| Evidence from numerous studies suggests that Organizational Commitment (OC) among employees diminishes because of downsizing. A high level of OC is shown to produce a positive effect on job performance, absenteeism, and turnover. The problem addressed in this study is the decline in organizational commitment among American workers and what, if anything, management can do to address this issue. Emotional Intelligence (EI) among workers and managers has been found to correlate positively with the OC construct, yet research has been limited. Few studies have examined the EI/OC relationship between managers and subordinates. This quantitative, non-experimental study examined the relationship between the EI of managers and the OC of their subordinates in an operations department of a Fortune 500 telecommunications company. The WLEIS and OCS survey instruments were distributed to 28 managers and 173 subordinates. One hundred fourteen surveys were returned (23 managers and 91 subordinates) representing a 57% return rate. Survey data were analyzed using correlation and regression analyses. The results indicated a significant positive relationship between total EI in managers and total OC in subordinates (r = .60, p < .01). Significant ( p < .01) positive relationships were also found between total EI and the three components of the OC construct: affective commitment (AC), continuance commitment (CC), and normative commitment (NC), r = .56, .33, and .45, respectively. Multiple regression analyses using the four dimensions of EI as predictor variables and OC, AC, CC, and NC as dependent variables provided further evidence of a statistically significant relationship between manager EI and subordinate commitment, producing R 2 values of .377, .342, .135, and .218, respectively. The findings from this study confirm the importance of EI in an organizational setting and add to the limited body of knowledge about the manager/subordinate EI/OC relationship. Future studies may benefit from an examination of the relationship in different organization settings, using probability versus non probability sampling, and including a larger target population. Additional studies that utilize the modified WLEIS (which captures the subordinate's perception of their manager's EI) would add to the research that examines the manager/subordinate EI/OC relationship (captured solely from the subordinate's perspective). |
