A meta-analysis of emotional intelligence effects on job satisfaction mediated by job resources, and a test of moderators

Abstract

This paper examines whether job resources act as a mediator in the emotional intelligence (EI)—job satisfaction relationship, and examines possible moderators, including gender, age, tenure, and job level. We conducted a meta-analysis to explore these relationships. The meta-analysis demonstrated that: First, EI is positively related to job resources (k=15, N=4151; overall EI: ρ̂=0.27; ability EI: ρ̂=0.24; self-report EI: ρ̂=0.27; mixed EI: ρ̂=0.28). Second, job resources mediate the relationship between EI and job satisfaction. Third, the relationship between EI and job satisfaction does not differ across gender, age, and tenure, meaning that regardless of whether an employee is male or female, young or old, or having short or long tenure, they equally benefit from EI. The moderator effect of job level is only significant for self-report EI—job satisfaction and this relationship is stronger in non-managerial jobs than in managerial jobs. Yet, the moderator effect of job level is not significant for ability EI—job satisfaction and mixed EI—job satisfaction meta-analytic distributions. These results indicate that EI aids employees by helping them obtain job resources, and that both job resources and EI have practical implications in terms of employee job satisfaction.