Exploring the Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Employee Well-Being: A Systematic Review in Technology Workplaces

Emotional Intelligence, Employee Well-Being, Work Engagement, Digital Emotional Intelligence, Transformative Leadership, Conceptual Framework

Purpose:

Well-being of employees has emerged to a core issue in organizational studies owing to its close relationship with job fulfilment, engagement, and viability. The increase in hybrid work, digitalization, and workplace stress has made it more pronounced that the psychological resources required to maintain resilience and productivity are needed. Emotional intelligence (EI) which is the capacity to sense, control, and manage emotions has been extensively researched but the current literature considers EI and well-being as two separate entities. This gap will be addressed by this paper by proposing a conceptual framework that explains the mechanisms and boundary conditions, through which, EI can contribute to employee well-being.

Method:

They used an integrative literature review and studied peer-reviewed journals and scholarly publications that could be found in Scopus, Web of Science, and through Google Scholar. Themes were used to group studies to distinguish mediating and moderating processes between EI and well-being relationship.

Key Findings:

The review mentions work engagement, communication satisfaction as well as person-job fit as some of the key mediators between EI and well-being. It further reveals job demands, digital emotional intelligence (DEI), and digital/transformational leadership as very important moderators that influence strength of these associations. EI was also determined to cushion the deterioration of workplace conflict into counterproductive behavior by sustaining affective well-being.

Contribution:

In constructing a conceptual framework, the paper proposes eight empirically testable propositions that integrate classical view of EI and insights of digital workplaces to capture direct, mediated, and moderated relationships.

Practical Implications:

These insights can be used in organizations through enhancing of EI and DEI training, fostering of digital leadership, as well as the utilization of stress management and engagement-based interventions in order to improve the well-being of employees working in dynamic technology-driven settings.