From manager's emotional intelligence to objective store performance: Through store cohesiveness and sales-directed employee behavior

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.

Managers as a Missing Entity in Job Crafting Research: Relationships between Store Manager Job Crafting, Job Resources, and Store Performance

“…We controlled for several variables that may have confounding effects on store sales performance. First, we included a control for the personal characteristics of the store managers such as gender, age, and tenure in the current store (e.g., Bowen, Swim, & Jacobs, 2000;Crossley et al, 2013;Sturman, 2003;Wilderom, Hur, Wiersma, Berg, & Lee, 2015). Second, given that job demands can interact with job resources (Kooij, Tims, & Akkermans, 2017;LePine, Podsakoff, & LePine, 2005;Pearsall, Ellis, & Stein, 2009), we controlled for the hindrance job demands of store managers such as role overload (three items, α = 0.80; Babakus, Yavas, & Ashill, 2009;Beehr, Walsh, & Taber, 1976) and emotional demands (three items, α = 0.85; de Jonge, Dormann, van Vegchel, von Nordheim, Dollard, & Cotton, 2004).…”

“…Second, given that job demands can interact with job resources (Kooij, Tims, & Akkermans, 2017;LePine, Podsakoff, & LePine, 2005;Pearsall, Ellis, & Stein, 2009), we controlled for the hindrance job demands of store managers such as role overload (three items, α = 0.80; Babakus, Yavas, & Ashill, 2009;Beehr, Walsh, & Taber, 1976) and emotional demands (three items, α = 0.85; de Jonge, Dormann, van Vegchel, von Nordheim, Dollard, & Cotton, 2004). Third, we considered store features that may impact store sales performance such as store size (measured in square feet), age of store (in years), and number of competitors (Banker, Lee, Potter, & Srinivasan, 1996;George, 2005;Richard, Stewart, McKay, & Sackett, 2017;Wilderom et al, 2015). Lastly, as company-level controls, we included company size (measured as the total number of stores owned by the company) and age of company (in years) (George, 2005;Mckay, Avery, & Morris, 2008).…”

Why Are Emotionally Incapable Managers Selected

“…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 & Gupta, 2010;Humphrey, 2002). In a quite new study by Wilderom et al (Wilderom, Hur, Wiersema, Van Den Berg & Lee, 2015) no direct relationship between managers' emotional intelligence and objective store performance was found. Instead, the results supported the hypothesized four-variable, three-parth mediation model: a store manager's emotional intelligence was related to store cohesiveness, which in turn was related to sales-directed behavior of the front line employees, which in turn predicted the objective performance of the stores.…”

A study of the Yin and Yang model of leadership for individual and collective leadership development

“…Although Follett was proposing a vision of leadership as a dynamic and transformational process of integrating based on a "power-with" rather than "power over" orientation, she did not actually propose any model. It is in this context that we propose  a model that is simple and accessible enough so people, in general, and leaders and executives in diverse environments, specifically, can identify with and use it to develop their own individual and collective leadership; and  a model that addresses core contemporary leadership areas and models, according to Batistič, Černe, and Vogel (2017), including o transformational leadership (Bass et al, 2003;Bono & Judge, 2003), o emotions and emotional intelligence (George, 2000;Sy, Côté, & Saavedra, 2005;Wilderom, Hur, Wiersma, Berg, & Lee, 2015), o authentic leadership (Avolio & Gardner, 2005;Walumbwa, Avolio, Gardner, Wernsing, & Peterson, 2008), o shared leadership (Pearce & Conger, 2002), o ethical leadership (Brown, Treviño, & Harrison, 2005), o organizational justice (Colquitt, Conlon, Wesson, Porter, & Ng, 2001), and o complexity, context, and leadership (Osborn, Hunt, & Jauch, 2002). This study, with its constructivist developmental lens, investigates a model that while integrating recurrent bidimensional factors of leadership focuses on the intrapersonal and interpersonal processes that are seen to be linked to the development of new patterns of knowing and meaning making we associate with leadership at the individual and collective levels.…”