Emotional Intelligence: Theory, Benefits, and Research
This literature review examines current research on emotional intelligence, exploring its theoretical foundations, empirical findings, and practical applications across multiple settings. Drawing on studies from sport leadership, nursing, education, and organizational behavior, the review addresses whether emotional intelligence is an innate trait or a learnable skill, how it contributes to individual resilience and academic performance, and how it enhances workplace relationships and team performance. The review synthesizes findings from over a dozen recent studies to present a comprehensive picture of emotional intelligence as a multifaceted capacity with measurable benefits for individuals, organizations, and teams.
- Introduction: Scope and purpose of the literature review
- Emotional Intelligence: Definition and Overview: Definition, key studies, and personal impact of EI
- Emotional Intelligence Theory: Trait vs. ability frameworks and theoretical debate
- Current Findings on Emotional Intelligence: EI's role in academics, nursing, and addiction coping
- Benefits of Emotional Intelligence in an Organization: EI improves workplace relationships and employee empathy
- Emotional Intelligence and Team Performance: EI as a driver of trust and team effectiveness
- Conclusion: Synthesis of trainability debate and organizational benefits
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What makes this paper effective
- The review consistently connects each cited study to its specific contribution, explaining not just what researchers found but why the study is useful in context.
- It draws meaningful comparisons across studies—for example, linking Di Fabio and Kenny's (2019) relational findings with Sun et al.'s (2019) coping research—to build a cumulative argument rather than simply listing sources.
- The paper maintains a clear organizational structure, moving logically from definition to theory to findings to applications, which makes complex literature easy to follow.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective synthesis in a literature review by grouping sources thematically rather than summarizing each one in isolation. Instead of treating each citation as a standalone summary, the author explicitly notes how studies confirm, complement, or extend one another—a hallmark of advanced literature review writing at the undergraduate level.
Structure breakdown
The review opens with a brief introduction establishing scope, then progresses through six clearly labeled sections: a definitional overview grounded in empirical studies, a section on competing theoretical frameworks (trait vs. ability), a findings section spanning healthcare and education, an organizational benefits section, a team performance section, and a concluding summation that revisits the central debate about trainability before synthesizing the overall benefits of emotional intelligence.
Introduction
Emotional intelligence is a concept that has been discussed by researchers and scientists for several decades. Its benefits and whether it can be taught are often debated. This literature review examines recent research on emotional intelligence, covering theory, application, and findings to present the current understanding of this concept.
Emotional Intelligence: Definition and Overview
Emotional intelligence is understood as the ability to understand human emotions and emotional needs by reading the tone, body language, and behaviors of others so as to know how to respond in a positive and supportive manner (Lee & Chelladurai, 2018). Leaders are increasingly expected to possess emotional intelligence skills in order to motivate followers and assist them in navigating challenges that might prevent them from achieving self-actualization and resilience (Di Fabio & Saklofske, 2018).
The study by Lee and Chelladurai (2018) examined 322 high school coaches in the United States and found that when coaches demonstrated deep feeling and genuine expression, they had greater job satisfaction and experienced less burnout than individuals whose feelings were only surface-level and not particularly genuine. The study was helpful in showing that emotions should not only be intelligently understood, but also that genuine experience and expression of feeling is cathartic and beneficial for helping leaders feel that they are doing meaningful work. Emotional intelligence can thus be understood both in terms of how it affects others and in terms of how it affects the individual engaged in feeling at a deep level. Feelings are not something to be avoided but rather something to be used for positive outcomes at both the personal and relational levels, according to Lee and Chelladurai (2018).
Their study confirms the findings of Di Fabio and Saklofske (2018), who examined 186 Italian students and 189 Italian adult workers and showed that emotional intelligence played a significantly larger role in resiliency than any of the four personality temperaments. The study by Di Fabio and Saklofske (2018) is helpful because it illustrates how emotional intelligence stands up against personality type in terms of building character and the ability to withstand difficulties and challenges.
Emotional Intelligence Theory
Emotional intelligence theory posits that emotions can be perceived and understood by another person, who can then assist in regulating those emotions (Fiori & Vesely-Maillefer, 2018). The theory has taken various directions in recent years, with some researchers focusing on whether emotional intelligence is something one is born with—as in trait theory—or whether it is something that can be learned through training (Mattingly & Kraiger, 2019; Petrides & Mavroveli, 2018).
Fiori and Vesely-Maillefer (2018) point out that emotional intelligence was first introduced into the scientific community approximately a quarter of a century ago. Their contribution to the literature is to conceptualize it as an ability, to examine the ways it can be measured and predicted, and to explore how it can be both consciously and unconsciously utilized. Their article is helpful because it explains the background of emotional intelligence and demonstrates how the existing literature shows it is processed and incorporated into one's actions. Yet, it is not the only theoretical framework; others treat emotional intelligence as more of a trait than a learnable ability (Mattingly & Kraiger, 2019; Petrides & Mavroveli, 2018).
Conclusion
There has been some debate over whether emotional intelligence is something that can be taught or trained among workers. Some hold the view that it is a personality characteristic that one either possesses or does not. The question of whether it can be developed is still debated among researchers (Mattingly & Kraiger, 2019; Petrides & Mavroveli, 2018). Because empathy is rooted in the will, it is argued that no amount of training can make an individual emotionally intelligent if he or she does not wish to be (Mattingly & Kraiger, 2019). However, this does not mean that one's ability to read and comprehend emotions cannot be trained. Reading the behaviors and signals of individuals is a skill, which is why Petrides and Mavroveli (2018) note that this skill has broad applicability across many settings. Their findings have been corroborated by a variety of studies conducted across different industries and contexts, from healthcare to education to business to psychology (Kozlowski et al., 2018; MacCann et al., 2020; Sun et al., 2019).
The benefits of emotional intelligence to an organization include facilitating and fostering communication, strengthening relationships, and improving morale. When emotional intelligence is well developed within an organization, employees are more likely to report higher job satisfaction and a greater capacity to be resilient in the face of organizational challenges (Di Fabio & Saklofske, 2018). Teams will perform at a more optimal level, and workers will relate more easily to one another. Emotional intelligence facilitates empathy as well as individuals' ability to cope personally with whatever challenges they encounter in life.
References
Di Fabio, A., & Kenny, M. E. (2019). Resources for enhancing employee and organizational well-being beyond personality traits: The promise of Emotional Intelligence and Positive Relational Management. Personality and Individual Differences, 151, 109278.
Di Fabio, A., & Saklofske, D. H. (2018). The contributions of personality and emotional intelligence to resiliency. Personality and Individual Differences, 123, 140–144.
Fiori, M., & Vesely-Maillefer, A. K. (2018). Emotional intelligence as an ability: Theory, challenges, and new directions. In Emotional intelligence in education (pp. 23–47). Springer, Cham.
Kozlowski, D., Hutchinson, M., Hurley, J., & Browne, G. (2018). Increasing nurses' emotional intelligence with a brief intervention. Applied Nursing Research, 41, 59–61.
Lee, Y. H., & Chelladurai, P. (2018). Emotional intelligence, emotional labor, coach burnout, job satisfaction, and turnover intention in sport leadership. European Sport Management Quarterly, 18(4), 393–412.
MacCann, C., Jiang, Y., Brown, L. E., Double, K. S., Bucich, M., & Minbashian, A. (2020). Emotional intelligence predicts academic performance: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 146(2), 150.
Mattingly, V., & Kraiger, K. (2019). Can emotional intelligence be trained? A meta-analytical investigation. Human Resource Management Review, 29(2), 140–155.
Petrides, K. V., & Mavroveli, S. (2018). Theory and applications of trait emotional intelligence. Psychology, 23(1), 24–36.
Rezvani, A., Khosravi, P., & Ashkanasy, N. M. (2018). Examining the interdependencies among emotional intelligence, trust, and performance in infrastructure projects: A multilevel study. International Journal of Project Management, 36(8), 1034–1046.
Sun, J., Liu, Q., & Yu, S. (2019). Child neglect, psychological abuse and smartphone addiction among Chinese adolescents: The roles of emotional intelligence and coping style. Computers in Human Behavior, 90, 74–83.
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