The Genos Emotional Intelligence Inventory: A Measure Designed Specifically for Workplace Applications

Abstract

The Genos Emotional Intelligence Inventory or Genos EI, is a 70-item multirater assessment. It was designed specifically for use in the workplace as a learning and development aid for human resource (HR) professionals and occupational psychologists involved in the identification, selection and development of employees. Genos EI does not measure emotional intelligence (EI) per-se’; rather, it measures how often people demonstrate 70 emotionally intelligent workplace behaviors that represent the effective demonstration of emotional intelligence in the workplace. Despite the popularity of EI as an employee selection and learning and development medium, few EI inventories have been designed specifically for use in the workplace. Indeed this approach to the assessment of EI is somewhat different from the approaches provided by leading authors in the area. Genos EI was originally conceptualized by Ben Palmer and Con Stough at Swinburne University. It was published as the Swinburne University Emotional Intelligence Test (SUIET; Palmer & Stough, 2001), and has appeared in numerous research papers as such. Since this time it has been revised and is now being widely used both in research and commercial settings as Genos EI. In this chapter we commence by describing our rationale for designing an emotional intelligence (EI) inventory for workplace applications. This rationale came from the findings of industry focus groups conducted with HR professionals, asking them to define an ‘‘ideal’’ EI inventory. We then outline the model and inventory itself, its similarities and differences with other leading EI inventories, and recent research findings based on selfand rater-report workplace samples. We conclude by setting some directions for future research with the inventory, and publish a short form version that can be freely used in workplace research.