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JMP
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Introduction
What makes a senior manager successful has been a central research question
of organizational scientists for decades. Underlying this interest is the
assumption or observation regarding the impact of upper-echelon managers on
important issues of strategic vision, strategic positioning, strategic and tactical
moves, among others aimed at improving overall organizational performance
(Finkelstein and Hambrick, 1996; Hambrick and Mason, 1984). Although over
the years we have been exposed to various approaches (e.g. management style)
for studying this elusive question, it still remains unanswered.
Studying managerial skills, however, seems to be one promising stream of
research that has potential for providing answers or at least shedding some
light on this enigma. As Whetten and Cameron (2001, p. 6) noted management
skills form the vehicle by which management strategy, management practice,
tools and techniques, personality attributes and style work to produce effective
outcomes in organizations.
Journal of Managerial Psychology
Vol. 18 No. 8, 2003
pp. 788-813
q MCB UP Limited
0268-3946
DOI 10.1108/02683940310511881
The author wishes to thank Sidika Nihal Colakoglu for her assistance, the editor and two
anonymous reviewers of this journal for their valuable comments and suggestions, and the
participants who made this study a reality. The study was supported, in part, by a grant from
Schnitzer Foundation of the Faculty of Social Science at Bar-Ilan University.
In the last decade or so, we have been witness to a particular growing body
of research regarding the importance of emotional intelligence for successful
leadership. Underlying this research interest is the view that people with high
emotional intelligence competencies are more likely than less emotionally
intelligent people to gain success in the workplace. Particularly, scholars have
noted that social skills are essential for executive level leaders; as individuals
ascend the organizational hierarchy, social intelligence becomes an
increasingly relevant determinant of who will and will not be successful
(Hooijberg et al., 1997; Zaccaro, 2001). Though growing evidence indicates that
emotional intelligence competency has the potential to improve performance on
both personal and organizational levels, we are still only in the initial phase of
understanding the extent to which members with high emotional intelligence
would be more valued assets than less emotionally intelligent members of their
organization. As Cherniss (2000) pointed out it is more useful and interesting
to consider how important it is for effective performance at work.
Furthermore, one of the criticisms of the inuential work of Goleman (1995,
1998) is that the main argument stating that managers with high emotional
intelligence competencies are likely to provide their organizations with a
unique contribution has not yet received much empirical attention and support,
particularly with regard to various important work-related attitudes, behavior
and outcomes that may serve as good indexes for such investigation. As
Dulewicz and Higgs (2000, p. 341 and p. 351) indicate little research has been
conducted in an organizational context and there is a need for rigorous
research to underpin the assertion in an organizational setting.
This study attempts to narrow this gap by empirically testing the degree to
which emotionally intelligent senior managers, employed in public sector
organizations, develop high job satisfaction, career commitment, job
involvement and effective commitment, diminish continuance commitment
and work-family conict, display altruistic behavior, withdrawal intentions
and better job performance. In addition, this study examines the moderating
role of emotional intelligence for the relationship between work-family conict
and job satisfaction and career commitment.
This article is organized as follows: the next section presents the importance
of managerial skills and stresses the concept of emotional intelligence and its
key components followed by the development of the research hypotheses. The
research method is presented in the following section and the results of this
study follow. Finally, the studys results and limitations are summarized.
Theory and hypotheses
Emotional intelligence
Scholars tend to view emotional intelligence as a factor which has a potential to
contribute to more positive attitudes, behaviors and outcomes. At the same
time, as Schutte et al. (2002) note, evidence exists that emotional intelligence
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can be conceptualized as either ability (Ciarrochi et al., 2000; Mayer et al., 1999)
or a personality trait (Schutte and Malouff, 1999; Schutte et al., 1998). The most
comprehensive discussion about this issue is provided by a recent study of
Mayer et al. (2000). As indicated, however, this issue has not yet resolved. In
this study, I rather view emotional intelligence as a competency that is
expected to augment positive attitudes toward work, and drive positive
behaviors and better outcomes.
The concept of emotional Intelligence goes back to early studies in the 1920s
(for a review, see Bar-On and Parker, 2000). In the early 1980s, scholars began
to systematically conceptualize the idea of emotional intelligence. Notably,
Gardners (1983) conceptualization of intrapersonal intelligence and
interpersonal intelligence and Steiner (1984) work on emotional literacy were
the building blocks of what Salovey and Mayer (1989-1990) rst termed as
emotional intelligence. Based on Bar-Ons previous work, Bar-On et al. (2000,
p. 1108) view emotional intelligence as a noncognitive intelligence which is
dened as an array of emotional, personal, and social abilities and skills that
inuence an individuals ability to cope effectively with environmental
demands and pressures. This study focuses on the conceptualization
suggested by Salovey and Mayer (1989-1990) and formulated in 1997 (Mayer
and Salovey, 1997).
Salovey and Mayer (1989-1990, p. 189) dened emotional intelligence as the
subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor ones own and
others feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this
information to guide ones thinking and actions. Later on, they rened and
dened emotional intelligence as the ability to perceive emotions, to access
and generate emotions so as to assist thoughts, to understand emotions and
emotional knowledge, and to reectively regulate emotions so as to promote
emotional and intellectual growth (Mayer and Salovey, 1997, p. 5). A key
construct in their denition that we need to explain is emotions. According to
Van Maanen and Kunda (1989, p. 53), emotions are ineffable feelings of the
self-referential sort, and are comprehensively dened as self-referential
feelings an actor (employee) experiences or, at least, claims to experience in
regard to the performances he or she brings off in the social world. States of
feeling refer to basic emotions (e.g. joy, love, anger) and social emotions (e.g.
shame, guilt, jealousy, envy), as well as to related constructs as affect,
sentiments and moods (Ashforth and Humphrey, 1995).
Salovey and Mayer (1989-1990) argued that there is a set of three
conceptually related mental processes - appraising and expressing emotions
in the self and others, regulating emotion in the self and others, and using
emotions in adaptive ways - involving emotional information. The followings
are brief descriptions of the content and importance of these mental processes:
(1) Appraising and expressing emotions in the self and others. Individuals
differ in the degree to which they are aware of their emotions (appraisal)
and the degree to which the latter are verbally and non-verbally being
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(Allen and Meyer, 1990). In this study, we examined the relationship between
emotional intelligence and two forms of organizational commitment - affective
and continuance.
Emotionally intelligent individuals are optimistic, a trait that enables them
to focus on the resolution, rather than the reasoning (who is at fault). The work
in any given organization imposes difculties that may result in feelings of
frustration. Emotionally intelligent individuals would know not to hold the
organization responsible for every feeling of frustration (Abraham, 1999), as
they are adept at placing themselves in positive affective states, and able to
experience negative affective states that have insignicant destructive
consequences (Salovey and Mayer, 1989-1990). This is especially true for
senior managers who have to reconcile the feelings of frustration of conicting
interest groups within and outside the organization. This can be done
effectively only when they are able to place themselves in a positive state of
mind. In addition, emotionally intelligent individuals would know how to avoid
dysfunctional emotions and use them in adaptive ways to alleviate feelings of
frustration. Furthermore, on the fundamental level, people are motivated not
only by the rational exchange approach (Vroom, 1964), but also by the extent to
which they are connected emotionally to their work and by the extent to which
its contents provide them with such experiences as joy, excitement, surprise
and frustration (Ashforth and Humphrey, 1995). Thus, emotional intelligence is
expected to augment a higher level of affective commitment to the organization,
and diminish the level of continuance commitment. The following hypotheses
are suggested:
H2a. There is a positive relationship between emotional intelligence and
affective organizational commitment of senior managers.
H2b. There is a negative relationship between emotional intelligence and
continuance organizational commitment of senior managers.
Emotional intelligence and career commitment. Career commitment is dened
as ones attitude toward ones profession or vocation (Blau, 1985, p. 20).
Employees may encounter difculties of many kinds in pursuing a career that
may result in dysfunctional emotions. Emotionally intelligent individuals are
expected to recognize, manage and use their emotions to eliminate these
obstacles and advance their career horizon better than people with low
emotional intelligence. This is especially true when the profession incorporates
high levels of complexity. Highly complex managerial work can be very
demanding and lead to high levels of stress. Emotional intelligence enables
people to control this stress effectively and prevent its negative effects on ones
attitude towards her profession. The following hypothesis is suggested:
H3. There is a positive relationship between emotional intelligence and
career commitment of senior managers.
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With respect to the role of the individuals, one may expect that a high
emotional intelligence would help them balance family interference with work.
In fact, they may be more capable of preventing work-family conict from the
beginning due to their emotional astuteness incorporates the recognition of the
degree to which the family plays an emotional role for them and those
connected to them, the insight as to how these emotions should be managed,
and the ability to improve the decision-making process. The following
hypothesis is suggested:
H5. There is a negative relationship between emotional intelligence and
work-family conict (family interference with work) of senior
managers.
Emotional intelligence and organizational citizenship behavior. Organizational
citizenship behavior (OCB) is an extra-role behavior that goes beyond formal
role requirements (Smith et al., 1983). Emotional intelligence may enhance
altruistic behavior as it enables employees to comprehend their co-workers
feelings and to respond better than employees with low emotional intelligence
because of their ability to easily shift from negative to positive moods
(Abraham, 1999). Staw et al. (1994) suggested three explanations for the
engagement of an emotionally intelligent individual in altruistic behavior.
First, being in a good mood is reinforcing, and displaying altruism is rewarding
in the sense that it enables employees to also maintain this state of mind.
Second, people in good moods may be more socially interactive. Third, when
employees are more satised (having positive emotional reactions to the job)
they are more likely to be engaged in helpful behavior. The following
hypothesis is suggested:
H6. There is a positive relationship between emotional intelligence and
organizational citizenship behavior - altruism of senior managers.
Emotional intelligence and work outcomes
Emotional intelligence and withdrawal intentions from the organization.
Withdrawal of employees is a process (Mobley, 1977; 1982a, b; Mobley et al.,
1978) which comprises constructs of withdrawal intentions (thinking of
quitting, intention to search and intention to quit) as well as constructs of
withdrawal behaviors (actually quitting, absence) (Miller et al., 1979; Mobley
et al., 1978). A recent meta-analysis used the constructs of intention to quit,
thinking of quitting, withdrawal cognitions and expected utility of withdrawal
as the components of withdrawal intentions (Griffeth et al., 2000). In this study,
we assess the withdrawal intentions process of senior managers.
Emotional intelligence may signicantly diminish employees withdrawal
intentions because of the ability to better regulate emotions. Emotionally
intelligent individuals are adept at putting themselves in positive affective
states, and although they may experience negative affective states at times,
these do not have signicant destructive consequences. Being in positive
affective states is of importance in the sense of not becoming despondent in the
face of daily and even more profound obstacles occurring in organizational life.
Rather, the individuals are likely to see the positive side of things and use their
emotions, for example, to enhance persistence at challenging times and
facilitate creativity for resolving difculties. To a certain degree, emotionally
intelligent individuals perceive themselves as part of the solution. As such,
they feel a high level of identication and are less likely to develop withdrawal
intentions. This is especially true for senior managers who must deal with their
own difculties as well as those of others. Those with high emotional
intelligence will be inclined to stay and deal with difculties in adaptive ways.
This, however, is not to say that emotionally intelligent individuals do not face
difculties when encountering job stress and changes in their job and career;
rather they have more and better capabilities than low emotionally individuals
to cope with it, and thus are likely develop lower withdrawal intentions. The
following hypothesis is suggested:
H7. There is a negative relationship between emotional intelligence and
withdrawal intentions of senior managers from the organization.
Emotional intelligence and job performance. Evidence supports a positive effect
of emotional intelligence on the success of the individual at work (for a review,
see Goleman, 2001). This is of particularly importance if we believe that
management skills lie at the heart of leadership (Whetten and Cameron, 2001,
p. 15), and specically recognize the need to develop and acquire skills for
managing people and that emotional intelligence may have a critical role in the
creation of effective leadership. A notable study conducted by George (2000)
showed how the aspects of emotional intelligence - appraisal and expression
of emotions, use of emotion to enhance cognitive processing and decision
making, knowledge about emotions and management of emotions - contribute
to effective leadership. For the purpose of this study, it is important to note that
although it is theoretically signicant to show how each aspect affects
performance, it is more accurate to recognize that skills come in groups and
clusters, and that they support one another (Goleman, 2001). The concept of
emotional intelligence seems to encompass this critical mass of skills
(Boyatzis et al., 2000; Goleman, 2001). The following hypothesis is suggested:
H8. There is a positive relationship between emotional intelligence and job
performance of senior managers.
The moderator role of emotional intelligence
The literature suggests that the negative effect of work-family conict on work
attitudes may be moderated by several variables (see, for example, Martins
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Executive EQ of Cooper and Sawaf, 1997; EIQ Dulewicz and Higgs, 1999;
MSCEIT of Mayer et al., 2000; ECI of Boyatzis and Goleman, 1998).
In this study, emotional intelligence was measured with the self-report
measure of emotional intelligence developed by Schutte et al. (1998) for several
reasons: First, this measure is based on the framework of emotional intelligence
developed by Salovey and Mayer, 1989-1990 and later formulated (Mayer and
Salovey, 1997)[1]. Second, previous study found some limitations in early
self-report measures of emotional intelligence such as insufcient reliability
and connections with personality factors (Davies et al., 1998). Third, studies
that evaluated the measure of Schutte and her colleagues (1998) in both adult
and adolescents population indicate that this measure seems to overcome the
observed difculties in other measures of emotional intelligence (Ciarrochi et al.,
2000; Ciarrochi et al., 2001). Finally, in macro level studies, self report measure
of emotional intelligence which is brief, validated and based on a cohesive and
comprehensive model of emotional intelligence (Salovey and Mayer, 1989-1990;
Mayer and Salovey, 1997) is very useful.
The measure used in this study consists of 33 items. Sample items are I
know when to speak about my personal problems to others, and I am aware
of my emotions as I experience them (appraisal and expression of emotion); I
present myself in a way that makes a good impression on others, and I have
control over my emotions (regulation of emotion); when I feel a change in
emotions, I tend to come up with new ideas, and I use good moods to help
myself keep trying in the face of obstacles (utilization). All items were ranged
from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. The Cronbachs alpha for
this scale was 0.90.
Control variables
We control for:
(1) Organizational size. Measured by the number of permanent residents for
which the organization is responsible for provision of services (Carmeli,
2002);
(2) Tenure in the organization. Measured by the number of years the
respondent is employed in the current organization;
(3) Gross income. (1 = up to 10,000 NIS, New Israeli Shekel; 2 = 10,001 to
20,000 NIS; 3 = 20,001 to 30,000 NIS; 4 = 30,001 to 40,000 NIS; and
4 = above 40,000 NIS);
(4) Respondents age.
Because the vast majority of the respondents were male, differences between
male and female respondents could not be established.
Data analysis
To assess the relationship between emotional intelligence and work attitudes,
behavior, and outcomes, we performed a series of separate hierarchical
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regression analyses. Each model had two steps. The rst step involved
entering the control variables and the second step involved entering the
independent variable.
To examine the interaction hypotheses, the variables were entered into the
regression equations in three steps. The control variables were entered in the
rst step. In the second step, we entered the main effects (work-family
conict and emotional intelligence). Finally, the work-family conict X
emotional intelligence product term variable was entered in the third step. Both
variables were mean-centered as is suggested for variables that are to be
constituents of product terms (Aiken and West, 1991).
Results
Table I reports the means, standard deviations, and correlation coefcients of
variables used in the analysis. Though several variables are related, Table I
indicates no severe problems of multicolinearity as none of the related variables
exceeded the value of 0.60. Furthermore, we performed separate hierarchical
regressions for the effect of emotional intelligence on each one of the dependent
variables. Table I also provides a preliminary support for the signicant
relationships between emotional intelligence and work attitudes, work
behavior and work outcomes.
Table II presents the results of hierarchical regression. Emotional
intelligence was positively and signicantly related to job satisfaction
(b = 0.32, p , 0.01), supporting H1. This nding is consistent with the
argument according to which emotionally intelligent individuals are likely to
display higher overall satisfaction in the workplace.
Supporting H2a, we provide evidence that when senior managers have high
emotional intelligence they tend to develop high affective commitment
(emotional attachment) to the organization for which they work (b = 0.23,
p , 0.05). H2b, on the other hand, was not supported as the relationship
between emotional intelligence and continuance commitment was not
signicant (b = 2 0.12, p = ns). The beta coefcient, though not statistically
signicant, was in the expected direction.
We found support for H3. Emotionally intelligent senior managers develop
high commitment toward their career (b = 0.34, p , 0.001). However, contrary
to H4, emotional intelligence was statistically unrelated to job involvement. It
may be that the involvement of senior managers is more complex than we
assumed, and is affected by other important factors not examined here. Though
no prediction was made, we found that job involvement was signicantly
related to tenure in the organization (b = 0.20, p , 0.10) as well as to gross
income (b = 0.25, p , 0.05).
The results support H5, stating that senior managers who have high
emotional intelligence are more likely to effectively control work-family conict
(b = 2 0.31, p , 0.01). Compared to low and middle-level position employees,
0.49 2 0.19
0.37
2.12
3.71
9.13
0.02
9.24 2 0.01
0.54
0.14
11.47
46.63
2.56
0.05, ** p #
54,259 2 0.01
24,729
2 0.15
2 0.01
0.001
0.12
0.03
0.26**
2 0.01
0.21*
0.12
0.06
0.05
0.17
0.31**
0.31**
0.21*
2 0.15
0.01, *** p #
2 0.24*
2 0.19
2 0.02
2 0.01
0.32***2 0.20*
0.04
0.06
0.05
0.21*
0.15
0.17 2 0.10
0.05
0.24* 2 0.07
0.11
0.21*
0.04
0.10
0.17
0.15
0.22* 2 0.11
0.08
0.27** 2 0.27**
0.34*** 2 0.11
3.87
3.74
0.42*** 0.48***
2 0.19
0.88
0.24*
0.32*** 0.11
4.73
0.60
0.89
3.59
4.40
0.63
3.78
0.94 2 0.18
2.18
1.00
0.78
s.d.
5.61
Job performance
Withdrawal
intentions
from an
organization
Altruistic
behavior
Career
commitment
Job involvement
Affective
commitment
Continuance
commitment
Job satisfaction
Work-family
conict
Emotional
intelligence
Organizational
size
Tenure in
organization
Age
Income
Mean
2 0.05
0.10
0.01
2 0.07
10
0.03
0.17
0.16
11
13
0.25*
12
0.43***
0.13
Emotional
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803
Table I.
Means, standard
deviations, and
correlationsa
Table II.
Results of hierarchical
regression analysis: the
inuence of emotional
intelligence on work
attitudes, behavior and
outcomes
Notes: * p #
Step 2
Emotional
intelligence
DR2
F for DR2
R2 for total
equation
Step 1
Organizational size
Tenure in
organizational
Income
Age
R2
0.10
**
p#
0.135
0.05,
0.32 (3.08***)
0.09
9.49***
2 0.09 (2 0.75)
0.16 (1.54)
0.06 (0.58)
0.038
0.00 (0.01)
0.01 (0.07)
Altruistic
behavior
b (t)
***
p#
0.01,
0.107
****
2 0.20 (2 1.93*)
0.039
3.71*
p#
0.001
0.341
0.54 (6.03****)
0.286
36.41****
2 0.01 (0.93)
Withdrwl
intent.
b (t)
0.195
0.34 (3.44****)
0.113
11.83****
2 0.03 (2 0.23)
0.05 (0.45)
0.27 (2.53**)
0.082
0.07 (0.73)
Career
commit.
b (t)
0.195
0.04 (0.45)
0.002
0.19
0.20 (1.76*)
0.25 (2.43**)
0.06 (0.57)
0.193
0.15 (1.47)
Job
involve.
b (t)
0.05 (0.43)
Contin.
commit.
b (t)
0.06 (0.56)
Job
satisfaction
b (t)
0.19 (1.93*)
Work
family
conict
b (t)
0.114
0.23 (2.21**)
0.050
4.87**
0.065
2 0.12 (2 1.11)
0.014
1.23
0.155
0.189
0.15 (1.24)
0.19 (1.58)
0.12 (1.06)
0.18 (1.62)
0.11 (1.08)
2 0.16 (2 1.48)
0.13 (1.21) 2 0.16 (2 1.59)
0.00 (2 0.04)
0.00 (0.00)
2 0.04 (2 0.36) 2 0.03 (2 0.29)
0.064
0.051
0.058
0.093
0.09 (0.83)
Affective
commit.
b (t)
804
Job
perform.
b (t)
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senior managers may encounter a higher level of job demands that result in
work-family conict. The results indicate that senior managers who have high
emotional intelligence may better and more carefully handle the inherent
work-family conict than those who have low emotional intelligence.
H6, which states that emotionally intelligent senior managers will display
higher levels of altruistic behavior, was strongly supported (b = 0.54,
p , 0.001). In addition, H7, which states that emotional intelligence will be
negatively related to withdrawal intentions from the organization, and H8,
which states that emotionally intelligent senior managers will perform the job
better than senior managers with low emotional intelligence, were supported
(b = 2 0.20, p , 0.10; b = 0.32, p , 0.01, respectively). These results indicate
that emotional intelligence is an important predictor of both contextual
performance and task performance. Note, however, that H9, which states that
the higher a senior manager is on emotional intelligence, the weaker will be the
negative effect of work-family conict on job satisfaction was not supported
(see Table III). The interactive effect of work-family conict and emotional
intelligence on job satisfaction was not signicant (b = 0.03, p = n.s.).
H10 postulated that the higher a senior manager is on emotional
intelligence, the weaker will be the negative effect of work-family conict on
career commitment. The interactive effect of work-family conict and
emotional intelligence on career commitment was signicant at the 0.05 level
(see Table III) and explained an additional 3.4 percent of explained variance in
the career commitment.
In accordance with convention for plotting interactions (Aiken and West,
1991; Cohen and Cohen, 1983), the cut values for the high and low states on the
moderator variable (emotional intelligence) were plus and minus one standard
deviation from the mean. Figure 1 presents the interaction of work-family
conict and emotional intelligence in predicting career commitment. As shown
b
Step 1
Organizational size
Tenure in organization
Income
0.03
0.14
0.16
Age
Step 2
Work-family conict (WF)
Emotional intelligence (EI)
Step 3
EI WF
Notes: *p #
0.10 **p #
Job satisfaction
R2
DR 2
805
Career commitment
R2
DR 2
0.04
0.02
0.02
2 0.05
0.058
0.058
2 0.05
0.30***
0.157
0.097***
0.03
0.158
0.001
0.05, ***p #
Emotional
intelligence
0.01, ****p #
0.001
0.20*
0.048
0.048
2 0.09
0.37****
0.205
0.156****
0.21**
0.239
0.034**
Table III.
Results of the
moderating role of
emotional intelligence
(EI)
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Figure 1.
Interaction between
emotional intelligence
(EI) and work-family
conict (WF) predicting
career commitment (CC)
organizations and are also more committed to their career. In addition, ndings
also indicate that emotionally intelligent senior managers tend to be more
satised with their work. Retaining talented and knowledgeable senior
managers becomes a major concern for many organizations. Selecting senior
managers who have high emotional intelligence may have a positive impact on
the extent to which an organization succeeds in retaining its most critical
workforce. Research ndings revealed that occupational commitment (Lee et al.,
2000) and organizational commitment (Mathieu and Zajac, 1990) are
signicantly related to withdrawal intentions, and that job satisfaction and
organizational commitment are by far the main predictors of turnover (Griffeth
et al., 2000). Interestingly, however, emotional intelligence was not signicantly
associated with job involvement. It may be that senior managers exhibit high
involvement in their jobs because of the role itself, which demands much time
and effort. Another possible explanation is manifested by the relationship
between income and job involvement (b = 0.25, p , 0.05), suggesting that
economic factors inuence the subjective felt of job involvement. Emotional
intelligence may help an individual to better handle demanding managerial
work. Nevertheless, we are still in need of further investigation regarding the
factors that foster an individuals high level of involvement in her job (Brown,
1996).
Another important relationship examined in this study is the relationship
between emotional intelligence and work-family conict. Work-family policies
adopted and implemented by an organization may not provide the whole
solution, especially with respect to family interference with work, simply
because employees have some responsibility in determining their own family
balance. The results of this study advance the literature by indicating that
emotionally intelligent employees may better handle this conict. An
integration of work-family programs and an emotionally intelligent
workforce can better attain the desired balance. This study indicates that
compared to emotionally intelligent senior managers, low-emotionally
intelligent senior managers are not less able to be sensitive enough to
acknowledge how work is affected by family matters, and, thus, feel no need to
reduce their career commitment. Senior managers who are high on emotional
intelligence recognize having important responsibilities at work, and at the
same time realize that they may neglect their family and their needs. In other
words, they are equally sensitive to what they feel when they are consumed
with my work all the time. This recognition help them balance their career
commitment to a healthy mid point (not very high but not very low either).
Further examination of the interactive effect of work-family conict and
emotional intelligence on career commitment and job satisfaction revealed that
emotional intelligence moderated only the negative inuence of work-family on
career commitment. Clearly, this nding should receive further investigation
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but it illuminate the kind of role emotional intelligence may play in the
relationship of work stress and work attitudes.
We found a direct and signicant relationship between emotional
intelligence and withdrawal intentions from the organization. This intensies
the important role that emotional intelligence may have in retaining valuable
organization members. The results of this study also indicate that emotional
intelligence augments both contextual (altruistic citizenship behavior) and task
performance. Contextual performance of senior managers is valued, because
the latter oftentimes serves as a role model and character for the
organizations members to follow. This process may have a positive effect on
the organization since organizational citizenship behavior has the potential, for
example, to enhance co-worker and managerial productivity, freeing the
management from work-related problems so that it can deal with more
productive tasks, and enhancing the sustainability of the organizations
performance. In addition, the nding that emotionally intelligent senior
managers perform better on the job provides clear evidence to the question
asked by Cherniss (2000) regarding how important it (emotional intelligence)
is for effective performance at work, and is consistent with Cavallo and
Brienzas ndings of a strong relationship between superior performing
leaders and emotional competence.
Limitation and directions for future research
Several limitations constrain the interpretation and application of the studys
ndings. The aim of this study to explore the role of emotional intelligence
among senior managers is also a weakness, because it has not included
non-managerial employees. Future studies may be beneted from an
exploration of a wider range of employees at different organizational levels.
One should also be cautious while generalizing the results of this study to other
cultures or sectors. Prospective research should be directed to explore
differences among for-prot, governmental and not-for-prot organizations.
Validated and usable measures were employed to reduce the possibility of
bias in general method variance, and data was collected from a large number of
organizational units to allow for better external validity and increased
generality of the results (Cook and Campbell, 1979). Still, the reader is cautioned
to recognize the limitations of relying on self-reported data. This may carry a
bias of general method variance. As can be seen results of hierarchical
regressions provided a relatively small proportion of the explained variance of
the dependent variables. We also compared subjective-reported data to
objective data on organizational size and the comparison yielded no difference.
And, as Xie (1996) indicated, there is no theoretical foundation to expect that
interactions are associated with common method variance. Future studies may
benet from a longitudinal research design. One, however, must recognize that
collecting data from a large number of organizations is problematic. Finally,
this study used a relatively new measure of emotional intelligence and though
studies reported good reliability and evidence of validity, it would be useful to
conduct a study which compare results of this study with those used other
acceptable measures of emotional intelligence.
Emotional
intelligence
Note
1. When this study was conducted, the MSCEIT instrument was not available to the author.
809
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