Linking emotional intelligence, spirituality and workplace performance : Definitions, models and ideas for research

Despite a reluctance on the part of organizational researchers to deal with the subjects of emotions or spirituality, recent researchers have begun to argue for the importance of exploring their relationship to workplace performance. Recent research, for example, has shown a positive relationship between emotional intelligence and workplace success. Similarly, it appears that spirituality is related to workplace performance or effectiveness. This paper explores the impacts of emotional intelligence and spirituality on workplace effectiveness, presents several theoretical models examining possible linkages among these variables, and, finally, presents several ideas for future research deriving from the models.