Emotional intelligence and employee performance: empirical study on a financial institution

Abstract

The literature on emotional intelligence shows that it has a positive and direct relationship with managers’ performance. With the objective of contributing to that research field, a study was developed with 149 corporate account managers of a large Portuguese financial institution. The empirical analysis used a self-report measure of emotional intelligence and four elements of the managers’ performance assessment. A multiple linear regression model was estimated which points to a direct relationship between the level of emotional intelligence and the sales performance of the institution managers, in which the independent variables that predict more the sales performance are understanding the emotions and managing the others’ emotions. In the academic field, this empirical study contributes to the current literature. In the management field, it contributes to the managers’ recruitment and training processes.