An Investigation into Emotional Intelligence, Relationship Quality, and Organizational Outcomes

Abstract

Emotional intelligence (EI) was defined by Mayer and Salovey in 1997 as a set of interrelated skills concerning "the ability to perceive accurately, appraise, and express emotion; the ability to access and/or generate feelings when they facilitate thought; the ability to understand emotion and emotional knowledge; and the ability to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth" (Wong & Law, 2002). A good deal of research has been completed to examine the general construct and to develop measures of emotional intelligence. However, to this point in time little research has been done on the effect that El has in the workplace, particularly relative to leader-member relationships. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence (of both managers and subordinates) and leader-member exchange (LMX) on work outcomes. Specifically, it was predicted that LMX would meditate the relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational outcomes. Data were gathered from 129 students and their managers regarding their emotional intelligence, the quality of their leader-member exchange relationship, and organizational outcomes of performance, citizenship, job satisfaction, and commitment. The findings did not support the hypotheses, and showed no relationship between El and LMX or El and work outcomes, failing to replicate the findings of Wong and Law (2002) and Carmeli (2003). THe findings are are discussed and implications for future research are presented.

Notes

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Thesis Completion

2005

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Uhl-Blen, Mary

Degree

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

College

College of Business Administration

Degree Program

Management

Subjects

Business Administration -- Dissertations, Academic; Dissertations, Academic -- Business Administration

Format

Print

Identifier

DP0021943

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Document Type

Honors in the Major Thesis

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