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A Meta-Analysis of the Relationships Between Emotional Intelligence and Employee Outcomes
A 30-year psychometric meta-analysis showing that employees' emotional intelligence is positively linked to organizational commitment, citizenship behavior, job satisfaction, and performance, and negatively linked to job stress.
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What it’s about
Drawing on 253 effect sizes from 78,159 participants across three decades of research, this meta-analysis quantifies how emotional intelligence (EI) shapes the workplace lives of employees. Using the three-stream classification of EI (ability, self-report, and mixed), the study systematically demonstrates that emotionally intelligent employees are more committed, more likely to help colleagues and go beyond formal duties, more satisfied, higher performing, and less stressed. It also probes moderators—EI stream, managerial versus non-managerial position, and published versus unpublished studies—revealing nuanced patterns such as self-report EI being the most influential stream and non-managers showing stronger EI-outcome links for most outcomes. For HR and line managers, the practical message is clear: select, place, and train for emotional intelligence to unlock a cascade of favorable employee outcomes.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- An HR leader, line manager, or organizational scholar who wants to build a committed, high-performing, low-stress workforce.
- The problem
- Employees vary widely in commitment, citizenship, satisfaction, performance, and stress, and it is unclear what psychological lever reliably improves them all. Managers feel uncertain whether investing in 'soft' emotional skills actually pays off in hard outcomes.
- The plan
- Adopt the three-stream understanding of emotional intelligence (ability, self-report, mixed).
- Select and place employees with high emotional intelligence.
- Design training and development programs to increase EI capacity.
- Set rewards and standards that reinforce favorable, emotionally intelligent behaviors.
- Have line managers model effective, emotionally intelligent leadership.
- The payoff
- A more committed workforce with lower intent to leave. · Employees who help colleagues and go beyond formal duties. · Higher job satisfaction and better job performance.
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Related profiles we’ve built
Additional reading
- Rumors of the death of emotional intelligence in organizational behavior are vastly exaggerated · Ashkanasy, N. M., and Daus, C. S. (2005)
This paper provides the three-stream classification (ability, self-report, mixed) of EI that is the core analytical framework for the meta-analysis.
- A meta-analysis of emotional intelligence and work attitudes · Miao, C., et al. (2017a)
Another major meta-analysis frequently cited for comparison, especially for outcomes like job satisfaction and organizational commitment.