Title: Impact of emotional intelligence and social intelligence on employee performance: is there an overlap?

Authors: Anu Singh Lather; Shilpa Jain; Bhavna Bajaj

Addresses: Ambedkar University, Delhi, India ' University School of Management Studies, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi, India ' Australian Institute of Business, Adelaide City Centre, Australia

Abstract: The last 20 years have seen a surge of research interest in social and emotional intelligence in the workplace. Despite their apparent popularity, emotional intelligence (EI) and social intelligence (SI) are often conflated in management research; and their utility is heavily debated. The present study examines EI and SI concurrently in a single study for their linkages with employee performance. Results of the regression analyses undertaken in the current study show that both SI and EI explain 15% and 21% variation in employee performance, respectively. Employee performance is more significantly linked to 'other-facing' rather than 'self-facing' dimensions of EI, and variance explained increases only moderately when both SI and EI are included in the same model suggesting that these constructs overlap with each other. The present study is among the first to investigate the two constructs separately as well as jointly using instruments validated specifically for the Indian population, and to link EI and SI scores to supervisor ratings which are reliable measures of employee performance for a large number of employees (n = 357). The results of the study, therefore, can be seen as valid, credible, and of use to OB researchers and practitioners.

Keywords: social intelligence; emotional intelligence; employee performance; employee performance assessment.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWOE.2025.144495

International Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion, 2025 Vol.16 No.1, pp.58 - 74

Accepted: 20 Mar 2024
Published online: 17 Feb 2025 *

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