Purpose of the Study

Organizational behavior research in educational settings has long shown that employee working conditions significantly influence employees’ productivity, and work attitudes such as sense of belonging and organizational identification (Bluedorn, 1982; Darling-Hammond, 2003; Ingersoll, 2001; Kalleberg & Mastekaasa, 1998; Mueller & Price, 1990; Price & Mobley, 1983). Poor organizational and working conditions such as work overload, lack of school administrative support contributed to poor teacher well-being and high teacher turnover (Hascher & Waber, 2021). Recent pandemic has also diminished the quality of working conditions at schools and increased the organizational stressors for the educational workforce worldwide (Kraft, Simon, & Lyon, 2020; OECD, 2020).

Diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds of teachers and the degree of conflict within the school further complicated working conditions and created management issues for educational leaders (D’Netto & Sohal, 1999; Hurst et al., 2012). Workforce diversity can generate both advantages and disadvantages for organizations in the same organizational system. Research on diverse work environments shows that such diversity creates better decision-making processes in organizations, greater creativity and innovation, and increased global competitiveness (Jauhari & Singh, 2013). However, it may also lead to increased conflict, communication breakdown, less productivity, low cohesion, reduced organizational commitment, and high turnover (Duyar et al., 2015).

United Arab Emirates is one of the most multicultural environments in the world. Schools in the United Arab Emirates embrace principals and teachers who come from diverse ethnic, citizenship and cultural backgrounds and bring different work attitudes and behaviors to the schools where they work (Malik & Singh, 2017). Effective management of a diverse workforce in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) presents a peculiar importance as two-thirds of residents are expatriates, who have diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. There is a need for studies that examine how educational leaders manage diversity and whether their CQ have any influence on teachers’ organizational identification. The purpose of this study was to comparatively examine the direct and indirect influence of principals’ CQ on teachers’ organizational identification with diverse national backgrounds.

Research Questions

The study attempted to address the following research questions:

1. Does teachers’ citizenship status pose a differentiating factor of their organizational identification?
2. Does principals’ citizenship status pose a differentiating factor of their cultural intelligence?
3. Holding teacher, principal, and school level demographic attributes constant, does principals’ cultural intelligence significantly influence teachers’ organizational identification?

Theoretical Framework

The Social Identity Theory (SIT) and the Cultural intelligence Theory (CINT) guided this study. The social identity theory is part of an individual’s self-concept that comes from his/her knowledge of belonging to a group or groups (Tajfel, 1978; Tajfel & Turner, 1986). Knippenberg and Schie asserted that emotional significance accompanies this type of membership which leads to the notion of social identification (2000). The perception of oneness as a group member is the essence of the perceptual, attitudinal, and behavioral effects of group membership (Knippenberg & Schie, 2000). Moreover, the more one envisions himself or herself in terms of the membership of a group, the more one identifies with that group, the more one’s attitudes and behaviors are ruled by that group (Ashforth & Mael, 1989; Knippenberg & Schie, 2000).

The cultural intelligence theory is emerged as a novel perspective in response to the realities of globalization and the increased diversity in today’s organizations (Collins et al., 2016). This theory is a viable entrée from which global business leaders can “see beyond surface-level cultural differences” (Earley & Ang, 2003, p. 29). Cultural intelligence is defined as “an individual’s capability to function and manage effectively in culturally diverse settings (Earley & Ang, 2003, p. 336).

Methodology A causal-comparative research design was employed to comparatively examine whether (a) principal’s diversity management differs between principals’ and their teachers and (b) principals influence on teachers’ organizational identification differ by teachers with different citizenship statuses. Participants were the matching samples of 30 principals and 202 of their teachers working in public, private, and charter schools in the UAE. The data was gathered through two multi-source online surveys. Measures were previously developed and validated scales for each study variable. More specifically, the multidimensional short form measure of Cultural Intelligence scale (Thomas et al., 2015) and the Organizational Identification (Ashforth & Mael, 1996) scale were adopted as the measures of the study variables. Multivariate statistics including analysis of multivariate analysis of variance (MANCOVA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were employed to examine the direct and indirect relationships between the study variables. While MANCOVA utilized in the analyses of group differences (e.g. principals and teachers as well as citizen and expatriate teachers), structural equation modeling employed for the analysis of direct and indirect relationships between the study variables.

Findings Descriptive statistics demonstrated a highly diverse educational workforce in the UAE schools. These statistics will be presented in the full paper in detail. Findings of the current study indicated that teachers’ organizational identification was significantly different as a function of teachers’ citizenship status. More specifically, expatriate teachers had stronger organizational identification compared to citizen teachers. Study findings also showed that principals’ ratings of the CQ subscale of cultural skills differed significantly between citizens and expatriates. Our findings emphasized that, among principals, expatriates have grater cultural skills than citizens. Finally, principals’ CQ significantly predicted teachers’ organizational identification. This important finding extrapolated from the results of our study crystalized the pivotal role culturally intelligent leaders/principals play in strengthening/improving teachers’ sense of belonging and organizational identification. Conclusions Diversity and multiculturalism have become a worldwide reality of nations and organizations in the face of globalization. This challenging reality created a strong demand for school principals working within the UAE schools to be equipped with unique leadership competencies, namely CQ. Finding of the study were in line with the relevant literature and suggested that leading with cultural lens positively influence the diverse teachers’ work attitudes and develop their sense of belonging and attachment to their schools, where they work have become the heart of the current study. The findings of the study pose implications for practice, policy, and future research. Policymakers and practicing educational leaders may benefit from the findings in developing policies and strategies toward promotion CQ of educational leaders. Findings of the study would contribute to relevant literature on diversity management and CQ.

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