SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

published: 25 April 2022

doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.611348

A Meta-Analysis of the Relationships

Between Emotional Intelligence and
Employee Outcomes
Çaǧlar Doǧru*

Department of Management and Organization, Ufuk University, Ankara, Turkey

Emotional intelligence is an emerging field since the 1990s due to its important
outcomes for employees. This study is a psychometric meta-analysis examining the
links between emotional intelligence and organizational commitment, organizational
citizenship behavior, job satisfaction, job performance, and job stress of employees. In
this meta-analysis, carefully selected studies on emotional intelligence since the origin of
the concept in 1990 were included along with studies examining its outcomes. For this
analysis, three streams of emotional intelligence, consistent with previous meta-analyses,
were considered: ability, self-report, and mixed emotional intelligence. This meta-analysis
is an attempt to add to the literature by analyzing the relationships between emotional
intelligence and selected employee outcomes over a period of time beginning in 1990.
The three streams of emotional intelligence were separately analyzed to examine their
Edited by:
relationship with employee outcomes. These outcomes were included in the study based
Osman Titrek,
Sakarya University, Turkey on select research studies. Our study results showed that emotional intelligence and
Reviewed by: its three streams were positively related to organizational commitment, organizational
Ajay K. Jain, citizenship behavior, job satisfaction, and job performance and negatively related to
Management Development
Institute, India
job stress.
Catherine S. Daus,
Keywords: emotional intelligence (EI), organizational commitment, organizational citizen behavior (OCB), job
Southern Illinois University
satisfaction, job performance, job stress, meta-analysis
Edwardsville, United States

*Correspondence:
Çaǧlar Doǧru INTRODUCTION
[email protected]
Since the 1990s, the study of emotional intelligence has gained importance in disciplines such
Specialty section: as psychology (Salovey et al., 2009), management (Prentice et al., 2020), organizational behavior
This article was submitted to (Minbashian et al., 2018), leadership (Goleman et al., 2013), education (Titrek, 2009), and
Organizational Psychology,
marketing (Kidwell et al., 2011). This is due to the increasing value of emotional intelligence in
a section of the journal
Frontiers in Psychology
employees. It is argued that a business that effectively manages emotions within its organization
results in better performance and higher rates of return than companies that ignore emotions
Received: 28 September 2020
(Parmar, 2016). Emotions can be effectively managed in an organization by understanding
Accepted: 28 February 2022
Published: 25 April 2022
employees (Pick et al., 2015), cultivating empathy (Petrovici and Dobrescu, 2014), giving them a
chance to understand each other and creating a unique organizational emotional climate (Härtel
Citation:
Doǧru Ç (2022) A Meta-Analysis of
et al., 2008). All these abilities, in addition to the capacity of the employees to monitor their own
the Relationships Between Emotional and others’ emotions, were defined as emotional intelligence by Salovey and Mayer (1990). They
Intelligence and Employee Outcomes. viewed emotional intelligence as a subgroup of social intelligence, and following their continued
Front. Psychol. 13:611348. research, they revised it and propounded the four-branch model of emotional intelligence, which
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.611348 included perception and expression of emotion, assimilating emotion in thought, understanding and

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Doǧru Meta-Analysis of Emotional Intelligence

analyzing emotion, reflective regulation of emotion (Mayer and finally, the results of the study. A comprehensive discussion on
Salovey, 1997). In their studies, they projected emotional the results will be presented at the end of the study.
intelligence as an ability, and recent research has added weight
to the ability and the integrative model approaches in this field THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND
(Mayer et al., 2008).
In this study, the primary goal is to update the prior meta-
HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT
analyses on the relationships between emotional intelligence Emotional Intelligence
in organizations and employee outcomes. Scholars have Salovey and Mayer (1990) were the first to assess emotional
already linked particular employee outcomes with emotional intelligence (EI) as an ability of an individual to effectively
intelligence. These include performance (Gong et al., 2019), manage their own and others’ emotions. According to Van Rooy
job satisfaction (Feyerabend et al., 2018), organizational and Viswesvaran (2004), it included all verbal and non-verbal
commitment (Baba, 2017), burnout (Hong and Lee, 2016), abilities to understand and evaluate emotions. Additionally, there
stress (Sarrionandia et al., 2018), leadership (Mullen et al., are previous studies that debate whether emotional intelligence is
2019), motivation, organizational justice, and counterproductive a trait or an ability. Some scholars argue that EI is a competence
work behavior (Tziner et al., 2020). In this research, we (e.g., Salovey and Mayer, 1990; Austin, 2010), and some others
have attempted to articulate the consequences of emotional refer to it as a trait (e.g., Bar-On, 1997; Petrides and Furnham,
intelligence in organizations by conducting a meta-analysis. 2000; Petrides et al., 2007).
Various useful meta-analyses on emotional intelligence already Based on the different approaches for emotional intelligence,
exist. For example, Joseph and Newman (2010) conducted different measures have been adopted to assess them. For
an integrative meta-analysis linking emotion perception, instance, Harms and Credé (2010) and O’Boyle et al. (2011),
understanding, and regulation with performance. Harms and in their studies, discussed the Bar-On Emotional Quotient
Credé (2010) found a positive correlation between emotional Inventory (EQ-i) (1997) and the Emotional and Social
intelligence and transformational and transactional leadership. Competency Inventory (Boyatzis et al., 2011) for measuring
O’Boyle et al. (2011) added to the literature through their emotional intelligence as a trait. Mayer and Salovey (1997)
three-stream approach for emotional intelligence and the developed and transformed EI into a four-branch model. In
relationship between the approach with job performance. 2002, the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test
Miao et al. (2017a) also used the three-stream approach to (MSCEIT) was developed (Mayer et al., 2002) and, after a year,
explore the connections between emotional intelligence and the 141-item scale MSCEIT V2.0 was developed (Mayer et al.,
job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover 2003).
intentions. Building on previous theoretical and methodological Throughout this study, the three-streams approach of
contributions of various scholars, in this study, it was decided emotional intelligence is used. According to Ashkanasy and Daus
to explore the relationships between emotional intelligence (2005), the first stream is ability-based, the second is self-report,
and certain employee outcomes using a meta-analysis covering and the third is mixed-model. The purpose of the study is to
a period of 30 years. The employee outcomes that were include as many studies as possible using the three different
selected for this analysis are organizational commitment, streams and to measure emotional intelligence.
organizational citizenship behavior, job performance, job
satisfaction, and job stress. These employee outcomes were Organizational Commitment
selected for two reasons. First, according to the literature Organizational commitment as a concept has been very popular
survey, they are the most correlated employee outcomes among organizational behavior scholars since the 1970s. It has
with emotional intelligence. Second, the three streams of been associated with many important employee attitudes and
emotional intelligence and the selected employee outcomes form behaviors like employee turnover (Marsh and Mannari, 1977;
part of future research suggestions in studies undertaken by Kang et al., 2015), job satisfaction (Bartol, 1979; Culibrk et al.,
Ashkanasy and Daus (2005), Joseph and Newman (2010), and 2018), absenteeism (Cohen and Golan, 2007), job performance
Mattingly and Kraiger (2019). (Supriyanto, 2013), role stress (Han et al., 2015), and knowledge
This study also aims to add to the existing literature on sharing (Curado and Vieira, 2019).
emotional intelligence. First, this study includes a vast array of Organizational commitment is indicative of the employee’s
studies on emotional intelligence since the origin of this concept recognition and acceptance of organizational circumstances
in 1990. Second, this study explores the relationship between (Steers, 1977). The essential characteristics of organizational
emotional intelligence and a wide range of selected employee commitment include approval of organizational rules, approval
outcomes, namely, organizational commitment, organizational of objectives and values, and behaving in favor of the
citizenship behavior, job performance, job satisfaction and organization (Porter et al., 1974). Given the multidimensional
job stress. These employee outcomes were carefully selected structure of organizational commitment, Meyer and Allen (1991)
through a literature review. Third, this study adopts the three- classified the concept into affective, normative, and continuance
stream classification of emotional intelligence as highlighted commitment. Affective commitment is defined as the sentimental
by Ashkanasy and Daus (2005). This study has the following attachment employees have for their organization, and normative
structure – a detailed theoretical review followed by the commitment is built on the moral obligation they feel to stay
hypothesis, the research methodology, the overall analysis, and back in an organization. Continuance commitment is when the

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Doǧru Meta-Analysis of Emotional Intelligence

employee prefers to remain in the organization for fear of facing a Job Satisfaction
negative outcome associated with leaving the organization (Allen Job satisfaction has emerged as a very popular behavioral
and Meyer, 1990). outcome among scholars who have been trying to locate
Employees with higher emotional intelligence are believed to behavioral outcomes since the beginning of 1930s (e.g., Hoppock,
direct their own emotions, and therefore, they might be more 1935). Job satisfaction is an attitude that signals “a positive
committed to their organizations. These kinds of employees are or negative evaluative judgment toward an employee’s job.”
more resistant to emotional surges. For this reason, their intent to (Weiss, 2002). Ever since the introduction of the concept of
leave their organizations is lower when compared to employees job satisfaction in this field, its various impacts on employees
with a lower level of emotional intelligence (Lee and Woo, 2015). have been examined. Among them are job performance (Li
Another reason is that emotionally intelligent employees are et al., 2018), turnover intentions (Lu et al., 2016), job burnout
more successful in building strong social relationships in the (Zhang and Feng, 2011), organizational commitment (Valaei and
workplace (Schutte et al., 2001). Managers, who are recognized Rezaei, 2016), and organizational citizenship behavior (Singh
as the agents of the organization, provide social support that and Singh, 2019). According to these studies, there are positive
increases the level of organizational commitment (Panaccio links between job performance, organizational commitment and
and Vandenberghe, 2009). As evidenced from the literature organizational citizenship behavior, and job satisfaction. On
by Miao et al. (2017a), and Baba (2017), there is a positive the contrary, job satisfaction has negative effects on turnover
correlation between EI and organizational commitment, which intentions and burnout since it is an important element that
is our first hypothesis. steers an individual’s happiness and enthusiasm to perform in the
Hypothesis 1 (H1): EI has a positive relationship with workplace (Piccolo et al., 2005).
organizational commitment of employees. Emotional intelligence is a vital input for employees feeling
job satisfaction. For example, Anari (2012), in his study on high-
Organizational Citizenship Behavior school teachers, established positive links between emotional
Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) of employees are intelligence and job satisfaction. Similarly, Brunetto et al. (2012)
generally related to the social and psychological aspects within found that EI was the main indicator for predicting job
organizations (Organ, 1997). These behaviors mostly go beyond satisfaction in a study among 193 police officers in Australia.
the formal job description in the workplace. Among these Furthermore, in their meta-analysis, Miao et al. (2017b) revealed
behaviors are accepting extra responsibilities and duties, working that job satisfaction was positively affected by emotional
longer hours, accepting and obeying organizational rules and intelligence regardless of gender, age, or tenure, which is the basis
procedures, and helping colleagues when they need (Organ et al., of our third hypothesis.
2006). These types of activities are usually not listed in the formal Hypothesis 3 (H3): EI has a positive link with job satisfaction.
reward system of an organization (Organ and Lingl, 1995).
Organ (1988) classified organizational citizenship behavior Job Performance
into altruism, conscientiousness, sportsmanship, courtesy, and Job performance, in general, can be defined as the employee’s
civic virtue and used each classification to define a particular activities and behaviors that directly or indirectly contribute
behavior exerted by the employee in an organization. For to the organizational goals (Borman and Motowidlo, 1993).
example, it is altruism when employees tend to help colleagues From this perspective, the level of job performance is a valuable
when they need anything. Conscientiousness is related to obeying indicator for many human resource management decisions (e.g.,
organizational rules like working hours, for instance. When training and development, compensation, and promotion).
employees employ constructive approaches to issues in the Most studies categorize job performance as a task or a
organization and refrain from complaining of any inconvenience, contextual performance (e.g., Borman and Motowidlo, 1997;
it is sportsmanship. It is courtesy when employees stop from Van Scotter, 2000). Task performance includes the degree to
abusing the rights of others in the organization. Lastly, civic virtue which employees meet the standards of core and technical
refers to activities that are undertaken to serve the interests of the tasks and duties. Alternatively, contextual performance measures
organization, such as being a member of various committees. the degree of employees’ behaviors that promote the social
Emotional intelligence is understood to reinforce the and psychological environment in the organization, such as
organizational citizenship behaviors of employees in an helping others, taking extra responsibilities in the workplace, and
organization. This may be deducted from the results of studies obeying organizational rules and procedures (Motowidlo and
that have found that employees who are good at managing their Van Scotter, 1994). There are many studies that substantively
emotions are more eager to demonstrate positive behaviors establish that emotional intelligence is a meaningful precursor
in their organizations (e.g., Miao et al., 2017c; Kim and Park, for performance. For example, Farh et al. (2012) found in their
2020). Additionally, employees with high emotional intelligence study on 212 professionals from different organizations that
tend to volunteer helping others in the workplace. Previous overall emotional intelligence led to more effective teamwork
studies demonstrate the positive link between EI and OCB (e.g., and higher job performance. Similarly, Li et al. (2018) found
Turnipseed and Vandewaa, 2012; Pradhan et al., 2016; Miao a positive correlation between trait emotional intelligence and
et al., 2018), which is the second hypothesis. performance among 881 teachers and 37 principals from
Hypothesis 2 (H2): A positive relationship exists between EI and primary schools in China. Also, O’Boyle et al. (2011) found
organizational citizenship behavior. positive correlations between all the three streams of emotional

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Doǧru Meta-Analysis of Emotional Intelligence

intelligence and job performance in their meta-analysis, which is the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology,
our fourth hypothesis. Leadership Quarterly, Personnel Psychology, and Personality and
Hypothesis 4 (H4): EI is positively related to job performance. Individual Differences. Third, proceedings of leading conferences
on Management and Psychology were also scanned (e.g., Annual
Job Stress Meeting of Academy of Management, European Academy of
Job stress is a deviation from the ordinary psychological state Management Conference, and the Society for Industrial and
of an employee due to job-related factors (Schuler, 1980). Job Organizational Psychology Annual Conference). This broad
stress is mostly associated with poor job performance (Siu, 2003), scanning resulted in identifying 287 articles and 118 unpublished
low motivation (Luo, 1999), low job satisfaction (Parker and dissertations and conference papers for examining the links
DeCotiis, 1983), high emotional exhaustion (Griffin et al., 2010), between EI and organizational commitment, organizational
and high turnover intentions (Mullen et al., 2018). In general, citizenship behavior, job satisfaction, job performance and job
building strong social relationships, having role clarity, providing stress. For the articles to be useful for this analysis, some inclusion
organizational support, and encouraging knowledge sharing help criteria were determined.
employees decrease their stress levels.
In addition to environmental and organizational factors, the Inclusion Criteria
employees’ personality, perceptions, and emotions are significant In order to be included in this meta-analysis, the identified
factors contributing to job stress among them (Spector and Goh, studies needed to meet some rules and standards. The first
2001; Sur and Ng, 2014). It is evident that employees who are criterion for any study to be included in this analysis was that
good at managing their emotions experience lower job stress it should be a quantitative empirical study providing at least
(Mann, 2004). However, it is important to note the link between correlation coefficients in its variables. The second criterion was
emotional intelligence and job stress. Lee (2010) found a negative that it should have been published between 1990 and 2020 (the
relationship between emotional intelligence and job stress among first 2 months). The third criterion was that English should
152 nurses from 4 hospitals in Korea. Similarly, Shukla and be the article’s language. The fourth criterion was related to
Srivastava (2016) found a negative relationship between trait the sample – only studies that used unique samples when
emotional intelligence and job stress among 564 retail employees, studying more than one sample were included in the analysis.
which is our fifth hypothesis. This inclusion criterion was developed to prevent duplication
Hypothesis 5 (H5): EI is negatively related to job stress. in samples. Drawing on the recommendations from Ashkanasy
and Daus (2005) and meta-analysis by O’Boyle et al. (2011),
META-ANALYTICAL RESEARCH emotional intelligence was coded based on three streams (ability
EI, self-report EI, and mixed EI). After screening the identified
METHODOLOGY
articles using the inclusion criteria, the final total sample for this
Literature Review meta-analysis consisted of 253 effect sizes representing data from
Since the aim of this study was to include all the relevant 78,159 participants.
research so far, 1990 was chosen as the beginning year, given
that it was in 1990 that Salovey and Mayer conceptualized Visualization of the Inclusion and Exclusion
EI. The time period for this analysis was from 1990 to 2019. Process
However, to expand the scope of this study, studies that were After carefully screening the existing literature on emotional
published in the early months of the 2020 were also included. intelligence and its possible outcomes in the workplace and
To increase the likelihood of identifying relevant studies, both checking the identified studies against the inclusion criteria,
published and unpublished research works in English were some studies were excluded from the analysis. In order to
included in the analysis. Keywords such as emotional intelligence, demonstrate the screening and the selection processes, a widely
emotional ability, emotional competency, emotional stability, used visualization technique in meta-analyses, PRISMA Flow
organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior, Diagram for new Systematic Reviews (Page et al., 2021), was
job satisfaction, job performance, job stress, and occupational employed throughout this meta-analysis and it is shown in
stress were used in this analysis. Figure 1.
To expand the scope of this study, several research techniques
were adopted which were similar to those adopted in previous Descriptive Statistics for the Sample
meta-analytic studies that were part of the literature review. First, To understand the profile of the participants in the studies and
the main electronic databases such as ABI/INFORM Global, to provide more information about the sample, some of the
APA PsycInfo, EBSCOhost, Google Scholar, JSTOR, ProQuest, descriptive statistics were categorized on the basis of participants’
ProQuest Dissertation and Theses, ScienceDirect, and Web of gender, age, and job positions (managerial or non-managerial) as
Science were scanned. Second, a further scanning was carried well as the publication details (year and country) of the studies.
out by searching the archives of leading journals such as the The descriptive statistics are presented in Table 1.
Academy of Management Annals, the Academy of Management
Journal, the Academy of Management Review, Administrative Procedure
Science Quarterly, the Journal of Applied Psychology, the For this study, the psychometric meta-analysis method was
Journal of Management, the Journal of Organizational Behavior, used. The strength of this method is that it provides a basis

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Doǧru Meta-Analysis of Emotional Intelligence

FIGURE 1 | PRISMA flow diagram for new systematic reviews. Source: Page et al. (2021).

TABLE 1 | Descriptive statistics of the samples included in the analysis. This method has been used in previous meta-analyses (e.g.,
Harms and Credé, 2010; O’Boyle et al., 2011). One of the
f %
reasons for choosing this technique is that it helps to forecast
Participants the variance associated with sampling error and artifacts.
Gender To generate artifact distributions, reliability estimates were
Female 37,516 48 employed to fill the gaps stemming from the absence of reliability
Male 32,045 41
data in some of the studies. Hunter and Schmidt (1990)
Missing data* 8,598 11
suggested that the distributions of correlations were corrected
Total 78,159 100
in this study. Further, robs and SDobs were corrected to help
Job position
understand the artefactual biases and moderators, as done
previously by Harms and Credé (2010). Using the technique
Managerial 18,759 24
proposed by Hunter and Schmidt (1990) and successfully
Non-Managerial** 59,400 76
applied by their successors (Ones et al., 1993), several sets of
Total 78,159 100
artifact distributions along with their descriptive details are
Age
presented in Table 2. Next, to indicate the significance of effect
18–30 14,850 19
sizes, the confidence interval was chosen as 95% (corrected).
31–40 24,229 31
Finally, within this scope, the sample sizes and uncorrected
41–50 17,195 22
coefficients were converted into corrected correlation
50 + 11,724 15
coefficients.
Missing data* 10,161 13
As seen in Table 2, the overall mean of the predictor reliability
Total 78,159 100
for artifact distribution is 0.83 and the standard deviation value
*There is no gender or age information of the participants. is 0.09. The mean of the square roots of predictor reliabilities is
**When there is no information about the job position of participant employees, they are 0.91 and the standard deviation of the square roots is 0.05. The
assumed to have non-managerial positions.
overall mean of the criterion reliabilities is 0.87 with a standard
deviation value of 0.13. The mean of the square roots of criterion
for estimating the variance of sampling error and gives an reliabilities is 0.93 and the standard deviation of the square
opportunity to estimate reliability for studies in which no roots of reliability is 0.07. Finally, the mean value of the range
reliability had been reported (Hunter and Schmidt, 2004). restriction value is 0.80 with a standard deviation value of 0.15.

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Doǧru Meta-Analysis of Emotional Intelligence

RESULTS emotional intelligence and organizational commitment (ρ =

0.22, p < 0.001). The results of the relation between EI and
After conducting the psychometric meta-analysis (Hunter and organizational citizenship behavior are presented in Table 4.
Schmidt, 2004), the results obtained from the analysis were Based on the results obtained from 43 samples, it is evident
listed separately. Beginning with the relationship between EI and that emotional intelligence has a positive relationship with
organizational commitment, the results are presented in Table 3. organizational citizenship behavior (ρ = 0.36, p < 0.001).
As evident from Table 3, according to 37 independent overall For this reason, H2 is supported. As with organizational
EI samples, EI is positively and significantly correlated with commitment, self-report emotional intelligence has a strong
organizational commitment (ρ = 0.26, p < 0.001). Therefore, positive relationship with organizational citizenship behavior (ρ
according to the result, H1 is supported. Additionally, all three = 0.37, p < 0.001). Also, as found in previous studies, the
streams of EI are also positively correlated with organizational important relationship between emotional intelligence and job
commitment. Although there is a slight difference in magnitude, satisfaction was reaffirmed. Table 5 provides the correlations and
the most powerful positive relationship exists between self-report additional statistical results.
emotional intelligence and organizational commitment (ρ = According to 74 independent samples, emotional intelligence
0.28, p < 0.001). The weakest relationship is between ability is positively related to job satisfaction (ρ = 0.29, p < 0.001).

TABLE 2 | Descriptive statistics of artifact distributions for correcting validities.

Organizational commitment Mean SD Mean square roots SD square roots

Predictor reliabilities 0.83 0.09 0.91 0.05

Criterion reliabilities 0.87 0.13 0.93 0.07
Range restriction valuesa 0.80 0.15 – –

SD, standard deviation.

a The ratio of the standard deviation of the selected group to the standard deviation of the referent group.

TABLE 3 | Meta-analytic results of the relationship between EI and organizational commitment.

Organizational commitment k n r ρ SDρ 95% CI lower 95% CI upper

limit limit

Ability EI 8 958 0.19 0.22 0.13 0.11 0.33

Self-report EI 17 3,985 0.25 0.28 0.15 0.13 0.43
Mixed EI 12 2,922 0.24 0.27 0.12 0.19 0.35
Overall EI 37 7,865 0.23 0.26 0.14 0.12 0.42
Managerial employees 11 2,136 0.30 0.32 0.09 0.21 0.43
Non-Managerial employees 21 4,271 0.22 0.24 0.07 0.18 0.29
Published studies 29 6,144 0.28 0.31 0.11 0.25 0.37
Unpublished studies 8 1,721 0.18 0.21 0.09 0.16 0.26

EI, emotional intelligence; k, number of independent samples; n, sample size; r, uncorrected sample size weighted mean correlation; ρ, corrected correlation; SDρ , standard deviation
of corrected correlation; CI, confidence interval.

TABLE 4 | Meta-analytic results of the relationship between EI and OCB.

Organizational citizenship behavior k n r ρ SDρ 95% CI lower 95% CI upper

limit limit

Ability EI 11 3,520 0.27 0.29 0.17 0.20 0.38

Self-report EI 19 5,186 0.34 0.37 0.21 0.16 0.58
Mixed EI 13 4,073 0.32 0.35 0.13 0.23 0.47
Overall EI 43 12,779 0.33 0.36 0.20 0.18 0.54
Managerial employees 15 2,957 0.25 0.27 0.14 0.23 0.31
Non-Managerial employees 23 6,109 0.36 0.38 0.16 0.22 0.54
Published studies 32 8,963 0.29 0.32 0.10 0.18 0.46
Unpublished studies 11 3,816 0.38 0.40 0.19 0.33 0.47

EI, emotional intelligence; OCB, organizational citizenship behavior; k, number of independent samples; n, sample size; r, uncorrected sample size weighted mean correlation; ρ, corrected
correlation; SDρ , standard deviation of corrected correlation; CI, confidence interval.

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Doǧru Meta-Analysis of Emotional Intelligence

TABLE 5 | Meta-analytic results of the relationship between EI and job satisfaction.

Job satisfaction k n r ρ SDρ 95% CI lower 95% CI upper

limit limit

Ability EI 16 4,761 0.21 0.24 0.32 0.10 0.38

Self-report EI 33 8,278 0.27 0.31 0.11 0.19 0.43
Mixed EI 25 6,830 0.25 0.30 0.17 0.20 0.39
Overall EI 74 19,869 0.25 0.29 0.24 0.15 0.43
Managerial employees 17 4,368 0.19 0.21 0.15 0.16 0.26
Non-Managerial employees 42 9,281 0.31 0.33 0.19 0.22 0.44
Published studies 64 16,592 0.31 0.35 0.13 0.24 0.46
Unpublished studies 10 3,277 0.20 0.24 0.21 0.18 0.31

EI, emotional intelligence; k, number of independent samples; n, sample size; r, uncorrected sample size weighted mean correlation; ρ, corrected correlation; SDρ , standard deviation
of corrected correlation; CI, confidence interval.

TABLE 6 | Meta-analytic results of the relationship between EI and job performance.

Job performance k n r ρ SDρ 95% CI lower limit 95% CI upper limit

Ability EI 14 5,100 0.24 0.28 0.22 0.18 0.38

Self-report EI 31 10,438 0.28 0.33 0.31 0.09 0.55
Mixed EI 23 7,731 0.27 0.31 0.19 0.13 0.49
Overall EI 68 23,269 0.26 0.30 0.28 0.10 0.49
Managerial employees 21 3,298 0.32 0.33 0.17 0.25 0.41
Non-Managerial employees 32 11,782 0.38 0.40 0.20 0.29 0.51
Published studies 59 19,127 0.21 0.25 0.15 0.17 0.33
Unpublished studies 9 4,142 0.30 0.34 0.21 0.22 0.46

EI, emotional intelligence; k, number of independent samples; n, sample size; r, uncorrected sample size weighted mean correlation; ρ, corrected correlation; SDρ , standard deviation
of corrected correlation; CI, confidence interval.

This indicates that H3 is also supported. The three streams of EI of different emotional intelligence types, managerial and non-
are also positively correlated with job satisfaction. This reaffirms managerial positions and publication types were analyzed by
another important relationship between emotional intelligence conducting separate meta-analyses.
and job performance that this analysis sought to verify. The
results are presented in Table 6. Effects of Types of Emotional Intelligence
As seen in Table 6, for measuring overall EI, 68 samples were As previously stated, the potential moderating effects of ability
used. Again, both overall emotional intelligence (ρ = 0.29, p emotional intelligence, self-report emotional intelligence, and
< 0.001) and the three streams of EI were positively related mixed emotional intelligence were further studied by conducting
to job performance. Therefore, H4 is also supported. Finally, separate meta-analyses. The separate results are indicated in
the relationship between emotional intelligence and job stress is Tables 3–7. According to the results, Ability EI, Self-report EI,
presented in Table 7. and Mixed EI have similar positive and statistically meaningful
It is evident in Table 7 that based on the results obtained from effects on organizational commitment, organizational citizenship
31 samples, a negative relationship exists between emotional behavior, job satisfaction, and job performance but have negative
intelligence and job stress (ρ = −0.43, p < 0.001). This significant effects on job stress (i.e., ρ AbilityEI = 0.22; ρ Self−report EI = 0.28;
and negative relationship is marginally stronger than the other ρ Mixed EI = 0.27 for organizational commitment; ρ AbilityEI =
relationships in this study. Therefore, H5 is also supported. Yet 0.29; ρ Self−report EI = 0.37; ρ Mixed EI = 0.35 for organizational
again, all three types of EI were significantly related to job stress. citizenship behavior; ρ AbilityEI = 0.24; ρ Self−report EI = 0.31;
It can be inferred that emotional intelligence is an important ρ Mixed EI = 0.30 for job satisfaction; ρ AbilityEI = 0.28; ρ Self−report
source for overcoming job stress in the workplace. EI = 0.33; ρ Mixed EI = 0.31 for job performance; and ρ AbilityEI =
−0.42; ρ Self−report EI = −0.45; ρ Mixed EI = −0.37 for job stress).

Effects of Managerial/Non-Managerial Positions

Effects of Possible Moderators Few of the studies included in this meta-analysis had further
The results obtained from the analysis of this meta-analysis categorized the employees as holding either managerial or non-
suggested conducting a moderator analysis. To understand the managerial positions in their organizations. Employees such as
effects of the substantive moderators, the moderating effects branch managers, coaches, supervisors, and chief officers were

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Doǧru Meta-Analysis of Emotional Intelligence

TABLE 7 | Meta-analytic results of the relationship between EI and job stress.

Job stress k n r ρ SDρ 95% CI lower limit 95% CI upper limit

Ability EI 8 2,196 −0.37 −0.42 0.16 −0.55 −0.29

Self-report EI 13 6,964 −0.41 −0.45 0.27 −0.64 −0.26
Mixed EI 10 5,217 −0.33 −0.37 0.20 −0.45 −0.29
Overall EI 31 14,377 −0.39 −0.43 0.22 −0.49 −0.37
Managerial employees 10 2,546 −0.27 −0.30 0.25 −0.32 −0.28
Non-Managerial employees 16 7,630 −0.45 −0.47 0.18 −0.68 −0.26
Published studies 25 11,230 −0.44 −0.48 0.10 −0.63 −0.33
Unpublished studies 6 3,147 −0.34 −0.38 0.21 −0.49 −0.27

EI, emotional intelligence; k, number of independent samples; n, sample size; r, uncorrected sample size weighted mean correlation; ρ, corrected correlation; SDρ , standard deviation
of corrected correlation; CI, confidence interval.

categorized under managerial staff, while frontline employees Similarly, the correlation between emotional intelligence and job
and subordinates were categorized under non-managerial staff. performance is lower in published studies (ρ published : 0.25 <
To examine the moderating effects of managerial and non- ρunpublished : 0.34).
managerial positions on employee outcomes, separate meta-
analyses were conducted. According to the results of the
meta-analyses, a higher correlation exists between emotional DISCUSSION
intelligence and organizational commitment when employees Findings and Theoretical Contributions
held managerial positions (ρ managerial : 0.32 > ρnon−managerial : With the help of this analysis, the relationships between EI
0.24), as shown in Table 3. On the other hand, as indicated and selected employee outcomes in organizations are presented
in Table 4, the correlation between emotional intelligence and herewith. According to the results obtained in this study,
organizational citizenship behavior was lower among managers emotional intelligence and its three streams are positively
(ρ managerial : 0.27 < ρnon−managerial : 0.38). Table 5 shows the lower related to organizational commitment, organizational citizenship
levels of correlation between emotional intelligence and job behavior, job satisfaction, and job performance; however, they
satisfaction among managers (ρ managerial : 0.21 < ρnon−managerial : are negatively related to job stress. If the relationship between
0.33). The same is applicable for the managers’ relationship the different streams of EI and organizational commitment is
between emotional intelligence and job performance, as evident analyzed, it is noticed that self-report EI is slightly stronger
in Table 6 (ρ managerial : 0.33 < ρnon−managerial : 0.40). Finally, in than mixed EI and ability EI (ρ Self−report EI : 0.28 > ρMixed EI :
Table 7, the negative correlation between emotional intelligence 0.27 >ρAbility EI : 0.22). Similarly, the relationship between the
and job stress is established; however, it is stronger among different streams of EI and organizational citizenship behavior
employees in non-managerial positions (ρ managerial : −0.30 < shows that self-report EI is slightly stronger than ability EI and
ρnon−managerial : −0.47). mixed EI (ρ Self−report EI : 0.37 > ρMixed EI : 0.35 >ρAbility EI : 0.29).
Additionally, self-report EI is slightly stronger than ability EI and
Effects of Publication Type mixed EI when there exists a relationship between the different
To examine the moderating effects of publication types included streams of EI and job satisfaction (ρ Self−report EI : 0.31 > ρMixed
in this meta-analysis, both published and unpublished studies EI : 0.30 >ρAbility EI : 0.24). In the relationship between EI streams
were included in separate analyses. This was done to overcome and job performance, self-report EI is still stronger than mixed
the “file drawer problem” (Harms and Credé, 2010), given EI, and ability EI is the weakest (ρ Self−report EI : 0.33 > ρMixed
that most of the results in this analysis were derived from EI : 0.31 >ρAbility EI : 0.28). However, when samples of job stress
published studies. According to the results, the correlations is analyzed, although self-report EI has the strongest negative
between the variables differ based on whether a study is published correlation, ability EI emerges second (ρ Self−report EI : −0.45 >
or unpublished. For example, in Tables 3–7, the corrected ρAbility EI : −0.42 > ρMixed EI : −0.37). These results can be used
correlation between emotional intelligence and organizational to explain the ranking within the three streams of emotional
commitment in published studies is higher than the one intelligence. In general, except for the relationships between the
in unpublished studies (ρ published : 0.31 > ρunpublished : 0.21). EI streams and job stress, it is evident that self-report EI is the
Similarly, between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction most influential among all three EI streams. Although it is useful
(ρ published : 0.35 > ρunpublished : 0.24) and between emotional to note that the differences in their magnitudes are quite slim,
intelligence and job stress (ρ published : −0.48 > ρunpublished : in the relationships between the EI streams and job stress alone,
−0.38), the same correlation exists. However, the corrected ability EI ranked second while mixed EI ranked third.
correlation between emotional intelligence and organizational When the results of this meta-analysis are compared with
citizenship behavior in published studies is lower than the one the previous meta-analyses, it is evident that the findings of the
in unpublished studies (ρ published : 0.32 < ρunpublished : 0.40). relationships between EI and organizational commitment are

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Doǧru Meta-Analysis of Emotional Intelligence

consistent with surveyed literature. Miao et al. (2017a) also found Limitations and Future Research
a positive correlation between self-report EI and organizational Suggestions
commitment, which is slightly stronger (ρ = 0.43) than the One of the limitations was the methodology used in the studies.
result obtained in this study (ρ = 0.28). Their result on mixed Some studies used self-reports for organizational citizenship
emotional intelligence is also higher (ρ = 0.43) than the one behavior and job performance. Though these studies were few,
in this study (ρ = 0.27). Previous meta-analyses also found a their inclusion in this analysis is a limitation for more accurate
positive correlation between EI and organizational citizenship results. Another limitation is the inclusion of unpublished studies
behavior. For example, Miao et al. (2017c) obtained positive such as dissertations in the analysis. Yet again, though there were
correlations between the three streams and organizational few dissertations compared to other published resources, it is
citizenship behavior. The corrected correlation coefficients in important enough to be flagged as a limitation for this analysis.
this analysis are marginally lower than their results. There are The third limitation was that only English sources were included
also similarities between this research and the analysis of Miao in the analysis. Finally, moderators and contextual factors were
et al. (2017a) on the link between emotional intelligence and job not included to retain the focus on the aim of the research.
satisfaction. Furthermore, the results obtained from this meta- The limitations listed in this meta-analysis provide a basis
analysis indicate a positive link between EI and job performance; for future research in this area. Researchers should also
these results are consistent with the previous meta-analysis of consider including more moderators and contextual factors
O’Boyle et al. (2011). The last relationship examined in this meta- while assessing the outcomes of emotional intelligence in
analysis was between EI and job stress. The negative relationship their future studies. Future research should also examine
between them was already identified in the studies that were the effects of emotional intelligence on other factors like
included in this study. Since there was no meta-analysis in the leadership, occupational stress, role stress, innovative behavior
literature that examined this relationship, the results of this and social relations. Another potential variable that has been
study were consistent with the results of separate studies (e.g., largely underemphasized is the correlation between emotional
Mikolajczak et al., 2007; Karimi et al., 2014). intelligence and digital transformation in the workplace (e.g.,
Finally, it is important to flag the effects of managerial Kaur and Sharma, 2021). Thus, researchers should investigate
and non-managerial positions of the employees on the the role of emotional intelligence on the future of work and
relationships between emotional intelligence and employee employees’ perceptions of digitalization in the workplace (e.g.,
outcomes. As reported in the results shared above, it is Stubbemann, 2021).
evident that, when employees hold managerial positions,
their emotional intelligence positively influences their level
of organizational commitment and a stronger correlation is
Practical Implications
Emotional intelligence gains importance day by day for human
obtained (ρ managerial : 0.32 > ρnon−managerial : 0.24). However,
resource managers and line managers. In general, human
correlations between emotional intelligence and organizational
resource managers are more eager to select and place candidates
citizenship behavior (ρ managerial : 0.27 < ρnon−managerial : 0.38),
with higher emotional intelligence (Chia, 2005). Similarly, line
job satisfaction (ρ managerial : 0.21 < ρnon−managerial : 0.33), job
managers are satisfied with the performance of employees with
performance (ρ managerial : 0.33 < ρnon−managerial : 0.40), and
higher emotional intelligence (Gong et al., 2019). This is because
job stress (ρ managerial : −0.30 < ρnon−managerial : −0.47) was
these employees can manage their own emotions as well as their
weaker in those employees holding managerial positions.
colleagues’ emotions. With the help of emotional intelligence,
From this perspective, although there are positive relationships
employees’ satisfaction from job (Soleimani and Einolahzadeh,
between emotional intelligence and organizational citizenship
2017), organizational commitment (Jain and Duggal, 2018), and
behavior, job satisfaction, and job performance, it is evident
job performance (Joseph et al., 2015) is set to increase. For these
that those employees who hold non-managerial positions
reasons, human resource departments should plan strategies for
exhibit stronger positive correlations to these outcomes. A
increasing the emotional intelligence of their employees. They
similar trend is observed in the negative relationship between
could design training and development programs to increase
emotional intelligence and job stress among non-managers in
ability EI, self-report EI, and mixed EI. Human resources
the workplace.
managers could also set rules and standards for rewarding
In this study, an attempt was made to add to the existing
employees with favorable behaviors in the workplace. In
literature on emotional intelligence by determining the nature
addition, line managers could demonstrate effective leadership by
of relationships between emotional intelligence and selected
promoting employee outcomes based on emotional intelligence.
employee outcomes such as organizational commitment,
organizational citizenship behavior, job satisfaction, job
performance, and job stress. These relationships were CONCLUSION
distinguished by ability EI, self-report EI, and mixed EI.
This helped us to see the consequences of emotional intelligence This meta-analysis was an attempt to explore the consequences
on employees in a more detailed way. Lastly, the categorization of emotional intelligence on employee outcomes with the help of
of managerial and non-managerial roles in the samples provided previous studies within a time frame of the last 30 years. From
valuable insights into the relationships between emotional this perspective, this study has tried to add an important brick on
intelligence and employee outcomes. the wall of emotional intelligence literature. Consistent with the

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Doǧru Meta-Analysis of Emotional Intelligence

previous meta-analyses, the three-stream approach for emotional competencies, they should select and place employees with high
intelligence was adopted for this study as well. After carefully emotional intelligence.
examining the studies, it has been observed that all streams By including all three streams of emotional intelligence
of EI are positively related to organizational commitment, to examine their links with employee outcomes, this holistic
organizational citizenship behavior, and job satisfaction whereas meta-analysis is a first step for future studies exploring
they are negatively related to job stress. According to the important relationships and developing research models on
results of this meta-analysis, the magnitudes of the correlations emotional intelligence. Although there are comprehensive
were higher in self-report emotional intelligence compared to studies in the literature, more studies are still needed for
ability emotional intelligence; however, the differences were not the future.
very large.
From this comprehensive meta-analysis, it can be DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
inferred that employees who are good at managing their
own emotions and their colleagues’ emotions are more The original contributions presented in the study are included
committed to their organizations and are more eager to show in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be
organizational citizenship behavior, evince job satisfaction, directed to the corresponding author/s.
and evince better job performance, and their level of job
stress tends to decrease. Since these are all favorable employee AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
outcomes, managers should design development programs
for increasing the capacity of emotional intelligence among The author confirms being the sole contributor of this work and
employees in the organization. In addition to other job-specific has approved it for publication.

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Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 12 April 2022 | Volume 13 | Article 611348