Cultural Intelligence and Employee Performance in Chinese Multinationals: The Mediating Roles of Psychological Safety and Knowledge Sharing

Purpose: This study examines how Cultural Intelligence relates to Employee Performance in multicultural teams of Chinese multinational enterprises, testing the indirect roles of Psychological Safety and Knowledge Sharing. The context includes four rapidly globalizing firms: PDD Holdings, Pop Mart, Zhipu AI, and ByteDance. Methodology: A quantitative design was employed using a structured questionnaire administered to employees engaged in cross-border collaboration. A purposive sample yielded 385 valid responses. Validated multi-item scales measured Cultural Intelligence, Psychological Safety, Knowledge Sharing, and Employee Performance on five-point Likert scales. Data were analyzed with PLS-SEM in SmartPLS 4. Reliability and validity were confirmed through Cronbach’s alpha, composite reliability, AVE, and HTMT. Results: Cultural Intelligence showed strong positive effects on Knowledge Sharing (β = 0.742), Psychological Safety (β = 0.743), and Employee Performance (β = 0.533). Knowledge Sharing (β = 0.173) and Psychological Safety (β = 0.144) also positively predicted Employee Performance. Indirect effects supported partial mediation from Cultural Intelligence to Employee Performance via Psychological Safety (0.107) and Knowledge Sharing (0.129). The model explained 55.0 percent of variance in Knowledge Sharing, 55.2 percent in Psychological Safety, and 62.1 percent in Employee Performance. Conclusion: Developing Cultural Intelligence can improve employee performance directly and through safer, more knowledge-rich team climates. Organizations should invest in CQ development, leader behaviors that invite employee voice, and mechanisms that facilitate tacit knowledge exchange to enhance collaboration and performance in multicultural teams.