A Meta-Analysis of the Relationship Between Individual Emotional Intelligence and Workplace Performance

Abstract

Emotional intelligence has been identified by some researchers as a key factor in predicting performance. The debate over emotional intelligence’s influence to performance continues in spite of almost two decades of research on the construct. While there are numerous studies that provide empirical evidence that emotional intelligence has a positive effect on performance, there are studies that provide empirical evidence that emotional intelligence has no statistical significance on performance. A large number of empirical studies have been published in the field of emotional intelligence since Van Rooy and Viswesvaran’s (2004) meta-analysis examined the relationship between emotional intelligence and performance outcomes, which provide the conditions for further understanding the relationship between emotional intelligence and performance. This study focused on emotional intelligence issues in the workplace. The study purpose was to assess quantitatively the impact of individual emotional intelligence on workplace performance. Meta-analysis was used to aggregate results from studies examining the relationship between individual emotional intelligence and workplace performance. The studies evaluated were written in English and Chinese and were conducted from 1990 to 2009. Seventy-five studies, which included a total of 87 independent samples and 12882 participants, met the criteria for inclusion in the meta-analysis. This overall sample was also separated into subgroups for moderator analysis. Data was analyzed utilizing the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA) Version 2 program. The results showed overall, the correlation between individual emotional intelligence and workplace performance was moderately strong (r=0.28). Additionally, results indicated that the emotional intelligence measure used, performance criteria, data features and cultural differences all moderated the positive relationship between emotional intelligence and workplace individual performance. The Chinese cultural context especially effected the correlation (r=0.37) between individual emotional intelligence and workplace performance. Results suggest that individual emotional intelligence, as a valuable construct, can effectively predict workplace performance. The relationship between individual emotional intelligence and workplace performance is affected by a number of different factors. The most obvious factor affecting the relationship between individual emotional intelligence and workplace performance is cultural differences. The findings provide an accurate estimate of the relationship between individual emotional intelligence and workplace performance, and can guide the future emotional intelligence research.