Assessing Emotional Intelligence in the Indian workplace: a preliminary reliability study

Abstract

The concept of Emotional Intelligence (EI) has recently attracted a great amount of interest from HR practitioners and academics alike. Whilst the majority of research in this area has been conducted in Western countries, recent studies have begun to assess the generalisability and validity of the EI concept in cross-cultural settings. The purpose of this paper was to assess the reliability of the Workplace version of the Swinburne University Emotional Intelligence Test (Workplace SUEIT) in an Indian population. The Workplace SUEIT demonstrated adequate reliability in the sample of 110 participants in India, although the mean scores for the sub-scales were significantly lower than in the Australian normative population. The results are discussed in the context that EI tests need to undergo cross-cultural examination to assess their validity and cultural relevance. Researchers using Indian workplace samples are needed to evaluate the predictive validity of tests of EI in the Indian context.