Emotional intelligence (EI) is a controversial construct, which affords a range of emotion-related skills including emotion perception; emotional facilitation of thinking; emotional understanding; and emotion management (Mayer & Salovey, 1997). Notably, EI can be considered as (1) a trait akin to personality (e.g., Petrides & Furnham, 2001), in which case it is measured using self-report questionnaires of socioemotional functioning; or (2) an ability, in which case it is measured using maximal performance tests (e.g., Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2002).
Teamwork has been a subject of investigation under military sponsorship since the 1950s (Paris, Salas, & Cannon-Bowers, 2000). Since that time teamwork research has evolved from a narrow social psychological focus to a broader domain, including organizational settings (Levine & Moreland, 1990). There, the use of teams has been increasing since the 1980s, and teamwork has been investigated as a way to enhance performance, especially in settings where task complexity has greatly increased.
EI may affect the ability of workers to relate with fellow team members more agreeably, adapt to teamwork more effectively, thus improving team performance and productivity (Goleman, 1998). Moreover, it may affect workers’ performance differentially based on instructions they receive regarding collaborating or competing with team members.
The aim of the current study was to test the effect of EI on performance of a cognitive task in the context of collaboration toward a prestigious team goal vs. competition for a prestigious job promotion. 311 participants, in pairs and singly, decided whether a series of animated characters were “correct” or “incorrect,” in a discrimination-learning paradigm. Three conditions (i.e., two teamwork conditions: collaboration, competition; and a control condition) were manipulated, and the number of errors was recorded over 100 trials. EI, personality, teamwork attitude and general intelligence were assessed pre-task. Subjective state was assessed pre-and post-task. Teamwork experience and impression of the participation partner’s personality (of collaborators and competitors only) were measured post-task.
Results showed a significant effect for learning across trials, and faster learning in the team conditions. EI, personality, teamwork attitude, and general intelligence failed to predict performance; however, EI predicted subjective state which in turn predicted learning. EI also predicted teamwork attitude and subjective experience of teamwork. Knowledge of this association can be useful for pairing team members for longer-term projects, when they will have the opportunity to get to know one another better over time. Based on previous results (e.g., Jordan & Troth, 2004; Offermann, Bailey, Vasilopoulos, Seal, & Sass, 2004) it may be desirable to select team members with high EI in order to enhance teamwork. Additionally, personnel and team support mechanisms should focus on how subjective states might influence team member relationships and attention to the task at hand.