A STUDY ON THE LINKAGE BETWEEN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND JOB PERFORMANCE OF SOFTWARE PROFESSIONALS IN TAMILNADU

Emotional intelligence (EI), a recent construct which predicts various performance and leadership traits helps companies to deploy quality work force. Emotional Intelligence (EI) has emerged as a theme of widespread interest in psychological research in recent years. It affects the day-to-day life of everyone. EI is the ability to recognize our own potential as well manages everything as per situation. At work place, emotions are mainly based on two prospectors, namely, sociological and psychological. Many companies have found that people with EI showed increased performance, enhanced motivation, greater leadership skills, better ability to work as a team, and high discipline.

Higher productivity expectations from employers on one side and the automation and international uncertainty of IT jobs on the other exerts pressure on the software professionals to deliver quality outcome with competing resources. In the present dynamic scientific and business environment, there is a corresponding rapid change in human life styles as it not only counts on the physical dimensions but also connects to emotional aspects as well. It has also become important to achieve corporate excellence as the future hinges on learning and performance of organization. The purpose of the study is to understand relationship between trait emotional intelligence and job performance of software professionals working in Tamil Nadu. The trait emotional intelligence and job performance of software professionals is measured using self-reporting scales and the relationship established. The TEI Que-SF and HPQ administered to collect data on trait EI factors viz. well-being, self-control, emotionality, sociability and self-reported job performance scores indicate that the predictor variables are significantly correlated and 61 percent of the variance in job performance of software professionals working in Tamil Nadu is explained by the model.

This paper highlights on the emotional intelligence of software professionals at three different dimensions. Initially, the background of the professionals and their personality traits have been examined since these are one of the important antecedents of emotional intelligence. It is followed by the measurement of the level of emotional intelligence and the various determinants of emotional intelligence. Finally, the linkage between the components of EI and the various outcomes of EI has been focused.