Emotional Intelligence and Extra-Role Behavior of Knowledge Employees: Mediating and Moderating Effects

Huajiang Yu,Yoshi Takahashi

doi:10.15388/omee.2020.11.39

Abstract

   This study constructed a model to explore how emotional intelligence (EI) predicts organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and counterproductive work behavior (CWB) via the mediators of job satisfaction (JS) and work engagement (WE). Furthermore, this study examined whether organizational justice (OJ) and person-organization fit (P-O fit) moderate the effect of EI on OCB and CWB. The model was tested using data from 540 knowledge employees in mainland China. This study found that JS and WE positively and partially mediated the association between EI and OCB, as well as negatively and partially mediated the association between EI and CWB. Moreover, OJ and P-O fit moderated the effect of EI positively on OCB and negatively on CWB. This study revealed the mechanism from EI to OCB and CWB through multiple mediators, identified two variables that may adjust EI-OCB and EI-CWB relationships, and proposed that organizations could promote OCB and diminish CWB of knowledge employees by employing certain human resource practices.  

Highlights

Salovey and Mayer (1990) introduced the concept of emotional intelligence (EI), suggesting that the ability model of EI is a subsection of social intelligence that involves four dimensions: perceiving emotions, facilitating thought using emotions, understanding emotions, and managing emotions (Mayer et al, 2016; Mayer & Salovey, 1997)
Respecting the expected association between EI, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and counterproductive work behaviors (CWB), we proposed the following hypotheses: 1: work engagement (WE) mediates the positive association between EI and OCB; 2: WE mediates the negative association between EI and CWB; 3: job satisfaction (JS) mediates the positive association between EI and OCB; 4: JS mediates the negative association between EI and CWB
This study found that JS and WE partially mediated the associations of EI with OCB and CWB

Summary

Introduction

Salovey and Mayer (1990) introduced the concept of emotional intelligence (EI), suggesting that the ability model of EI is a subsection of social intelligence that involves four dimensions: perceiving emotions, facilitating thought using emotions, understanding emotions, and managing emotions (Mayer et al, 2016; Mayer & Salovey, 1997). CWB refers to employees’ intentional behavior that harms the lawful rights and interests of an organization and its stakeholders (Dalal, 2005; Klotz & Bolino, 2013). Deductions from these definitions may show a contradicting relationship between OCB and CWB predicted by EI, the relationship is not straightforward, especially for some aspects of OCB and CWB and in particular, groups or contexts (Czarnota-Bojarska, 2015; Peng, 2012; Spector & Fox, 2010)

Methods

Results

Conclusion