Abstract:

Emotional intelligence (EI) comprises of a set of abilities related to detecting, using, understanding and managing emotion. Researches and discussions of EI have disproportionately focused on pro-social outcomes but have neglected the possibility that EI might have a dark side. EI in the workplace was negatively related to physical and mental health and job performance at the within-individual level, and led to emotional manipulation and negative behavior at the between-individual level. The internal mechanism of negative effects of EI can be analyzed by the ego-depletion effect and emotional intelligence strategy model. Furthermore, psychological mechanism, situational moderators and negative effect of EI at the team level provide us with important clues to guide future research.

Key words: emotional intelligence, negative effects, ego-depletion, strategic use of emotional intelligence