Disaggregating emotional intelligence: building job satisfaction through emotional abilities

Abstract

Purpose

The changing environment of today’s organizations creates an atmosphere ripe for emotions. This ebb and flow of emotions need to be managed to facilitate positive outcomes such as job satisfaction. This paper aims to provide evidence that emotional intelligence directly impacts one’s satisfaction at work. This paper attempts to go beyond these higher-order findings to examine the dimensional aspects of emotional intelligence and the impact each one has on job satisfaction.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a quantitative survey conducted among 427 US-based workers, this paper tests a disaggregated emotional intelligence model and its hypothesized relationships with job satisfaction through structural equation modeling (SEM). Additional analysis includes confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and a two-stage common method variance assessment.

Findings

The results confirmed the positive impact of the dimensions of emotional intelligence on job satisfaction. However, with interactive effects in place, the results also found signs of reciprocal suppression and could not confirm that all four emotional intelligence dimensions significantly and positively related to job satisfaction.

Originality/value

These findings are significant in that they are among the first to elaborate on the dimensions of emotional intelligence and their role in the improvement of one’s satisfaction at work. Further, these findings legitimize the use of the theoretical higher-order model of emotional intelligence in lieu of investigating its dimensional aspects.

Citation

Winton, B.G. (2023), "Disaggregating emotional intelligence: building job satisfaction through emotional abilities", International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 569-586. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-03-2021-2669