Assessment of the Relationship between Managers’ Emotional Intelligence and Employees’ Motivation

Background: Emotional Intelligence is the ability of a person to be completely aware of his/her emotions, and is able to manage and control these emotions, as well as those of others. Emotional Intelligence (EI) traits encompass self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, high social skills, and motivation. Although this subject is immensely covered abroad, in different job sectors, it is still new to the Lebanese society. Managers in Lebanon take EI for granted and do not truly assess its importance and effects on employees. Objective: The purpose of this research is to study the effect of managers' EI on employees' motivation, within the Lebanese work environment. Methodology: This paper uses five employee-motivation indices and studies each in relation to Emotional Intelligence's five aspects. For this purpose, a quantitative parametric methodology that relies on the opinions of two hundred fifty Lebanese employees from different companies and industries is implemented, using a survey questionnaire. Collected data is analyzed using SPSS version 23.0 software, applying descriptive statistics, cross-tabulation and regression analysis in order to study EI's different components' effect on each of the motivation indices. Results: Results show a positive and statistically significant relation between managers' EIs components and employees' sense of motivation. Conclusions: The outcomes of the research encourage managers to take Emotional Intelligence seriously and conduct training on the relevant subject in order to better motivate their subordinates.