Mindfulness and job performance in employees of a multinational corporation: Moderated mediation of nationality, intercultural communication, and burnout

Abstract

This study examined the association between mindfulness and job performance in a multinational corporation and investigated whether the relationship was mediated by intercultural communication competence (ICC) and job burnout and moderated by the nationality of the workers in multinational corporations. The data were collected from a Chinese multinational corporation in Brunei in 2022 (n = 1060). The results of Structural Equation Modeling indicate that mindfulness was positively related to ICC (β = 0.28), negatively associated with job burnout (β = −0.21, p < 00.001), and positively related to job performance (β = 0.17). The indirect effect of mindfulness and job performance via ICC and job burnout was (β = 0.14). The findings of moderation analyses suggest that nationality moderated the relationships studied. Mindfulness has larger effects on ICC and job burnout for Chinese workers, while ICC has larger effects on job burnout and performance for local employees. The findings call for mindfulness and ICC trainings for employees in multinational corporations.

Keywords

• Intercultural communication competence
• Job burnout
• Job performance
• Mindfulness
• Multinational corporation