ASIAN JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT RESEARCH
Online Open Access publishing platform for Management Research
© Copyright 2010 All rights reserved Integrated Publishing association
Review Article
ISSN 2229 – 3795
Trait emotional intelligence as indicator of marketing employees’ potential
Srinivasan.J1, Umadevi.K2
1- Assistant Professor and Research Supervisor,PG Department of Commerce, Arignar Anna
Government Arts College, Cheyyar, Tamilnadu
2- Gurunanak College, Velachery Road, Chennai-600042
[email protected]
ABSTRACT
This study was carried out at a major FMCG company based in Chennai which was interested in
finding out if Emotional Intelligence could be used to gauge the Sales and Marketing personnel’s
potential and if Emotional Intelligence differed among genders. As trait emotional intelligence
was found be more suitable, the study was carried out using Trait Emotional Intelligence. The
study was carried out with 103 marketing employees randomly selected from Tamilnadu and
Karnataka. The results show that there is statistically significant relation [F(1,99)=6737,
P=0.00] between Trait Emotional Intelligence and Marketing employees’ potential. However
there is no significant difference in Trait Emotional Intelligence between the male and female
employees.
Keywords: Employee Potential, Trait emotional intelligence, Trait Emotion Intelligence-SF
1. Introduction
Emotional Intelligence measures the non- cognitive aspects of human intelligence. The term was
coined by Salovey & Major in 1990. Various scales have been developed to measure Emotional
Intelligence Quotient (EI). Some widely used scales include Bar-On's EQ-I (Bar-On,
1997),Multifactor Emotional Intelligence Scale (Mayer, Caruso, & Salovey, 1998), EQ Map
(Orioli, Jones, & Trocki, 1999), Schutte Emotional Intelligence, Scale (SEIS) (Schutte et al.,
1998), the Multidimensional Emotional Intelligence Assessment (MEIA) -(Tett, Fox, & Wang,
2005), and the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire version 1.50 (TEIQue) (Petrides,
2009). Trait Emotional Intelligence Scale (TEIQue) is far more robust as it measures
behavioural disposition and has many relevant facets of emotional intelligence. TEIQue - which
was used in this study - measures 15 facets: Emotion expression, Empathy, Self-motivation,
Emotion regulation, Happiness, Social awareness, Low impulsiveness , Emotion perception ,
Self-esteem , Assertiveness, Emotion management, Optimism, Relationships, Adaptability and
Stress management.
Hitherto there has been limited study of TEIQue in relation to employee potential in India. This
study could be further expanded across wide spectrum of industries and could form basis of
predictive mathematical model.
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2. Methodology
2.1 Participants
The random sample consisted of 103 employees (25 female , 78 male) from Tamilnadu and
Karnataka in the sales and Marketing department of a major FMCG company based in Chennai,
India. The participants were divided into 2 sets: High Potential (HP) and Medium potential
(MP) by the Human Resource department based on the employees’ past 2 years Key Result Area
(KRA) Score card. The KRA score card rates the employees sales target achievement, their
customer handling ability, communication and presentation skills, innovative ideas, schemes
implemented by them and their peers’ and supervisors’ rating.
Table 1: Employee Descriptive statistics
Gen
Potential
MALE
HP
43
MP
35
Total
78
HP
14
MP
11
Total
25
HP
57
MP
46
FEMALE
Total
Total
N
103
2.2 Measure and procedure
The participants were given TEIQue-Short Form after their half yearly (year 2010) meeting and
were asked to score the questions on Likert scale. They were given 20 minutes. It was made clear
that the score will be used for research and training needs and not for job rating. Trait Emotional
Intelligence Questionnaire- Short Form (TEIQue-SF ) is based on the long form of the TEIQue
(Petrides, 2001). Two items from each of the 15 subscales of the TEIQue are selected for
inclusion. TEIQue-SF instrument has shown excellent psychometric properties in a series of
studies (Freudenthaler, Neubauer, Gabler, & Scherl, 2008; Mikolajczak, Luminet, Leroy, & Roy,
2007). Items are scored on a 7-point Likert scale and completion time is approximately 20
minutes. The 15 TEIQue variables are presented in Table 1, along with brief explanations.
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Table 2: Trait variables measured by TEIQue
High Scorer perception
Wellbeing
Self-esteem
Trait happiness
Trait optimism
Successful and self-confident.
Cheerful and satisfied with their lives.
Confident and likely to ‘‘look on the bright side’’ of
life.
Self-control
Emotion control
Stress management
Impulsiveness (low)
Emotionality
Emotion perception (self and
others)
Emotion expression
Relationships
Trait empathy
Sociability
Social awareness
Emotion management (others)
Assertiveness
Adaptability
Self-motivation
Capable of controlling their emotions.
Capable of withstanding pressure and regulating stress.
Reflective and less likely to give into their urges.
Clear about their own and other people’s feelings.
Capable of communicating their feelings to others.
Capable of having fulfilling personal relationships.
Capable of taking someone else’s perspective.
Accomplished networkers with excellent social skills.
Capable of influencing other people’s feelings.
Forthright, frank
Flexible and willing to adapt to new conditions.
Driven and unlikely to give up in the face of adversity.
( Adapted from Sánchez-Ruiz, María José, Pérez-González, Juan Carlos and Petrides, K.
V.(2010) 'Trait emotional intelligence profiles of students from different university faculties',
Australian Journal of Psychology, 62: 1, 51 — 57)
3. Data Analysis and Results
3.1 Reliability
According to Cooper, Andrew and Petrides, K. V.(2010) TEIQue-SF scale has a very good
internal consistency, with a Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.89. In the current study, the
Cronbach alpha coefficient was 0.98.(Table 2) . In the ‘Item- total statistics’( Table 3), tei_11
corresponding to statement 11 (I’m usually able to influence the way other people feel), the value
is low (0.31) indicating low correlation with the total score. Despite this, the item was not
removed from the scale as the Cronbach alpha was not low and was not affected much.
Table 3 : Reliability Statistics
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Srinivasan.J, Umadevi.K
Cronbach's
Alpha
0.988
N of
Items
Cronbach's
Alpha Based
on
Standardized
Items
0.988
30
Table 3a : Item-Total Statistics
Scale
Mean if
Item
Deleted
tei_11
120.6
Scale
Variance
if Item
Deleted
2652.438
Corrected
Item-Total
Correlation
Squared
Multiple
Correlation
0.316
0.314
Cronbach's
Alpha if
Item
Deleted
0.99
Trait Emotional Intelligence factors Score: The four factors that make up TEIQue are ‘Wellbeing,’ ‘Self-control,’ ‘Emotionality,’ and ‘Sociability’. Two way ANOVA analysis on these
factors is presented below
1) Well-being: Levene’s test of equality (Table 4) shows that the error variance is 0.95 (not
significant). It indicates that the variance of ‘well-being’ across group is equal. Tests
Between –Subject Effects (Table 5) indicated that the interaction between Gender and
potential is not significant (Gen*Potential =0.42). There is a significant main effect for
‘Potential’ (Sig.=.00). The effect size of ‘Potential’ variable is large (Partial Eta = 0.93).
The conclusion drawn is gender has no significant effect on ‘well-being’ whereas
‘Potential’ has a larger effect on ‘well-being’.
Table 4: Levene's Test of Equality of Error Variances
Dependent Variable: well-being
F
0.115
df1
3
df2
99
Sig.
0.951
Table 5: Tests of Between-Subjects Effects
Dependent Variable: Well_being
Source
Gen
Potential
Gen *
Potential
Error
Corrected
Type III
Sum of
Squares
0.009
249.347
0.107
16.695
349.487
df
Mean
Square
F
1
0.009
0.055
1 249.347 1478.637
1
0.107
0.633
99
102
Sig.
Partial
Eta
Squared
0.814
0.001
0
0.937
0.428
0.006
0.169
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Total
2) Self Control: Levne’s test of equality (Table 6) shows that the error variance is 0.43 (not
significant). It indicates that the variance of ‘self control’ across group is equal. Tests
Between –Subject Effects (Table 7) indicated that the interaction between Gender and
potential is not significant (Gen*Potential =0.88). There is a significant main effect for
‘Potential’ (Sig.=.00). The effect size of ‘Potential’ variable is large (Partial Eta = 0.94).
The conclusion drawn is gender has no significant effect on ‘Self Control’ whereas
‘Potential’ has a larger effect on ‘Self Control’.
Table 6: Levene's Test of Equality of Error Variancesa
Dependent Variable: self-control
F
0.91
df1
3
df2
99
Sig.
0.439
Table 7: Tests of Between-Subjects Effects
Dependent Variable: Self-control
Source
Gen
Type III
Sum of
Squares
0.006
df
Mean
Square
1
0.006
Potential
227.399
Gen *
Potential
0.003
1
0.003
Error
13.373
99
0.135
Corrected
Total
324.44
102
F
0.044
1 227.399 1683.426
0.02
Sig.
Partial
Eta
Squared
0.834
0
0
0.944
0.888
0
3) Emotionality: Levne’s test of equality (Table 8) shows that the error variance is 0.91
(not significant). It indicates that the variance of ‘Emotionality’ across group is equal.
Tests Between –Subject Effects (Table 9) indicated that the interaction between Gender
and potential is not significant (Gen*Potential =0.99). There is a significant main effect
for ‘Potential’ (Sig.=.00). The effect size of ‘Potential’ variable is large (Partial Eta =
0.95). The conclusion drawn is gender has no significant effect on ‘Emotionality’
whereas ‘Potential’ has a larger effect on ‘Emotionality’.
Table 8: Levene's Test of Equality of Error Variancesa
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Dependent Variable: emotionality
F
0.178
df1
3
df2
99
Sig.
0.911
Table 9: Tests of Between-Subjects Effects
Dependent Variable: Emotionality
Source
Gen
Potential
Gen *
Potential
Error
Corrected
Total
Type III
Sum of
Squares
0.001
228.951
3.58E-06
12.167
324.17
df
Mean
Square
F
Sig.
Partial
Eta
Squared
0.918
0
0
0.95
0.996
0
1
0.001
0.011
1 228.951 1862.908
1 3.58E0
06
99
0.123
102
4) Sociality/Sociability: Levne’s test of equality (Table 10) shows that the error variance is
0.004 . Hence it is significant. The variance of ‘Sociality’ is equal across groups. The
reason was found to be ‘tie11’ responses wherein even ‘medium potential’ female
respondents had rated high for tie11 question (I’m usually able to influence the way other
people feel) but this does not lead to significant interaction (Gender*Potential = 0.06),
There is a significant main effect for ‘Potential’ (Sig.=.00). The effect size of ‘Potential’
variable is large (Partial Eta = 0.90). The conclusion drawn is gender has no significant
effect on ‘Sociality’ whereas ‘Potential’ has a larger effect on ‘Sociality’.
Table 10: Levene's Test of Equality of Error Variancesa
Dependent Variable: sociability
F
4.741
df1
3
df2
99
Sig.
0.004
Total TEIQue: The analysis of Gender and Potential effect (Table 12) on total Trait
Intelligence score show that the interaction between Gender and Potential was not statistically
significant, F(1,99) = 0.231, P=0.63. There was a statistically significant main effect for
‘Potential’ F(1,99 )= 6737, P=.00. The effect was large, Partial Eta = 0.98
Table 11: Tests of Between-Subjects Effects
Dependent Variable: sociability
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Source
Gen
Potential
Gen *
Potential
Error
Corrected
Total
Type III
Sum of
Squares
0.001
170.816
0.642
df
Mean
Square
F
Sig.
Partial
Eta
Squared
0.939
0
0
0.907
0.06
0.035
1
0.001
0.006
1 170.816 963.911
1
0.642
3.625
17.544
265.955
99
102
0.177
Table 12: Levene's Test of Equality of Error Variancesa
Dependent Variable: tot_tei
F
0.159
df1
3
df2
99
Sig.
0.924
Table 13: Tests of Between-Subjects Effects
Dependent Variable: tot_tei
Source
Gen
Potential
Gen *
Potential
Error
Corrected
Total
Type III
Sum of
Squares
0
220.244
0.008
3.236
305.247
df
Mean
Square
F
1
0
0.006
1 220.244 6737.46
1
0.008
0.231
99
102
Sig.
Partial
Eta
Squared
0.94
0
0
0.986
0.632
0.002
0.033
4. Discussion
The total TEIQue score and the four factors that make up TEIQue -‘Well-being,’ ‘Self-control,’
‘Emotionality,’ and ‘Sociability’- are related to Potential of the Marketing employees. There is
no significant relation between the genders and Potential. It can be deduced that Trait Emotional
Intelligence is a good indicator of potential of employees. The High Potential (HP) employees
show higher Trait Emotional Intelligence while the Medium Potential(MP) employees show less
score.
‘Sociality/Sociability’ factor did not show homogeneity of variance. This was due to high score
given to tei_11 question (‘I’m usually able to influence the way other people feel’) by female
employees in both High and Medium Potential category. Though this did not have any
significant effect on final TEIQue, the ‘Sociality’ can be investigated further.
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Many studies indicated difference in TEIQue of genders, this study did not show significant
effect of gender on TEIQue.
4.1 Conclusion and implications for future research
This study has contributed to research on practical use of Trait Emotional Intelligence. By
establishing that Potential of Marketing employees can be related to Trait EI , the study will help
in further research in other areas of management. This study helps in developing congruence
between employee TEIQue and his or her potential. A larger study and access to Key Result
Area data can be used to build mathematical model to predict Potential of employees.
5. References
1. Beauchamp, K., & McKelvie, S. J. (2006). Personality traits and university program.
Psychological Reports, 99, pp 277–291.
2. Cooper, Andrew and Petrides, K. V.(2010), 'A Psychometric Analysis of the Trait
Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form (TEIQue-SF) Using Item Response
Theory', Journal of Personality Assessment, 92, 5,pp 449 —457.
3. Petrides, K. V., & Furnham, A. (2006), The role of trait emotional intelligence in a
gender-specific model of organizational variables. Journal of Applied Social Psychology,
36,pp 552–569.
4. Reise, S. P., & Henson, J. M. (2003). A discussion of modern versus traditional
psychometrics as applied to personality assessment scales. Journal of Personality
Assessment, 81,pp 93–103.
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