Emotional Intelligence and Employee Performance as an Indicator for Promotion , a Study of Automobile Industry in the City of Belgaum , Karnataka , India

This study is undertaken to understand the performance level of managers and supervisors at an automobile retailer in the city of Belgaum, the study focuses on understanding the emotional intelligence of the managers and supervisors and its link to their performance level on the job. The findings of the study indicate that emotional intelligence has an impact on the performance level of the managers and supervisors.


Introduction
In this complex scenario organization both public and private sector have to manage change in an effective way.Emotional Intelligence plays an important role in helping the managers and employees to cope with this dynamic change in the business environment.Dalip Singh, (2001) mentioned that application of emotional intelligence supports the managers and employees to recognize and understand emotions and using emotional intelligence to manage oneself and his/her relationship with others.The application of emotional intelligence in the organization includes the areas like personnel selection, development of employees, teams and the organization.The organizations must coach their employees in developing their interpersonal skills and coach them to perform effectively on the job with other employees in the organization.(ReuvenBar-On et al, 2007).Employees need to enhance their emotional intelligence skills, apart from technical skills, which in turn will enhance their productivity on the job.Management of emotional intelligence by the team members will help in developing interpersonal skills of the team members.Organization's to be successful, need to develop employee's emotional intelligence skills to work effectively in the organisation.(Bob Wall, 2008).

Review of literature
In the past fifteen years, much has been written about emotional intelligence and its role in the workplace.The experts in the field of emotional intelligence have offered definitions and models to understand the concept of emotional intelligence and its impact on employee's life and work.The theory of emotional intelligence is developed and conceptualized into three models ability model, traits model and mixed model.According to John Mayer and Peter Salovey emotional intelligence is the ability to accurately identify and understand one's own emotional reactions and those of others.It also involves the ability to regulate one's emotions to use them to make good decisions and to act effectively.Further, Reuven Bar-On defined emotional intelligence as being concerned with effectively understanding oneself and others, relating well to people and adapting to and coping with the immediate surroundings to be more successful in dealing with environmental demands.Daniel Goleman defined emotional intelligence as a capacity for recognizing our own and others feeling for motivating our self and for managing our emotions, both within ourselves and in our relationship.(Neal M. Ashkanasy et al, 2000).The above definitions indicate that, for an employee to perform effectively on the job emotional intelligence abilities are required by the employee.The employees who have the ability to manage their emotions in an effective way are more successful on the job.Models of emotional intelligence have been developed on three aspects that is, ability, traits and combination of ability and traits called as mixed model of emotional intelligence.
Ability model of emotional intelligence described emotional intelligence as the "ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use the information to guide one's thinking and actions.
Traits model of emotional intelligence viewed emotional intelligence and included non-cognitive competencies such as self-esteem, self-actualization, general mood, and general well-being.As would be expected, measures based on trait approaches to emotional intelligence do not correlate highly with measures of intelligence.However, they strongly correlate with personality measures, leading researchers to refer to this approach as emotional intelligence -as-personality.
Mixed Model of emotional intelligence is a combination of ability model and traits model of emotional intelligence.The mixed model denotes the idea that emotional intelligence assesses aspects of personality and cognitive intelligence in addition to the emotional intelligence.(Schutle, 2006).

Historical Perspective of Emotional intelligence
David.Wechsler, (1940) viewed intelligence as an effect rather than a cause and believed that assessments of general intelligence is not sufficient but also non-intellectual factors, such as personality, influence the development of an individual's intelligence.H. Gardner, (1983) developed social intelligence and referred to two types of personal intelligences interpersonal and intrapersonal.Payne, (1986) coined the term, emotional intelligence, in a doctoral dissertation.This qualitative study proposed that one can overcome deficiencies in emotional functioning and regulation by showing strength in the face of fear or desire.Reuven Bar-On, (1997) developed the term "EQ" ("Emotional Quotient") and described his approach to assess emotional and social competence.He created the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i), which is the first test of emotional intelligence.Psychologists John Mayer and Peter Salovey, (1990) published their article, "Emotional Intelligence," in the journal Imagination, Cognition and Personality. Daniel Goleman, (1995) brought emotional intelligence to the mainstream.He reviewed the work of John Mayer and Peter Salovey and developed his own model of emotional intelligence.

Models of Emotional Intelligence
John Mayer and Peter Salovey developed ability model of Emotional Intelligence, this model mentioned that emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive and to express emotions, assimilate emotions in thought, understand and reason with emotion and regulate emotion in self and others.The major areas are (1) perception and expression of emotion (2) assimilating emotions in thoughts (3) understanding and analyzing the emotion (4) Reflective regulation of emotion.Reuven Bar-On developed mixed model of emotional intelligence is an array of non-cognitive capabilities competencies and skills that influence one's ability to succeed in coping with environmental demands and pressure.Major areas are intrapersonal skills, interpersonal skills, adaptability, stress management and general mood.Daniel Goleman developed mixed model of emotional intelligence and focused on the abilities, which include self control, zeal and persistence and the ability to motivate oneself.Major areas are (1) knowing ones emotions (2) Management of emotions (3) Motivating oneself (4) Recognizing emotions(5)Handling relationship.(R. Sternberg, 2000).
Dr. Peter Jordon developed ability model of emotional intelligence, this model is based on the emotional intelligence model of Peter Salovey and John Mayer.The models consist of three main constraints (1) Ability to deal with own emotions (2) Ability to deal with other's emotions and (3) the use of emotions in problem solving.(Jordan, P.J et al, 2002).
Schutte and Malouff developed ability model of emotional intelligence.This model is developed based on John Mayer and Peter Salovey model of emotional intelligence.The scale is developed on four-factors that are (1) Optimism (2) Social Skills, (3) Emotional Regulation (4) Utilization of Emotions.(Nicola S. Schutte et al, 1998).
Petrides and Furnham developed traits model of emotional intelligence, they mention that traits emotional intelligence is more comprehensive because the construct consists of self-perceptions and behavioral dispositions, which are compatible with the subjective nature of emotions.(Petrides et al, 2003).
Dr. Wong Chi Sum developed ability model of emotional intelligence based on the four ability dimensions described in the domain of emotional intelligence (1) appraisal and expression of emotion in the self (2) appraisal and recognition of emotion in others (3) regulation of emotion in the self (4) use of emotions to facilitate performance.(Law K.S, et al, 2004).
Ben Palmer and Con Stough developed mixed model of emotional intelligence to assess the five dimensions of emotional intelligence, they are (1) Emotional Recognition and Expression, (2) Understanding Emotions External (3) Emotions Direct (4) Cognition( 5) Emotional Management and Emotional Control.(Palmer, B.R. et al, 2002).

Emotional intelligence at the workplace
The study undertaken by Lisa.Gardner and Con.Stough, (2002) applied emotional intelligence test to predict transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles through multifactor leadership questionnaire among 110 senior level managers.The results indicate that emotional intelligence correlated highly with components of transformational leadership.William.Leban and Carol. Zulauf, (2004) studied project management and role of leadership.The study addressed 24 project managers and their associated projects in six organizations from varied industries.The results of the study found that a project manager's transformational leadership style has a positive impact on actual project performance, which also indicate that emotional intelligence ability has an impact on the project manager's transformational leadership style and subsequent on actual project performance.F. William Brown et al, (2006) studied to examine the relationships between emotional intelligence, leadership, and desirable outcomes in organizations.Sample of 2,411 manufacturing workers, engineers, and professional staff were included in the study.However, in this study no support was found for relationships between emotional intelligence and desirable outcomes or a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership.D. Jamali, et al, (2008) studied emotional intelligence in the Lebanese context, and investigated emotional intelligence competency scores that is (Self-awareness, Self-regulation, Self-motivation, Social awareness and Social skills) in a sample of 225 Lebanese employees and managers.A questionnaire-based measure was developed to capture the basic competencies on a self-report basis.The findings suggest differences in emotional intelligence scores across different emotional intelligence competencies for males and females, with males scoring higher on self-regulation and self-motivation, and females scoring higher on self-awareness, empathy and social skills, and that emotional intelligence levels increase significantly with managerial position.David.Rosete and Joseph.Ciarrochi, (2005) studied to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence, personality, cognitive intelligence and leadership effectiveness.Senior executives (n=41) completed an ability measure of emotional intelligence John Mayer and Peter Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), a measure of personality 16 Personality Traits, 5 th edition (16PF5) and a measure of cognitive ability through Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI).Leadership effectiveness was assessed using an objective measure of performance and a 360° assessment involving each leader's subordinates and direct manager (n=149).Correlation and regression analyses revealed that higher emotional intelligence was associated with higher leadership effectiveness, and that emotional intelligence explained variance not explained by either personality or intelligent quotient.

Theoretical framework
Emotional intelligence is a set of competencies, which direct and control one's feelings towards work and performance at work.These set of competencies are the ability of the individual to control and manage his or her moods and impulses on the job.Knowing one's emotions and feelings as they occur, and tuning one's self to the changed situation, requires the emotional competency, emotional maturity and emotional sensitivity that are demanded on the job.In a work situation, performance of the employees depends on working with group of people with different ideas, suggestions, and opinions.Effective use of emotional intelligence gives better team harmony.(Ashforth et al,1995) Leaders, in particular, need high emotional intelligence, because they represent the organization to the customers, they interact with the highest number of people within and outside the organization and they set the tone for employee morale.Leaders with high emotional intelligence are able to understand their employee's needs and provide them with constructive feedback.Success in sales requires emotional intelligence ability to understand the customer and provide service to customers.(Bridget Murray, 1998).Emotional intelligence in the organization supports in identification of employees emotional intelligence level and its impact on employee performance on the job.This would act as an indicator for promotion of employees in the organization.
The present study addresses such a novel area and attempts to find out how far the organization would be able to identify emotional intelligence of the employee's and relate it to their performance on the job.Hence the study is conducted to measure the emotional intelligence level among the managers and supervisors and compare with their performance in the organization at a large automobile dealership at Belgaum, Karnataka State, India.The objectives of the study are as follows 1) To understand the level of performance of the managers and supervisors.
2) To understand the level of emotional intelligence of the managers and supervisors.
3) To study the impact of emotional intelligence on the level of performance and their ability to take higher level jobs in the organization.
The present study is confined to measure emotional intelligence among the managers and supervisors and compare the performance level of the employees in the study organization which is located in the city of Belgaum, Karnataka State, India.The study only considers managers and supervisors working in all the branches of the organization.
Emotional intelligence represents a set of competencies that perceive, understand and regulate emotions in ourselves and in others.These emotional competencies are learned capabilities based on emotional intelligence that lead to superior performance.The emotional intelligence model developed by Daniel.Goleman is applied to understand the emotional intelligence of the employees at the study organization.According to Daniel.Goleman, emotional intelligence as shown in figure 1 can be organized into four dimensions representing the recognition of emotions in ourselves and in others, as well as the regulation of emotions in ourselves in others.Each dimension consists of a set of emotional competencies that people must possess to fulfill that dimensions of emotional intelligence.The dimensions are as under:-Self awareness: It refers to having a deep understanding of one's own emotions as well as strengths, weaknesses, values and motives.
Self management: This represents how well we control or redirect our internal states, impulses and resources.Social awareness: It is mainly about empathy, having understanding and sensitivity to the feelings, thoughts and situations of others.
Relationship management: It refers to managing other people's emotions.

Refer to Figure 1
The present study model which is shown in figure 2 on emotional intelligence has been linked and correlated with performance of managers and supervisors.(McShane and Steven,2008)Emotional intelligence correlates with job success of leaders.Sosik and Megerian, (1999) found leaders high on emotional intelligence outperformed when measured by organizational performance data.Study conducted by Lam and Kirby, (2002) have shown positive correlation between emotional intelligence and performance on job.Cavallo and Brienza, (2002) conducted the study and assessed the leadership behavior of 358 leaders at Johnson and Johnson Corporation, at locations across the globe.The study found the best performers were those high in emotional intelligence as rated by their supervisors, peers, and subordinates in the Emotional Competency Inventory (ECI), a 360-degree feedback instrument based upon Goleman's model of Emotional intelligence competencies .From the above studies, it can be observed that many of the researchers have argued emotional intelligence is an important aspect for improving performance.Therefore, we can formulate the following hypothesis (1) Null Hypothesis (H o ).There is no significant difference between managers and supervisors with respect to performance appraisal score.
(2) Null Hypothesis (H o ).Managers and supervisors performance appraisal scores don't correlate with emotional intelligence score Refer to Figure 2 4. Participants, Measures and Methodology

Participants
The organization is a partnership firm situated at Belgaum, Karnataka, India.
The firm was established in the year 1920.They started their concern with rice mill at Belgaum.In the year 1930, they diversified their business activities and started a soap factory in Belgaum.
In the year, 1935, they started an edible oil mill at Belgaum .They further diversified their business into automobile sector, in the year 1956 with dealership of Ashok Leyland Vehicles.
In the year 1991 they got dealership for TELCO, vehicles and spare parts for North Karnataka region.The total workforce has increased from 10 in the year 1920 to 1200 in the year 2008.
The total number of branches as of 2008 is four situated at Hubli, Belgaum, Bagalkot and Bijapur.The total turnover for the financial year 2006-2007 in Indian Rupees is 4500 million.
The data collection for the research was undertaken from both primary and secondary sources.Primary data was collected by survey method using structured questionnaire on emotional intelligence and Secondary data was collected from various journals, magazines, newspapers and websites like Human Resource Management International Digest, Human Capital, and HR.com.
Sample was drawn from a population of employees working in the automobile retailer in the city of Belgaum, Karnataka India.As per the latest employee record of 2008, there are 1200 employee of whom there are 320 are managers and supervisors.The sample size was calculated and the number of the employees to be assessed and interview was one hundred twenty five employees in the designation of managers, which is more than 10% of the total population.Out of this, one hundred twenty five were selected through simple random sampling method using random table.
In the study of the emotional intelligence and employee performance, the respondents include managers and supervisors in the dealer organization.The age composition of the respondents is in the age group of 25-55 years.With regard to gender 90% of the respondents were male and 10% were female.The average experience level of managers and supervisors was 9.5 years.

Measures
The employee performance appraisal was collected for one year that is November 2007-November 2008.The performance appraisal is in the format of 360 degree appraisal.The score range on the scale of 1 to 5, where in 1 indicates low and 5 indicates high.Employees are rated on this scale on their level of performance.The employee's performance was rated by self, to executives and directors of the organization.
Emotional intelligence scale was developed after studying various factors on the emotional intelligence model of Daniel.Goleman.This questionnaire was pre-tested by the researcher by administrating it to a sample of twenty five managers and supervisors to check its construct validity.The construct validity was tested using cronbach's alpha test.The result of the test showed that some of the questions had cronbach coefficient alpha less than 0.70 and those questions were removed from the questionnaire.

Methodology
Following the collection of data.The data was processed was processed by applying descriptive statistics, t-test and correlation.Descriptive statistics was applied understand the level of managers and supervisor performance and level of emotional intelligence among managers and supervisors.T-test was applied to understand the comparison between managers and supervisors level of performance on the job.Finally, correlation was derived between emotional intelligence and performance level of managers and supervisors.

Level of employee performance of manager and supervisor
The performance level of managers and supervisors is depicted in the table.1 and 2, the level of performance is assessed on the scale of 1 to 5, where in 1 is equal to low and 5 is equal to high.
The average level of mean score and standard deviation is indicated at 2.371 and .4152.The mean and standard deviation score of supervisors are 2.563 and .4839.Table 3 shows the overall performance of the employee in the organization is low, therefore performance appraisal mean score of 2.467 is indicated which falls under the lower end of the scale.
Table 4 shows test of averages to compare the performance appraisal score of the managers and supervisors.The test takes into consideration variance structure Levene's test for quality of variance is applied.At 5% level of significance, we observe that the P Value is greater than the level of significance that is (0.992>0.05), thus we consider that the facts of the two groups assume equal variance.Under this assumption, we observe that P Value for test for means is less than the level of significance (0.019<0.05),and hence we can reject Null Hypotheses No.1 at 5% level of significance, which indicates that there is no significant difference between managers and supervisors performance appraisal scores.

Level of emotional intelligence among the managers and supervisors
The study on level of emotional intelligence of the managers and supervisors is shown in table.5, the analysis of the managers level of emotional intelligence indicates that managers are moderate on emotional awareness, self esteem, flexibility, adaptability, innovation, initiative, opportunity taking, developing others, service orientation, political awareness, two way communication, building relationships and collaborative flexibility.
The managers are low on accurate self assessment, self control, trustworthiness, conscientiousness, responsibility, achievement drive, organizational commitment, optimism, understanding others, developing diversity, influence and persuasion, conflict management, leadership, change catalyst and team building.The level of performance of the supervisors shows low level of emotional intelligence on all the variables.

Correlation analysis between emotional intelligence and the performance level of managers and supervisors
Correlation analysis was done which is shown in table.6, to understand the impact of emotional intelligence on performance of the managers and supervisors.The results show that there is no significant correlation between the emotional intelligences score and performance appraisal scores, as the co-efficient correlation is assuming a very ungeneralizable value of 0.080, further, the Null Hypothesis No.2 is accepted which implies that performance of managers and supervisors are not as per the expectations of the management as they are not able to manage their emotional intelligence on the job.

Discussions
The managers and supervisors show lower level of performance in the organization.The company has to take measures to upgrade their technical and soft skills to enhance their performance on the job.The managers show lower level of emotional intelligence in key areas that is achievement drive, teambuilding, flexibility and adaptability, as these factors are very much critical for the job.The organisation has to arrange for a training program on how to develop emotional intelligence and apply it on the job for higher managerial skills.The supervisors show a lower level of emotional intelligence on the job, which would have greater impact on the performance on job, the supervisors are to be enlightened about the importance of emotional intelligence for higher performance on the job.The managers and supervisors are not able to meet the expected level of performance on the job, as they are not able to manage their emotions.The key areas that are service orientation, leadership, customer relationship which is the most important aspects for retails sector, therefore they have to groom on these aspects for higher performance.The managers and supervisors have to take higher level roles and responsibility in the organisation in the future and for this they have to develop their skills in the area of self esteem, self control, innovation and developing others.The organization at the time of employee selection, must adapt administering emotional intelligence test for selecting right person for the right job and this would enhance the performance of the employee on the job and the organization.

Limitations and future research
The present research is concerned with the study of emotional intelligence and its impact on performance.As such, there are many areas for improvement and for further research.In particular, we recognize that our study is subject to some important limitations.The first and most obvious limitation of the present study is limited by cost and time.A second limitation concerns the suggestions made by the study may require policy decisions and top management support for implementations.Finally, the findings of the study can be generalized only to likewise industry and organization of the same size.
The findings from the current study have important implications on application of emotional intelligence on employee performance, there remain a number of other functions of Human Resource Management in Indian automobile retail sector where the implementation of emotional intelligence could be equally beneficial.Hence there lies the scope of further study in those areas.The subsequent are those other areas in relation to emotional intelligence and employee, firstly, the emotional intelligence has a direct impact on the employee job satisfaction, as employees who are able to manage emotional are able to perform effectively on the job and there by derive satisfaction on the job.Studies on the effects of the emotional intelligence of team leaders may also be of interest to understand the development of effective team in the organization.The application and impact of emotional intelligence on developing interpersonal skills among the employees and finally, understanding employees Work Life Balance through emotional intelligence.

Implications and conclusions
The present study has produced some important results that have implications for both research and practice.The study on managers and supervisors emotional intelligence and their ability to perform effectively on the job is identified as they are not able to manage their emotional intelligence, which has a direct impact on their job.Further, the level of emotional intelligence and performance level of the managers and supervisors is moderate to low, these skills are to be developed for achieving higher employee productivity and to enhance the image of the organization.A particularly interesting finding of the present study was that low emotional intelligence of managers and supervisors had an impact on their level of performance on the job.This has implications for management, suggesting that organizations could be profitable by identifying the level of emotional intelligence of managers and supervisor and apply interventions that are focused on the developing emotional intelligence among the employees in the organization.

Table 1 .
Managers average level of performance

Table 4 .
Comparison between the managers and supervisor on Performance level

Table 5 .
Emotional Intelligence Mean S core of level of managers and supervisors

Table 6 .
Correlation between emotional intelligence and the performance level of managers and supervisors