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Newsletter Article
Emotional Intelligence and Job Function
By Dr. Travis Bradberry & Lac D. Su, M.S.
The Technical Manual for the Emotional Intelligence Appraisal® reveals interesting findings from a study of more than 13,000 individuals worldwide. Employees from various job functions, in different organizations and countries, were asked to evaluate their emotional intelligence by answering 28 questions. Job functions included sales, marketing, finance, operations, customer service, human resources, information technology (IT), engineering, business development, manufacturing, and R&D.
The Emotional Intelligence Appraisal® measures EQ in the four components from the #1 benchmark model of emotional intelligence:
The Data Says
Contrary to popular belief, EQ scores were consistent across various job functions─except for engineering who scored slightly lower than average. It’s likely that engineers are not rewarded much for effective relationships with others. Especially when compared to jobs like customer service professionals—the only group who scored higher than average. The stereotype placed on engineers is that they prefer to work alone. It’s unlikely this is always the case, but given their work environment, they are most comfortable and rewarded for detaching from the social arena at work.
