research papers on emotional intelligence

EDITORIAL article

Editorial: emotional intelligence: current research and future perspectives on mental health and individual differences.

$\nGiacomo Mancini$

1 Giovanni Maria Bertin Department of Education Studies, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
2 Department of Management, College of Business, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, United States
3 Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Editorial on the Research Topic Emotional intelligence: Current research and future perspectives on mental health and individual differences

The last two decades have seen a steadily growing interest in emotional intelligence (EI) research and its applications. As a side effect of this boom in research activity, a flood of conceptualizations and measures of EI have been introduced. Consequently, the label “EI” has been used for a wide array of (often conflicting) models and measures, which has impeded consistent summaries of empirical evidence. This confusion among models/measures is problematic because different measurement approaches produce different results, which makes it difficult to theorize what EI really is or what it predicts since there is limited consistency in the empirical data. On one side there are proponents of the ability model (see Mayer et al., 2016 ) which recognizes that EI includes four distinct types of ability and defines EI as the ability to perceive and integrate emotion to facilitate thoughts, understand and regulate emotions to promote personal growth ( Mayer and Salovey, 1997 ). This kind of EI would only be measurable through maximum performance tests. On the opposite side, we find supporters of the trait model. In particular, Petrides et al. (2007) defines trait EI as a constellation of emotional perceptions assessed through questionnaires and rating scales. The theory of trait EI is summarized with applications from the domains of clinical, educational, and organizational psychology ( Petrides et al., 2016 ) and it's clearly distinguished from the notion of EI as a cognitive ability. Of course, there is no scarcity of other models and perspectives of EI, including mixed approaches, often used in professional setting to train and evaluate management potential and skills, that consider EI as a broad concept that includes (among others) motivations, interpersonal and intrapersonal abilities, empathy, personality factors and wellbeing (see Mayer et al., 2008 ).

In accordance with Hughes and Evans (2018) , we argue that various conceptualizations of EI may be considered constituents of existing perspectives of cognitive ability (ability EI), personality (trait EI), emotion regulation (EI competencies), and emotional awareness (the aptitude to conceptualize and describe one's own emotions and those of others). Across all models, EI involves handling emotions and putting them at the disposal of thinking activity. Although EI is an ability to understand and control emotions in general, this is only a small part of some models of EI. Indeed, trait EI concerns our perceptions of our emotional world and comprises a broad collection of traits linked to the opportunity of understanding, managing, and utilizing our own and other people's emotions, helping us figure out and dealing with emotional and social situations. All these facets are critical for intelligent behavior because they enable and facilitate our capacities for resilience, communication, and reasoning, to name a few, across the life span. Indeed, existing literature suggests that individual differences in EI consistently predict human behavior and EI is now recognized by the scientific community as a relevant psychological factor for several important real-life domains, including a successful socialization, community mental health and individual wellbeing. To advance the field both theoretically and practically, this special issue aims to provide new data which may help to critically review EI's theory.

The collection of articles is quite diverse and covers a number of issues relevant to an advancement of the field by including participants from several cultural contexts (e.g., Italian, Brazilian, and Turkish). Seven articles used self-report tools for the assessment of EI, while only two studies employed an ability measure (the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test). With regards to the topic being addressed, one study focuses on psychometrics, and confirms the validity of the Trait EI Questionnaire as an assessment tool for trait EI in a large Brazilian sample ( Zuanazzi et al. ), while seven analyzed the relationship between EI and research questions pertaining the domain of psychological health and wellbeing. Among these, the papers by García-Martínez et al. and Kökçam et al. analyze instead the relationship between EI and stress management in university students. García-Martínez et al. found mixed results compared to existing literature on the path from EI and academic achievement, while Kökçam et al. found that EI plays an important role in the identification of stress profiles.

Through a systematic review Pérez-Fernández et al. highlights that EI may be a protective factor of emotional disorders in general population and offers a starting point for a theoretical and practical understanding of the role played by EI in the management of diabetes. Along these lines Sergi et al. showed that the domains of EI involved in emotion recognition and control in the social context to reduce the risk to be affected by depression and anxiety, while Pulido-Martos et al. show the contribution of socioemotional resources (including EI) to the preservation of mental health. Iqbal et al. considered the associations among EI, relational engagement (RE) and cognitive outcomes (COs) and found that EI directly and indirectly influenced COs during the pandemic: the students with higher levels of EI and RE may achieve better COs.

Last, the two articles using the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test show that coping strategies mediate the relationships of ability EI with both well- and ill-being ( MacCann et al. ), and give some preliminary evidence on the associations between ability EI, attachment security, and reflective functioning ( Rosso ).

Despite their specific aims, these studies demonstrate the importance to stake on individuals' EI to favor a high psychological and physical wellbeing. At the same time, the present articles collection highlights some open issues to be addressed by future research, including: putting order and possibly connecting the existence of many conflicting models and related measures of EI; deepen the study of the relation between EI with other partially overlapping constructs; identify the most helpful training to increase EI in individuals of all ages, such as children and their parents, adolescents, adults.

Author contributions

GM and FA drafted the editorial. RB, DJ, and ET participated in the discussion on the ideas presented and have edited and supervised the editorial. All authors approved the submitted version.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Hughes, D. J., and Evans, T. R. (2018). Putting ‘emotional intelligences' in their place: introducing the integrated model of affect-related individual differences. Front. Psychol. 9, 2155. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02155

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Mayer, J. D., Caruso, D. R., and Salovey, P. (2016). The ability model of emotional intelligence: principles and updates. Emot. Rev . 8, 290–300. doi: 10.1177/1754073916639667

CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar

Mayer, J. D., Roberts, R. D., and Barsade, S. G. (2008). Human abilities: emotional intelligence. Annu. Rev. Psychol . 59, 507–536. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093646

Mayer, J. D., and Salovey, P. (1997). “What is emotional intelligence?,” in Emotional Development and Emotional Intelligence: Implications for Educators , eds P. Salovey and D. Sluyter (New York, NY: Basic Books), 3–31.

Google Scholar

Petrides, K. V., Mikolajczak, M., Mavroveli, S., Sanchez-Ruiz, M.-J., Furnham, A., and Pérez-González, J.-C. (2016). Developments in trait emotional intelligence research. Emot. Rev . 8, 335–341. doi: 10.1177/1754073916650493

Petrides, K. V., Pita, R., and Kokkinaki, F. (2007). The location of trait emotional intelligence in personality factor space. Br. J. Psychol. 98, 273–289. doi: 10.1348/000712606X120618

Keywords: emotional intelligence, mental health, psychological wellbeing, individual differences, emotions

Citation: Mancini G, Biolcati R, Joseph D, Trombini E and Andrei F (2022) Editorial: Emotional intelligence: Current research and future perspectives on mental health and individual differences. Front. Psychol. 13:1049431. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1049431

Received: 20 September 2022; Accepted: 04 October 2022; Published: 13 October 2022.

Edited and reviewed by: Stefano Triberti , University of Milan, Italy

Copyright © 2022 Mancini, Biolcati, Joseph, Trombini and Andrei. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Giacomo Mancini, giacomo.mancini7@unibo.it

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Emotional Intelligence Measures: A Systematic Review

Affiliations.

1 Department of Basic Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Speech Therapy, Universitat de València, 46010 Valencia, Spain.
2 Psychology Research Institute, Universidad de San Martín de Porres, Lima 15102, Peru.
3 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Nacional Federico Villarreal, San Miguel 15088, Peru.
PMID: 34946422
PMCID: PMC8701889
DOI: 10.3390/healthcare9121696

Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the ability to perceive, express, understand, and manage emotions. Current research indicates that it may protect against the emotional burden experienced in certain professions. This article aims to provide an updated systematic review of existing instruments to assess EI in professionals, focusing on the description of their characteristics as well as their psychometric properties (reliability and validity). A literature search was conducted in Web of Science (WoS). A total of 2761 items met the eligibility criteria, from which a total of 40 different instruments were extracted and analysed. Most were based on three main models (i.e., skill-based, trait-based, and mixed), which differ in the way they conceptualize and measure EI. All have been shown to have advantages and disadvantages inherent to the type of tool. The instruments reported in the largest number of studies are Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i), Schutte Self Report-Inventory (SSRI), Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test 2.0 (MSCEIT 2.0), Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS), Wong and Law's Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS), and Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue). The main measure of the estimated reliability has been internal consistency, and the construction of EI measures was predominantly based on linear modelling or classical test theory. The study has limitations: we only searched a single database, the impossibility of estimating inter-rater reliability, and non-compliance with some items required by PRISMA.

Keywords: emotional intelligence; measure; questionnaire; scale; systematic review; test.

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Research article
Open access
Published: 04 June 2021

Emotional intelligence: predictor of employees’ wellbeing, quality of patient care, and psychological empowerment

Leila Karimi ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2364-504X 1 ,
Sandra G. Leggat 1 ,
Timothy Bartram 2 ,
Leila Afshari 3 ,
Sarah Sarkeshik 1 &
Tengiz Verulava 4

BMC Psychology volume 9 , Article number: 93 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

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The study explored the role of emotional intelligence (EI) on employees’ perceived wellbeing and empowerment, as well as their performance, by measuring their quality of care.

The baseline data for the present project was collected from 78 staff of a Victorian aged care organization in Australia. Self-administered surveys were used to assess participants’ emotional intelligence, general well-being, psychological empowerment, quality of care, and demographic characteristics. The model fit was assessed using structural equation modelling by AMOS (v 24) software.

The evaluated model confirmed that emotional intelligence predicts the employees’ psychological empowerment, wellbeing, and quality of care in a statistically significant way.

Conclusions

The current research indicates that employees with higher EI will more likely deliver a better quality of patient care. Present research extends the current knowledge of the psychological empowerment and wellbeing of employees with a particular focus on emotional intelligence as an antecedent in an under-investigated setting like aged care setting in Australia.

Peer Review reports

Today's organisations are under increasing pressure to expand the quality of work and ability to compete in the workplace that is continuously changing. These changes involve increased dependency on social skills and new technologies, continuous competency development, risk-taking, networking, and innovation. They also include changes in organisational structure and relationships, such as reduced hierarchies, blurred boundaries, moves to teams as basic building blocks, and increased complexity of work. As the current pandemic has shown, they also embrace profound and fast changes to the way we work in the face of crises and organisations are looking at new strategies to promote such qualities as wellbeing, psychological empowerment and work engagement which are antecedents of job satisfaction and quality of patient care [ 1 , 2 , 3 ].

There is strong evidence that EI is an important factor in improving work performance [ 4 ]. Research indicates that higher EI leads to enhanced psychological wellbeing and higher rates of positive emotional states [ 5 , 6 , 7 ], and that emotional intelligence training can develop meaningfulness at work and happiness [ 8 , 9 ]. In a meta-analysis, O'Boyle et al. [ 10 ] found overall validity for three streams of EI research (ability measures, self- and peer-report measures, and mixed models) predicting job performance equally well. EI also influences the success with which employees interact with colleagues, the strategies they use to manage conflict and stress, and positively contributes to several aspects of workplace performance [ 11 ].

Researching the relationship between EI and job satisfaction among nurses, Gong et al. [ 12 ] examined the mediating effect of psychological empowerment and work engagement in this association. Using structural equation modelling, they found that high trait EI may improve occupational wellbeing through the chain-mediating effects of these two constructs. A 2017 meta-analysis of EI and work attitudes has found that all three types of EI are significantly related to job satisfaction [ 13 ]. The results indicate that workers with higher EI have higher job satisfaction, higher organizational commitment, and are less likely to change jobs. Another recent study has found statistically significant positive relationships between EI, empowering leadership, psychological empowerment and work engagement [ 14 ]. This finding suggests that EI training of health workers to improve psychological empowerment and work engagement could help their organisations to improve their relationships with patients, provide better care, and reduce staff turnover. Emotional intelligence may be most important in the service sector and in other jobs where employees interact with customers. Several studies found a positive association between the EI of nurses and service quality and patients' compliance with care [ 15 , 16 , 17 ].

There is evidence that communication effectiveness and job satisfaction of the employees are related to their managers' EI [ 18 ]. Research shows that leaders who build effective interpersonal relationships with those in lower rank are using EI to lead individuals to work more effectively and with increased overall job satisfaction [ 19 , 20 ]. Udod et al. [ 21 ] found that leaders who use EI to build interpersonal relationships with their subordinates achieve higher overall job satisfaction and better work effectiveness among those employees. These positive changes are strongly influenced by the leaders who value and respect their employee’s opinions, abilities, personal emotions, and character. Increased empowerment was directly related to the support and level of autonomy given by the leader and a work environment allowing career growth and development [ 21 ].

There has been much interest in empowerment in the workplace for a variety of reasons. Studies found that empowering subordinates contributes to managerial and organisational effectiveness. There is a significant relationship between psychological empowerment and work engagement. Alotaibi et al. [ 14 ] investigated the role of EI and empowering leadership (EL) in improving psychological empowerment and work engagement. They found significant positive relationships between EI, EL, psychological empowerment and work engagement, suggesting that EI is a good predictor of EL and psychological empowerment, while EL supports work engagement.

Staff empowerment is linked to work behaviours, attitudes, and performance. It tends to have a direct effect on performance and indirect effects through its influence on job satisfaction and innovativeness [ 22 ]. In healthcare, employee empowerment denotes the level to which caregivers have the authority to make decisions, such as evaluating the patient condition and determining the most suitable treatment. A review of studies exploring the effect of structural empowerment of nurses on quality outcomes in hospitals found that there are positive associations between the structural empowerment of nurses and the quality of outcomes, such as patient safety, work effectiveness, efficiency, and patient‐centeredness of patient care in hospitals [ 23 ].

Quality of healthcare can be defined in many ways. The Institute of Medicine defines quality as the "degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge” [ 24 ]. A more recent study defined quality of healthcare, using various healthcare stakeholder perceptions and expectations, as “consistently delighting the patient by providing efficacious, effective and efficient healthcare services according to the latest clinical guidelines and standards, which meet the patient's needs and satisfies providers” [ 25 ].

Many nursing studies have shown an association between EI and nurses' quality of care. A 2017 study examining the relationship between patient satisfaction and EI skills of nurses found a strong correlation between the satisfaction scores and emphatic concern, utilization of emotions, and emotional awareness subheadings of the patients [ 26 ]. A 2018 study, exploring the role of EI in engagement in nurses, found that nurses with higher levels of EI also scored higher in engagement. The greatest predictor of engagement was the interpersonal factor [ 27 ]. A study investigating emotional labour among Australian community nurses found that emotional labour and EI predicts wellbeing as well as job-stress [ 28 ]. With the current shortage in the nursing workforce, effective EI training may provide the key to keeping nurses in their jobs while helping them reduce job-stress and burnout levels. Emotional intelligence also seems to correlate highly with wellbeing in nurses, has a positive correlation with work performance and the ability to positively affect patient safety [ 29 , 30 , 31 ]. Today, EI is one of the most sought-after skills in the workplace. When it comes to healthcare workers and nurses, increased EI may save lives, not to mention relieve stress.

The model fit was in this study was assessed using structural equation modelling (SEM). SEM has been used successfully in research involving EI and nurses. For example, a 2016 study used SEM to analyse the goodness of fit of the hypothetical model of nurses' turnover intention. The results suggest that increasing EI in nurses might significantly decrease nurses' turnover intention by reducing the effect of emotional labour on burnout [ 32 ]. Another study used SEM to examine the mediatory role of positive and negative affect at work. The researchers found that these mediate the relationship between EI and job satisfaction with positive affect exerting a stronger influence [ 33 ].

The present research project investigated the importance of EI as an antecedent to wellbeing, psychological empowerment and quality of care. The research is one of the few studies in Australia in a much under-researched area of aged care setting. It contributes to international literature by examining the EI link with the three constructs. Thus, it was hypothesised that:

Higher emotional intelligence is a predictor of better wellbeing,

Higher emotional intelligence is a predictor of psychological empowerment,

Higher emotional intelligence leads to better quality of patient care among aged care staff.

This study aimed to further explore the role of EI on psychological empowerment and the quality of care and wellbeing in an aged care setting. The current research used a sample of 78 participants of a Victorian aged care facility. The workers from all levels of the organisation having contact with the residents were included, including personal care workers (PCW), nurses, and lifestyle, food and safety staff.

The demographic characteristic of the staff are detailed in Table 1 . The staffs' age on average was 45.7 years, and they had almost 12 years of experience of working in their position, with 25 working hours per week. Majority of the staff were female (82%), nursing and personal care workers (61%).

General wellbeing

The General Well-being Questionnaire (GWBQ), developed by Cox et al. [ 34 ]. The GWBQ is a scale with 24 questions that assess general malaise frequency on a 5-Likert response where a high score is indicating lower wellbeing.

Psychological empowerment

Psychological empowerment Scale [ 35 ] for evaluating the perceived empowerment on a 5-likert response using 12 statements, where higher score represent higher level of empowerment.

Patient satisfaction

Patient Satisfaction with Nursing Care Quality Questionnaire (PSNCQQ) [ 36 ] was used to measure the quality of patient care. The terminology was modified slightly to make it suitable for use in an aged care population. Seventeen items were adapted (two items related to the discharge, and after-discharge coordination were removed as were not relevant to the aged care setting); higher scores refer to a higher quality of patient care.

Emotional quotient inventory (EQ-i 2.0®)

The EQ-i 2.0 used in this study which assesses the social and emotional elements [ 37 ]. Sing 133 questions on a Likert response of 1 (never/rarely) to 5 (always/almost always). The EQ-i 2.0 is a self-report measure to measure constructs related to EI. A total score of the EQ-I 2.0 was used in this study to measure emotional intelligence (EI).

Validity and reliability

All the surveys used in this study are pre-validated scales. However, the reliability of the scales was also assessed in this study. The study scales showed excellent reliability: The General Wellbeing Questionnaire (GWBQ) (α = 0.92) and Psychological Empowerment (α = 0.92), PSNCQQ (α = 0.91).

Ethical considerations

The Human Research Ethics Committee of the participating organisation was obtained for this study.

Data analysis

Structural equation modelling (SEM) by AMOS (v 24) software was used to assess the model fit. Chi-square as a goodness of fit statistics provides a good description of the data. A non-significant chi-square means the proposed hypothesis of model fit is supported, and the null model (no relationship between constructs) is rejected. However, chi-square is highly influenced by sample size; therefore, a more robust measure of the relative chi-square (CMIN/DF) is used for model fit evaluation. Besides, other fit indices are proposed, including the root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA), comparative fit index (CFI) and the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC). RMSEA is the suggested fit indices representing absolute fit; CFI is recommended for model comparison. A combination of these fit indices, such as CMIN/DF, RMSEA and CFI, are commonly used in research. The AIC is another measure of fit that was used for this study. The smaller value of AIC indicates a superior model fit [ 38 ].

Normality and bootstrapping approach

The normal distribution of data and outliers were assessed before proceeding with the model fit evaluation. Although the data were within the normal threshold at univariate level (where kurtosis and skewness were smaller than 7 and 3 in order), multivariate critical ratio and kurtosis were greater than 1.96 and 5 in order, indicating violation of the normality assumptions. Hence the bootstrapping procedure was implemented due to violation of normality and relatively small sample size (n = 78), to assess the parameter estimates. The number of bootstrapping subsamples needs to be high enough to deliver valid results. They must be higher than the number of valid observations in the original dataset (in this study, higher than 78). As a general rule, 500 bootstrap samples are recommended in SEM [ 39 ]. In this study, the bootstrapping procedure and the Bollen-Stine bootstrap procedure were implemented to test the proposed model.

Model evaluation

Figure 1 presents the model used in this study and evaluated by SEM. The model fit evaluation indicated χ 2 /df less than 3 which represents great goodness of model fit (χ 2 /df (19) = 1.39). The fit indices in Table 2 also show acceptable fit for the model (CFI = 0.96, RMSEA = 0.07 (0.05, 0.06). RMSEA less than 0.08 and 0.05 & CFI of greater than 0.90 and 0.95 were considered as marginal and good fit respectively for this study. AIC for the proposed model was significantly smaller which indicated a better model fit (AIC = 76.53). The standardised regression weights were all significant (p < 0.05) and presented in Table 3.

Path coefficients of the proposed model. Note : *higher score in wellbeing represents lower wellbeing and high illness

The paths of factor loadings of emotional intelligence to wellbeing, quality of care and psychological empowerment were all significant (p < 0.05). Figure 1 presents the standardised factor loadings of the model. Psychological empowerment deemed to be significantly related to EI skills (β = 0.34). Quality of care was correlated positively with EI skills where higher EI skills were associated with a higher level of quality of care (β = 0.26). Wellbeing (ill health) was negatively associated with EI skills where higher EI associated with the lower level of illness (β = 0.26).

The bootstrapping procedure showed relatively stable parameter estimates, demonstrating the validity of the results. The Bollen-Stine approach showed that the evaluated model was not significantly changed from the model resulting from 500 bootstrapping samples (p = 0.13).

The present project, aimed to explore the role of EI with wellbeing, quality of patient care and psychological empowerment among a group of Australian aged care employees. The evaluated model confirmed that emotional intelligence is related to all three variables in a statistically significant but moderate way. Both psychological empowerment and quality of care were significantly related to EI skills. Wellbeing (ill health) was significantly predicted by EI skills.

This study shows that those with a high level of EI are possibly more psychologically empowered.

According to Spreitzer [ 35 ] and Kanter [ 40 ], psychologically empowered employees are driven by intrinsic motivation, and they are more likely to perform effectively [ 22 , 41 ]. However, the results need to be treated with caution because SEM-based analyses reported here are estimates based on cross-sectional data; they do not provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate the existence of a causal relationship.

The results also suggest that if EI is related to employees' wellbeing, empowerment and quality of care, then implementation of interventions for employees in the healthcare sector to learn and practice EI skills seem to be valuable for employee empowerment and consequently for enhancing employees' performance. This finding has been substantiated by an integrative literature review by Kline et al. [ 42 ] who found that EI is central to nursing practice and should be included in nursing education. Evidence shows that EI impacts on ethical decision-making, critical thinking, evidence and knowledge use in practice.

The study also provided evidence for a significant association between EI and wellbeing of employees, demonstrating that staff with higher EI are more likely to have better emotional and psychological wellness. This finding is in line with recent studies such as Karimi et al. [ 28 ], [ 43 ], that reported a significant relationship between EI and wellbeing among nurses and aged care staff.

Finally, the findings indicate that the employees' EI is related to the quality of the care for the aged care residents. Specifically, the care provided by emotionally intelligent employees is more likely to result in desired outcomes for the residents and consequently in an increased level of residents' satisfaction with the quality of patient care.

Our study extends the current knowledge of psychological empowerment and wellbeing of employees with a particular focus on emotional intelligence as an antecedent. Our findings demonstrate that employees' emotional intelligence not only relates to the residents' satisfaction with the quality of patient care but also seems to be associated with employees' psychological empowerment and wellbeing. This indicates that EI is an important skill to be learnt in order to generate the desired outcomes for two main stakeholders in the aged care sector: the residents and the employees.

Although bootstrapping procedure used to report more stable and valid results, the relatively small sample size and lack of previous studies on Australian aged care made the generalizability of the findings limited. Future studies on aged care setting with a bigger sample size is recommended. In addition, longitudinal studies assessing the EI training skills on employees' mental health and performance is strongly recommended in order to shed more light in this area.

The aged care industry is facing significant challenges with difficulties in staff retention, recruitment, and most importantly, in the quality of patient care. The current study highlighted the need for paying attention to non-clinical skills such as EI (in addition to clinical) for quality care improvement in the aged care industry as well as improving psychological empowerment and wellbeing. The findings suggest that EI contributes to employee empowerment and quality of patient care and adds valuable skills that are important in working with aged care residents and other stakeholders.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

Emotional intelligence

The Root Mean Square Error of Approximation

Comparative fit index

General Well-being Questionnaire

Emotional quotient inventory

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Acknowledgements

The researchers acknowledge the aged care staff and residents and their next of kin who participated in this research and kindly shared their time and experience.

Part of the project was funded by the Royal Freemasons Aged Care (3.1062). The funding body had no role in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript.

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Karimi, L., Leggat, S.G., Bartram, T. et al. Emotional intelligence: predictor of employees’ wellbeing, quality of patient care, and psychological empowerment. BMC Psychol 9 , 93 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-021-00593-8

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Adult co-creators’ emotional and psychological experiences of the co-creation process: a Health CASCADE scoping review protocol

Lauren McCaffrey ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2524-977X 1 ,
Bryan McCann 1 ,
Maria Giné-Garriga 2 ,
Qingfan An 3 ,
Greet Cardon 4 ,
Sebastien François Martin Chastin 1 , 4 ,
Rabab Chrifou 4 ,
Sonia Lippke 5 ,
Quentin Loisel 1 ,
Giuliana Raffaella Longworth 2 ,
Katrina Messiha 6 ,
Mira Vogelsang 1 ,
Emily Whyte 1 &
Philippa Margaret Dall 1

Systematic Reviews volume 13 , Article number: 231 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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There is a growing investment in the use of co-creation, reflected by an increase in co-created products, services, and interventions. At the same time, a growing recognition of the significance of co-creators’ experience can be detected but there is a gap in the aggregation of the literature with regard to experience. Therefore, the purpose of this scoping review is to uncover the breadth of existing empirical research on co-creation experience, how it has been defined and assessed, and its key emotional and psychological characteristics in the context of co-created products, services, or interventions among adults.

The development of the search strategy was guided by the research question, Arksey, and O’Malley’s scoping review methodology guidelines, and through collaboration with members of the Health CASCADE consortium. The results of the search and the study inclusion process will be reported in full and presented both narratively and by use of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses extension for scoping review (PRISMA-ScR) flow diagram. Comprehensive searches of relevant electronic databases (e.g. Scopus) will be conducted to identify relevant papers. Snowball searches to identify additional papers through included full-text papers will be done using the artificial intelligence tool, namely, Connected Papers. All review steps will involve at least two reviewers. Studies in English, Dutch, Chinese, Spanish, and French, published from the year 1970 onwards, will be considered. Microsoft Excel software will be used to record and chart extracted data.

The resulting scoping review could provide useful insights into adult co-creators’ experience of participating in the co-creation process. An increased understanding of the role of emotional and psychological experiences of participating in co-creation processes may help to inform the co-creation process and lead to potential benefits for the co-creators and co-created outcome.

Systematic review registration

10.5281/zenodo.7665851.

Peer Review reports

Co-creation can be defined as “any act of collective creativity that involves a broad range of relevant and affected actors in creative problem-solving that aims to produce a desired outcome” [ 1 ]. Co-creation is increasingly acknowledged as a promising approach to address complex ‘wicked’ societal problems and develop more contextually relevant interventions to improve outcomes in a variety of settings [ 2 ]. By facilitating communication across sectors, integrating diverse forms of knowledge and expertise, and enabling local ownership, co-creation can be useful in a broad range of fields including, healthcare, community, and education [ 3 ].

The co-creation process is guided by participatory methodologies [ 4 ]. The goal of participatory research is to engage all those who are the subject of the research in all stages of the research [ 5 ]. Participatory research acknowledges the value of their contribution in a practical and collaborative way [ 5 ]. Co-creation builds on these participatory methodologies, to address the power imbalances stemming from social inequities and uses empowerment approaches to address and meet the needs of citizens [ 3 ]. Co-creation is more specific than the broad concept of participation, which also refers to passive involvement [ 6 ]. The ultimate goal of co-creation is to actively involve all relevant and affected stakeholders in all aspects of the co-creation process, such as planning or conducting [ 7 ].

Whilst the co-creation behaviour of participants in a co-creation process is mostly documented in the co-creation literature, the emotional and psychological experience of participating in the co-creation process has been given less attention [ 8 , 9 ]. Co-creation behaviour is argued to comprise multiple behavioural dimensions that fall under two higher-order factors, namely, participation behaviour and citizenship behaviour [ 10 ]. The behavioural dimensions of participation behaviour include information seeking and sharing, responsible behaviour, and personal interaction. The dimensions of citizenship behaviour include feedback, advocacy, helping, and tolerance [ 10 ]. On the other hand, the co-creators’ experiences of participating in the co-creation process, hereby shortened to co-creation experience, capture co-creators’ emotional and psychological states; highlight the interactive component; and involve a continuous process as opposed to a single fixed-time event [ 9 ]. In brief, the co-creation experience, as defined for the purposes of this review, is the co-creators’ emotional and psychological states during active participation and interaction when engaging in the co-creation process [ 9 ]. Co-creation experience differs from co-creation behaviour due to its focus on the feelings and cognitions derived from the act of undertaking the co-creation behaviour [ 9 ].

Research indicates that active involvement in the co-creation process can have profound positive effects on increased health and performance outcomes, satisfaction, and well-being [ 11 , 12 ]. For example, Leask et al. [ 13 ] reported older adults having positive experiences engaging with the co-creation of a health intervention, describing that participants’ role as co-researchers made it enjoyable, interesting, and rewarding. Similar findings from Rooijen et al. [ 14 ] indicated that participants felt empowered, liked the interactive characteristic of meetings, and felt they were valued contributors with a shared responsibility for the project. Positive emotional states like happiness or gratitude can foster trust, which is important for building relationships, whereas negative emotional states, like anger, uncertainty, and frustration, can decrease trust [ 15 ]. Building relationships is an important aspect of the co-creation process, in which experiencing positive emotions helps to create new relationships [ 16 ]. Therefore, positive emotions could also contribute to the functioning of the co-creation group(s) and the successful development of products like intervention components, tools, and further actions.

There are instances when co-creators can experience the co-creation process negatively. There exists some research to indicate how failed co-created services recovered can impact co-creators in terms of future intention to co-create, role clarity, and motivation [ 17 ]. However, there might be a lack of, or a lack of visibility of, literature documenting the negative emotional and psychological experiences associated with the co-creation process because of publication bias. Individual and interpersonal experience including group dynamics are central to the creation of value and innovation and this justifies the need to study the role of human experience in the context of co-creation [ 18 , 19 ]. Figure 1 provides a visual depiction of the proposed connection between co-creation experience and the other elements of co-creation.

Suggested model of the relationship between co-creation experience, processes, behaviour, outcomes, impact, and future co-creation

However, so far, there is a gap regarding the aggregation of the literature pertaining to co-creation experience. Therefore, the purpose of this scoping review is to uncover the breadth of existing empirical research on co-creation experience, how it has been defined, and assessed and its key characteristics in the context of co-created products, services, or interventions among adults. As the focus is on the participant’s experience of the process and not the outcome, no limits have been applied to the co-creation context. Scoping reviews are exploratory in nature and systematically map available literature on a broad topic to identify key concepts, theories, sources of evidence, and research gaps [ 20 ]. A scoping review has been identified as an appropriate means to address this broad research question given that, to the authors’ knowledge, there has been no systematic review of co-creation experience literature, the phenomenon is not well understood or utilised, and studies span a wide variety of fields. The aim of the current scoping review is to deliver an evidence-based review of co-creators’ experiences of co-creating. This review will guide future research to advance evidence-based co-creation methods and inform guidance aimed at enhancing positive experiences for those participating in co-creation.

Research question

What is the current state of the science regarding adult co-creators’ emotional and psychological experiences of participating in co-creation?

The objectives of this review are to:

Determine the extent of research on co-creation experience.

Uncover the range of and key characteristics of emotional and psychological experiences documented in the literature to date.

Identify any explicit or implicit underlying psychological theories drawn upon to explain the potential mechanism of the experience of co-creation.

Document any tools or technology used during the co-creation process that impacted the experience during co-creation or to make co-creation more successful .

Methodology

This scoping review protocol is reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols (PRISMA-P) checklist (see Additional file 1).

Search strategy

The search strategy comprises three main stages (see Fig. 2 ). The first stage involved searching the newly created Health CASCADE Co-creation Database. This database was created by members of the Health CASCADE network and was aimed at collecting in one place the entire corpus of literature pertaining to participatory research and co-creation (1). This database was created using CINAHL, PubMed and all databases accessible via ProQuest through Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) institutional licence (17 databases in total, APA PsycArticles®, APA PsycInfo®, Art, Design & Architecture Collection, British Periodicals, Coronavirus Research Database, Early Modern Books, Ebook Central, Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive, Humanities Index, Periodicals Archive Online, ProQuest One AcademicTrial-Limited time only, PTSDpubs, SciTech Premium Collection, Social Science Premium Collection, Sports Medicine & Education Index, The Vogue Archive, and The Women's Wear Daily Archive). The key search terms used in this search strategy are found in Table 1 . ASReview, an artificial intelligence (AI) aided platform that helps find relevant records was used for screening the records to be included in this database. The AI performs a textual analysis of the provided records, based on active learning and prioritization. Given the large volume of records retrieved from PubMed, CINAHL, and all databases available through ProQuest with GCU access, AI was necessary to speed up the screening process. There are over 13,000 records contained in this database, with all titles and abstracts containing at least one of the search terms.

Stages of search strategy

The Health CASCADE Co-creation Database was searched using free-text terms relating to co-creation experience (see Table 2 ). Search terms have been developed in reference to the research question and through consultation with members of the Health CASCADE consortium. The search will be piloted to check the appropriateness of keywords and to ensure known studies are identified.

The second stage of the search strategy is to use both sets of search terms (see Tables 1 and 2 ) in Scopus using the Boolean operator AND to combine the two sets. This is to provide additional robustness to the search. Due to the large volume of records retrieved (> 35,000) when combining the two sets of search terms, it is necessary to omit some search terms used to create the Health CASCADE Co-creation Database. Four search terms will be retained “co-creat*”, “co-production”, “co-design” and “experience-based design”. These search terms are specifically chosen because co-production and co-design are commonly used interchangeably with the term co-creation [ 21 ]. In addition, “experience-based design” is retained due to the obvious focus on the experience. We will include articles that meet our inclusion criteria for co-creation, regardless of the terminology used to describe the methodology. For pragmatic reasons, sources of unpublished empirical studies (including grey literature, theses, and dissertations) will not be searched for. The draft search strategy for Scopus is available in Additional file 2.

The final stage of the search is to employ snowballing to capture any additional articles that may be potentially missed. An artificial intelligence tool called Connected Papers [ 22 ] will be used to identify papers that (1) the included paper has cited (backward reference searching), and (2) papers that have since cited the included paper (forward reference searching).

The article selection process is considered an iterative process, whereby the search strategy will be initially broad and then refined based on abstracts retrieved and as reviewer familiarity with the literature increases. The concept of co-creation is defined differently depending on the setting and context and is often used interchangeably with similar, yet distinct concepts, but equally lacking a clear universal understanding [ 21 ]. Therefore, to account for the overlaps in terminology a broad scope will be initially implemented.

As recommended by Arksey and O’Malley [ 23 ], decisions on how to set search parameters will be made after a general scope of the field has been gained. Hence, this stage will require the reviewer(s) to engage in a reflexive way and repeat steps to ensure a comprehensive literature search with more sensitive searches [ 23 , 24 ].

Inclusion/exclusion criteria

All study participants in the included papers must be adults, described as people aged 18 years and over with no upper limit. Children/adolescents are not included in this study as research indicates that there are differences between their emotional experiences in terms of emotional intensity and stability [ 25 ].

Empirical articles (i.e. primary research studies) include any qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method research designs that include a description of the co-created product, service, or intervention and an evaluation of the co-creators’ co-creation experience. Although scoping reviews can draw on evidence from non-empirical sources, this review imposes limits to include empirical sources only as empirical sources would be most useful and appropriate for contributing to an evidence-based understanding of co-creation methods.

Any context that involves the co-creation of a product, service, or intervention will be considered.

The Health CASCADE Co-creation Database is limited to searching records between 1st January 1970 and 1st December 2021. The search in Scopus will include records from 1st January 1970 until the date of the search.

The Health CASCADE Co-creation Database is limited to only include materials that are written in English. However, for the search conducted in Scopus, publications in English, Spanish, Dutch, French, and Chinese languages will also be considered, as the research team has proficient fluency in these languages.

Data extraction

Following the database search, articles will be exported as a CSV file for removal of duplicates in Excel. The articles will be imported and screened in Rayyan. The title and abstract of all studies will be screened independently by several reviewers (LMcC, QA, QL, EW, GRL, RC, and MV) and irrelevant studies will be removed. All titles and abstracts will be double-screened. Full-text articles of studies identified as potentially relevant for inclusion will subsequently be sought and screened by several reviewers (LMcC, QA, QL, EW, GRL, RC, MV, and KM) against the agreed set of criteria. Differences of opinion regarding inclusion or exclusion will be resolved by discussion and reaching a consensus or by a third reviewer. The results of the search and the study inclusion process will be reported in full in the final scoping review and presented both narratively and by use of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses extension for scoping review (PRISMA-ScR) flow diagram.

To determine the extent of research on co-creation experience (objective 1), details about co-creation more generally will first be extracted. This includes:

Study’s definition of co-creation and co-creation experience (if available).

The context or setting.

Data about the participants (number, type, and characteristics of co-creators’ involved).

Description of the co-creation process undertaken (including number of sessions, level of participation).

Purpose of co-creation.

Outcome of the co-created intervention, service, or product.

The key characteristics of psychological and emotional experience including positive and negative components (objective 2) will be extracted.

The psychological theory underpinning the co-creation experience identified by the authors of the studies (objective 3) will be recorded.

Information about the technology or tools that had an impact on the co-creation experience (objective 4) will be extracted.

Additional descriptive information such as discipline and date of publication will also be extracted.

The above-extracted information will be entered into an Excel spreadsheet developed by the authors. This data extraction Excel spreadsheet may be modified and revised as necessary during the process of extracting data from the included evidence sources to ensure that key findings relevant to the review question are addressed.

Quality assessment

There exists debate as to whether a scoping review should contain an assessment of study quality [ 26 ]. A quality assessment component will be included in this review in relation to the sufficiency of reporting the process of co-creating an intervention, service, or product. This tool (see Table 3 ) has been adapted from Leask et al.’s [ 4 ] ‘checklist for reporting intervention co-creation’ and Eyles et al.’s [ 27 ] amended version of a checklist for reporting non-pharmacological interventions. The reason for including this checklist is two-fold. Firstly, the scoping review may contain a variety of study designs and the focus is not solely on the outcomes, but rather on the process [ 27 ]. Secondly, as explained above, the concept of co-creation is used interchangeably with other similar overlapping concepts, such that some processes may be described as co-creation when they are in fact not (according to the definition used in this review) or vice versa. Therefore, by incorporating this checklist, it will become clearer as to the type or extent of co-creation processes that were implemented and whether they were clearly reported within each individual source of empirical evidence. However, given that a scoping review aims to present an overview of the extant literature on a particular topic without synthesis from individual studies, no study will be excluded on the basis of the quality of reporting co-created interventions.

Strategy for data analysis

The PRISMA-ScR will be used to guide the reporting of the scoping review [ 28 ]. Whilst, the synthesis of the results from included sources of evidence is more appropriately done with a systematic review, the analysis of data in scoping reviews is generally descriptive in nature [ 29 ]. A narrative summary of extracted data will be produced along with the tabulated and/or charted results described in relation to the review question and objectives. Descriptive techniques, such as basic coding of data to particular categories, are recommended as a useful approach when the purpose is to identify concepts or key characteristics related to the concept [ 20 ]. Data will be analysed using the well-established method of thematic analysis [ 30 ]. This method is characterised by identifying and reporting recurring themes within the data and is a suitable analytic method because it allows for patterns of experience to be recorded, such as understanding adults’ experiences of participating in co-creation. We intend to extract relevant co-creation experience data from the result sections of articles, including verbatim participant quotations. For quantitative data, such as questionnaires, we will attempt to extract the item statements and code them alongside the qualitative data.

The purpose of this scoping review is to uncover the breadth of existing empirical research on co-creation experience with a focus on emotional aspects and from a psychological perspective. An increased understanding of the role of experiences of participating in co-creation processes may help to inform the development and use of co-creation processes and lead to potential benefits for the co-creators’ and co-created outcome.

This scoping review has some limitations, which reflect the balance between conducting a wide search to discover the breadth of existing literature and the pragmatic constraints of conducting the review. This scoping review searches for published peer-reviewed work from SCOPUS and the Health CASCADE Co-creation Database. Other databases could be searched but for pragmatic reasons, these two databases were selected for their breadth and relevancy. Another limitation is that it was necessary to restrict the search terms for capturing ‘co-creation’ for the search in Scopus to maintain a manageable number of records retrieved to screen by the research team. However, authors may use different terms or descriptions. For instance, variations of terms like co-creation, co-design, and co-production, whether written with a dash or space can affect the number of articles retrieved. Boundaries on the search terms relating to experience were also formed, for example, specific emotions were not included in the search string, due to the large range of possible emotions that can be experienced, which would make the search unwieldy. We also have not used any of the advanced search features of the databases, such as proximity searching, which could potentially improve the specificity.

A strength of this review is the comprehensive snowballing search strategy to capture additional relevant papers. The results will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal and to scientific conferences. The plan for dissemination includes digital science communication platforms and presentations.

Availability of data and materials

Not applicable.

Abbreviations

Artificial intelligence

Preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols

Preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis–extension for scoping reviews

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Acknowledgements

The Health CASCADE consortium.

The PhD studies of Lauren McCaffrey are funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement n° 956501.

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LMcC coordinated and conceived the study. LMcC, PMD, BMcC, and MGG have made substantive contributions to developing this protocol and the review question. LMcC, PMD, BMcC, MGG, QA, QL, EW, GRL, MV, RC, and KM jointly developed the search strategy. LMcC drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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McCaffrey, L., McCann, B., Giné-Garriga, M. et al. Adult co-creators’ emotional and psychological experiences of the co-creation process: a Health CASCADE scoping review protocol. Syst Rev 13 , 231 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-024-02643-9

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Can emotional intelligence be improved? A randomized experimental study of a business-oriented EI training program for senior managers

Raquel gilar-corbi.

Developmental and Educational Psychology Department, University of Alicante, San Vicente del Raspeig, Alicante, Spain

Teresa Pozo-Rico

Bárbara sánchez, juan-luís castejón, associated data.

All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files.

Purpose: This article presents the results of a training program in emotional intelligence. Design/methodology/approach: Emotional Intelligence (EI) involves two important competencies: (1) the ability to recognize feelings and emotions in oneself and others, and (2) the ability to use that information to resolve conflicts and problems to improve interactions with others. We provided a 30-hour Training Course on Emotional Intelligence (TCEI) for 54 senior managers of a private company. A pretest-posttest design with a control group was adopted. Findings: EI assessed using mixed and ability-based measures can be improved after training. Originality/value: The study’s results revealed that EI can be improved within business environments. Results and implications of including EI training in professional development plans for private organizations are discussed.

Introduction

This research study focused on EI training in business environments. Accordingly, the aim of the study was to examine the effectiveness of an original EI training program in improving the EI of senior managers. In this article, we delineate the principles and methodology of an EI training program that was conducted to improve the EI of senior managers of a private company The article begins with a brief introduction to the main models of EI that are embedded with the existing scientific literature. This is followed by a description of the EI training program that was conducted in the present study and presentation of results about its effectiveness in improving EI. Finally, the present findings are discussed in relation to the existing empirical literature, and the limitations and conclusions of the present study are articulated.

Defining EI

Various models of emotional intelligence (EI) have been proposed. The existing scientific literature offers three main models of EI: mixed, ability, and trait models. First, mixed models conceptualize EI as a combination of emotional skills and personality dimensions such as assertiveness and optimism [ 1 , 2 ]. Thus, according to the Bar-On model [ 3 ], emotional-social intelligence (ESI) is a multifactorial set of competencies, skills, and facilitators that determine how people express and understand themselves, understand and relate to others, and respond to daily situations The construct of ESI consists of 10 key components (i.e., self-regard, interpersonal relationships, impulse control, problem solving, emotional self-awareness, flexibility, reality-testing, stress tolerance, assertiveness, and empathy) and five facilitators (optimism, self-actualization, happiness, independence, and social responsibility). Emotionally and socially intelligent people accept and understand their emotions; they are also capable of expressing themselves assertively, being empathetic, cooperating with and relating to others in an appropriate manner, managing stressful situations and changes successfully, solving personal and interpersonal problems effectively, and having an optimistic perspective toward life. Second, ability models of EI focus on the processing of information and related abilities [ 3 ]. Accordingly, Mayer and Salovey [ 4 ] have conceptualized EI as a type of social intelligence that entails the ability to manage and understand one’s own and others’ emotions. Indeed, this implies that EI also entails the ability to use emotional information to manage thoughts and actions in an adaptive manner [ 5 ]. Third, the trait EI approach understands EI as emotion-related information [ 6 ]. According to trait models, EI refers to self-perceptions and dispositions that can be incorporated into fundamental taxonomies of personality. Therefore, according to Petrides and Furnham [ 7 ], trait EI is partially determined by several dimensions of personality and can be situated within the lower levels of personality hierarchies. However, it is a distinct construct that can be differentiated from other personality constructs. In addition, the construct of trait EI includes various personality dispositions as well as the self-perceived aspects of social intelligence, personal intelligence, and ability EI. The following facets are subsumed by the construct of trait EI: adaptability, assertiveness, emotion perception (self and others), emotion expression, management (others), and regulation, impulsiveness (low), relationships, self-esteem, self-motivation, social awareness, stress management, trait empathy, happiness, and optimism [ 7 ]. Finally, as Hodzic et al. [ 8 ] have indicated, most existing definitions of EI permit us to draw the conclusion that EI is a measurable individual characteristic that refers to a way of experiencing and processing emotions and emotional information. It is noteworthy that these models are not mutually exclusive [ 7 ].

Effects of EI on different outcomes

EI has been found to be related to workplace performance in highly demanding work environments (see e.g. [ 9 ]). Consequently, companies, entities, and organizations tend to recognize the importance of EI, promote it on a daily basis to facilitate career growth, and recruit those who possess this ability. [ 10 ].

With regard to research that has examined the EI-performance link, Van Rooy and Viswesvaran [ 11 ] conducted a metanalytic study to examine the predictive power of EI in the workplace. They found that approximately 5% of the variance in workplace performance was explained by EI, and this percentage is adequately significant to increase savings and promote improvements within organizations. In addition, the authors concluded that further in-depth investigations are needed to comprehensively understand the construct of EI.

However, the EI-performance link must be interpreted with caution. Specifically, Joseph and Newman [ 12 ] examined emotional competence in the workplace and found that EI predicts performance among those with high emotional labor jobs but not their counterparts with low emotional labor jobs. In addition, they indicated that further research is required to delineate the relationship between EI and actual job performance, gender and race differences in EI, and the utility of different types of EI measures that are based on ability or mixed models in training and selection. Accordingly, Pérez-González and Qualter [ 13 ] have underscored the need for emotional education. Further, Brasseur et al. [ 14 ] found that better job performance is related to EI, especially among those with jobs for which interpersonal contact is very important.

It is noteworthy that EI is positively related to job satisfaction. Accordingly, Chiva and Alegre [ 15 ] found that there was an indirect positive relationship between self-reported EI (i.e., as per mixed models) and job satisfaction. A total of 157 workers from several companies participated in this study. These findings suggest that people with higher levels of EI are more satisfied with their jobs and demonstrate a greater capacity for learning than their counterparts with lower levels of EI.

Similarly, Sener, Demirel, and Sarlak [ 16 ] adopted a mixed model of EI and examine its effect on job satisfaction. They found that individuals with strong emotional and social competencies demonstrated greater self-control. A total of 80 workers participated in this study. They were able to manage and understand their own and others’ emotions in an intelligent and adaptive manner in their personal and professional lives.

In addition, EI (i.e., as per mixed models) predicts job success because it influences one’s ability to deal with environmental demands and pressures [ 17 ]. Therefore, it has been contended that several components of EI (i.e., as per mixed models) contribute to success and productivity in the workplace [ 18 ]; future research studies should extend this line of inquiry. Several studies have shown that people with high levels of ability EI communicate in an interesting and assertive manner, which in turn makes others feel more comfortable in the workplace [ 19 ]. In addition, it has been contended that EI (i.e., as per mixed models) plays a valuable role in group development because effective teamwork occurs when team members possess knowledge about the strengths and weaknesses of others and the ability to use these strengths when necessary [ 15 , 20 ]. It is especially important for senior managers to demonstrate high levels of EI because they play a predominant role in team management, leadership, and organizational development.

Finally, studies that have examined the relationship between EI and wellbeing have found that ability EI is a predictor of professional success, wellbeing, and socially relevant outcomes [ 21 – 23 ]. Extending this line of inquiry, Slaski and Cartwright [ 24 ] investigated the relationship between EI and the quality of working life among middle managers and found that higher levels of EI is related to better performance, health, and wellbeing.

EI and leadership

The actions of organizational leaders play a crucial role in modulating the emotional experiences of employees [ 25 ]. Accordingly, Thiel, Connelly, and Griffith [ 26 ] found that, within the workplace, emotions affect critical cognitive tasks including information processing and decision making. In addition, the authors have contended that leadership plays a key role in helping subordinates manage their emotions. In another study, Batool [ 27 ] found that the EI of leaders have a positive impact on the stress management, motivation, and productivity of employees.

Gardner and Stough [ 28 ] further investigated the relationship between leadership and EI among senior managers and found that leaders’ management of positive and negative emotions had a beneficial impact on motivation, optimism, innovation, and problem resolution in the workplace. Therefore, the EI of directors and managers is expected to be positively correlated with employees’ work motivation and achievement.

Additionally, EI competencies are involved in the following activities: choosing organizational objectives, planning and organizing work activities, maintaining cooperative interpersonal relationships, and receiving the support that is necessary to achieve organizational goals [ 29 ]. In this regard, some authors have provided compelling theoretical arguments in favor of the existence of a relationship between EI and leadership [ 30 – 34 ]. In this way, several researches [ 30 – 34 ] show that EI is a core and key variable positively related to effective and transformational leadership and this is important for positive effects on job performance and attitudes that are desirable in the organization.

Further, people with high levels of EI are more capable of regulating their emotions to reduce work stress [ 35 ]; thus, it is necessary to emphasize the importance of EI in order to meet the workplace challenges of the 21st century.

In conclusion, EI competencies are considered to be key qualities that individuals who occupy management positions must possess [ 36 ]. Further, EI transcends managerial hierarchies when an organization flourishes [ 37 ]. Finally, emotionally intelligent managers tend to create a positive work environment that improves the job satisfaction of employees [ 38 ].

EI trainings

Past studies have shown that training improves the EI of students [ 22 , 39 , 40 – 44 ], employees [ 45 – 47 ], and managers [ 48 – 52 ]. More specifically, within the academic context, Nelis et al. [ 22 ] found that group-based EI training significantly improved emotion identification and management skills. In another study, Nelis et al. [ 39 ] found that EI training significantly improved emotion regulation and comprehension and general emotional skills. It also had a positive impact on psychological wellbeing, subjective perceptions of health, quality of social relations, and employability. Similarly, several studies that have been conducted within the workplace have shown that EI can be improved through training [ 45 – 52 ] and have underscored the key role that it plays in effective performance [ 53 , 54 ].

In addition, two relevant metanalyses [ 8 , 55 ] concluded that there has been an increase in research interest in EI, recognition of its influence on various aspects of people’s lives, and the number of interventions that aim to improve EI. Relatedly, Kotsou et al. [ 55 ] and Hodzic et al. [ 8 ] reviewed the findings of past studies that have examined the effects of EI training to explore whether such training programs do indeed improve EI.

First, Hodzic et al. [ 8 ] concluded that EI training has a moderate effect on EI and that interventions that are based on ability models of EI have the largest effects. In addition, the improvements that had resulted from these interventions were found to have been temporally sustained.

Second, the conclusions of Kotsou et al.’s [ 55 ] systematic review of the literature on the effectiveness of EI training make it evident that more rigorous and controlled studies are needed to permit one to draw concrete conclusions about whether training improves ability EI. Studies that had adopted mixed models of EI tended to more consistently find that training improves EI. Accordingly, the results of Kotsou et al.’s [ 55 ] metanalytic study revealed that EI training enhances teamwork, conflict management, employability, job satisfaction, and work performance.

Finally, it is necessary to identify and address the limitations of past interventions in future studies to improve their quality and effectiveness.

Purpose of the study

In the systematic review conducted by Kotsou et al. [ 55 ] regarding research published on interventions to improve EI in adults, one out of five studies with managers, was performed on a sample of middle managers, without randomization, with an inactive control group, no immediate measures after the training, and only one evaluation was performed six months after the training. In the other four studies collected in Kotsou et al.’s systematic review [ 55 ], only one study utilized a control group (inactive control group), one employed randomizations, and two studies performed follow-up measures six months after the intervention.

The two metanalyses confirmed and identified some problems or gaps we have tried to overcome in the present study. For this reason, in our study, we propose to deepen the assessment of EI training for senior managers, aiming to overcome most of the limitations mentioned in the studies of Kotsou et al. [ 55 ] and Hodzic et al. [ 8 ] by implementing the following: 1) Include a control group (waiting list group); 2) Conduct follow-up measurements (12 months later); 3) Employ an experimental design; 3) Include a workshop approach with group discussions and interactive participation; 4) Identify specific individual differences (i.e., age, gender) that might determine the effects of interventions; and 5) Use self-report and ability measures. For these reasons, two different ways of evaluating EI have been selected in this study to assess the emotional competencies applied within the labor and business world to solve practical problems: the EQ-i questionnaire [ 2 ], based on mixed models to provide a self-perceived index of EI, and the Situational Test of Emotional Management (STEM) and the Situational Test of Emotional Understanding (STEU) [ 56 ] based on the ability model. Thus, including two different EI measure we aim at obtaining a more reliable validation of the intervention used.

Therefore, the objective of our study was to investigate whether EI can be improved among employees who occupy senior management positions in a private company. Thus, the research hypothesis was that participation in the designed program would improve EI among senior managers.

EI training development

The Course on Emotional Intelligence (TCEI) was created to provide senior managers with emotional knowledge and practical emotional skills so that they can apply and transfer their new understanding to teamwork and find solutions to real company problems and challenges. In this way, TCEI prepares workers to use the emotional learning resources appropriate to each work situation. In addition, TCEI combines face-to-face work sessions with a cross-sectional training through an e-learning platform. For more details, see S1 Appendix 1.

According to Mikolajczak [ 57 ], three interrelated levels of emotional intelligence can be differentiated: a) conceptual-declarative emotion knowledge, b) emotion-related abilities, and c) emotion-related dispositions. The TCEI aims at developing emotional skills, which are included on the second level of Mikolajczak’s model. Moreover, the present study uses the mixed model and the ability model measures to assess the level of EI. In using these measures, it is possible to assess the second level of Mikolajczak’s model. Pérez-González and Qualter [ 13 ] also suggest that activities related to ability EI should be included in emotional education programs.

Thus, this EI program was designed to allow senior managers to make use of their understanding and management of emotions as a strategy to assist them in facing the challenges within their work environment and managing their workgroups. Following the recommendation of Pérez-Gonzáles and Qualter, the training intervention methodology is founded in DAPHnE key practices [ 13 ]. It is important to emphasize that this training is grounded in practicality since it works based on the resolution of real cases, utilizing participative teaching-learning techniques and cooperative learning, while promoting the transfer of all aspects of EI and applied to various situations that can occur in the workplace. The e-learning system in the Moodle platform also provides an added value since it allows the creation of an environment providing exposure to professional experiences and continuous training. This type of pedagogical approach based on skills training and mediated through e-learning is a methodology that emerged in the 1990s when business organizations sought to create environments better suited to improving the management of large groups of employees. After its success, it began to be used in other contexts, including higher education and organizational development [ 58 – 60 ].

Finally, in order to justify the chosen training, it is important to note that the following official competencies for senior managers have been designated by the company:

Supervise the staff and guarantee optimum employee performance by fostering a motivational working environment where employees receive the appropriate support and respect and their initiatives are given the consideration they deserve.
Make decisions and promote clear goals, efficient leadership, competitive compensation, and acknowledgment of the employees’ achievements.
Justify their decisions to executives and directors, explaining how they have ensured training by creating opportunities for appropriate professional development for all employees and how they have facilitated conditions for a better balance in achieving the company’s objectives.

In conclusion, considering the above-mentioned professional competencies required, senior managers were selected as participants in this study since they need to possess and apply aspects related to EI in order to accomplish their leadership and staff management responsibilities.

Participants

The company participating in this study was an international company with almost 175 years of history that occupies a select position in a branch of industry in the natural gas value chain, from the source of supply to market, including supply, liquefaction, shipping, regasification, and distribution. The company is present in over 30 countries around the world.

This study was conducted involving a sample of 54 senior managers selected from a company in a European country. The sample was extracted from the entire population of senior managers within this company following a stratified random sampling procedure, taking into account the gender of the population in order to select 50% of each gender.

The mean age of participants was 37.61 years (standard deviation = 8.55) and the percentage of female senior managers was 50%. For evaluation purposes, these employees were randomly divided into two groups: the experimental group ( n = 26; mean age = 35.57 (7.54); 50% women) and the control group ( n = 28; mean age = 39.50 (9.11); 50% women). The control group received EI training after the last data collection.

Initially, a group of senior managers from the company was selected to participate in the study, as they are employees who need a special domain of EI due to the competencies assigned to their professional category. In all cases, informed consent was requested for their participation in the study.

Assignment of participants to each condition, experimental or control, was performed using a random-number program. In addition, to avoid the Hawthorne effect, participants were not told if they were assigned to the experimental or control group; only their consent to participate in research on the development of EI was asked. Participants from the control group completed the same evaluations as the training group but were not exposed to the training.

The scales were administered during the pretest phase (Time 1) on an online platform for the experimental and control groups. On average, approximately 90 minutes were needed to complete the tests.

After the data were collected in the pre-test phase, only the experimental group participated in the TCEI over seven weeks, and they received a diploma.

Later, the scales were administered during the posttest phase (Time 2). Similarly, we collected the same data one year later (Time 3). A lapse of one year was allowed to pass because all training programs carried out in this company are re-evaluated one year later to determine whether improvements in employees’ skills were maintained over time. In fact, this demonstrates a clear commitment to monitoring the results achieved. Other studies have also used reevaluations of their results. For example, according to Nelis et al. [ 22 ] and Nelis et al. [ 39 ], the purpose of their studies was to evaluate whether trait EI could be improved and if these changes remained. To accomplish this, the authors performed three assessments: prior to the intervention, at the end of the intervention, and six months later. Therefore, as recommended by Kirkpatrick [ 61 ], research on the effectiveness of training should also include a long-term assessment of skills transfer.

Finally, is important to remark that all participants were properly informed of the investigation, and their written consent was obtained. All methods were performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations and the study was approved by University of Alicante Ethics Committee (UA-2015-07-06) and carried out in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations.

As mentioned before, two different ways of defining and evaluating EI were selected for this study: (1) EQ-i, based on mixed models, and (2) the STEM/STEU questionnaires, based on the ability model of EI.

1 The Emotional Quotient Inventory [ 2 ]

To measure EI based on the mixed models, the short version of the EQ-i was used, which comprises 51 self-referencing statements and requires subjects to rate the extent to which they agree or disagree with each statement on a five-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). An example item is the following; “In handling situations that arise, I try to think of as many approaches as I can.” The EQ-i comprises five factors: Intrapersonal EI and Self-Perception, Interpersonal EI, Adaptability and Decision Making, General Mood and Self-Expression, Stress Management, and a Total EQ-i score, which serves as a global EI measure. The author of this instrument reports a Cronbach’s alpha ranging from .69 to .86 for the 5 subscales [ 2 , 62 ] and the Cronbach’s alpha of the Emotional Quotient Inventory was .80 for the present sample of senior manager.

2 Situational Test of Emotional Understanding (STEU) and Situational Test of Emotion Management (STEM) [ 63 ]

Two tests were used to measure EI based on the ability model. Emotion understanding was evaluated by the short version of the Situational Test of Emotional Understanding (STEU) [ 63 ]. This test is composed of 25 items that present an emotional situation (decontextualized, workplace-related, or private-life-related). For each item, participants have to choose which emotion will most likely elicit the described situation. Cronbach’s alpha of STEU is .83 [ 63 ] and the Cronbach’s alpha of the Situational Test of Emotional Understanding was .86 for the present sample of senior manager. An example item is the following: “An unwanted situation becomes less likely or stops altogether. The person involved is most likely to feel: (a) regret, (b) hope, (c) joy, (d) sadness, (e) relief” (in this case, the correct answer is “relief”).

On the other hand, emotion management was evaluated by the short version of the Situational Test of Emotion Management (STEM) [ 63 ]. This test is composed of a 20-item situational judgment test (SJT) that uses hypothetical behavioral scenarios followed by a set of possible responses to the situation. Respondents must choose which option they would most likely select in a “real” situation. Cronbach’s alpha of STEM is .68 [ 63 ] and the Cronbach’s alpha of the Situational Test of Emotion Management was .84 for the present sample of senior manager. An example item is the following: “Pete has specific skills that his workmates do not, and he feels that his workload is higher because of it. What action would be the most effective for Pete? (a) Speak to his boss about this; (b) Start looking for a new job; (c) Be very proud of his unique skills; (d) Speak to his workmates about this.”

TCEI content and organization

The program schedule spanned seven weeks with a face-to-face session of 95 minutes each week, which was delivered by one of the researchers specifically trained for this purpose. All the experimental group participants were taught together in these sessions. The content of each session was the following:

1st Session : Introduction. The objectives and methodology of the training were explained to participants.

2nd Session : Intrapersonal EI and self-perception. Trainees learned to identify their own emotions.

3rd Session : Interpersonal EI. Participants learned to identify others’ emotions.

4th Session : Adaptability and decision making. The objective was to improve trainees’ ability to identify and understand the impact that their own feelings can have on thoughts, decisions, behavior, and work performance resulting in better decisions and workplace adaptability.

5th Session : General mood and self-expression. Trainees worked on expressing their emotions and improving their skills to effectively control their mood.

6th Session : Stress management. Participants learned EI skills to manage stress effectively.

7th Session : Emotional understanding and emotion management. Trainees learned skills to effectively manage their emotions as well as skills that influence the moods and emotions of others.

In addition, access to the virtual environment (Moodle platform) was required after each face-to-face session. The time spent in the platform was registered, with a minimum of five hours required per week.

The virtual environment allowed the researcher to review all the content completed in each face-to-face session.

All of the EI abilities included in the virtual part of the training have been previously used in the face-to-face part; thus, virtual training is simply a method used to consolidate EI knowledge. In fact, the virtual environment has the same function as completing a workbook about the information presented during the face-to-face session. However, the added advantage of working in an e-learning environment is that all of the trainers are connected and can share their tasks and progress with others. At times, in addition to reviewing the contents of the previous session, the e-learning environment also introduces some important terms for the next session utilizing the principles of the well-known flipped classroom methodology. In short, the following activities were carried out through the Moodle platform to consolidate the participants’ knowledge:

1st Session: Participants were informed that e-learning would be part of the training in order to consolidate EI knowledge.

2nd Session: Participants explored the skills of Intrapersonal EI and self-perception in the virtual environment through discussion forums.

3rd Session: Participants learned the skills of identifying others’ emotions and utilizing this emotional information for decision-making. This information was summarized in the virtual environment through discussion forums.

4th Session: Participants sharpened their skills of adaptability and decision-making through the production of innovative ideas and the utilization of critical thinking skills in assessing the impact that their own feelings can have on others’ work performance. Trainees learned how to express their own emotions, as well as the skill of effectively controlling their mood, through the resolution of practical cases in the virtual environment; in these cases, innovative ideas and critical thinking skills were required in order to make better decisions during emotionally impactful; situations. In addition, trainees utilized the forum to reflect on why their own emotional regulation is important for ensuring long-term workplace adaptability.

5th Session: Verbal quiz, discussion, and forum contribution. Trainees participated in an online debate about key emotional skills in order to understand how to apply them in a real work environment. In particular, the debate focused on regulating the self-expression skill and equilibrating the general mood when there are difficult situations within the company. In this way, the participants identified the skills required to effectively manage the stress experienced in order to maintain a positive mood A discussion about common stressful situations at work was carried out in the virtual environment, and strategies for regulating the mood during critical work situations were shared.

6th Session: Discussion of ideas related to EI. Trainees participated in an online debate about key emotional skills in order to understand how to apply stress management skills to the real work environment. It was necessary to share previous work experiences where stress was a significant challenge and reevaluate the emotionally intelligent way to deter stress and maintain a balanced senior manager life.

7th Session: Participants concluded the training on target strategies to effectively manage their emotions as well as skills that influence the moods and emotions of others. This session, therefore, was a period for feedback where brief answers to specific doubts were provided. In addition, the outcomes of the training were established by the participants. Finally, senior managers were encouraged to stay connected through the Moodle platform in order to resolve future challenges together using the EI skills learned and internalized during the training period.

Data analysis

An experimental pretest-posttest with a control group design was adopted. Under this design, multivariate variance analysis (MANOVA) and univariate variance analysis (ANOVA) of repeated measures were performed, in which the measures of dependent variables were treated as variables evaluated within the same subjects, and groups operated as variables between subjects. Finally, all statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS statistical software, version 21.0 (IBM, Armonk, USA).

First, sample normality analysis indicated that the population followed a normal distribution. The results of Box’s M test did not show homogeneity in the variance-covariance matrix on the EQ-i Total Scale (M = 59.29; F = 9.26, p ≥ 0.00) or on the STEM/STEU (M = 231.01; F = 36.07, p ≥0.00). However, Hair et al. [ 64 ] have stated that if the control and the experimental groups are of equal size, which was the case in this study, then that factor tends to mitigate the effects of violations of the normality assumption.

Second, to test whether there was any significant difference between the experimental group and control group at the time of pretest, Student’s t -test was performed to determine the differences in means of all the variables measured ( Table 1 ). Table 1 shows that there were no significant differences at the time of pretest. This finding suggests that both groups began in analogous situations.

					Sig.	Difference		95% Confidence
								Lower	Upper
1. Age	.22 (1.07)	-.24 (.88)	1.71	52	.09	.45	.26	-.07	.99
	26.67 (6.18)	25.00 (4.77)	1.71	52	.09	3.92	2.28	-.66	8.51
2. Intrapersonal (t1)	-.03 (1.12)	.03 (.87)	-.21	52	.83	-.05	.27	-.60	-.49
	24.67 (6.18)	25.00 (4.77)	-.21	52	.83	-.32	1.51	-3.35	2.71
3. Interpersonal (t1)	.19 (1.07)	-.21 (.89)	1.49	52	.14	.40	.26	-.13	.94
	39.50 (3.28)	38.26 (2.70)	1.49	52	.14	1.23	.82	-.41	2.88
4. Stress Man. (t1)	-.03 (1.07)	.03 (.94)	-.24	52	.80	-.06	.27	-.61	.48
	20.35 (5.97)	20.73 (5.29)	-.24	52	.80	-.37	1.53	-3.45	2.70
5. Adaptability (t1)	-.04 (1.04)	.05 (.98)	-.33	52	.73	-.09	.27	-.64	.45
	28.46 (3.85)	28.80 (3.64)	-.33	52	.73	-.34	1.02	-2.39	1.70
6. General Mood (t1)	.12 (.90)	-.13 (1.10)	.90	52	.36	.24	.27	-.29	.79
	35.25 (2.02)	34.69 (2.47)	.90	52	.36	.55	.61	-.67	1.79
7. Total EQi (t1)	.05 (.99)	-.05 (1.03)	.34	52	.73	.09	.27	-.45	.64
	29.65 (1.57)	29.50 (1.64)	.34	52	.73	.15	.43	-.72	1.02
8. STEU (t1)	.06 (1.03)	-.06 (.98)	.41	52	.67	.11	.27	-.43	.66
	13.28 (2.91)	12.96 (2.79)	.41	52	.67	.32	.77	-1.23	1.88
9. STEM (t1)	.06 (1.00)	-.07 (1.01)	.48	52	.62	.13	.27	-.41	.68
	11.93 (.97)	11.80 (.98)	.48	52	.62	.13	.26	-.40	.66
10. Intrapersonal (t2)	-.79 (.71)	.85 (.36)	-10.78	52	.00	-1.63	.15	-1.94	-1.32
	23.53 (5.98)	37.34 (3.05)	-10.78	52	.00	-13.81	1.28	-16.39	-11.22
11. Interpersonal (t2)	-.21 (1.01)	.22 (.96)	-1.59	52	.11	-.42	.26	-.96	.11
	39.82 (2.88)	41.03 (2.72)	-1.59	52	.11	-1.21	.76	-2.74	.31
12. Stress Man. (t2)	-.68 (.79)	.73 (.61)	-7.25	52	.00	-1.40	.19	-1.79	-1.01
	18.10 (5.64)	28.11 (4.35)	7.25	52	.00	-10.00	1.38	-12.77	-7.23
13. Adaptability (t2)	.29 (1.01)	-.31 (.91)	2.30	52	.02	.60	.26	.07	1.12
	29.78 (3.68)	27.57 (3.32)	2.30	52	.02	2.20	.95	.28	4.13
14. General Mood (t2)	-.65 (.74)	.70 (.75)	-6.64	52	.00	-1.34	.20	-1.74	-.93
	35.50 (2.44)	39.96 (2.48)	-6.64	52	.00	-4.46	.67	-5.80	-3.11
15. Total EQi (t2)	-.85 (.60)	.92 (.20)	-14.71	52	.00	-1.76	.12	-2.01	-1.52
	29.35 (1.85)	34.80 (.61)	-14.71	52	.00	-5.45	.37	-6.21	-4.70
16. STEU (t2)	-.67 (.98)	.73 (.17)	-7.45	52	.00	-1.40	.18	-1.78	-1.01
	13.28 (2.91)	14.46 (.50)	-7.45	52	.00	-4.17	.56	-5.32	-3.02
17. STEM (t2)	-.68 (.98)	.73 (.15)	-7.50	52	.00	-1.40	.18	-1.78	-1.02
	11.96 (.96)	13.34 (.14)	-7.50	52	.00	-1.38	.18	-1.75	-1.00
18. Intrapersonal (t3)	-.77 (.75)	.83 (.34)	-10.26	52	.00	-1.60	.15	-1.92	-1.29
	25.57 (5.73)	37.84 (2.57)	-10.26	52	.00	-12.27	1.19	-14.69	-9.85
19. Interpersonal (t3)	-.24 (.96)	.26 (.99)	-1.88	52	.06	-.50	.26	-1.03	.03
	39.57 (3.47)	41.38 (3.57)	-1.88	52	.06	-1.81	.96	-3.74	.11
20. Stress Man. (t3)	-.71 (.75)	.76 (.59)	-7.90	52	.00	-1.46	.18	-1.83	-1.09
	19.14 (5.01)	28.88 (3.93)	-7.90	52	.00	-9.74	1.23	-12.21	-7.26
21. Adaptability (t3)	-.05 (1.18)	.06 (.78)	-.38	52	.69	-1.06	.27	-.65	.44
	27.96 (4.22)	28.34 (2.78)	-.38	52	.69	-.38	.98	-2.35	1.58
22. General Mood (t3)	-.63 (.80)	.68 (.72)	-6.34	52	.00	-1.31	.20	-1.72	-.89
	35.53 (2.54)	39.73 (2.29)	-6.34	52	.00	-4.19	.66	-5.52	-2.86
23. Total EQi (t3)	-.87 (.55)	.93 (.21)	-16.16	52	.00	-1.80	.11	-2.02	-1.57
	29.55 (1.73)	35.23 (.74)	-16.16	52	.00	-5.68	.35	-6.39	-4.26
24. STEU (t3)	-.75 (.86)	.81 (.15)	-9.46	52	.00	-1.55	.16	-1.89	-1.21
	13.35 (2.89)	18.61 (.49)	-9.46	52	.00	-5.25	.55	-6.39	-4.12
25. STEM (t3)	-.79 (.74)	.85 (.27)	-11.01	52	.00	-1.64	.14	-1.94	-1.34
	11.99 (.94)	14.09 (.34)	-11.01	52	.00	-2.09	.19	-2.48	-1.71

Note. t1 = pretest; t2 = posttest; t3 = follow-up.

1 = direct score

Therefore, we came to the conclusion that the two groups of workers could not be distinguished by EI level before the TCEI program. In addition, the mean age of each group was analyzed and no baseline differences were found between the two groups.

To assess the impact of the program on EI, the scores obtained by both groups were compared before its implementation (pretest–Time 1) and shortly after the program was delivered (posttest–Time 2), as well as one year later (follow-up–Time 3). Group membership was the independent factor or variable, and the scores obtained by the subjects regarding EI were the criteria or dependent variables.

Two control variables, gender and age, were included in the analysis because they could affect the results. However, none of these variables showed a statistically significant effect in any of the variables assessed (p≥ .50 in all cases).

Regarding the implementation of the program, Table 2 presents the test results for intra-subject effects, which showed significant Group x Time interaction for all variables except for Adaptability.

	Source	TypeIII				η partial	Ob.Power
Intrapersonal	Intra	1441.19	2	4.27	< .01	.44	1.00
	Intra*Inter	147.35	2	41.09	< .01	.44	1.00
	Error intra	186.95	104
	Inter	3133.58	1	81.63	< .01	.61	1.00
	Error inter	1996.25	52
Interpersonal	Intra	88.61	2	4.59	.01	.08	.77
	Intra*Inter	7.16	2	3.64	.03	.07	.66
	Error Intra	1003.46	104
	Inter	14.55	1	1.44	.24	.03	.22
	Error inter	526.74	52
Stress Management	Intra	349.53	2	1.33	< .01	.17	.99
	Intra*Inter	811.85	2	23.99	< .01	.32	1.00
	Error Intra	1759.69	104
	Inter	1819.82	1.00	41.23	< .01	.44	1.00
	Error inter	2295.26	52
Adaptability	Intra	9.17	2	.44	.65	.01	.12
	Intra*Inter	59.44	2	2.85	.06	.05	.55
	Error Intra	1.084.30	104
	Inter	9.89	1	.53	.47	.01	.11
	Error inter	968.61	52
General Mood Scale	Intra	264.45	2	22.41	< .01	.30	1.00
	Intra*Inter	215.04	2	18.23	< .01	.26	1.00
	Error Intra	613.54	104
	Inter	294.76	1	56.09	< .01	.52	1.00
	Error inter	273.29	52
Total EQi	Intra	257.75	2	206.82	< .01	.80	1.00
	Intra*Inter	294.35	2	236.19	< .01	.82	1.00
	Error Intra	64.80	104
	Inter	542.67	1.00	107.11	< .01	.67	1.00
	Error inter	263.46	52
STEU	Intra	245.05	2	131.15	< .01	.72	1.00
	Intra*Inter	236.31	2	126.47	< .01	.71	1.00
	Error Intra	97.16	104
	Inter	372.94	1	24.35	< .01	.32	1.00
	Error inter	796.27	52
STEM	Intra	38.75	2	188.88	< .01	.78	1.00
	Intra*Inter	34.91	2	17.18	< .01	.77	1.00
	Error Intra	1.67	104
	Inter	5.46	1	28.59	< .01	.35	1.00
	Error inter	91.76	52

The observed power was highest in the key scales: 1.00 for the STEU/STEM and Total EQ-i. Regarding the subscales, the observed power was also 1.00 for the Intrapersonal, Stress Management, and General Mood subscales; on the other hand, the observed power for the Interpersonal and the Adaptability subscales was .66 and .55, respectively.

Similarly, the effect size (η 2 ), the proportion of total variability attributable to a factor, and the magnitude of the difference between one time and another resulting from the interaction between the time of assessment and implementation of the program, was high for the key scales: ≥.71 for the STEU/STEM, and .82 for the Total EQ-i. With regards to the subscales, the effect size (η 2 ) was the following: .44 for Intrapersonal, .07 for Interpersonal, .32 for Stress Management, .05 for Adaptability, and .26 for General Mood.

To further explain these results, complementary analyses were performed. On the one hand, as shown in Table 1 , we carried out an average comparison between the experimental and control groups at the measurement moments T2 and T3. Results revealed significant differences between the experimental group and the control group regarding all variables and in both moments (T2 and T3), except for the Interpersonal variable, in which the experimental group obtained higher scores in these two moments but without being statistically significant these differences. This could explain the small effect size obtained for this variable.

In addition, the Adaptability variable showed statistically significant differences between the experimental group and the control group at time T2, with the control group scoring higher, while at time T3, the experimental group also obtains higher scores regarding Adaptability; however, this score difference with regards to the control group was not statistically significant. This could explain why the interaction was not significant and the small effect size obtained for this variable.

In order to compare differences between moments T1, T2, and T3, the marginal means were analyzed for both groups (experimental and control) per moment and variable ( Table 3 ).

variable	t1-t2			t1-t3			t2-t3
	Mean dif		CI 95%	Mean dif		CI 95%	Mean dif		CI 95%	Summary differences
	(sd)			(sd)			(sd)			t1, t2, t3
Intrapersonal (EG)	-0.82 (.19)	< .00	-1.31/-.33	.80 (.15)	< .00	-1.20/-.41	-.02 (.10)	>1	.28/.25	t3>t1<t2 = t3
Interpersonal (EG)	-.43 (.27)	>.36	-1.12/.26	-.47 (.29)	>.35	-1.21/.27	.04 (.27)	>1	.65/.73	t3 = t1 = t2 = t3
Stress Management (EG)	-.69 (21)	< .01	1.23/.16	-.73 (.23)	< .01	-1.31/-.14	.03 (.16)	>1	-.38/.44	t3>t1<t2 = t3
Adaptability (EG)	.36 (.22)	>.34	-.20/.93	-.01 (.23)	>1	-.60/.59	.37 (.23)	>.37	-.22/.96	t3 = t1 = t2 = t3
General Mood (EG)	-.83 (23)	< .03	-1.58/-.07	-.81 (.26)	< .01	-1.46/-.15	-.02 (.21)	>1	-.55/.52	t3>t1<t2 = t3
Total EQ-i (EG)	-.97 (.20)	< .00	-1.49/-.45	-.98 (.18)	< .00	-1.46/-.51	.02 (.06)	>1	-.13/.16	t3>t1<t2 = t3
STEU (EG)	-.79 (.17)	< .00	-1.21/-.36	-.87 (.17)	< .00	-1.30/-.43	.08 (.02)	< .01	.02/.14	t3>t1<t2<t3
STEM (EG)	-.80 (.17)	< .00	-1.25/-.35	-.92 (.15)	< .00	-1.31/-.53	.12 (.03)	< .00	.06/.19	t3>t1<t2<t3
Intrapersonal (CG)	.76 (.18)	< .00	.30/1.22	.75 (.23)	< .01	.17/1.32	.01 (.17)	>1	-.42/.45	t3<t1<t2 = t3
Interpersonal (CG)	.40 (.25)	>.36	-.24/1.04	.44 (.29)	>.42	-.30/1.17	-.04 (.22)	>1	-.61/.54	t3 = t1 = t2 = t3
Stress Management (CG)	.65 (.16)	< .00	.23/1.06	.67 (.17)	< .00	.24/1.11	-.03 (.15)	>1	-.41/.36	t3<t1>t2 = t3
Adaptability (CG)	-.34 (.20)	>.33	-.85/.18	.01 (.28)	>1	-.70/.71	-.34 (.27)	>.65	-1.03/.35	t3 = t1 = t2 = t3
General Mood (CG)	.77 (.21)	< .00	.24/1.29	.75 (.24)	< .01	.13/1.37	.02 (.19)	>1	-.48/.51	t3<t1>t2 = t3
Total EQ-i (CG)	.90 (.10)	< .00	.65/1.15	.91 (.10)	< .00	.65/1.18	-.02 (.05)	>1	-.15/.12	t3<t1>t2 = t3
STEU (CG)	.73 (.01)	< .00	.71/.75	.80 (.04)	< .00	.71/.90	-.08 (.03)	< .04	-0.15/.00	t3<t1>t2>t3
STEM (CG)	.74 (.01)	< .00	.71/.77	.86 (.05)	< .00	.73/.99	-.12 (.05)	< .05	-.23/.00	t3<t1>t2 = t3

Note. EG = experimental group; CG = control group; t1 = pretest; t2 = posttest; t3 = follow-up.

In general, in the experimental group, there was a significant improvement between moments T1 and T2 in all variables, except Interpersonal and Adaptability, which did not present changes at any of the three moments (T1, T2, T3). On the other hand, scores remained without significant changes regarding all variables between moments T2 and T3, except in the case of STEU and STEM, in which the scores continued to improve between moments T2 and T3.

In the control group, the results were the same as in the experimental group concerning the Interpersonal and Adaptability variables. However, with regards to other variables, the trend was inverse to the experimental group between moments T1 and T2; in this case, there was a significant decrease in the scores between these two moments in the rest of the variables. Between moments T2 and T3, the scores remained without significant changes in all the variables measured with the EQ-i. In the case of variables measured with the ability test, there was a significant decrease in the STEU scores between moments T2 and T3, whereas the STEM scores remained without significant changes.

Figs Figs1 1 – 3 show the scores obtained in the EQ-i total scale and STEM/STEU total scales by both groups at Times 1, 2, and 3. At Times 2 and 3, the experimental group, which had received the EI training, had an increase in its scores, whereas the control group did not present any substantial change in scores.

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The objective of this study was to examine the effectiveness of an EI training program among the senior managers (N = 54) of a private company. Consistent with Pérez-González and Qualter [ 13 ], Hodznik et al. [ 8 ], and Kotsou et al.’s [ 55 ] recommendations, we aimed to contribute new research findings and extend the existing literature on the effectiveness of EI training in the workplace. The main findings of this study revealed that intrapersonal EI, self-perception, general mood, self-expression, and stress management were maintained after the completion of the training. On the other hand, improvements in emotional understanding and emotion management had strengthened over time. However, the results also revealed that training did not result in similar improvements across all variables. Specifically, training had a nonsignificant impact on interpersonal and adaptability skills.

Theoretical implications of the study

With regard to the theoretical implications of the present findings, the observed effectiveness of the TCEI, which was conducted using an innovative methodology that entailed face-to-face training and a virtual campus support system among senior managers, extends the existing literature on the development of EI training programs.

The training program that was conducted as a part of this study failed to improve two dimensions of EI: interpersonal and adaptability skills. There are two possible explanations for why these variables did not demonstrate improvement. First, high-quality training that addresses all the dimensions of EI is necessary to produce large effects. Therefore, the time and exercises that are devoted to these two dimensions of EI may need to be redefined. Accordingly, the second and fourth sessions of this training (i.e., interpersonal and adaptability skills, respectively) can be enriched by adding new activities and including long-term evaluation of the transfer of skills to real workplace situations in which these abilities are required to resolve challenges. Indeed, allocating more time and exercises to these topics may have offered participants greater experience in practicing these interpersonal and adaptability skills in regular and virtual classroom settings before applying them in the workplace.

On the other hand, changes in these two dimensions of EI may not be detectable immediately after the completion of the training or soon after a year has elapsed. Similarly, the studies that Kotsou et al. reviewed [ 55 ] also indicated that improvements in EI may not be detectable immediately or shortly after the completion of an intervention. Further, the conclusions of this review appear to suggest that shorter training programs do not improve some dimensions of EI. Therefore, a more intensive training and longer time gap between completion of training and assessment (i.e., after more than a year has elapsed) may yield significant results for these two dimensions of EI. Indeed, other studies have used longer time gaps such as more than two years [ 40 ] and yearly evaluations across three years [ 47 ].

In any case, the present findings suggest that the proposed training intervention is effective in improving some dimensions of EI. In particular, senior managers who received EI training demonstrated significant improvements in their ability to perceive, understand, and accept their own and others’ emotions in an effective way, be self-reliant, achieve personal goals, manage stress, have a positive attitude, and control and manage emotions; these findings are consistent with those of past studies that have aimed to improve EI by providing training in workplaces [ 45 – 52 ].

The largest effects emerged for the total scores for EI (as per mixed models; total EQ-i), followed by emotion management (STEM) and understanding (STEU), intrapersonal aspects, stress management, and finally, general mood. Moreover, improvements in emotional understanding and emotion management that had resulted from the training intervention had strengthened over time.

Similarly, several researchers have indicated that EI plays a key role in leadership development and success in the workplace [ 65 , 66 ]. The behaviors of managers shape critical stages of their subordinates’ careers as well as the provision of optimal training and promotion [ 67 , 68 ]. Given the unique significance that EI and optimal leadership bears to this group of professionals, the present study aimed to improve the EI of senior managers.

In sum, the proposed program is a training intervention that can be used to enhance the EI of senior managers because, as the previously articulated extensive literature review has demonstrated, EI plays a key role within work environments. Therefore, the present findings suggest that the TCEI is an effective training program that can improve the ability to identify one’s own and others’ emotions as well as identify and understand the impact of one’s feelings on thoughts, decisions, behaviors, and performance at work.

Practical implications

The present findings serve as empirical evidence of the effectiveness of the training program that was conducted in the present study in improving key dimensions of EI that foster the emotional skills that are both necessary and desirable in the workplace. Accordingly, the present findings have practical implications because they support the future use of the EI training program that was used in the present study. In this regard, the present findings revealed that EI training can promote the emotional development of senior managers.

In addition, the methodology of the training program is noteworthy because it required participants to use communication and work as a group to solve real practical problems that necessitate the application of EI skills in the workplace. Similarly, the use of face-to-face training alongside an e-learning platform helped participants acquire the ability to learn independently as well as synergically (i.e., with other senior managers). This encouraged the group to reflect on their knowledge about EI and apply their EI skills to handle workplace challenges.

It is important to emphasize that there were significant temporal changes in the scores of measures of emotional understanding and emotion management; in other words, the scores continued to improve a year after the completion of training. It is interesting to note that the methodology of the last training session was unique because it involved the creation of a “life and career roadmap” and “commitment to growth and development. We believe that these exercises were responsible for the continued improvement in important EI skills over time that was observed in the present study.

This finding has important practical implications because it underscores the importance of requiring senior managers to indicate their commitment to the transfer of knowledge. Indeed, the roadmap defines the results that are expected to follow the implementation of the learned emotional strategies and verifies the achievement of these results. In addition, all managers signed an online contract to indicate their commitment to remain connected through the virtual campus support system to resolve any conflicts that may arise within the company in an emotionally intelligent manner.

We believe that the method of learning that our intervention entailed is more effective than conventionally used methods. Further, the uniqueness of this method may have contributed to the observed change in scores because it allowed frustrated senior managers to share their unresolved issues. Finally, by practicing emotional understanding and emotional management during the training, the created a plan of action and implemented their solutions using EI strategies.

In addition, we believe that signing the online contract helped them understand their responsibilities and the impact that their emotional understanding and emotion management can have on the organization. The fact that their scores on measures of emotional understanding and emotion management continued to increase over time indicates that the subjects had acquired these skills and that, once they had acquired them, they continued to develop them. Similarly, Kotsou et al. [ 55 ] also found that training resulted in stable improvements in EI. In addition to providing their participants with EI tools and skills as a part of their training, they also motivated them to apply these skills and use these tools in the future.

Taken together, the present findings have promising practical implications. Specifically, the findings suggest that a training methodology that facilitates knowledge transfer (i.e., application of knowledge about EI in the management of workplace challenges) can enhance the following dimensions of EI: emotional understanding, emotion management, self-perception (through training activities that pertain to self-regard, self-actualization, and emotional self-awareness), decision making (through training activities that pertain to problem solving, reality testing, and impulse control), self-expression (through training activities that pertain to emotional expression, assertiveness, and independence), and stress management (through training activities that pertain to flexibility, stress tolerance, and optimism).

Limitations and future studies

The present study has several limitations that require explication. First, we included only age and gender as control variables and omitted other individual differences that could have influenced the results. However, it is important for future researchers to define and examine the role of individual differences in the effects of EI training in greater detail. In addition, in accordance with Kotsou et al. [ 55 ] and Hodzic et al.’s [ 8 ] suggestions, detailed behavioral indicators must be examined because they may play a crucial role in the effectiveness of EI training. Another limitation of the present study is that the intervention program was conducted in only one company. Therefore, future studies must implement this program in different companies and across varied business contexts. The present results make it apparent that further refinements are needed in order to address the aforementioned limitations of this intervention.

Another limitation of the present study is that it did not assess the effect that improvements in EI can have on other variables. Accordingly, recommendations for further research include the determination of whether improvements in EI that result from training lead to improvements in other variables such as job satisfaction and performance and successful leadership, in accordance with the results of other research studies [ 69 – 72 ]. Thus, future research studies must consider these possibilities when they examine whether the TCEI has the potential to produce all the aforementioned outcomes at an organizational level. Furthermore, the intervention can be redesigned in such a manner that it yields specific performance outcomes. Further, longitudinal studies on the effectiveness of EI training must be conducted across several sectors and countries.

Finally, senior managers define and direct the careers of the rest of a company’s personnel; Therefore, future research studies must examine how EI training can be used to promote its previously observed desirable effects such as the demonstration of good leadership behaviors, effective cooperation, and teamwork [ 29 , 31 , 34 – 38 , 69 ]. In fact, this is an interesting line of inquiry for future researchers.

Conclusions

In conclusion, the present findings contribute to the existing knowledge on the development of EI because they indicate that the training program resulted in improvements in many dimensions of the EI of senior managers. More specifically, the longitudinal effects of EI training on senior managers’ emotional skills had maintained over time, whereas the corresponding effects on emotional understanding and emotion management had strengthened at one-year follow up. Finally, the implementation of this intervention in organizational settings can nurture and promote a sense of fulfillment among employees.

Supporting information

Data underlying the findings described.

TCEI planning schedule.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (EDU2015-64562-R)

Funding Statement

This research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (EDU2015-64562-R) to R.G-C. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Data Availability

IMAGES

😊 Emotional intelligence research paper. Improving Emotional
(PDF) Using Emotional Intelligence in Management
(PDF) A Review paper on emotional intelligence: Models and relationship
Emotional Intelligence
(PDF) Role of Emotional Intelligence in Effective Leadership
The 4 Key Emotional Intelligence Capabilities [Infographic]

VIDEO

What Is Emotional Intelligence?
VAC, EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE, semester 1,year 2023 #questionpaper #exam
"How Social and Emotional Intelligence Builds Community"
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COMMENTS

Emotional Intelligence Measures: A Systematic Review
Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the ability to perceive, express, understand, and manage emotions. Current research indicates that it may protect against the emotional burden experienced in certain professions. This article aims to provide an updated systematic review of existing instruments to assess EI in professionals, focusing on the ...
(PDF) Emotional Intelligence: A Literature Review Of Its Concept
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Frontiers
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This article is part of the Research Topic Emotional Intelligence: Current Research and Future Perspectives on Mental Health and Individual Differences View all 10 articles. ... Among these, the papers by García-Martínez et al. and Kökçam et al. analyze instead the relationship between EI and stress management in university students.
Emotional intelligence, leadership, and work teams: A hybrid literature
Emotional intelligence (EI) has been widely researched in different fields of knowledge. This paper reviews the literature on emotional intelligence, leadership, and teams in 104 peer-reviewed articles and reviews provided by the Web of Science and Scopus databases from 1998 to 2022. It is a hybrid or mixed review as it uses both quantitative ...
Improving Emotional Intelligence: A Systematic Review of Existing Work
Emotional intelligence (EI) can be defined as the ability to identify, express, understand, manage, and use emotions. ... Paper presented at the 35th Annual Conference of the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists, Canberra, Australia. ... International Journal of Collaborative Research on Internal Medicine and Public Health, 3(10), 704 ...
The Measurement of Emotional Intelligence: A Critical Review of the
Emotional Intelligence (EI) emerged in the 1990s as an ability based construct analogous to general Intelligence. However, over the past 3 decades two further, conceptually distinct forms of EI ...
PDF Emotional Intelligence: A Practical Review of Models, Measures, and
Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth. As summarized by Wolff (2005, p. 2), the Goleman model holds that:
Emotional intelligence and academic performance: A systematic review
Emotional intelligence is strongly correlated with academic performance, ... it is worth pointing out that Goleman's classic (1998) research did not find differences between sexes in terms of EI. ... Africa, America, Europe and Asia. The selection included 27 papers, comprising 28 databases and 13,909 participants (49.6% men and 50.4% women ...
Emotion recognition and artificial intelligence: A systematic review
The questionnaire and self-reports are intended to begin people thinking about the various emotional intelligence competencies as they pertain to them. Various techniques have been developed based on manual assessment of emotions, including positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS) [18] , self-assessment manikin (SAM) [19] , photographic ...
Emotional Intelligence Measures: A Systematic Review
Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the ability to perceive, express, understand, and manage emotions. Current research indicates that it may protect against the emotional burden experienced in certain professions. This article aims to provide an updated systematic review of existing instruments to assess EI in professionals, focusing on the ...
Improving Emotional Intelligence: A Systematic Review of Existing Work
Department of Psychology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. Abstract. Emotional intelligence (EI) can be defined as the ability to identify, express, understand, manage, and use emotions ...
The measurement of emotional intelligence: A critical review of the
Emotional Intelligence (EI) emerged in the 1990s as an ability based construct analogous to general Intelligence. However, over the past 3 decades two further, conceptually distinct forms of EI have emerged (often termed "trait EI" and "mixed model EI") along with a large number of psychometric tools designed to measure these forms. Currently more than 30 different widely-used measures ...
A New Layered Model on Emotional Intelligence
The ultimate goal should be to develop Emotional Intelligence, do further research on the benefits of such an important capacity and the correlations between the layered Emotional Intelligence model and other variables. In this paper, we presented the pyramid of Emotional Intelligence as an attempt to create a new layer model based on emotional ...
The unique and common effects of emotional intelligence dimensions on
Literature review. While various measures of EI have been proposed in the literature (for an overview see, e.g. Pérez et al., Citation 2005), the present study focuses on the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS).Based on the definition and conceptualization of EI proposed by Mayer and Salovey (Citation 1995), Wong and Law (Citation 2002) developed a short measure of EI ...
Emotional intelligence: predictor of employees' wellbeing, quality of
The study explored the role of emotional intelligence (EI) on employees' perceived wellbeing and empowerment, as well as their performance, by measuring their quality of care. The baseline data for the present project was collected from 78 staff of a Victorian aged care organization in Australia. Self-administered surveys were used to assess participants' emotional intelligence, general ...
Change Leadership: The Role of Emotional Intelligence
Abstract. This article presents the role of emotional intelligence in leading change in an organization. Specifically, the article highlights the different perspectives of emotional intelligence, and the related five components—self-awareness, self-regulation, self-motivation, empathy, and social skill—are discussed.
(PDF) EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE: AN OVERVIEW
According to Maurice Elias (2001)12. Emotional intelligence is the set of abilities that we like to think of as being. The ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to ...
Emotional Intelligence as a Predictor of Academic and/or Professional
This paper will review the foundations and proposed definitions of the concept of emotional intelligence as well as discuss health professions and non-health profession trials and issues in this area. ... Additionally, research examining emotional intelligence should attempt to exclude as many confounders as possible. As a minimum, some have ...
Emotional Intelligence
This article presents a framework for emotional intelligence, a set of skills hypothesized to contribute to the accurate appraisal and expression of emotion in oneself and in others, the effective regulation of emotion in self and others, and the use of feelings to motivate, plan, and achieve in one's life.We start by reviewing the debate about the adaptive versus maladaptive qualities of emotion.
Adult co-creators' emotional and psychological experiences of the co
Snowball searches to identify additional papers through included full-text papers will be done using the artificial intelligence tool, namely, Connected Papers. All review steps will involve at least two reviewers. ... of the role of emotional and psychological experiences of participating in co-creation processes may help to inform the co ...
The Contribution of Emotional Intelligence to Career Success: Beyond
The development of emotional intelligence as a personal resource to achieve career success above personality and proactive personality opens a new line of research, which could examine emotional intelligence programs as a significant tool for career counsellors working with people transitioning into the workforce [85,86]. Future work in this ...
Can emotional intelligence be improved? A randomized experimental study
Purpose: This article presents the results of a training program in emotional intelligence. Design/methodology/approach: Emotional Intelligence (EI) involves two important competencies: (1) the ability to recognize feelings and emotions in oneself and others, and (2) the ability to use that information to resolve conflicts and problems to improve interactions with others.

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Emotional intelligence: predictor of employees’ wellbeing, quality of patient care, and psychological empowerment

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Adult co-creators’ emotional and psychological experiences of the co-creation process: a Health CASCADE scoping review protocol

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Systematic Reviews

Can emotional intelligence be improved? A randomized experimental study of a business-oriented EI training program for senior managers

Teresa Pozo-Rico

Introduction

Defining EI

Effects of EI on different outcomes

EI and leadership

EI trainings

Purpose of the study

EI training development

Participants

TCEI content and organization

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