Emotional Intelligence and Career Outcomes: Evidence from Lebanese Banks

• Author: Nick Bontis,Sherine Al Ahmad,Nehale Mostapha,Ahmed Seleim
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/kpm.1533
• Published date: 01 July 2017
• Date: 01 July 2017

■Research Article

Emotional Intelligence and Career

Outcomes: Evidence from Lebanese

Banks

Sherine Al Ahmad

1

, Ahmed Seleim

1

, Nick Bontis

2

*and

Nehale Mostapha

1

1

Beirut Arab University, Beirut, Lebanon

2

McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

The purpose of this research study is to investigate the relationship among emotional intelligence components with

career commitment and turnover intention. Several hypotheses were tested based on a sample set of 273 senior man-

agers working in Lebanese banks. The findings show that there is a positive and significant relationship between self-

emotion appraisal, others’emotion appraisal, regulation of emotions, use of emotion and career commitment. There is

negative and significant relationship between self-emotion appraisal, others’emotion appraisal, regulation of emo-

tions, use of emotion and turnover intention. The main implication of the study highlights that self-emotion appraisal

is the most important predictor of career commitment and turnover intention followed by other ’s emotional ap-

praisal, regulation of emotions, and use of emotions, respectively. Ultimately, all emotional intelligence components

are important in determining career commitment and turnover intention within this research setting. Implications

for practitioners and researchers are also offered. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

INTRODUCTION

The capacity to be aware of, control, and express

one’s emotions is critical to management success.

As such, emotional intelligence (EI) has become in-

creasingly popular among business practitioners

and academic researchers. EI has the potential to

change the way one thinks and behaves, within

the workplace, and within relationships with others

(Cao and Fu, 2011). Therefore, it is important to

probe the broader spectrum of psychological mech-

anisms that allow individuals to flourish in their

lives and enhance their careers (Jamali et al., 2006).

These enhancements can be achieved through

emotional self-awareness (George, 2000) which in

aggregate can lead to an increase in output (Naderi

et al., 2010). Furthermore, EI is known to impact an

employee’s willingness to leave an organization

which has a long-term impact on career outcomes

(Thoresen et al., 2003).

The purpose of this research study is to examine

the relationship among EI components with career

commitment and turnover intention. Unfortunately,

there is a dearth of empirical research in the Arab

world on this topic. The aim of this paper is to fill

that void in the literature by assessing a variety of

hypotheses within the financial services sector of

Lebanon.

The rest of the paper is organized as follows. A re-

view of the literature and specified constructs is pre-

sented first, followed by the development of

hypotheses. The paper then describes the research

method and results, followed by a discussion of

the study’s implications, limitations, and future

directions.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Emotional intelligence is considered a primary pre-

dictor of personal effectiveness at work and of over-

all organizational success (Goleman, 1998). This link

can be achieved through emotional self-awareness

that facilitates the use of emotional input to form

judgments, make choices, decide among options,

and express emotions which enables one to effec-

tively communicate with others to realize one’s

*Correspondence to: Nick Bontis, McMaster University,

Hamilton, Canada.

E-mail: nbontis@mcmaster.ca

Knowledge and Process Management

Volume 24 Number 3 pp 161–169 (2017)

Published online 21 February 2017 in Wiley Online Library

(www.wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/kpm.1533

Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.