Project Managers’ Emotional Intelligence – A Ticket to Success

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to introduce recent research on correlation between project managers’ emotional intelligence and their professional success. The implications of this research are important to both project managers who wish to improve their performance and success rate and organizations in their human resource policy. Theoreti- cal considerations discussed potential impact of emotional intelligence on project managers’ success through review on concept and dimensions of emotional intelligence, findings of numbered empirical studies and leadership theories. Complementing these theoretical considerations with research study showed significant correlation between project managers’ emotional intelligence and professional success. Research was conducted on representative sample consi- sted of 75 project managers from top 10 Serbian companies. Data collection instrument was questionnaire consisted of self-descriptive emotional intelligence test and data on respondent's position in organizational hierarchy and edu- cational level. The empirical research reveals that there is a very high positive correlation between emotional intelli- gence and professional success and these findings should have a number of implications for project managers’ pra- ctice. Firstly, project managers should be aware of the concept, their level and way of improving different dimensions of emotional intelligence. Further, the human resource management departments of project oriented organizations should consider concept of emotional intelligence when recruiting staff to the position of project managers but also when deciding on human resources development programs. In order to help good project managers to become excel- lent there is a need for further investigations on methods for development of emotional intelligence competencies.