Does being culturally intelligent make you a transformational and adaptable leader?

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between cultural intelligence (CQ) and both leadership style (MLQ) and leadership adaptability (LA), seeking to understand whether leaders with higher CQ will more frequently practise an adaptive and transformational leadership. Design/methodology/approach Respondents are 167 leaders of public and private schools in the UAE; they completed a questionnaire that incorporated the 20-item version of the CQ scale, the 36-item MLQ5x scale and the 13-item LA scale. Correlation and regression analyses assess the relationships between the concepts. Findings CQ has a significant relationship with the transformational component of MLQ; the strategy, motivation and behaviour components of CQ are significantly related to transformational leadership. CQ is not related to transactional or laissez-faire leadership style. CQ has a significant relationship with LA; the strategy, motivation and behaviour components of CQ are significant predictors of LA. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to bring together these three concepts, and to understand the relationships between them.