Personal Factors Affecting Expatriate Job Performance: The Moderating Effect of Marital Status

Global human resource shifting encourages expatriation, which increases the number of expatriates working in Malaysia. As of 2021, Malaysia was ranked as the 2nd country of choice in terms of settling down and the 4th in the world as the expatriates' country of destination. Malaysia is a highly recognised country for being an expatriate social hub and community; however, due to personal factors, it might hinder or support their job performance. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship among conscientiousness, paternal support, self-efficacy, cultural intelligence, and job performance. Furthermore, the study will explore the moderating effect of marital status in the relationship between the predictors and job performance. A quantitative approach was employed for data collection using the survey method from 103 expatriates working in multinational companies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to test the hypothesis. The result of the study shows that conscientiousness, paternal support, self-efficacy, and cultural intelligence have a significant influence on the expatriate job performance, while marital status moderates the relationship between the factors and expatriate job performance. This study benefits the managers of multinational companies by helping them understand the factors that improve the expatriates job performance. This study might contribute to industry players who employ expatriates in their organisation. The findings of this study also contribute to the knowledge regarding expatriates in terms of academia.