Intelligence and its impact on managerial effectiveness and career success (evidence from insurance sector of Pakistan)

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the theoretical linear model on intelligence, i.e. emotional, social, cognitive, and cultural intelligence and its impact on managerial effectiveness and career success in the perspective of insurance sector of Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach – Data collected from 202 managers of insurance companies by using structured questionnaires’ and simple random sampling technique. Multiple regression analysis has used to check the simultaneous effect of multiple types of intelligence on managerial job outcomes. Findings – The results of research revealed that emotional, social, and cognitive intelligence have positive effect on managerial effectiveness and career success. Emotional intelligence is one of the strongest predictor that has significant impact of managerial effectiveness compared to other types of intelligence. Conversely, cultural intelligence has insignificant relation with managerial effectiveness and career success. There are very rare studies conducted to explore the role of multiple types of intelligence to improve managerial job outcomes in the context of insurance sector. This study proved that the transformation of business from production era to relationship-based era increases the importance of multiple types of intelligence to become an effective manager. Research limitations/implications – Moreover, this study contributes in theoretical literature and explores new dimensions for future researchers, practitioners’, and management consultants to recognize the effectiveness of intelligence especially in services sector organizations. Data collected from one sector and by using one point of time raised the issue of common method variance and causality. Originality/value – This study has examined the overarching model on intelligence. Researchers did not find a single study that has addressed the multiple types of intelligence and its impact on managerial outcomes in the perspective of insurance sector.