Emotional intelligence and its implications on individual and group performance: a study investigating employee perceptions in the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

This paper adds to the current literature on emotional intelligence (EI) by investigating the relationship of employees' perceptions of supervisor's EI with a number of important organizational outcomes. The data for the study were obtained via a questionnaire survey from 130 employees in a large government-run organization in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The results indicated that employee perception of supervisor's EI explained 25.9% of variation in job satisfaction and 41.2% of variation in group task satisfaction. Job satisfaction and group task satisfaction, in turn, were found to explain 33.6% of variation in workgroup attachment. Workgroup attachment, in turn, was found to explain 13.3% of variation in group-level turnover intention and 12.3% of variation in organizational-level turnover intention. These results indicate that organizations in the UAE may benefit by developing EI skills in their leaders. This paper also describes specific implications for theory and practice.

Keywords:

• emotional intelligence
• group task satisfaction
• job satisfaction
• turnover intention
• United Arab Emirates