Emotional Intelligence and Performance in Virtual Teams
This paper examines the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and team performance, with a focus on virtual teams. Drawing on three peer-reviewed studies, it reviews findings on how EI components — including understanding, managing, and identifying emotions — correlate with team outcomes. The paper evaluates each study's methodology and limitations, then raises questions about how modern collaboration technologies and hybrid work arrangements may alter the dynamics identified in earlier research. It concludes by noting that rapid technological change makes continued investigation of EI in virtual and semi-virtual team contexts increasingly important.
- Introduction: Overview of EI research scope and approach
- Emotional Intelligence and Team Problem Solving: Jordan and Troth study on EI and problem-solving
- EI Components and Customer Service Team Performance: Feyerhem and Rice on EI components and outcomes
- Emotional Intelligence in Virtual Teams: Pitts et al. study on EI in virtual settings
- Research Methods and Emerging Questions: Mixed methods discussion and technology questions
- Conclusion: Technology, hybrid teams, and future research
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What makes this paper effective
- Each study is summarized and then critically evaluated, identifying both strengths and limitations rather than simply reporting findings.
- The paper moves logically from established in-person EI research to virtual-team-specific studies, building a coherent argument about what is known and what remains unexplored.
- The closing section raises concrete, forward-looking research questions grounded in the reviewed literature, demonstrating applied analytical thinking.
Key academic technique demonstrated
This paper demonstrates critical literature synthesis — not merely summarizing sources but comparing their scope, methodology, and limitations in relation to one another. The student explicitly notes where studies fall short (e.g., student participants lacking real-world stakes, perception-based performance metrics) while still acknowledging each study's contribution to the field.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a framing paragraph, then devotes one section each to three key studies, assessing each for relevance and rigor. A methodology discussion follows, addressing mixed-methods considerations. The paper closes with two forward-looking research questions about technology and hybrid teams. Three references support the analysis. This is a concise literature review appropriate for undergraduate coursework.
Introduction
Many articles discuss emotional intelligence in teams, and a few address virtual teams specifically. Key to understanding the role that emotional intelligence plays on virtual teams is knowing the differences between virtual teams and conventional work teams, understanding how emotional intelligence might affect a traditional team, and then being able to extrapolate how those differences might change outcomes.
Emotional Intelligence and Team Problem Solving
Jordan and Troth (2004) discuss the role that emotional intelligence plays in problem solving. They found that emotional intelligence is positively associated with team performance and problem solving. Their study was conducted in person, so the researchers were able to observe participants directly and compare subjects accurately, since everybody was given the same problem to solve. The study is valuable because it clearly establishes the link between emotional intelligence and team performance.
EI Components and Customer Service Team Performance
Feyerhem and Rice (2002) broke down the different components of emotional intelligence and team performance. They found correlations between understanding emotion and managing emotion and certain measures of team performance, but did not find a correlation between identifying emotions and team performance. EI was mainly associated with measures relating to customer service — they studied customer service teams — but not to continuous improvement. A team leader with low EI is likely to have a negative or neutral relationship to team performance.
This study has significant value. While it is narrower in focus by studying only one kind of team, and has a weakness in that some performance measures are actually perception scores rather than hard numbers, the study seeks to test the hypothesis that emotional intelligence correlates with positive outcomes by breaking down the individual components of both emotional intelligence and team performance and evaluating each pairing individually.
Emotional Intelligence in Virtual Teams
Pitts, Wright, and Harkabus (2012) directly examined the role of emotional intelligence in virtual teams. They tested students, which differs somewhat from a real-world situation where differences between team members can be vast — team members might be on different continents, with both intercultural and time zone challenges, for example. With that limitation in mind, the study did show that emotional intelligence is a driver of team viability, and that quality of communication is a means by which influence can be established in the virtual team environment.
The study is valuable in that it was one of the first — and remains one of the few — to directly study emotional intelligence in virtual teams. It focused heavily on computer-mediated communication, which is the primary means by which virtual teams interact, though tools like video conferencing can provide something closer to an in-person experience. The downside is that the study used students rather than real virtual team members. Participants were therefore more homogenous than a real-world virtual team would be, they knew they were participating in a study, and the project they worked on carried no actual stakes. Several key dimensions that might characterize a real virtual team's project were therefore absent from this study.
Conclusion
Both of these questions address the issues that arise from modern technology. This technology not only allows some of the communication barriers facing virtual teams to be removed, but it also creates the opportunity for teams that otherwise would not be virtual to function as mainly virtual teams. These technologies are more prevalent in technology companies but are moving rapidly into the mainstream because of their perceived positive effect on organizational performance. These are therefore important questions to begin exploring, even as research continues to catch up with understanding how emotional intelligence affects virtual teams at the most fundamental level.
References
Feyerhem, A. & Rice, C. (2002). Emotional intelligence and team performance: The good, the bad and the ugly. The International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 10(4), 343–362.
Jordan, P. & Troth, A. (2004). Managing emotions during team problem solving: Emotional intelligence and conflict resolution. Human Performance, 17(2), 195–218.
Pitts, V., Wright, N., & Harkabus, L. (2012). Communication in virtual teams: The role of emotional intelligence. Journal of Organizational Psychology, 12(3/4), 21–34.
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