hoogh et al. 2004).
The third and fourth components of transformational leadership are intellectual
stimulation and individualized consideration. Intellectual stimulation can be seen as
managers stimulating their followers efforts to be innovative and creative by questioning
assumptions, reframing problems and approaching old situations in new ways. Individualized
consideration is the managers attention to each individuals need for achievement and
growth by acting as a coach or mentor. De Hoogh et al. (2004) gave the name empowermentfocused leadership to these two components of transformational leadership.
According to the theory of transformational leadership, the emergence and
effectiveness of transformational leaders will be associated with the leaders sense of
social responsibility and collective interests rather than with self-interest (House and
Aditya 1997). Because of this social focus, these leaders can be expected to function well
across different cultures. House and Aditya (1997) in their study show that the effects of
transformational leadership styles can be generalized across cultures. Studies based on the
charisma scale of the MLQ (Bass and Avolio 1989) have demonstrated similar findings in
the United States, India, Singapore, the Netherlands, China, Japan and Canada.
The relationship between multicultural personality and transformational leadership
According to the trait model, personality traits are relatively stable dispositions to behave
in a particular way (Yukl 1998). Although there is some evidence that personality traits
predict transformational leadership behaviour, this evidence is not consistent (Bono and
Judge 2004). Judge and Bono (2000), for instance, found that transformational leadership
could be predicted by agreeableness, extraversion and openness to experience while Crant
and Bateman (2000) found only significant effects of extraversion. These inconsistent
findings suggest that the context in which behaviour is displayed may play an important
role (De Hoogh et al. 2005). As behaviour is a function of the person and the environment
(Endler and Magnusson 1976), we need to take the particular context into account when
we want to predict transformational leadership in an intercultural context. Because the big

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M. van Woerkom and R.S.M. de Reuver

five may be too broad to cover trait aspects that are relevant in multicultural contexts
(Hough 1992), the concept of multicultural personality was developed and converted
into a multidimensional instrument: the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ)
(Van der Zee and Van Oudenhoven 2000). The MPQ consists of five constructs: cultural
empathy, open-mindedness, social initiative, emotional stability and flexibility.
Cultural empathy refers to the ability to empathize with the feelings, thoughts and
behaviours of members of different cultural groups. This means that cultural empathy
relates to an interest in other people and an understanding of the feelings and beliefs of
others. Cultural empathy is closely related to intercultural sensitivity (Hammer, Bennett
and Wiseman 2003). Intercultural sensitivity was constructed by Bhawuk and Brislin
(1992) who argued that, to be effective in other cultures, people must be interested in other
cultures, be sensitive enough to notice cultural differences and must be willing to modify
their behaviour to show their respect for people of other cultures.
As managers who score high on cultural empathy are concerned with the interests
of members of different cultural groups, this may be a prerequisite for understanding
subordinates perspectives and attending to individual needs of followers in an international
context (De Hoogh et al. 2005), which are important aspects of transformational leadership
(e.g. Bass 1985; Conger and Kanungo 1994; Shamir, Zakay, Breinin and Popper 1998).
Especially in a multicultural work environment leaders will not be able to inspire, stimulate,
and coach employees and to strengthen the team ties if they do not pay attention to the
cultural diversity in the group or empathize with the feelings, thoughts and behaviour of
members of different cultural groups. Therefore we hypothesize that:
Hypothesis 1a:

There will be a positive relationship between cultural empathy and a

transformational leadership style.

Open-mindedness refers to an open attitude and the absence of rigid prejudices

towards other cultural groups, their behaviours and cultural habits (Arthur and Bennett
1995). Individuals scoring high on open-mindedness are open to experience (Leone,
Van der Zee, Van Oudenhoven, Perugini and Ercolani 2005) which is characterized by
traits such as imagination, unconventionality and autonomy, and are creative and
divergent thinkers (McCrae and Costa 1987). These traits are likely to be preconditions
for the articulation of an attractive vision, which is essential behaviour for
transformational leaders (De Hoogh et al. 2005). Also, their independence of judgment
may make open-minded individuals more likely to find new opportunities and to use
unconventional methods to reach organizational goals, behaviour that is often associated
with transformational leadership (e.g. Conger and Kanungo 1994; Conger, Kanungo,
Menon and Mathur 1997). We expect that, in an intercultural context, open-mindedness
towards different cultures is especially important for transformational leadership, since
these environments offer a high degree of challenge, opportunities for change and
require new interpretations and responses. Therefore, we hypothesize that:
Hypothesis 1b:

There will be a positive relationship between open-mindedness and a

transformational leadership style.

Social initiative reflects the individuals tendency to actively approach social

situations and to take the initiative in intercultural contexts (Van der Zee, Atsma and
Brodbeck 2004). Individuals who score high on social initiative easily build up social
networks and lead social action. These characteristics play an important role in
influencing, persuading and mobilizing others and are argued to be important for
transformational leaders (House 1977; Bass 1985). Social initiative may especially be of

The International Journal of Human Resource Management

2017

importance for transformational leaders in dynamic work environments when people may
long for someone communicating a clear sense of direction (Shamir and Howell 1999). As
an intercultural work environment is also a dynamic environment in which
transformational leaders need to employ an active social approach in order to inspire
and stimulate their diverse subordinates for a transcendent goal, we hypothesize that:
Hypothesis 1c:

There will be a positive relationship between social initiative and a

transformational leadership style.

Emotional stability is defined as the ability to remain calm when facing acculturative
stress and to perform effectively under these stressful circumstances (Van der Zee et al.
2004). Emotional stability is associated with self-confidence and the ability to remain calm,
secure and non-anxious (McCrae and Costa 1991) which is argued to be a central
characteristic of transformational leaders (House 1977; Bass 1990). International managers
need to interact on a regular basis with people from different cultures. Since adaptation to
new cultures is perceived as stressful by many individuals, emotional stability will be an
important asset to transformational leaders, as this will enable them to be perceived as
competent and trustworthy by their followers. Therefore, we hypothesize that:
Hypothesis 1d:

There will be a positive relationship between emotional stability and a

transformational leadership style.

Flexibility refers to an individuals ability to switch from habitual and long-held

behaviours to new standards and procedures that promote adaptation to the new cultural
environment (Leone et al. 2005). This construct also focuses on flexibility in the way new
tasks and professional procedures are tackled. Intercultural situations ask for the ability to
switch between and adjust to different cultures. As managers who score high on flexibility
tend to be innovative and creative, this may be a prerequisite for the intellectual
stimulation of followers, which is an important aspect of transformational leadership. It can
be expected that especially transformational leaders who operate in a multicultural
environment need to be flexible in order to reconcile the differences caused by the diverse
cultural backgrounds of their followers and to inspire them to view problems from new or
different perspectives. For this reason, we hypothesize that:
Hypothesis 1e:

There will be a positive relationship between flexibility and a

transformational leadership style.

Performance
The ultimate criterion for the international effectiveness of managers is their job
performance, which reflects behaviours that are relevant to organizational goals (Mol,
Born and Van der Molen 2003). The measurement of job performance is often discussed,
since several studies measure performance by using self-ratings (e.g. Black and Porter
1991). Self-ratings may, however, give a biased view of reality. In this study the measure
of performance is derived from the management performance appraisals of the
multinational company and is based on a performance rating by the managers manager.
This activity rates achievement, competences mastered, knowledge and experience
acquired, and personal development thus giving a final rating of the appraisal in an overall
assessment of performance. As the performance of all managers in our sample was at least
rated as good (all managers were considered to be high-potentials), our measure of
performance must be seen as a rating of excellent performance.

2018

M. van Woerkom and R.S.M. de Reuver

A positive relationship between transformational leadership and performance has

been found in several studies (Geyer and Steyrer 1998; Yammarino, Spangler and Bass
1993). The effects of transformational leadership appear to be potent across management
levels (e.g. Howell and Avolio 1993), work environments (e.g. Bass 1985) and national
cultures (Bass 1997; Boehnke et al. 2003; Prabhakar 2005). Geyer and Steyrer (1998)
found a positive relation between transformational leadership and performance in a
sample of 1500 observations in 20 different banks. In a sample of project teams in 28
nations Prabhakar (2005) found that project managers who exercised transformational
leadership behaviour enjoyed more project success. Boehnke et al. (2003) argue that
transformational leaders will universally work more effectively with people to reach
their goals and create exceptional performance. Nevertheless, although the effects of
transformational leadership can be generalized across cultures, until now no studies have
focused on the effectiveness of transformational leadership in a multicultural context
where managers have to deal with subordinates of different cultures. It can however be
expected that transformational leaders will also be better performers in a multicultural
context, since their focus on the collective interest of the employees has the potential of
binding employees of different cultures together. This brings us to the second
hypothesis:
Hypothesis 2:

There will be a positive relationship between transformational

leadership style and job performance in an international context.

We expect that transformational leadership is a mediator in the relationship between

multicultural personality and job performance in an international context. Mediation
analysis is a key part of, what has been termed, process analysis. A mediating variable
transmits the effect of an independent variable on a dependent variable (MacKinnon,
Fairchild and Fritz 2007). Multicultural personality, in itself, will not lead to a better job
performance, but having a multicultural personality is a prerequisite for transformational
leadership behaviour which, in turn, will lead to better job performance. Consequently, the
following hypothesis was formulated:
Hypothesis 3:

Transformational leadership has a mediating effect in the relationship

between the dimensions of multicultural personality and job
performance in an international context.

Method
Sample
Data for this study were collected from a Dutch multinational that has subsidiaries
worldwide in four fields of science: life science products; performance materials;
industrial chemicals; and nutritional products. This internationally operating company has
more than 200 sites and offices in 49 countries throughout the world.
The data were collected through a survey sent by internal email to 250 members of the
Corporate Target Group (CTG) (these members are considered to be high potential
employees, currently at middle management level and working in an international context,
who are expected to reach senior management, senior professional, or executive level
positions) and to 120 executives working in an international context. Of the 370
questionnaires distributed to the employees, 239 (65%) were returned. This group was
used to validate the instruments used. Unfortunately, it turned out that a Management
Performance Appraisal (MPA) was available for only 138 of the 239 respondents.

The International Journal of Human Resource Management

2019

Consequently, only 138 of the returned questionnaires (37%: 90 CTG and 48 executives)
could be included in the analyses.
The 138 participants were between 27 and 56 years of age (M 41, SD 6.35) 10%
were female. The majority of participants (55%) have worked more than 1 year abroad
(35% between 1 5 years of international experience; 22% more than 5 years of
international experience). Domestic managers working with accounted culturally diverse
employees for 73% of the sample with the other 27% had an expatriate assignment.
The participants were geographically spread with 79% holding Dutch nationality.
The other 21% originated form other European countries (14%), North American
nationalities (4%), Asian nationalities (2%) and North African nationalities (1%).
The participants worked in 13 different countries across Europe, North America and Asia.
To check the effect of management level (CTG or executive), expatriate assignment
and Dutch nationality on the independent variables an ANOVA was conducted.
The analyses confirmed the homogeneity of the group; no statistical differences were
found between the CTG and the executives on the independent multicultural personality
variable (F(1,136) 0.002, ns) and the transformational leadership variable
(F(1,136) 0.08, ns). In addition, no differences were found between expatriates and
domestic managers, and between Dutch and non-Dutch managers on multicultural
personality (F(1,135) 0.46, ns; respectively F(1,136) 1.26, ns) and on transformational leadership (F(1,135) 0.02, ns; respectively F(1,136) 0.70, ns).
Measures
Multicultural personality was measured using the self-report Multicultural Personality
Questionnaire (Van der Zee and Van Oudenhoven 2000, 2001), consisting of 91 items with
anchors 1 totally not applicable to 5 totally applicable. A Principal Component
Analysis was conducted using an oblique rotation to see if the factor structure as found by
Van der Zee and Van Oudenhoven (2001) could be used in this study. We used an oblique
(oblimin) rotation instead of an orthogonal rotation because we expected the dimensions
of Multicultural Personality to be correlated and oblique rotation allows for this
(Osborne and Costello 2005). The five factor structure showed large similarities with the
expected factor structure, and explained 33% of the variance. The five factors are: Cultural
empathy (18 items, a 0.86), that is measured by items such as Tries to understand other
peoples behaviour, Open-mindedness (18 items, a 0.82), that consists of items such as
Gets involved in other cultures, Social initiative (17 items, a 0.83), that is measured
by items such as Takes initiatives, Emotional stability (20 items, a 0.78), that is
measured by items such as Is not easily hurt, and Flexibility (18 items, a 0.76), that
is measured by items such as Changes easily from one activity to another.
A second order factor analysis showed that all MPQ scales loaded on one single factor,
explaining 52% of the variance (see Table 1). Since all dimensions are part of the same
construct of multicultural personality (a 0.92) the total score of multicultural
personality was measured in this study.
Transformational leadership was measured by a self-report scale Charismatic
Leadership in Organizations (De Hoogh et al. 2004). The scale consists of 11 items, using
a seven-point scale (1 strongly disagree, 7 strongly agree). An example of a transformational leadership item is: Has a vision and imagination of the future. We conducted
a factor analyses to test the uni-dimensionality of the scale. Because only seven of the 11
items that measure transformational leadership had sufficient factor loadings (above .3),
only these seven items were used in this study (a 0.75). However, since the retained

2020

M. van Woerkom and R.S.M. de Reuver

Table 1. Factor loadings of the MPQ scales (N 239).

Scale
Cultural empathy
Open-mindedness
Social initiative
Emotional stability
Flexibility

Factor 1
0.65
0.80
0.76
0.67
0.70

items represent both charismatic leadership (four items) and empowerment focused
leadership (three items), which are the central elements of transformational leadership
(De Hoogh et al. 2004) our final scale covers the whole concept of transformational
leadership. The items that comprise the transformational leadership scale are included in
the Appendix.
Performance measures were based on the final rating of the Management Performance
Appraisal (MPA) of the multinational organization. This is an appraisal report conducted
once a year for every manager within the company. It is the responsibility of the managers
manager to fill in the appraisal form. The MPA indicates what achievements have been
made, the knowledge and experience acquired, competences mastered and the employees
personal development. The final rating of the appraisal is a one-item overall assessment of
performance. It turned out that 49% of the participants had the score good (1) and 51%
had the score very good (2). For this reason, our measure of performance can be seen as a
rating of excellent performance.
Control variables. To control for employee characteristics, we included age (in years),
and international experience. International experience was measured by asking the
respondents how many years the managers had spent living outside their home countries,
using a five-point scale ranging from never (1), less than 1 year (2), about 1 year (3) 2 5
years (4) to more than 5 years (5). Since gender was not significantly related to any of the
other variables, and we had only a small proportion of women (10%) in our sample, we
chose not to include this variable in our analyses.
Results
Table 2 shows the means, standard deviations and correlations of the variables. In accordance
with our theoretical framework, all dimensions and the general concept of multicultural
personality were positively correlated to transformational leadership (r between .33 and
.70, p , .01) and transformational leadership was positively correlated to performance
(r .20, p , .05). In addition, we also found that a higher age goes together with a lower
score on performance (r 2.17, p , .05) and more international experience with more
open-mindedness (r .16, p , .05).
The first hypothesis in this study assumed that multicultural personality is positively
related to transformational leadership style. This hypothesis was tested using regression
analyses, controlling for age and international experience. The results are shown in the first
two columns (Model 1) of Table 3.
To test for multi-collinearity between the five multicultural personality dimensions the
variance-inflation factors (VIF) were calculated (Belsley, Kuh and Welsch 1980). All
VIF values were below 2.0, suggesting that multi-collinearity was not a problem in the
analysis (Belsley, Kuh and Welsch 1980). In the second analysis (M2), the procedure was
repeated using the general multicultural personality score, instead of the five separate

Age
International experience
Cultural empathy
Open-mindedness
Social initiative
Emotional stability
Flexibility
Multicultural personality
Transformational leadership
Performance

41.47
3.04
3.95
3.93
4.01
3.67
3.58
3.84
5.67
1.51

6.89
1.48
0.34
0.34
0.35
0.36
0.36
0.25
0.50
0.50

SD
20.11
20.02
20.05
0.01
0.04
0.00
20.07
20.04
20.17*

0.02
0.16*
0.04
2 0.02
0.15*
0.02
0.11
2 0.11

0.51**
0.41**
0.23**
0.21**
0.65**
0.54**
0.14

0.47**
,0.39**
0.55**
0.80**
0.66**
0.09

0.45**
0.42**
0.76**
0.48**
0.03

0.37**
0.68**
0.33**
2 0.01

0.71**
0.43**
0.12

0.70**
0.10

0.20*

Note: **p , 0.01, *p , 0.05, two-tailed; min./max. scores for International experience (15), Multicultural personality: general and dimensions (1 5), Transformational leadership
(17), Performance (1 2).

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Table 2. Means, standard deviations and correlations among the variables (N 138).

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M. van Woerkom and R.S.M. de Reuver

Table 3. Regression on transformational leadership (n 138).

M1
Variable
Age
International experience
Cultural empathy
Open-mindedness
Social initiative
Emotional stability
Flexibility
Multicultural personality
Overall R2
Adjusted R2
Overall F test

B
.01
.03
.37
.68
.22
.02
.10

M2

b
.01
.08
.24**
.44**
.15**
.01
.07

B
.01
.00

1.42
.53
.52
36.76**

b
.08
2.01

.68**
.46
.46
66.36**

Note: **p , 0.01, two-tailed.

multicultural personality dimensions, as a predictor of transformational leadership (see last

two columns of Table 3).
As can be seen, the results show that managers with more cultural empathy,
open-mindedness and social initiative score higher on transformational leadership. These
multicultural personality dimensions proved to be strong predictors of transformational
leadership accounting for 52% of the variance in the leadership variable
(F(8,127) 36.76, p , 0.01). The general multicultural personality index was also
found to be positively related to transformational leadership (see column 4 of Table 3).
However, no relationship was found between emotional stability and transformational
leadership and between flexibility and transformational leadership. Hypothesis 1 was
therefore partially supported.
Hypotheses 2 and 3 predict a positive relationship between multicultural personality,
transformational leadership and performance. In the second hypothesis a positive
relationship between transformational leadership style and performance was posited. In the
third hypothesis it was held that transformational leadership has a mediating effect in the
relationship between multicultural personality and performance. To investigate this
mediation effect we applied the procedure suggested by MacKinnon, Fairchild and Fritz
(2007) who argue that a mediating effect exists if (1) the independent variable
(multicultural personality) has a significant effect on the mediating variable (leadership
style) and (2) the mediating variable has a significant effect on the dependent variable
(performance) in a regression analysis of the independent and mediating variable on the
dependent variable. When in this analysis the independent variable has no significant
effect on the dependent variable, we have a case of pure mediation. When the independent
variable (in addition to the mediating variable) does have a significant effect on the
dependent variable we have a case of partial mediation. Although older literature
(Baron and Kenny 1986) argues that for a mediating effect to exist, the independent and
the dependent variables should correlate, more recent literature (Kenny, Kashy and Bolger
1998; MacKinnon et al. 2007) argues this condition is not necessary as suppressor effects
may occur. To test the complete model a logistic regression analysis was conducted using
performance as the dependent variable and the multicultural personality dimensions and
transformational leadership as predictors, controlling for age and international experience.
The results are displayed in Table 4. The results for the model using the five separate

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2023

Table 4. Logistic regression on performance (n 138).

M1
Variable
Age
International experience
Cultural empathy
Open-mindedness
Social initiative
Emotional stability
Flexibility
Multicultural personality
Transformational leadership

M2

Wald

Exp(B)

Wald

Exp(B)

2.06
2.23
.38
2.45
2.66
2.78
.80

4.97
2.96
.31
.29
1.05
1.42
1.51

.94
.80
1.46
.64
.52
.46
2.22

2.06
2.22

5.07
2.97

.94
.81

1.15

4.33

3.15*

2.80
1.12

.58
4.53

.45
3.07*

x2
Nagelkerke R 2

15.68*
.15

12.15**
.11

Note: **p , 0.01, *p , 0.05, two-tailed.

personality dimensions (M1) are shown in the first three columns of the table, while the
results for the model using the general multicultural personality index (M2) are displayed
in the last three columns of the table.
Both models were statistically significant (M1: x 2(8, n 138) 15.68, p , .05;
M2: x 2(4, n 138) 12.15, p , .01). In both cases, however, only transformational
leadership was a significant predictor of performance (M1: Exp(B) 3.15, p , .05; M2:
Exp(B) 3.07, p , .05), while the dimensions of multicultural personality and the total
construct of multicultural personality, as well as the control variables failed to attain
significance. The models explained nearly between 11% and 16% of the variance in
performance. It can be deduced from the analyses, therefore, first, that the dimensions
of multicultural personality have no direct effect on performance, second, that there is a
positive relationship between transformational leadership style and job performance
(second hypothesis accepted) and, third, that transformational leadership has a purely
mediating effect in the relationship between cultural empathy, open-mindedness and
social initiative on the one hand and performance on the other (third hypothesis partially
supported).
Discussion
The present study has examined transformational leadership as a mechanism between
multicultural personality and performance in a sample of managers in a large multinational
company. As expected, cultural empathy, open-mindedness and social initiative have
proved to be strong positive predictors of transformational leadership, while
transformational leadership leads to better performance. Although we hypothesized that
also emotional stability and flexibility would have a positive impact on transformational
leadership, we could not confirm these hypotheses. Although the correlation analysis
makes clear that these variables are positively related to transformational leadership, this
relation disappears when we control in our regression analysis for the other dimensions of
multicultural personality.
As for the weaker effect of flexibility in comparison with cultural empathy,
open-mindedness and social initiative, this may be explained by its negative relationship
with conscientiousness (Leone et al. 2005). Conscientiousness also encompasses

2024

M. van Woerkom and R.S.M. de Reuver

responsibility, dutifulness, deliberation and achievement orientation (McCrae and Costa

1987), which could be seen as part of transformational leadership, as highly conscientious
leaders may inspire followers to perform beyond expectation through setting high
standards and acting dutifully themselves (e.g. Bass 1985).
The non-significant effect of emotional stability is less easy to explain. It might however
be argued that although emotional stability is a predictor of transformational leadership in
general, it is not specifically related to transformational leadership in international
contexts, whereas cultural empathy, open-mindedness and social initiative refer to more
specific behaviour in relation to dealing with cultural diversity. Also, the weaker
predictive value of emotional stability for behavioural outcomes in comparison to the
other dimensions of the MPQ is largely in line with the results of Van der Zee et al. (2003).
Similar to our results, they found the strongest effects from cultural empathy and openmindedness on the overall performance in the assessment procedure of applicants for a
Dutch consultancy firm.
The effect of transformational leadership on managerial performance is especially
interesting because little is known about the effectiveness of transformational leadership in
an international context. Our results are however in line with De Hoogh et al. (2005) who
have shown that transformational leadership is positively related to perceived
effectiveness as rated by superiors and peers under dynamic work conditions and with
theories of transformational leadership which have suggested that transformational
leadership is likely to be more effective under conditions of challenge and change
(e.g. Howell and Avolio 1993; Shamir and Howell 1999).
Furthermore, the results show that transformational leadership has a purely mediating
effect in the relationship between cultural empathy, open-mindedness and social initiative
on the one hand, and performance on the other hand. This means that, in an intercultural
context, managers who are able to empathize with the feelings, thoughts and behaviours of
members of different cultural groups, who take the initiative in social situations in an
intercultural context, and who have an open attitude towards other cultural groups have a
better chance of developing transformational leadership behaviour.
Although the concepts of multicultural personality and transformational leadership
were highly correlated, our data clearly show that they are different concepts, as they have
a different relationship with performance. From a theoretical perspective they also are
distinguishable constructs. Transformational leadership behaviour encompasses managerial capabilities such as charisma, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and
individualized consideration. The dimensions of multicultural personality refer to traits
that people need for functioning in a culturally diverse environment. One practical
implication of the high correlation between multicultural personality and transformational
leadership is that multicultural personality helps to make transformational leadership in
intercultural contexts more tangible. Even though transformational leadership consists of
four dimensions, it is still a rather elusive concept. This study has generated more specific
knowledge for HR professionals about the predictors of excellent management
performance in an international context. This knowledge may be used as selection
criteria in the recruitment process of (future) managers and form the basis of HR practices,
such as assessments and strategic HR initiatives.
To date, expatriate selection procedures have been limited, due to the rarity of
existing evidence of significant intercultural competencies for international tasks
(Graf 2004). Expatriate selection is carried out largely on the basis of technical
competence, with minimal attention being paid to interpersonal skills, and with HR
managers having a limited role in the selection process of international managers

The International Journal of Human Resource Management

2025

(Anderson 2005). On the basis of our study we would argue that HR managers should
have an important role in pointing out the relevance of multicultural personality and a
transformational leadership style for the selection and development of international
managers. Although Van der Zee et al. (2003) refer to multicultural personality, instead
of multicultural competence, they also state that the dimensions of multicultural
personality reflect skill elements. Also, Van der Zee and Brinkmann (2004) found that the
dimensions of multicultural personality are susceptible to the influence of age and
executive responsibility, which means that these traits can be developed over time. This
means that multicultural personality could be stimulated by training and development and
by enabling managers to gain experience in intercultural environments and projects.
The importance of multicultural personality and transformational leadership to the
performance of international managers should be recognized in both in the academic
literature and in the HR practices in companies.
Our study was conducted in a multinational company. However, as cultural diversity
also becomes more and more important in local companies, it is likely that the results of
the current study will also be increasingly significant for local managers. Future research
should give more empirical underpinning to this assumption.
A remarkable result of the current study was the negative influence of age on
performance. The most obvious explanation might be that older people are less able to
cope with the dynamics and developments in the industry, but we could not find any
evidence for this conclusion. Another explanation might be that the appraisals of older
managers by their managers were biased by the stereotypes of older managers as being less
effective (Crew 1984; Ferris, Yates, Gilmore and Rowland 1985; Rosen and Jerdee 1988).
This area of research deserves further empirical investigation, especially in the light of the
ageing of the workforce.
Limitations and implications for future research
We collected the data for our study in a single multinational company. To be able to
generalize the current results to a larger number of organizations, future research might
benefit from including a more varied sample of organizations.
In our study, we used management performance appraisals to assess managerial
performance instead of the managers self-ratings of performance. This measurement
consisted of a one-item overall assessment of performance based on achievements made,
knowledge and experience acquired, competences mastered and the managers personal
development. Furthermore, the performance ratings that were available showed little
variance in the scores, all managers were assessed as good or excellent managers, which
made it more difficult to explain variance in this variable. Nevertheless, in spite of the
limited variance in the performance measure, significant effects of transformational
leadership were found. However, in future research it would be more reliable to assess the
overall performance with more than one item and to measure the different dimensions of
managers performance separately.
One might argue that the relationships we have found between the dimensions of
multicultural personality and transformational leadership can be explained by perceptpercept bias, as both variables are being measured by the self-perception of the manager.
However, assuming that this percept-percept bias is as strong in every relationship
between dimensions of multicultural personality and transformational leadership, this
does not explain why some relationships were found to be significant whereas other were
not. However, in future research it might be interesting to relate the self-perceptions

2026

M. van Woerkom and R.S.M. de Reuver

on multicultural personality to subordinates ratings of the transformational leadership

style of their manager.
In the current study we focused on the effect of transformational leadership on
managerial performance. We have argued that transformational leaders are those leaders
who are able to transform the motivation and behaviour of their followers (Hollander
1995). By this means, they are also able to influence the culture and performance of their
department (e.g. Avolio and Bass 1995, 1999; Parry and Proctor-Thomson 2003). The next
step for researchers of the intercultural organizational context is therefore to include the
influence of transformational leadership on departmental and organizational performance.
Furthermore, our study tested only the effect of transformational leadership on
managerial performance in an intercultural context. It is important that further studies
include the impact of transactional leadership, in addition to transformational
leadership. Transformational leadership can be seen as an extension of transactional
leadership, in which there is greater leader intensity and follower arousal than in the
reward-based transactions between the transactional leaders and followers (Hollander
1995). Transactional leadership provides stable, risk-averse leadership within the
boundaries of an organizational culture in exchange for subordinate effort towards
performance goals (Bass 1985, 2003). By expanding the analysis to include transactional
leadership, future studies may give a more elaborate insight into the effect of multicultural
personality on different leadership styles and into the effect of leadership styles on
performance in an intercultural context.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the anonymous reviewer and Prof. Riccardo Peccei for their helpful
comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. We would also like to thank Martine Lanser for
helping us to collect the data for this study.

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Appendix
Items of the Transformational Leadership scale
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

Talks with subordinates about their important values and beliefs.

Challenges others to think about their problems in new ways.
Has a vision and imagination of the future.
Is always seeking new opportunities for the organization.
Encourages subordinates to be independent thinkers.*
Is able to get others enthusiastic about new ideas.
Involves subordinates in decisions that affect their work.*
Encourages subordinates to develop their potential.
Mobilizes a collective sense of missions.
Displays conviction in ideas, beliefs, and values.*
Delegates challenging responsibilities to subordinates.*

Note: Items that are marked with a * were left out of the analyses