Abstract: Previous research concerning the influences upon employee job performance reported from the perspective of personality and intelligence. After Mayer demonstrated both theoretically and empirically that emotional intelligence meets with the standards of intelligence, there have been some studies that tried to establish a relationship between emotional intelligence and job performance. The present paper will attempt to incorporate previous findings about emotional intelligence, but then go further to creatively explore the impact of emotional intelligence of employees and their manager on employees’ job performance and how the manager’s emotional intelligence affects an employee’s job performance.
218 Managers and 640 employees from thirty manufacturing enterprises in China participated in the present study. The enterprises were mainly in Dongguan City, Tianjin City, and Chengdu City. 218 managers completed questionnaires of their emotional intelligence (MEI) and evaluated one to three of their subordinates’ task performance (TP) respectively. In addition, 640 employees completed the questionnaires about their emotional intelligence (EEI), leader-member exchange (LMX) and their contextual performance (CP). Path analysis and Structural Equation Modeling were used for the data analysis.
The results show a significant correlation between the employees’ emotional intelligence and their manager’s emotional intelligence and the employees’ task and contextual performance. Correlations were: r=0.371(p<0.01) for EEI with TP; r=0.615(p<0.01) for EEI with CP; r=0.310(p<0.01) for MEI with TP; and r=0.304(p<0.01) for MEI with CP. Furthermore, Path analysis tested our hypothesis. Structural Equation Modeling suggests that leader-member exchange perceived by the employees partly plays a role as a mediator in the impact of emotional intelligence of manager on the task performance and contextual performance of their employees. Though through leader-member exchange perceived by the employees, the manager’s emotional intelligence exerts a comparatively weak effect on task performance of the employees indirectly. The research supports the initial hypotheses.
The result shows that LMX can partially mediate the relationship between managers’ emotional intelligence and employees’ job performance. The results indicate that employees’ emotional intelligence can positively influence both their task performance and contextual performance. Furthermore, the results indicate that emotional intelligence improves social exchange, and also confirms other concepts as well. The research suggests to the leaders of companies that they should incorporate measures of emotional intelligence into the employee selection process; and also that they should provide their employees and managers with training that can enhance emotional intelligence levels. Finally, the study suggests that the companies promote the quality of the leader-member exchange in the interest of improving individual job performance and overall organizational performance.

Key words: emotional intelligence, task performance, contextual performance, leader-member exchange