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With a more globalized labor force, effective intercultural communication is now a vital aspect of transnational employees. This research seeks to explore how cultural intelligence and foreign language competence impact the effectiveness of intercultural communication. It also explores the mediating function of foreign language anxiety and the moderating function of transnational social capital in such relationships. A quantitative method was applied, with data from 211 transnational employees in different multinational companies. Scales for all constructs were used as they existed, and data were processed with Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the underlying hypotheses. The results show that both linguistic ability and cultural competence have positive effects on the effectiveness of intercultural communication. Foreign language anxiety mediates these relations, with less anxiety enhancing the quality of communication. Additionally, transnational social capital strengthens these relations as a significant moderator. The six hypotheses were supported empirically. This study contributes to cross-cultural communication literature by integrating psychological, linguistic, and social components into a single model. From an applied perspective, the findings provide prescriptive results for global HRM, suggesting targeted language skills training and cultural adaptability to enhance global team communication.