Emotional Intelligence: The Next Step in Knowledge Process Outsourcing

The knowledge industry is a personification of the modern era, wherein knowledge employees own their functional expertise. It is often debated that in the knowledge economy, employees will own the tools of production, that is, ideas, and hence the work itself Hence, in-depth study of various parameters of emotional intelligence in the KPO industry would prove indispensable for improving business performance. Aim of this exploratory study is to understand the link between various determinants of emotional intelligence and the extent of their business impact on the performance of knowledge employees. This qualitative research design incorporated a systems approach to analyse case studies of two organisations which differed from each other in the product/service complexity, organisational complexity for explanation building. Both within case and cross case analyses were carried out. Based on various secondary and primary sources, four major macro factors of emotional intelligence have been identified and ranked on their criticality.