The Role of Emotional Self-Efficacy and Emotional Intelligence in Workplace Incivility and Workplace Satisfaction

Abstract

Research on emotional intelligence has shown that adaptive emotional functioning is related to a variety of positive outcomes both inside and outside of the workplace. Prior research also indicates that individuals who have greater self-efficacy for a realm of behaviours have better functioning in this realm. The combining of these two concepts into the one construct, namely emotional self-efficacy may answer a key question that has not previously been addressed; that is, the role confidence or self-efficacy for emotional functioning plays in the effects of emotional intelligence. A construct must be measurable before its utility can be assessed. Therefore the thesis will describe the development and validation of a measure of emotional self-efficacy. When such a measure is incorporated into a model of workplace functioning, a key question would be, "what are the links between emotional self-efficacy and workplace outcomes, particularly workplace incivility (from the target and perpetrator perspective) and workplace satisfaction?" To examine the causal role of emotional self-efficacy in the workplace, emotional self-efficacy would need to be experimentally manipulated. Examining the effects of a writing intervention to enhance emotional self-efficacy would build on research of James Pennebaker and lead to a better understanding of the relationship between emotional self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, positive and negative affect, and workplace incivility.