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Globalisation has intensified cultural diversity within organisations, foregrounding cultural intelligence as an essential capability for effective functioning in multicultural work environments. This is particularly salient in South Africa, widely recognised as one of the most culturally diverse societies in the world. This article explores the role of cultural intelligence in promoting psychological well-being within South African organisations. Adopting a qualitative research design, the study involved twelve employees working in culturally diverse organisational contexts. Data were collected through one-on-one telephonic interviews and analysed using thematic analysis. The findings indicate that cultural intelligence plays a pivotal role in facilitating psychological well-being by enhancing interpersonal understanding, reducing cross-cultural conflict, and fostering inclusive and supportive work environments. Participants highlighted cultural intelligence as a critical individual and organisational competency that enables employees to navigate cultural differences more effectively, thereby contributing to emotional resilience, job satisfaction, and overall well-being. The article argues that deliberate investment in the development of cultural intelligence across all organisational levels is imperative, as it not only promotes psychological well-being but may also strengthen organisational effectiveness and sustainability in culturally diverse contexts.

Grounded in Conservation of Resources theory, this study examines how psychological capital influences organizational citizenship behavior among Vietnamese IT expatriates in Taiwan, focusing on the mediating role of cross-cultural adjustment and the moderating influence of cultural intelligence. Survey data from 500 participants were analyzed using PROCESS Macro and AMOS. The results show that hope, self-efficacy, and optimism significantly predict cross-cultural adjustment, whereas resilience does not. All psychological capital dimensions positively predict organizational citizenship behavior, and cross-cultural adjustment partially mediates these relationships, indicating that psychological resources promote discretionary behaviors more effectively when expatriates achieve cultural ease. Cultural intelligence significantly strengthens the psychological capital, cross-cultural adjustment link, with the strongest effects observed for self-efficacy and optimism, highlighting the importance of cultural capability in resource deployment. This study advances expatriate research by integrating psychological capital, cross-cultural adjustment, cultural intelligence, and organizational citizenship behavior into a unified model within an East Asian technology context. Practical implications include developing psychological capital-cultural intelligence training, enhancing intercultural onboarding practices, and supporting migrant professional networks to improve expatriate retention and performance.