examining the relationship between cultural intelligence with happiness and job performance: the mediating role of personality traits among efl teachers

Gaining special attention from investigators and practitioners, cultural intelligence, happiness, job performance, and personality are still growing areas of study in second language acquisition. as research has documented, there is a dearth of research on disclosing the relationship among cultural intelligence with happiness and job performance emphasizing the mediating role of personality traits among efl university instructors, so the present study aimed to probe into this correlation. for this purpose, 406 efl instructors participated in this study. they were 193 males and 213 females from different universities in iran ranging from 28 to 44 years old. four questionnaires namely, neo questionnaire, the oxford happiness questionnaire, the cultural intelligence questionnaire, and job performance questionnaire were distributed among the participants and the results were checked through structural equation modeling method. pls software was used to verify the research theoretical model and calculate the impact factors. the results of the study demonstrated that there is a significant relationship between cultural intelligence and personality traits. there is also a significant relationship between personality traits and job performance. moreover, personality traits and happiness have illustrated a positive relationship among efl university instructors. it concludes that happier instructors, with higher cultural intelligence will have better job performance, and personality is a pivotal factor in this relationship. the results of multi regression analysis also indicated that happiness and personality traits predict job performance. this paper may have some implications for teachers, policy-makers, and teacher trainers.