Emotional intelligence, personality and sales performance

In this study, salespersons in a telecommunications company were tested for emotional intelligence (EI), additional dimensions of work motivation and personality, and work performance. It was found that EI was related as expected to other variables, most noticeably to life/work balance (positively), to positive affective tone (positively), and to materialistic values and money obsession (negatively). EI was most clearly related to citizenship behavior and less to core task performance, as expected. Core task performance was strongly related to conscientiousness and positive affect, and to willingness to work and work interest. Job satisfaction had a weaker relationship to performance, in agreement with much earlier work. EI emerged as a dimension possible to measure and with expected properties.