Emotionally intelligent people make better workers. That's according to a comprehensive review of published research in the field of emotional intelligence (EI) carried out by academics from Virginia Commonwealth University which found that each of the three prominent testing procedures for EI are also reliable predictors of job performance.
"The Relation Between Emotional Intelligence and Job Performance: A Meta-Analysis," (which has been published online by the Journal of Organizational Behavior), builds upon years of existing studies in the area of emotional intelligence, which is a measure of someone's ability to understand the emotions of themselves and others.
"Emotional intelligence has attracted considerable attention in business settings as well as in the community at large, but many academic scholars dispute the legitimacy of emotional intelligence, especially some of the more exaggerated claims made about it," said Neal Ashkanasy, professor of management at the University of Queensland and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Organizational Behavior.
"By analyzing the numerous studies of emotional intelligence that have been conducted over the last decade, the authors of this article provide an evidence-based account of emotional intelligence, where it works and where it doesn't. And, most importantly, which of the various versions of emotional intelligence work the best. This will prove to be a valuable tool for academic researchers, as well as business consultants and managers."