| Emotional intelligence is a popular construct among the public due to the claim that it has the potential to increase work satisfaction, better relationships, and improve deviant behaviors. Since it was first brought to scientific attention by Salovey and Mayer (1990) and later popularized by Goleman (1995) for public use, many researchers have conducted vigorous tests on the construct and incremental validity of emotional intelligence. Apart from the claim that emotional intelligence improves quality of life, theorists of emotional intelligence also assert that leaders who are emotionally intelligent are also communicatively competent. This study, then, aims to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence and communication competence.; While researching the literature on emotional intelligence and communication competence another construct which has the potential to be conceptually similar to emotional intelligence emerged. The construct, cognitive complexity, is often studied in the communication literature as an individual ability which contributes to communication competence. Hence, this construct, cognitive complexity may well be emotional intelligence studied under a different name. Therefore, cognitive complexity was studied with emotional intelligence to determine which of the two constructs better predicts communication competence.; This study was conducted in an institution of higher education in Malaysia. Overall finding shows that there were no relationships among the three constructs. On further analysis, male cognitive complexity was found to be related to communication competence and emotional intelligence. This result indicates that there is a possibility that cognitive complexity is a mediating variable. Also, the findings suggest that age, culture, gender, and organizational position may have some impact on the outcome of the study. Suggestions for future research are provided. |
