Affective And Effective: Military Job Performance As A Function Of Work-Related Emotional Intelligence

The military is a highly stressful career that requires one to work closely with others. These features of the military render it plausible that skills related to emotional perception and management-or emotional intelligence-would tend to benefit performance within this setting. Hypotheses of this type were examined in a panel study that presented 152 active duty military personnel with a new scenario-based measure that specifically focused on emotional occurrences within the workplace. As hypothesized, work-related emotional intelligence (W-EI) positively predicted task performance, discipline, organizational citizenship, and employees with higher W-EI levels received a greater number of performance commendations. Additionally, these relationships tended to remain significant in discriminant multiple regressions. Altogether, the results provide important evidence for the benefits of W-EI within an occupational context that requires a high degree of coordination as well as stress management.