The relation between emotional intelligence and job performance: A meta‐analysis

This meta‐analysis builds upon a previous meta‐analysis by (1) including 65 per cent more studies that have over twice the sample size to estimate the relationships between emotional intelligence (EI) and job performance; (2) using more current meta‐analytical studies for estimates of relationships among personality variables and for cognitive ability and job performance; (3) using the three‐stream approach for classifying EI research; (4) performing tests for differences among streams of EI research and their relationships with personality and cognitive intelligence; (5) using latest statistical procedures such as dominance analysis; and (6) testing for publication bias. We classified EI studies into three streams: (1) ability‐based models that use objective test items; (2) self‐report or peer‐report measures based on the four‐branch model of EI; and (3) “mixed models” of emotional competencies. The three streams have corrected correlations ranging from 0.24 to 0.30 with job performance. The three streams correlated differently with cognitive ability and with neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Streams 2 and 3 have the largest incremental validity beyond cognitive ability and the Five Factor Model (FFM). Dominance analysis demonstrated that all three streams of EI exhibited substantial relative importance in the presence of FFM and intelligence when predicting job performance. Publication bias had negligible influence on observed effect sizes. The results support the overall validity of EI. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Note: Correction added on 22 July 2010 after first publication online on 29 June 2010. The affiliations for Ronald H. Humphrey and Thomas H. Hawver have been corrected in this version of the article.     

Some historical and scientific issues related to research on emotional intelligence

In the past decade, the concept of emotional intelligence (EI) has emerged as a potential new construct for explaining behavioral variance not accounted for by traditional measures of general academic intelligence or personality. EI researchers credit E. L. Thorndike as the first to propose such a construct when he suggested that social intelligence is independent of abstract or academic intelligence. The current paper traces the historical roots of social intelligence and the current scientific status of emotional intelligence. It appears that emotional intelligence, as a concept related to occupational success, exists outside the typical scientific domain. Much of the data necessary for demonstrating the unique association between EI and work‐related behavior appears to reside in proprietary databases, preventing rigorous tests of the measurement devices or of their unique predictive value. For those reasons, any claims for the value of EI in the work setting cannot be made under the scientific mantle. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparing the validity of multiple social effectiveness constructs in the prediction of managerial job performance

Social effectiveness constructs have been receiving increased attention in organizational research. However, the proliferation of such constructs raises questions of their relative effectiveness as predictors of job performance when used in multivariate comparison. The current study examined four social effectiveness constructs (i.e., self‐monitoring, leadership self‐efficacy, emotional intelligence and political skill) in the prediction of managerial job performance. Bivariate correlations showed that performance was predicted by social effectiveness constructs with the exception of self‐monitoring. Multiple regression analyses, using gender and seniority as control variables, found political skill to be the strongest predictor and that it has significant incremental validity in the prediction of performance over the prediction provided by the other three social effectiveness constructs as a set. Strengths and limitations of the study are discussed, as are directions for future research. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Psychological ownership and feelings of possession: three field studies predicting employee attitudes and organizational citizenship behavior

An increasing number of scholars and practitioners have emphasized the importance of ‘feelings of ownership’ for the organization (even when employees are not legal owners). In this exploratory study, we examine the relationships of psychological ownership with work attitudes and work behaviors. We start by developing hypotheses based on the psychology of possession and psychological ownership literatures. We then test these hypotheses with data from three field samples, using responses from over 800 employees, as well as manager and peer observations of employee behavior. Results demonstrate positive links between psychological ownership for the organization and employee attitudes (organizational commitment, job satisfaction, organization‐based self‐esteem), and work behavior (performance and organizational citizenship). More important, psychological ownership increased explained variance in organization‐based self‐esteem and organizational citizenship behavior (both peer and supervisor observations of citizenship), over and above the effects of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Contrary to prior theoretical work on psychological ownership, results, however, fail to show an incremental value of psychological ownership in predicting employee performance. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

From manager's emotional intelligence to objective store performance: Through store cohesiveness and sales‐directed employee behavior

The relationships among manager's emotional intelligence, store cohesiveness, sales‐directed employee behavior, and objective store performance were investigated. Non‐managerial sales employees of a large retail electronics chain in South Korea (N = 1611) rated the emotional intelligence of their own store managers as well as the group cohesiveness within their stores. Store managers (N = 253) separately rated the sales‐directed behavior of their employees. Objective sales data were collected one month later for each store. No direct relationship between manager emotional intelligence and objective store performance was found. Instead, the results supported the hypothesized four‐variable, three‐path mediation model: store manager's emotional intelligence was related to store cohesiveness, which in turn was related to the sales‐directed behavior of the frontline employees, which ultimately predicted the objective performance of the stores. Manager emotional intelligence and store cohesiveness are seen as intangible organizing resources or socio‐psychological capital for non‐managerial store employees. Implications for future research and more effective management of retail firms are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The case for the ability‐based model of emotional intelligence in organizational behavior

In this second counterpoint article, we refute the claims of Landy, Locke, and Conte, and make the more specific case for our perspective, which is that ability‐based models of emotional intelligence have value to add in the domain of organizational psychology. In this article, we address remaining issues, such as general concerns about the tenor and tone of the debates on this topic, a tendency for detractors to collapse across emotional intelligence models when reviewing the evidence and making judgments, and subsequent penchant to thereby discount all models, including the ability‐based one, as lacking validity. We specifically refute the following three claims from our critics with the most recent empirically based evidence: (1) emotional intelligence is dominated by opportunistic ‘academics‐turned‐consultants’ who have amassed much fame and fortune based on a concept that is shabby science at best; (2) the measurement of emotional intelligence is grounded in unstable, psychometrically flawed instruments, which have not demonstrated appropriate discriminant and predictive validity to warrant/justify their use; and (3) there is weak empirical evidence that emotional intelligence is related to anything of importance in organizations. We thus end with an overview of the empirical evidence supporting the role of emotional intelligence in organizational and social behavior. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interactive effects of impression management and organizational politics on job performance

The purpose of this research was to explore the interactive effect of organizational politics and impression management on supervisor ratings of employee performance. We hypothesized that the negative relationship between organizational politics and supervisor‐rated performance is weaker among employees who are high in impression management than among those low in impression management. Data were collected from a matched sample of 112 white‐collar employees and their supervisors. Results indicated that the interaction of organizational politics and impression management explained a significant incremental amount of variance in supervisor ratings of employee performance. These findings demonstrated that the extent to which an individual engaged in impression management in a non‐political atmosphere may have been a key component to receiving favorable performance ratings. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A review and critique of emotional intelligence measures

Emotional intelligence measures vary widely in both their content and in their method of assessment. In particular, emotional intelligence measures tend to use either a self‐report personality‐based approach, an informant approach, or an ability‐based assessment procedure. In this paper, the measurement and psychometric properties of four of the major emotional intelligence measures (Emotional Competence Inventory, Emotional Quotient Inventory, Multifactor Emotional Intelligence Scale, Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test) are reviewed, the comparability of these measures is examined, and some conclusions and suggestions for future research on emotional intelligence measures are provided. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transformational leadership and emotional intelligence: a potential pathway for an increased understanding of interpersonal influence

Non‐cognitive emotional intelligence could potentially contribute to a more holistic understanding of interpersonal influence and leadership; however, significant issues of definition, psychometric independence, and measurement must be conclusively resolved. Possible relationships between emotional intelligence, transformational leadership, and individual/organizational outcomes are described and further investigation is encouraged. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interactive effects of personality and organizational politics on contextual performance

The authors explored the process of evaluating contextual performance in the context of a politically charged atmosphere. They hypothesized that the negative relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and contextual performance is weaker among workers high in three of the Big Five model of personality dimensions—agreeableness, extraversion, and conscientiousness. Data were collected from a matched sample of 540 supervisors and subordinates employed in the private sector. Results indicated that the interaction of politics and the personality dimension of agreeableness explained a significant incremental amount of variance in the interpersonal facilitation facet of contextual performance. These findings demonstrate the need to consider both the situation and the person as antecedents of contextual performance. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rumors of the death of emotional intelligence in organizational behavior are vastly exaggerated

In the first of two articles presenting the case for emotional intelligence in a point/counterpoint exchange, we present a brief summary of research in the field, and rebut arguments against the construct presented in this issue. We identify three streams of research: (1) a four‐branch abilities test based on the model of emotional intelligence defined in Mayer and Salovey (1997); (2) self‐report instruments based on the Mayer–Salovey model; and (3) commercially available tests that go beyond the Mayer–Salovey definition. In response to the criticisms of the construct, we argue that the protagonists have not distinguished adequately between the streams, and have inappropriately characterized emotional intelligence as a variant of social intelligence. More significantly, two of the critical authors assert incorrectly that emotional intelligence research is driven by a utopian political agenda, rather than scientific interest. We argue, on the contrary, that emotional intelligence research is grounded in recent scientific advances in the study of emotion; specifically regarding the role emotion plays in organizational behavior. We conclude that emotional intelligence is attracting deserved continuing research interest as an individual difference variable in organizational behavior related to the way members perceive, understand, and manage their emotions. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Meta‐analytic tests of relationships between organizational justice and citizenship behavior: testing agent‐system and shared‐variance models

Research on the unique effects of different types of perceived fairness on citizenship behavior that benefits individuals (organizational citizenship behavior (OCB‐I) and organizations (OCB‐O) has produced mixed results. We assert that how OCB‐O and OCB‐I are conceptualized affects the patterns of results, and we hypothesize that, when OCB is conceptualized appropriately, an agent‐system model is supported (interactional and procedural justice are the strongest unique predictors of OCB‐I and OCB‐O, respectively). We also hypothesize that shared variance among the justice types explains additional variance in OCB. Analyses of semi‐ partial correlations conducted on meta‐analytic coefficients supported our hypotheses. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Linking emotional intelligence to safety performance: The roles of situational awareness and safety training

Introduction: Safety outcomes in the workplace require individual employees to perform (behave) safely in everyday duties. While the literature suggests that emotional management capabilities or traits can be positively related to individual performance in certain conditions, it is not clear how they can influence safety-related performance in high-risk work contexts. Drawing upon trait activation theory, this paper aims to examine when emotional intelligence (EI) benefits employees’ safety performance. We propose that when employees receive inadequate safety training, EI is more likely to trigger their situational awareness and consequently promote their safety performance. Method: We collected time-lagged data from 133 full-time airplane pilots working in commercial aviation industry. Hierarchical moderated regression analysis was conducted to test the moderating effect of safety training inadequacy on the EI–situational awareness relationship. The moderated mediation model, which involves conditional indirect effects of EI on safety performance via situational awareness across different levels of safety training inadequacy, was tested using the PROCESS-based bootstrap confidence interval. Results: Safety training inadequacy negatively moderated the relationship between EI and situational awareness, such that EI was significantly related to situational awareness only when safety training inadequacy was more salient. The more inadequate safety training was, the greater the indirect effect of EI on safety performance via situational awareness was. Conclusions: Inadequate safety training, as a negative situational cue, can activate individuals’ EI to drive their safety-related cognitions (e.g., situational awareness) and behaviors. Effective safety training may be able to complement employees’ low EI in shaping their situational awareness and safety behaviors. Practical Applications: Aviation managers should monitor the adequacy and effectiveness of safety training; this could make pilots’ situational awareness and safety performance depend less on personal attributes (e.g., EI), which organizations are less able to control. When training capacity is temporarily limited, priority might be given to those with low EI.     

A multi‐rater assessment of organizational commitment: are self‐report measures biased?

Most investigations of organizational commitment have been conducted using self‐report measures, however, the veracity of self‐reports is often questioned. In a sample of 79 public‐sector administrative staff, we assessed two types of organizational commitment (affective and continuance) from the perspective of three different sources of raters (self, peer, and supervisor) to test three explanations of the factors influencing self‐report measures (observational opportunities, simple defensiveness, and moderated defensiveness). The pattern of correlations among the measures, analysed using the composite direct product multitrait–multirater approach, suggested that self‐report commitment measures are affected mainly by observations or experiences of the self‐reporter rather than by systematic bias related to defensive responding. This increases our confidence that scores from self‐report measures of affective and continuance commitment are veridical. Further, self‐ and peer‐based measures of commitment were largely redundant in the prediction of a job‐performance criterion whereas supervisory measures added unique predictive variance. Implications are discussed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Significant work events and counterproductive work behavior: The role of fairness,emotions, and emotion regulation

In this diary study, we investigated multi‐level predictors of daily counterproductive work behavior (CWB) relying on the theoretical frameworks of affective events theory and the emotion‐centered model of CWB. We assessed significant work events, event‐based fairness perceptions, negative emotional reactions to work events, and employee CWB over a 10‐day period. We tested within‐person relations predicting CWB, and cross‐level moderating effects of two emotion regulation strategies (suppression and reappraisal). Results from a multi‐level path analysis revealed that significant work events had both direct and indirect effects on negative emotional reactions. Further, negative emotional reactions in turn mediated the relationships between significant work events and all forms of daily CWB as well as the relationship between event‐based fairness perceptions and daily CWB‐O. Results also supported the moderating role of reappraisal emotion regulation strategy on relations between significant work events and negative emotional reactions. Less support, however, was found for the moderating influence of suppression on the link between negative emotional reactions and CWB. Among the broad work event categories we identified, our supplemental analyses revealed that negative work events involving interactions with supervisors elicited the highest levels of employee negative emotional reactions. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Introducing the construct curiosity for predicting job performance

The present paper provides a conceptual and empirical examination regarding the relevance of the construct curiosity for work‐related outcomes. On the basis of a review and integration of the literature regarding the construct itself, the construct is conceptually linked with performance in the work context. In line with a confirmatory research strategy, the sample of the present study (N = 320) has requirements which reflect this conceptual link. Results from a concurrent validation study confirmed the hypothesis regarding the significance of curiosity for job performance (r = .34). Furthermore, incremental validity of curiosity above 12 cognitive and non‐cognitive predictors for job performance suggests that curiosity captures variance in the criterion that is not explained by predictors traditionally used in organizational psychology. It is concluded that curiosity is an important variable for the prediction and explanation of work‐related behavior. Furthermore, given the dramatic changes in the world of work, the importance is likely to rise, rather than to decline, which has important implications for organizational theories and applied purposes, such as personnel selection. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Intra‐individual variability in job complexity over time: Examining the effect of job complexity trajectory on employee job strain

Drawing on gestalt characteristics theory, we advance the literature on the effect of job complexity on employee well‐being by considering intra‐individual variability of job complexity over time. Specifically, we examine how the trend, or trajectory, of job complexity over time can explain unique variance of employee job strain. Across two longitudinal data sets, we consistently find that, with the average level of job complexity during a given period held constant, a positive job complexity trajectory (i.e., an increasing trend in complexity) is associated with higher employee job strain. Based on job‐demand‐control theory and the exposure‐reactivity model, we further establish that job autonomy and employee emotional stability jointly moderate the relationship between job complexity trajectory and employee job strain. Specifically, for employees with high emotional stability, job autonomy mitigates the job strain brought by positive job complexity trajectory, whereas for employees with low emotional stability, job autonomy does not help to reduce the adverse effect of the increasing trend. These findings not only contribute to extend the understanding of the job complexity – strain relationship, but also suggest a promising, dynamic avenue to study the effects of work characteristics on employee well‐being as well as other outcomes. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Emotional competence and work performance: The mediating effect of proactivity and the moderating effect of job autonomy

This paper proposes and tests a model where emotional competence influences work performance through employees' proactive behaviors toward their supervisors. Results from 196 supervisor‐employee pairs supported that emotional competence was positively associated with proactive behaviors, and proactive behaviors were positively associated with both task effectiveness and social integration. In addition, proactive behaviors significantly mediated the relationships between emotional competence and work performance, although this was mostly true of followers who had a higher degree of autonomy in their work. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Good acting requires a good cast: A meso‐level model of deep acting in work teams

This study proposes and tests a meso‐level model of deep acting in work teams that draws on emotional contagion theory to explain how shared means of complying with display rules can arise in work teams. We argue that the presence of influential deep actors can lead to greater convergence (lower dispersion) on individual deep acting in the team. That is, team members behave more similarly. When a team has greater convergence, deep acting by individual members should be related to lower emotional exhaustion and higher job satisfaction and in‐role performance. In a sample of mature work teams, these hypotheses received general support. Our findings suggested that team‐level deep acting effects can foster benefits for team members (lower emotional exhaustion and higher satisfaction) and organizations (higher job performance). Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A longitudinal analysis of the impact of workplace empowerment on work satisfaction

A longitudinal predictive design was used to test a model linking changes in structural and psychological empowerment to changes in job satisfaction. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed a good fit of the data from 185 randomly selected staff nurses to the hypothesized model. Changes in perceived structural empowerment had direct effects on changes in psychological empowerment and job satisfaction. Changes in psychological empowerment did not explain additional variance in job satisfaction beyond that explained by structural empowerment. The results suggest that fostering environments that enhance perceptions of empowerment can have enduring positive effects on employees. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.