The Contribution of Emotional Intelligence to Social Skills and Stress Management Skills Among Automated Foodservice Industry Executives

Abstract

This study revalidated three dimensions of emotional intelligence (EI) and examined EI's contribution to social skills and stress management skills among members of the National Automatic Merchandising (NAMA), representing executives of the vending, coffee services, and foodservice management industries. After performing Confirmatory Factor Analysis, a sample of 191 was spilt into high EI and low EI groups, based on respondents' overall EI and each dimension of EI median scores. Differences between high and low EI groups for both overall and each dimension of EI scores in social skills and stress management skills were statistically significant, implying that the EI contributes to NAMA members' social skills and stress management skills.