No abstract

SummaryThe relationships among manager's emotional intelligence, store cohesiveness, sales-directed employee behavior, and objective store performance were investigated. Non-managerial sales employees of a large retail electronics chain in South Korea (N = 1611) rated the emotional intelligence of their own store managers as well as the group cohesiveness within their stores. Store managers (N = 253) separately rated the salesdirected behavior of their employees. Objective sales data were collected one month later for each store.No direct relationship between manager emotional intelligence and objective store performance was found. Instead, the results supported the hypothesized four-variable, three-path mediation model: store manager's emotional intelligence was related to store cohesiveness, which in turn was related to the sales-directed behavior of the frontline employees, which ultimately predicted the objective performance of the stores. Manager emotional intelligence and store cohesiveness are seen as intangible organizing resources or sociopsychological capital for non-managerial store employees. Implications for future research and more effective management of retail firms are discussed. Van den Berg, & Wiersma, 2012). The present empirical field study addresses whether the emotional intelligence (EI) of managers is associated with the performance of their work units, a question that has been raised more in the literature than has been examined empirically (e.g., Humphrey, 2012;Kaplan, Cortina, Ruark, LaPort, & Nicolaides, 2014;Kluemper, DeGroot, & Choi, 2013;Rajah, Song, & Arvey, 2011;Walter, Cole, & Humphrey, 2011). The research rests, in part, on ample evidence that both managers and individual contributors who have EI are more effective at work (George, 2000;Gooty, Connelly, Griffith, & Gupta, 2010;Humphrey, 2002). We tested a model between the EI of work-unit managers and objective work-unit performance and show how two additional variables mediate this relationship. We are very grateful to the associate editor and the reviewers for their very helpful feedback. We also thank Richard Bandstra for his assistance with this paper.

means, now known or hereaft er invented, including photocopying and recording, Despite the stated limitations inherent in each of the three empirical studies, the key fi ndings and associated theoretical interpretations deserve to be cross-examined in future research. If the key fi ndings hold up in new similar empirical studies, new modes to optimize managerial eff ectiveness, centered on training people's latent (or level of) emotional intelligence will emerge, that will contribute, no doubt, to a more effi cient and humane organizational use of people, profi t and the planet.