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Abstract
This study compares the contribution of emotional intelligence (EQ) versus cognitive intelligence (IQ) to efficacy for team work (ETW). Management students working in selfmanaging teams completed 2 measures of both EQ (Scutte and Baron-EQI) and IQ (Wonderlic and Watson-Glaser). The Williams T2 test was used to test for significant differences in correlations between EWT and both EQ and IQ. Hierarchical regression was used to test whether EQ remains a significant predictor of ETW after controlling for IQ, and whether EQ moderates the relationship between IQ and ETW. Both IQ and EQ are statistically significant predictors of ETW, but EQ is a more significant predictor than IQ, and remains significant after controlling for the influence of IQ. EQ does not moderate the relationship between IQ and efficacy for team work.
Keywords: Emotional Intelligence, Cognitive Intelligence, Efficacy for Team Work
Introduction
A significant change is taking place in organizational design and management with greater emphasis on structural flexibility and employee participation (Guthrie, 2001; Pendleton, 2010; Smith, 1997; Stronzniak, 2000). The centerpiece of this change is the use of self-managing teams (Greg, 2006; Kuipers & Stoker, 2009; Muthusamy, Wheeler & Simmons, 2005; Yandrick, 2001). Self-managing teams have been implemented within many fortune 1,000 companies (Stewart, Manz & Simms, 1999) and remain the cornerstone of many organizational development strategies (Day, Gron & Salas, 2006).
The movement away from individual job descriptions with clear and stable boundaries to more fluid team based roles has increased the need for employees who can perform effectively in a team environment (Muthusamy et al., 2005; Nederveen & Knippenberg, 2013; Neuman & Wright, 1999). This has increased the importance of understanding the key determinants of team member effectiveness (Humphrey, Stephens & Summers, 2012; Siau, Tan & Sheng, 2010) and has produced a rapid expansion in research on team member characteristics (Ammeter & Dukerish, 2002; Liu, Keller & Shih, 2011).
Team member characteristics are generally divided into behavioral proclivities like conflict management style; proximal psychological states like beliefs, values and perceptual patterns; and more distal or deeper general psychological states like intelligence. Psychological states are generally viewed as a significant determinant of perception and subsequent behavior, and are therefore of interest to both researchers and practitioners, particularly those states that can be reliably...