Are the emotionally intelligent good citizens or counterproductive? A meta-analysis of emotional intelligence and its relationships with organizational citizenship behavior and counterproductive work behavior

Abstract

This research project examines whether emotional intelligence (EI) is related to organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). A key question concerns the degree to which EI is related to OCB and CWB after controlling for other established predictors. The study uses meta-analytical summaries of existing research (for EI-OCB, k=68, N=16,386; for EI-CWB, k=17, N=3914). It uses meta-analytical controls to obtain the best estimates of effect sizes, incremental validity, and relative importance. This meta-analysis found that EI is positively associated with OCB and negatively related to CWB. When controlling for ability measures of EI, the Big Five personality measures, general self-efficacy, cognitive intelligence, and self-rated performance, both self-report measures of EI and mixed competency measures of EI show incremental validity and relative importance in predicting OCB and CWB. An analysis of self-report EI found that the effects of EI on OCB and CWB are stronger in health care and service industries than in industries where emotional labor demands are lower. The results imply that organizations can increase OCB and reduce CWB by recruiting employees high in EI and by training employees in emotional competencies.