Can Emotionally Intelligent Mental Health Nurse Leaders Influence Workforce Sustainability? A Scoping Review

Due to a global shortage of nursing staff, there is renewed attention on the impact of leadership and management styles on the sustainability of the nursing workforce. Emotional intelligence (EI), the ability to manage both your own emotions and to perceive and understand the emotions of others, has been implicated as a nursing management style impacting reduced turnover and greater nurse wellbeing. Despite these promising findings, there is a dearth of research on the role of emotionally intelligent leadership on the retention of mental health nurses. This scoping review aimed to (1) explore whether the findings from EI leadership in general nursing settings can be contextualised to mental health nurse leaders and (2) whether emotional intelligent leadership can influence the retention of mental health nurses. We used Arksey and O'Malley's framework to conduct this scoping review, locating 987 papers in our initial search. After screening, 30 papers remained; most methodologies were quantitative (n = 20), followed by qualitative (n = 8) and mixed methods (n = 2). This review found that while this concept has been studied extensively in the general nursing context, there is a lack of research into EI as a leadership style in mental health nursing. Where EI was the dominant leadership style, turnover intention was lower. However, despite showing promise in other settings, because of distinct differences between nursing contexts and workforce characteristics, it is difficult to state that emotionally intelligent leadership would be effective in mental health settings. There is therefore an urgent need identified to explore leadership styles in mental health settings to determine whether they impact retention and turnover, which will have significant implications for organisations, staff and consumers. We recommend that mental health nurse leaders be provided with EI training and education to ensure that they are equipped to provide the necessary support and leadership to sustain and grow the mental health nursing workforce.

Understanding Emotional Intelligence to Enhance Leadership and Individualized Well-Being

The successful team concept extends beyond the operating room and into many areas of hand surgery practice. Effective leadership is critical in creating highly effective teams. Evidence suggests that leadership skills can be learned and developed. The authors synthesize and translate findings from organizational psychology to provide insight and recommendations for clinical practice. Specifically, the role of broad emotional intelligence in leadership is explored. This includes self-awareness (eg, understanding one's strengths, challenges, behavioral tendencies, and emotional reactions), emotion regulation, managing others' emotions (eg, supporting others' needs, managing interpersonal conflict, and displaying empathy), and high-quality communication and establishing/maintaining boundaries.

Daily interpersonal conflicts and daily negative and positive affect: exploring the moderating role of neuroticism

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Drawing on affective events theory, the present study investigates relationships between daily interpersonal conflicts and negative and positive affective reactions, and tested whether trait neuroticism moderates immediate (same day) and persisting (next-day) affective reactions.

DESIGN AND METHODS

A sample of 53 Norwegian naval cadets completed a diary questionnaire for 30 consecutive days (total N = 1590).

RESULTS

As predicted, the findings showed that cadets reported more negative affect (but not less positive affect) on days they were confronted with affective events that were of a conflicting nature. In addition, the proposed interaction effects between daily conflict and neuroticism were significant for both negative and positive affect. Specifically, the immediate and persistent effects of daily conflicts on negative affect were strongest for individuals high (vs. low) in neuroticism. Moreover, individuals high in neuroticism reported less positive affect on days with conflicts, whereas individuals low in neuroticism reported more positive affect the two days following interpersonal conflicts.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings contribute to affective events theory with important knowledge about the role of trait neuroticism in dealing with interpersonal conflicts in a natural work setting.

Ability-Related Emotional Intelligence: An Introduction

Emotionally intelligent people are thought to be more skilled in recognizing, thinking about, using, and regulating emotions. This construct has garnered considerable interest, but initial enthusiasm has faded and it is time to take stock. There is consensus that ability-related measures of emotional intelligence (EI) can be favored to self-report tests, in part because the resulting scores cannot be equated with personality traits. However, there are questions surrounding measurement as well as predictive value. Experts in the field were encouraged to chart new directions, with the idea that these new directions could reinvigorate EI scholarship. Special Issue papers speak to theory, mechanism, measurement, and training. In addition, these papers seek to forge links with research traditions focused on interpersonal perception, emotional awareness, and emotion regulation. As a result of these efforts, new insights into what EI is and how it works can be anticipated in upcoming years.

Teachers' Emotional Intelligence and Organizational Commitment: A Moderated Mediation Model of Teachers' Psychological Well-Being and Principal Transformational Leadership

Given the global challenge of increasing teacher attrition and turnover rates, the exploration of factors and mechanisms that improve teachers' organizational commitment has become a pivotal topic in educational research. In this context, the present study examines the influence of teachers' emotional intelligence on their organizational commitment, with a specific inquiry into the mediating role of teachers' psychological well-being and the moderating role of principal transformational leadership, as informed by the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions and the trait activation theory. We verified this study's hypotheses based on 768 valid questionnaires collected from Chinese primary and secondary school teachers. The results reveal that teachers' emotional intelligence can predict their organizational commitment both directly and indirectly through the mediating role of psychological well-being. Additionally, principal transformational leadership amplifies the positive effect of teachers' emotional intelligence on psychological well-being and, subsequently, organizational commitment. These findings theoretically deepen our understanding of the psychological pathways and the boundary conditions linking teachers' emotional intelligence to their organizational commitment, while also offering valuable practical implications for building a stable and effective teaching workforce.

Does Social and Organizational Support Moderate Emotional Intelligence Training Effectiveness?

Given the dearth of systematic research and inconclusive results regarding the effectiveness of emotional intelligence (EI) training in adult training, this study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of EI training. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of EI training on learning and transfer outcomes, considering underexplored moderation of social and organizational support with experimental and longitudinal research design. Training transfer was measured through changes in organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). Participants self-assessed their OCB and CWB levels, while their supervisors also provided evaluations, allowing for separate analysis. Data, from a sample comprising 176 government officials, were collected across different periods and analyzed employing diverse analytical tools. The results revealed positive effects of EI training on training outcomes in both samples but positive moderation effect of social and organizational support on the effect of EI training on training outcomes was observed in the self-evaluation sample but not in the supervisor evaluation sample. The findings advance the debate on social exchange theory and organizational support theory by showing the boundary condition of their applicability. Furthermore, this study clarifies the impact of EI training on training outcomes by emphasizing the nuanced role of social and organizational support.

Implicit theories of women preschool pre-service teachers and emotional intelligence

Introduction

Pre-service teachers should be prepared to face the emotionally demanding situations associated with the profession. The previous literature suggests that two variables are important for managing teaching demands: emotional intelligence (EI) or the ability to perceive, facilitate, understand, and manage emotions and implicit theories (ITs). ITs refer to the beliefs about the malleability of various life domains. Individuals can be divided into incremental theorists (believing that attributes are malleable) and entity theorists (attributes are fixed).

Objective

This study aimed to evaluate the influence of ITs of intelligence and EI on self-report and ability EI in a sample of female preschool pre-service teachers.

Method

In total, 224 participants (M = 21.27, SD = 4.72) were assessed on ability EI (performance and self-report instruments), ITs of intelligence, ITs of EI, age, and parental education.

Results

In our sample, incremental EI-but not intelligence-theories predicted higher scores on self-report and ability EI. In particular, being an incremental theorist of EI predicted 11 and 20% of the variance of the global EI and the managing branch of the ability EI, respectively.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest the importance of ITs of EI for pre-service teachers' emotional intelligence and open the door to implementing ITs of EI training in this population. These theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Training Emotional Intelligence Online: An Evaluation of WEIT 2.0

With the growing popularity of online courses, there is an increasing need for scientifically validated online interventions that can improve emotional competencies. We addressed this demand by evaluating an extended version of the Web-Based Emotional Intelligence Training (WEIT 2.0) program. Based on the four-branch model of emotional intelligence, WEIT 2.0 focuses on improving participants' emotion perception and emotion regulation skills. A total of 214 participants were randomly assigned to the training group (n = 91) or a waiting list control group (n = 123) to evaluate short-term (directly after WEIT 2.0) and long-term intervention effects (8 weeks later). Two-way MANOVAs and mixed ANOVAs showed significant treatment effects for self-reported emotion perception of the self, as well as emotion regulation of the self and others, after 8 weeks. No significant treatment effects were found for self-reported emotion perception in others or for performance-based emotion perception or emotion regulation. Moderator analyses revealed no significant effects of digital affinity on training success from the pretest to the posttest. The findings suggest that components of self-reported emotional intelligence can be enhanced through WEIT 2.0, but performance-based emotional intelligence cannot. Further research is needed on the online training of emotional intelligence and the mechanisms that underlie training success.

The skills that help employees adapt: Empirical validation of a four-category framework

Globalization, technological advances, economic and geopolitical shocks, pandemics, and any number of novel or unanticipated events have one thing in common: they represent change and require dynamic responses and adaptation from organizations, teams, and individuals. A critical resource for individuals to be adaptive are broad skills relevant to varied organizational conditions. These adaptive skills have been discussed in diverse venues but rarely in the organizational literature. Also, most, if not all, of extant conceptual frameworks related to adaptive skills remain unvalidated. The purpose of this research was to organize these skills, define and situate them in the relevant organizational and psychological literatures, and empirically test a proposed four-category framework. The experimental results supported the C+MAC framework, as skills were better categorized in terms of their theoretically related category. Additionally, the four-category framework proved a better fit to the skills compared to an influential, alternative model. The findings' implications are discussed, noting how an empirically validated framework can facilitate understanding of how individuals engage with organizational environments and organizations get their work done.

Affectively effective: Work-related emotional intelligence as a predictor of organizational citizenship

Introduction

Efforts to link ability-related emotional intelligence to organizational behavior have resulted in modest findings.

Methods

The present three studies examine whether a work-contextualized form of emotional intelligence (W-EI) may have greater predictive value, particularly in the organizational citizenship domain. Because W-EI should benefit social relationships within the workplace, positive associations between W-EI and organizational citizenship behavior were hypothesized.

Results

This hypothesis was supported in three studies (total N = 462) involving samples of part-time student employees (Study 1), postdoctoral researchers (Study 2), and full-time employees (Study 3). All studies also provided evidence for incremental validity, such as with respect to the Big 5 personality traits, and Study 3 highlighted processes related to workplace engagement (in the form of higher levels of interpersonal job satisfaction and lower levels of burnout).

Discussion

The results demonstrate the importance of W-EI in understanding employee variations in organizational citizenship.

Emotion in Organizations: Theory and Research

The workplace elicits a wide range of emotions and, likewise, emotions change our experience of the workplace. This article reviews the scientific field of emotion in organizations, drawing from classic theories and cutting-edge advances to integrate a disparate body of research. The review is organized around the definition of emotion as an unfolding sequence of processes: We interpret the world around us for its subjective meaning, which results in emotional experience. Emotional experience, in turn, has consequences for behaviors, attitudes, and cognition. Emotional experience also elicits expressive cues that can be recognized by others. Each process in the emotion sequence can be regulated. Processes can also iterate until emotion is shared throughout workgroups and even entire organizations. A distinct body of organizationally relevant research exists for each process, and emotional intelligence refers to effectiveness across all. Differences across culture and gender, future research directions, and practical implications are discussed.

Introducing an attitude-based approach to emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EI) was originally conceived as an ability, followed soon after by mixed, competency and trait theoretical models, broadly described as emotional efficacies (EE). Several models have attempted to integrate both approaches, with different views on whether EI and EE operate in sequence or parallel. One reason for this may be that EE constructs are given the same ontological status whether they represent underlying attitudes, such as self-regard, or behavioral competencies, such as assertiveness. In this paper, it is proposed that attitudes may predominantly act as underlying antecedents of ability-EI and behavioral-EE. Five benefits of this approach are drawn out that help to address some key concerns with current models and measures of EI and EE. First, the inclusion of implicit and explicit attitudes within integrated models of EI/EE would support the dual-processing of conscious and automated processes. From this, an attitude-based dual-processing framework for EI/EE is recommended. Second, the concept of Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR) for self and others, is identified as a potential attitude that may underpin the two core pillars of intrapersonal and interpersonal EI/EE. Third, UPR attitudes would provide an ethical basis for EI/EE that may support ethical and prosocial behavior. Fourth, UPR attitudes may differentiate between the optimal and sub-optimal elements of EI/EE. Fifth, an attitude-based approach to EI/EE may be more aligned with EI/EE being developmental than are the more static ability or trait-based models of EI/EE.

The Role of Emotional Intelligence and Metacognition in Teachers' Stress during Pandemic Remote Working: A Moderated Mediation Model

During the COVID-19 pandemic, in adapting to social and work changes and new technological methods for remote teaching, teachers were subjected to increased work pressure, which affected their well-being and led to increased negative stress and burnout. This study was designed to test whether dysfunctional outcomes resulting from adapting to new ways of teaching via technological tools can be mitigated by the protective factors of emotional intelligence and metacognition. The study involved 604 teachers in Sicily filling out a questionnaire consisting of four different scales: (1) the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SREIT); (2) the Metacognitive Functions Screening Scale (MFSS-30); (3) the Link Burnout Questionnaire (LBQ); and (4) the Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale STSS-I. The results show that emotional intelligence mediates the relationship between certain remote work risk factors, as well as stress and burnout. In addition, metacognition was found to be a significant moderating factor in the relationship between risk factors and emotional intelligence. With regard to the United Nations' Agenda 2030 Goals, our results emphasize the importance of teachers' emotional and metacognitive skills in promoting quality of life and psychological well-being.

Emotional Intelligence and Teachers' Work Engagement: The Mediating and Moderating Role of Perceived Stress

A growing number of studies have tested the relationship between personal resources (e.g. emotional intelligence) and indicators of occupational well-being, including work engagement. However, few have examined health-related factors moderating or mediating the pathway from emotional intelligence to work engagement. A better knowledge of this area would contribute substantially to the design of effective intervention strategies. The present study's main goal was to test the mediating and moderating role of perceived stress in the association between emotional intelligence and work engagement. The participants comprised 1166 Spanish teaching professionals (744 of whom were female and 537 worked as secondary teachers; M_age = 44.28 years). The results showed that perceived stress partially mediated the link between emotional intelligence and work engagement. Moreover, the positive relationship between emotional intelligence and work engagement was strengthened among individuals who scored high in perceived stress. The results suggest that multifaceted interventions targeting stress management and emotional intelligence development may facilitate engagement in emotionally demanding occupations such as teaching.

Exploring self-regulation theory as a mechanism of the effects of psychological contract fulfillment: The role of emotional intelligence

As self-regulation theory has increasingly been used as a theoretical lens to explain the effects of psychological contract evaluations and employee outcomes, we test whether emotional intelligence (an ability for self-regulation) is a potential moderator of these relationships. More concretely, using a multiple times survey design in an education-based organization with 247 participants, we examined whether emotional intelligence moderates the mediation effect of emotional exhaustion on the relationship between psychological contract fulfillment and turnover intentions. Using a structural equations model (SEM) framework, our results support our hypotheses that individuals with low emotional intelligence do not experience the benefits of having fulfilled psychological contracts. Psychological contract fulfillment significantly reduces the likelihood of emotional exhaustion but only for individuals with high emotional intelligence. Consequently, turnover intentions are lower for emotionally intelligent individuals who experience the fulfillment of psychological contracts. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. We conclude our study by suggesting that emotional intelligence should be considered as a relevant individual difference in future psychological contract research.

The relationship between basic psychological needs satisfaction and university students’ academic engagement: The mediating effect of emotional intelligence

Introduction

Basic psychological needs satisfaction (BPNS) and Emotional intelligence (EI) have been underscored as helpful psychological constructs in explaining academic engagement. However, the joint interaction of BPNS with EI abilities to explain academic engagement has not been tested. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the interactive role of BPNS with EI abilities in the prediction of academic engagement in a sample of Chinese university students.

Methods

A questionnaire survey was administered to a sample of 466 university students. The data were analyzed using the SPSS (version 21.0) software. The first analysis consisted of descriptive statistics (including mean and standard deviation) and Pearson’s correlations among BPNS, EI, and academic engagement. Through structural equation modeling (SEM), direct and indirect effects were calculated.

Results

The results showed that BPNS was positively associated with academic engagement and that only the Use of emotion dimension of EI mediated these associations.

Discussion

These results suggest that important interventions incorporated with BPNS and EI abilities, especially the use of emotion ability, may be performed to promote university students’ academic engagement.

Dual Commitment to Leader and Organization: Alternative Models Based on the Employees’ Emotional Awareness

Management has been considering employee commitment as one of the strategic priorities, due to many studies suggesting the positive influence of commitment on high performance, innovative work behavior, employee retention, and many other important business outcomes. Nevertheless, commitment is considered an abstract construct, from which human resources management needs to create policies and practices that effectively support the business strategy and organizational culture. The existence of many foci of commitment in the workplace has been a challenge in that scenario, being important to understand how different foci relate to each other and how they influence the employee commitment process. To contribute to filling this gap, this research aims to compare two different models, analyzing the relationship between two foci of commitment, namely the affective commitment to the leader and organizational commitment. For this purpose, the employees’ emotional awareness has been considered as an independent variable. Hence, this study seeks to identify which model has higher explanatory power, and consequently, a more significant impact on the process of the employees’ commitment. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Employees’ emotional awareness as an antecedent of organizational commitment—The mediating role of affective commitment to the leader

Commitment has been perceived as a strategic topic in organizations due to its positive effect on retaining talent, increasing performance, or boosting employees’ innovative behavior. However there are many focis of commitment in the workplace, which has represented a challenge to human resources management, who need implement measures to improve the employee’s commitment. Recent research has suggested a need to conduct studies about commitment, namely antecedents and the relationship between different focis, to understand the dynamic and directionality between them. Hence, the purpose of this work is to analyze how employees’ emotional awareness relates with two focis of commitment (the leader and the organization), also assessing the mediating role of affective commitment to the leader. The study uses structural equation modeling and Lisrel to test the hypotheses considering the multidimensionality of organizational commitment (affective; normative; and continuance), employees emotional awareness (understanding self-emotions; self-control when facing criticism; and understanding others’ emotions), and the affective commitment to the leader, under the scope of Social Exchange Theory. The Mackinon’s Z Test was used to assess the mediation role of affective commitment to the leader. The sample is composed for 403 employees from two multinational companies. The results provide empirical evidence about the mediating role of affective commitment to the leader in the relationship between employees’ emotional awareness and organizational commitment, and the employees’ emotional awareness as an antecedent of commitment. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Linking emotion regulation strategies to employee motivation: The mediating role of guanxi harmony in the Chinese context

This study examined the mediating role of guanxi harmony, a concept of interpersonal relationships specific to the Chinese context, between leaders' emotion regulation strategies and employee motivation. Data were drawn from 489 on-the-job MBA students with enough management experience from thirteen different types of cities in China. The study tested the model using hierarchical regression. The results showed that the reappraisal strategy was positively related to employee motivation and the suppression strategy was negatively related to employee motivation in the Chinese context. Guanxi harmony played a partially mediating role between reappraisal and employee motivation, and played a fully mediating role between suppression and employee motivation. These findings suggest that in the Chinese context, guanxi harmony between leaders and employees has a positive effect on employee motivation, and when leaders apply appropriate emotion regulation strategies, they can achieve guanxi harmony and promote employee motivation.

An Investigation Into the Interplay Between Chinese EFL Teachers' Emotional Intelligence, Ambiguity Tolerance, and Work Engagement

Teachers' work engagement is regarded as a critical issue in educational contexts, so the emotional factors and personality traits, and their effects on teacher engagement have drawn the attention of investigators. This study seeks to investigate the relationship between teachers' emotional intelligence, ambiguity tolerance, and work engagement. Moreover, this study tries to investigate the contribution of emotional intelligence and ambiguity tolerance to teachers' work engagement. To do so, 322 teachers (96 males and 226 females) participated in this study. Schutte's Self Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT), Multiple Stimulus Types Ambiguity Tolerance Scale-II (MSTAT-II), and Self-report engagement Questionnaire were used in this study. The statistical techniques used in this study are the Spearman Rho test and ANOVA. The findings showed that there are significant correlations between work engagement, emotional intelligence, and ambiguity tolerance. Comparing the predictability power, teachers' emotional intelligence (B = 0.611) proved to have a higher index compared to their index of ambiguity tolerance (B = 0.2). This study concluded that emotionally intelligent teachers and teachers with higher levels of ambiguity tolerance are more engaged in the EFL contexts. Moreover, the study has some pedagogical implications and suggestions for different teacher educators, policy-makers, and advisors. The ideas can improve their awareness of teachers' emotional intelligence, ambiguity tolerance, and work engagement in educational environments.

Facilitating Cross-Cultural Adaptation: A Meta-Analytic Review of Dispositional Predictors of Expatriate Adjustment

This meta-analytic review examines the relationship between various dispositional characteristics and expatriate adjustment, including the Big Five constructs and other characteristics that have garnered more recent empirical attention (i.e., cultural empathy/flexibility, cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence). Using 62 primary studies ( n = 13,060), we found that the Big Five traits play an important role in expatriate adjustment; however, when assessing the relative influence of these predictors, characteristics such as cultural empathy, cultural intelligence (e.g., motivational CQ), and emotional intelligence appear to exert a stronger influence on adjustment outcomes. Various cultural variables (cultural distance, cultural tightness, gender inequality in the host country) and year of publication were found to moderate some relationships, indicating that sociocultural factors may temper some of these effects.

Student aggression against teachers, stress, and emotional intelligence as predictors of withdrawal intentions among secondary school teachers

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

This exploratory study aimed to test the buffering effect of emotional intelligence in the associations between aggression against teachers, perceived stress, and withdrawal intentions.

DESIGN AND METHODS

A sample of 329 secondary school teachers (51.4% female) completed questionnaires assessing aggression against teachers, perceived stress, withdrawal intentions, and emotional intelligence.

RESULTS

The results showed that emotional intelligence was negatively related to perceived stress and withdrawal intentions. Across moderated-mediation analysis, there were mixed findings regarding the moderating effects of emotional intelligence in the proposed model. Findings indicated that emotional intelligence moderated only the association between perceived stress and withdrawal intentions.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that emotional intelligence is a psychological resource for mitigating the negative effects of perceived stress on negative work attitudes among teaching professionals in the context of harmful student behaviors. Possible avenues for including emotional intelligence in the field of teacher victimization are discussed.

Your Presence Is Requested: Mindfulness Infusion in Workplace Interactions and Relationships

In an increasingly fast-paced work environment filled with distractions, an overabundance of information, and complex decision making, scholars and practitioners alike have begun to recognize the need to slow down and direct attention to the present moment. As such, the study and implementation of mindfulness in the workplace has received growing attention in recent years. This body of work, however, is preoccupied with the outcomes of individual- and collective-level mindfulness, largely ignoring mindfulness as brought into workplace interactions and relationships. In this study, we take a qualitative, grounded theory approach wherein we put forth and unpack a model of interpersonal mindfulness infusion: the process whereby individuals instill their mindfulness into their workplace interactions and relationships. We further distinguish between formal and informal and self- and other-focused mindfulness practices. We show how these practices underlie the mindfulness infusion process and can enhance workplace interactions and relationships. In doing so, we contribute to the organizational literature on mindfulness and positive relationships at work.

Relationship between emotional intelligence and narcissism: a meta-analysis

Purpose

This study aims to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and narcissism, including its possible moderators.

Design/methodology/approach

A meta-analytic investigation of 32 studies was conducted to check hypotheses. Both uncorrected sample-size-weighted and corrected sample-size-weighted mean correlation coefficients were calculated. Meta-regression was used to assess moderation from EI and narcissism measures.

Findings

The results indicated that the relationship between EI and narcissism varied, depending on how EI and narcissism were constructed and measured. Specifically, EI was positively related to grandiose narcissism (GN) and negatively related to vulnerable narcissism (VN). EI was also positively correlated with “composite measures” of narcissism when the measures focused on GN, and negatively correlated when the measures focused on VN. Furthermore, some EI and narcissism measures moderated the correlation between EI and narcissism.

Originality/value

The current study enriches theory by synthesizing the literature to examine whether, and under which conditions, EI fosters or inhibits narcissism. By using the self-regulatory process of narcissism, carefully considering the multifaceted nature of narcissism and updating more data in the meta-analysis, this study contributes to explaining the inconsistency in the relationship between EI and narcissism.

Teachers’ Subjective Happiness: Testing the Importance of Emotional Intelligence Facets Beyond Perceived Stress

Purpose

Emotional intelligence (EI) is typically linked to higher subjective happiness scores in human service professionals. It is unknown which EI facets are more predictive in explaining subjective happiness beyond that accounted for by other key predictors such as perceived stress. This study investigated which EI facets were the most predictive in explaining subjective happiness above perceived stress in a relatively large sample of Spanish teachers.

Methods

The sample was composed of 1323 Spanish teaching professionals (821 females and 529 secondary school teachers) from different educational centers located in Southern Spain. A student-recruited sampling technique was used, and the surveys included the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, the Subjective Happiness Scale, and the Perceived Stress Scale. Predictive and incremental validity was assessed with SPSS, and hierarchical regression analysis was used to predict subjective happiness from EI facets beyond that accounted for by perceived stress.

Results

The results showed that all four EI facets correlated significantly with each other. Also, they all were positively and significantly associated with subjective happiness, whereas perceived stress was negatively associated with happiness scores. Moreover, self-emotion appraisal, use of emotions and regulation of emotions accounted for a significant amount of variance in the prediction of satisfaction with life beyond the effects of sociodemographic variables and perceived stress.

Conclusion

This study extends the specific contribution of EI facets in predicting subjective happiness, rather than EI as a unified construct, in a relatively large sample of Spanish teachers. Self-focused dimensions involving appraisal, use and regulation of emotions appeared to be the most important predictors of happiness beyond stress experienced by teachers. Improved knowledge of the link between specific dimensions of EI and global subjective happiness might improve training in a well-being prevention program for professional development.

The Promotion of Creativity of Vocational College Students: The Role of Parent-Child Relationship, Emotional Intelligence, and Grit

Objective: To examine whether emotional intelligence played a mediation role in the association between parent-child relationship and vocational college student’s creativity, and whether grit moderated this mediating process.

Methods: 663 vocational college students participated in this study and completed four questionnaires at three time points, which included measures of parent-child relationship, creativity, emotional intelligence, and grit.

Results: (1) Emotional intelligence mediated the relationship between parent-child relationship and vocational college student’s creativity; (2) grit moderated the mediating role of emotional intelligence between parent-child relationship and vocational college student’s creativity.

Conclusion: Parent-child relationship had both direct effects on vocational college student’s creativity and indirect effects through emotional intelligence. Grit moderates the effect of emotional intelligence on vocational college student’s creativity.

Responding to Positive Emotions at Work - The Four Steps and Potential Benefits of a Validating Response to Coworkers' Positive Experiences

In order to capitalize on positive emotions at work and build high-quality interpersonal relationships and psychological safety, it is important that coworkers respond to each other’s positive emotions in a constructive and validating way. However, despite the importance of symmetrical emotion regulation outcomes, organizational research has largely overlooked how an employee can positively respond to coworkers’ positive emotions. Existing research has concentrated almost exclusively on negative ways of responding, with a particular focus on envy. This article develops a theoretical model of employees’ positive responses to coworkers’ positive emotional experiences, introduced here as a validating response. We identify four steps – noticing, sensemaking, feeling, and acting – and the key mechanisms within each step that enable a responder to react in a validating way. We connect the validating response to important potential individual and organizational outcomes. These outcomes include improved relationship quality and trust, as well as increased positivity and well-being that can result in enhanced learning behavior and collaboration. This article also discusses the connection between a validating response and compassion. We identify them both as parallel affirmative processes that acknowledge a coworker’s emotions, with the former being a response to positive emotion while the latter is a response to negative emotion.

COVID-19: How the stress generated by the pandemic may affect work performance through the moderating role of emotional intelligence

This study aimed to assess the moderating effect of emotional intelligence (EI) in the direct impact of the stress generated by the pandemic on work performance and counterproductive work behaviors (CWB) in a multioccupational sample of 1048 professionals (60.7% women). The participants filled the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, the Impact of Event Scale 6 and the Individual Work Performance Questionnaire. The results proved a relationship between Covid stress, performance and EI, which has a moderating effect between the stress and both indicators of performance, even when sociodemographic variables were controlled. In essence, professionals with high levels of EI and low Covid stress showed the highest performance and the lowest CWB when compared to those who presented less emotional capabilities and higher stress. These results confirm the importance of EI in improving the effectiveness of work performance and reinforce the role of EI as a protective variable that can safeguard occupational health.

Managing Team Conscientiousness Diversity: The Role of Leader Emotion-Regulation Knowledge

Team members may vary in the degree to which they are self-motivating, diligent, and organized, but effects of such conscientiousness diversity are poorly understood. We propose that conscientiousness diversity effects depend on the team leader’s knowledge about managing negative affective responses—that is emotion regulation knowledge. Data of two time-lagged team studies show that for teams with leaders with lower emotion-regulation knowledge, conscientiousness diversity was negatively associated with team satisfaction (Study 1 and 2), team cohesion and information elaboration (Study 2), which in turn influenced team performance (Study 2). These negative relationships reversed in teams with leaders with higher emotion-regulation knowledge.

Health-Care Professionals Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Emotional Intelligence May Enhance Work Performance Traversing the Mediating Role of Work Engagement

Upon the eruption of COVID-19, frontline health-care workers confronted substantial workload and stress along with braving additional difficulties when performing at work. The main aim of this research was to assess the mediating role of work engagement in the direct impact of emotional intelligence on health-care professionals' work performance. A cross-sectional study was conducted in several Spanish hospitals during the second half of 2020. A total of 1549 health-care workers (62.1% women; mean age 36.51 years) filled the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and the Individual Work Performance Questionnaire. Our findings demonstrated that work engagement plays a mediating effect between emotional intelligence and work performance, even when accounting for sociodemographic variables. Indeed, among the three constructs of engagement, vigor dimension (a1b1 = 0.09; CI: 0.06; 0.12; p < 0.01) emerges over dedication (a2b2 = 0.083; CI = 0.05, 0.1; p < 0.01) and absorption (a3b3 = 0.047; CI = 0.02, 0.07; p < 0.01) as the most decisive one. Herewith, it is apparent that professionals with a higher self-perception of emotional intelligence report stronger levels of engagement, thereby leading to greater performance overall. The present work evinces the necessity for proactively developing the emotional competencies of the health-care workforce, especially in high-emotional demand contexts.

The Social Effects of Emotions

We review the burgeoning literature on the social effects of emotions, documenting the impact of emotional expressions on observers' affect, cognition, and behavior. We find convergent evidence that emotional expressions influence observers' affective reactions, inferential processes, and behaviors across various domains, including close relationships, group decision making, customer service, negotiation, and leadership. Affective reactions and inferential processes mediate the effects of emotional expressions on observers' behaviors, and the relative potency of these mediators depends on the observers' information processing and the perceived appropriateness of the emotional expressions. The social effects of emotions are similar across expressive modalities (face, voice, body, text, symbols). We discuss the findings in relation to emotional contagion, emotional intelligence, emotion regulation, emotions as social information (EASI) theory, and the functionality of emotions in engendering social influence. Finally, we identify gaps in our current understanding of the topic and call for interdisciplinary collaboration and methodological diversification. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 73 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Development and validation of film stimuli to assess empathy in the work context

A growing body of research suggests that empathy predicts important work outcomes, yet limitations in existing measures to assess empathy have been noted. Extending past work on the assessment of empathy, this study introduces a newly developed set of emotion-eliciting film clips that can be used to assess both cognitive (emotion perception) and affective (emotional congruence and sympathy) facets of empathy in vivo. Using the relived emotions paradigm, film protagonists were instructed to think aloud about an autobiographical, emotional event from working life and relive their emotions while being videotaped. Subsequently, protagonists were asked to provide self-reports of the intensity of their emotions during retelling their event. In a first study with 128 employees, who watched the film clips and rated their own as well as the protagonists’ emotions, we found that the film clips are effective in eliciting moderate levels of emotions as well as sympathy in the test taker and can be used to calculate reliable convergence scores of emotion perception and emotional congruence. Using a selected subset of six film clips, a second two-wave study with 99 employees revealed that all facet-specific measures of empathy had moderate-to-high internal consistencies and test–retest reliabilities, and correlated in expected ways with other self-report and test-based empathy tests, cognition, and demographic variables. With these films, we expand the choice of testing materials for empathy in organizational research to cover a larger array of research questions.

It Works Without Words

Abstract. Emotion recognition ability of emotions expressed by other people (ERA-O) can be important for job performance, leadership, bargaining, and career success. Traditional personnel assessment tools of this ability, however, are contaminated by linguistic skills. In a time of global work migration, more and more people speak a language at work that is not their mother tongue. Consequently, we developed and validated the Face-Based Emotion Matching Test (FEMT), a nonlinguistic objective test of ERA-O in gainfully employed adults. We demonstrate the FEMT’s validity with psychological constructs (cognitive and emotional intelligence, Big Five personality traits) and its criterion validity and interethnic fit.

Managing Teachers' Job Attitudes: The Potential Benefits of Being a Happy and Emotional Intelligent Teacher

According to the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, the frequency of positive emotions is associated with the development of positive attitudes, cognitions, and behaviors in organizational contexts. However, positive and negative attitudes at work might also be influenced by different personal and job resources. While emotional intelligence has been significantly associated with positive job attitudes and personal well-being, no studies have yet examined the joint role of teacher happiness and emotional intelligence in key teacher job attitudes. The present study assesses whether emotional intelligence interacts with levels of teacher happiness to jointly explain important teacher job attitudes (i.e., job satisfaction and turnover intention). A total sample of 685 teaching professionals (431 female) filled out a battery of scales including subjective happiness, emotional intelligence, job satisfaction, and turnover intention. Our results revealed that subjective happiness was significantly associated with both higher job satisfaction and lower turnover intention. Likewise, emotional intelligence was positively related to happiness and job satisfaction, and negatively related to turnover intention. Finally, interaction analysis showed the main effects of happiness and emotional intelligence in explaining teacher job attitudes. Beyond the main effects, the interaction effects of happiness and emotional intelligence were significant in predicting all teachers' job attitude indicators, even controlling for the effects of their sociodemographic variables. This work expands our knowledge about the role of teachers' positive emotions in the development of positive work attitudes, and also supports the inclusion of emotional skills in future teacher preparation programs as resources to facilitate work-related well-being.

Linking Self- and Other-Focused Emotion Regulation Abilities and Occupational Commitment among Pre-Service Teachers: Testing the Mediating Role of Study Engagement

This investigation aimed to explore the mediator role of study engagement (i.e., study vigor and dedication) in the association between self- and other-focused emotion regulation abilities and occupational commitment in a sample of pre-service teachers. The sample was comprised of 249 students (65.5% female; Mage = 27 years) of a master’s degree in teacher training for secondary education. Results showed the relationship between self-focused emotion regulation ability and occupational commitment to be fully mediated by levels of vigor. No significant results were found regarding a mediator model involving other-focused emotion regulation as predictor. Although these findings warrant prospective replication, they provide evidence that development of self-focused emotion regulation skills (rather than other-focused skills) may facilitate occupational commitment among beginning teachers through desirable states that facilitate energy and reduce the likelihood of fatigue at work. These results are discussed in terms of their practical implications for developing interventions to improve pre-service teachers’ well-being and commitment.

From shared climate to personal ecosystems: Why some people create unique environments

Much of organizational behavior research looks at how social context influences individuals’ experiences and behaviors. We add to this view by arguing that some individuals create their own contexts, and do so in a way that follows them across dyads, groups, and organizations. We call these individual-specific contexts “personal ecosystems,” and propose that they are created when an actor consistently engages in visible behaviors that trigger similar and visible reactions across targets of that behavior. We attribute the formation of personal ecosystems to social inertia, and identify three individual traits that increase the likelihood that an individual’s behavior is consistent across people and situations: low self-monitoring, implicit beliefs, and low levels of emotional intelligence. Finally, we discuss why understanding personal ecosystems is important for organizations, identify managerial implications of this phenomenon, and strategies for diminishing the likelihood of having personal ecosystems.

Is Team Emotional Composition Essential for Virtual Team Members' Well-Being? The Role of a Team Emotional Management Intervention

The aim of this study was twofold. First, we examined the relationship between virtual teams' emotional intelligence composition and three indicators of their members' well-being, members' satisfaction with the team, and positive and negative affective states. Second, we analyzed the moderator role of an online team emotional management intervention in the effects of the team emotional intelligence composition. One hundred and two virtual teams participated in an experimental study with repeated measures. Teams were randomly assigned to either an intervention designed to help them detect and manage emotions during virtual teamwork or a control condition (with no intervention). We followed a hierarchical data strategy and examined a number of nested models using Hierarchical Linear Modeling. Our findings showed that virtual teams' emotional intelligence composition is a key driver of the team members' well-being, and that a team emotional management intervention moderated the impact of the team composition of emotional intelligence, buffering its influence.

QEPro: An ability measure of emotional intelligence for managers in a French cultural environment

Managers' interest in the concept of emotional intelligence (EI) has grown steadily due to an accumulation of published articles and books touting EI's benefits. For over thirty years, many researchers have used or designed tools for measuring EI, most of which raise important psychometric, cultural and contextual issues. The aim of this article is to address some of the main limitations observed in previous studies of EI. By developing and validating QEPro we propose a new performance-based measure of EI based on a modified version of Mayer and Salovey's (1997) four-branch model. QEPro is an ability EI measure specifically dedicated to managers and business executives in a French cultural environment (N = 1035 managers and executives). In order to increase both the ecological and the face validity of the test for the target population we used the Situational Judgment Tests framework and a theory-based item development and scoring approach. For all items, correct and incorrect response options were developed using established theories from the emotion and management fields. Our study showed that QEPro has good psychometric qualities such as high measurement precision and internal consistency, an appropriate level of difficulty and a clear factorial structure. The tool also correlates in meaningful and theoretically congruent ways with general intelligence, Trait EI measures, the Big Five factors of personality, and the Affect measures used in this study. For all these reasons, QEPro is a promising tool for studying the role of EI competencies in managerial outcomes.

The Emotion Regulation Roots of Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is a core variable in the study and practice of organizational psychology because of its implications for desirable work outcomes. Knowledge of its antecedents is abundant and informative, but there are still psychological processes underlying job satisfaction that have not received complete attention. This is the case of employee emotion regulation. In this study, we argue that employees’ behaviors directed to manage their affective states participate in their level of job satisfaction and hypothesize that employee affect-improving and -worsening emotion regulation behaviors increase and decrease, respectively, job satisfaction, through the experience of positive and negative affect. Using a diary study with a sample of professionals from diverse jobs and organizations, for the most part, the mediational hypotheses were supported by the results albeit a more complex relationship was found in the case of affect worsening emotion regulation. This study contributes to expanding the job satisfaction and emotion regulation literatures and informs practitioners in people management in organizations about another route to foster and sustain positive attitudes at work.

The Interplay of Emotional Intelligence Abilities and Work Engagement on Job and Life Satisfaction: Which Emotional Abilities Matter Most for Secondary-School Teachers?

Emotional intelligence has been underscored as a helpful personal resource in explaining life and job attitudes in human services employees. However, the joint interaction of emotional intelligence (EI) abilities with work engagement to explain life and job attitudes has not been tested. The present study aimed to explore the interactive role of EI abilities with work engagement in the prediction of job and life satisfaction in a sample of Spanish secondary-school teachers. A total of 190 teachers (125 females) participated in the study. Notably, the results showed that only emotion regulation ability (ERA) was significantly associated with work engagement, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction. Furthermore, ERA moderated the relationship between work engagement and job and life satisfaction. The present findings contribute to current knowledge on EI abilities and personal and job-related correlates of teachers’ work engagement.