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10 more years boosting performance.How EI is making a difference in the workplace.

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In this report. 03 Introduction.

04 The development of the ESCI.

05 How is the validity of the ESCI measured?

06 The studies.

15 References.

Korn Ferry Hay Group’s partnership with Richard Boyatzis and Dan Goleman provides a validated measure of emotional and social intelligence competencies and an extensive source of behavioral data. The Emotional and Social Competency Inventory (ESCI) also benefits from ongoing studies that explore emotional intelligence (EI) and its relationship to performance at work and other key outcomes.

What’s inside?This series of updates shares recent research and its implications for developing EI through training, coaching and education.

This report summarizes recent validity studies carried out using the ESCI or its education version, the ESCI-U. It is based on excerpts from the ESCI Research Guide and Technical Manual (Korn Ferry Hay Group, 2017).

Emotional Intelligence research series.

Use of the ESCI has grown from 4,000 to nearly 80,000 participants, from 273 to over 2,000 organizations and from 42,000 to nearly 700,000 raters.

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When emotional intelligence became part of our everyday language in the 1990s, two decades of research had already established the significance of competencies for organizations.

Derived from studies of performance, and using self and others’ perceptions, competencies were demonstrating strong relationships to important workplace outcomes. Competencies capture the behaviors that distinguish outstanding performance. Intelligence, knowledge, expertise and experience describe the threshold abilities required for standard performance in a role.

Observation of the positive impact of specific EI competencies on the more measurable outcomes – sales, revenue, profit, customer satisfaction – has been followed by a growing understanding of their links to employee engagement, satisfaction, leadership effectiveness and other more subtle indicators. EI describes a range of high performance behaviors, from which employees, leaders and talent practitioners can select the best match for their contexts, cultures, sectors, roles and job levels.

How EI competencies support performance.

Introduction

AC

TIO

NS

AW

AR

EN

ESS

Self awareness

SELF

PERFORMANCE

Self management

Social awareness

OTHERS

Relationship management

444

The development of the ESCI.

Its originsOngoing developments led to the creation, from 1996 to 1998, of the Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI) by Richard Boyatzis, Daniel Goleman and Hay Group, in parallel with Goleman’s publication of Working with emotional intelligence. Many academic and client-based research studies were beginning to investigate EI behaviors, as opposed to traits or abilities, and the 2006 ECI-2 Technical Manual reported a number of criterion validity studies.

In 2007 Boyatzis and Hay Group reviewed the ECI and the version for educators (the ECI-U) to achieve even higher, research level, psychometric standards. The resulting Emotional and Social Competency Inventory (ESCI) and ESCI-U, its educational version provided a 360-degree measure of emotional and social intelligence competencies that gave organizations and educators confidence that they were assessing observable, recognizable and distinct behaviors.

Recent findings10 years on, many more clients are using the ESCI to develop their leaders and key talent – its database has grown from 4,000 to nearly 80,000 participants, from 273 to over 2,000 organizations and from 42,000 to nearly 700,000 raters. We have revised the ESCI norms and reviewed its psychometric based properties so that practitioners have the most current findings to share with their clients.

In addition, research has investigated the incremental validity of the ESCI – the extent to which it can provide unique predictive value to real-world outcomes, beyond that provided by measures of intelligence and personality (Boyatzis, 2016).

“We find that most of the characteristics that differentiate outstanding performers are these things that we call social and emotional competencies.”

Richard Boyatzis. Distinguished Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.

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5

How is the validity of the ESCI measured?

The following studies report recent research findings from a number of different countries.

They investigate a range of workplace outcomes in different contexts, often business organizations within which Korn Ferry Hay Group, or other researchers, are studying or providing consultancy services. They explore the use of emotional and social intelligence behaviors by leaders and employees in different roles, along with other factors that affect outcomes. They also offer recommendations for the use of emotional and social intelligence competencies in HR practices.

Most of these studies use the ESCI, the ESCI-U or parts of these instruments. Others use interview techniques to gather behavioral data and code it against ESCI competencies. They build on decades of research studies that focused on the ECI and ECI-U.

Validation studies build our understanding of how EI supports performance. They help practitioners to focus their coaching and development interventions. And they help organizations to understand the full impact of using the ESCI, so that they can maximize its benefits for their leaders and employees.

“The rules for work are changing. We’re being judged by a new yardstick: not just by how smart we are, but by how we handle ourselves and each other.”

Daniel Goleman. Working with Emotional Intelligence.

6

The studies

Financial services sales leaders – performance.This study (Boyatzis, Good & Massa, 2012) investigated how emotional and social intelligence competencies, cognitive intelligence and personality affected the performance of 60 financial services sales leaders. The purpose was to assess what predictive value EI has in terms of impact on performance, beyond that provided by personality factors and intelligence.

One of the key factors affecting the organization’s financial results was the ability of its sales leaders to recruit and train new sales staff, since they helped to offset losses when more experienced staff left the organization and took their clients with them. Accordingly, the number of new financial advisors joining their team over a one-year period was used as the objective outcome measure for participant performance. Since the size of their division was strongly correlated with the performance outcome variable, it was used as a control variable in all analyses.

The study’s overall findings were:

1 Emotional and social intelligence, as measured by the ESCI, predicted performance. ESCI total others scores, combined across the 12 competencies, were significantly, positively related to the number of new recruits (r = .33, p<.01).

2 Conscientiousness, as measured by the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (Costa & McCrae, 1992), predicted performance. This was the only one of the ‘big five’ traits that related to the number of new recruits (r = .30, p<.05)

3 Cognitive intelligence, as measured by Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices (Raven, 1962) and the Mill Hill Vocabulary (MHV) Scale (Raven, 1982), did not predict performance. Nor did it correlate with any other variable in the study, including ESCI scores.

4 Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that only combined ESCI total others’ scores had significant incremental predictive value beyond that provided by division size, cognitive intelligence and personality.

5 When the EI and SI competencies within the ESCI were examined independently, Adaptability and Influence emerged as significant predictors of performance.

The study recommended that training and development for aspiring sales leaders focus on Adaptability and Influence and concluded that “the findings suggest the importance of training future sales leaders about the emotional aspects of leadership in influencing followers to promote organizational objectives” (p. 198).

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IT and Administration team members – engagement.In response to reports that a low percentage of people feel engaged in their work, researchers (Mahon, Taylor & Boyatzis, 2014) explored how emotional intelligence is related to engagement. Their study started from an accepted understanding that a number of factors contribute to employee engagement, including:

� Employees’ perceptions that their organizations value their contributions and care about their wellbeing (organizational support).

� Two climate factors: positivity about their organizations’ view of the future (shared personal vision) and positivity about their work and their organizations (shared positive mood).

The study tested the further contribution of emotional intelligence as a moderator; amplifying or depressing the effect that these factors have on employee engagement.

The IT department of a manufacturer and administrative staff in a community college, both based in the U.S., were approached. The researchers recruited over 600 employees, 231 of whom completed a number of surveys to measure their perceptions of shared personal vision, shared positive mood, organizational support and engagement. They also completed the 360-degree ESCI, rating only the emotional intelligence competencies (EI) and excluding the social intelligence (SI) competencies to avoid potential duplication with the other measures.

The findings confirmed that EI does not have its own direct relationship with engagement. However, the researchers clarified the way that EI interacted with the conditions for engagement:

1 EI increased the potency of shared personal vision. On its own, shared personal vision related positively with engagement (b=.24, p<.01). EI amplified the relationship (b=.31, p<.01). Compared with individuals with low EI, those with high EI and low shared vision were less engaged. Those with high EI and high shared vision were more engaged.

2 Shared positive mood contributed to engagement. On its own, shared positive mood showed the strongest relationship with engagement (b=.46, p<.01). EI showed no moderating effect.

3 EI increased the potency of perceived organizational support. On its own, perceived organizational support related positively with engagement (b=.24, p<.01). EI amplified the relationship (b=.16, p<.05). Compared with individuals with low EI, those with high EI and low perceived organizational support were less engaged; those with high EI and high perceived organizational support were more engaged.

The researchers concluded that EI alone is insufficient to increase engagement. However, the self-management abilities within EI appear to work with shared personal vision and perceived organizational support to activate an employee’s ability to commit themselves to their organization. They attributed the low association between EI and shared positive mood to the differences in their focus: EI reflecting our ability to be aware of and manage specific emotions, while mood reflects more general and diffuse feeling states.

The findings encouraged the researchers to recommend that HR practitioners invest in strengthening the conditions for engagement, and measure and develop EI, in order to strengthen their employees’ capacity to engage positively in their work and their organizations.

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Engineers – effectivenessThis study by Boyatzis, Rochford and Cavanagh (2017) was designed to examine the relationship between EI and peer rated effectiveness and to look at the impact of EI above and beyond that provided by personality and general mental ability in a highly technical occupation.

The study was conducted in a multi-national manufacturing organization with 40 engineers from the U.S. and Northern Europe. They were rated by their peers on effectiveness and their peers also completed the multi rater ESCI. Participants completed measures of personality (using the NEO-FFI, Costa & McCrae, 1992) and general mental ability (Raven’s APM, Raven, 1962). Results of multiple regression analyses showed that:

1 31% of the unique variance in the engineers’ effectiveness was predicted by ESCI ratings.

2 There were no significant effects for either personality or general mental ability.

These findings strongly indicate that emotional and social competencies are important for success even in a highly technical field such as engineering. The authors recommended expanding the training of engineers to include EI. They also commented that: “These results shed light on a very powerful idea: People do not get convinced of things by rational arguments. People are convinced of things by emotional arguments and then use rational arguments later to feel better about it. Emotional and social intelligence (ESI) enables people to work together, communicate well, and help others share in the excitement about innovations and ideas.” (p. 78)

31%of the unique

variance in the engineers’ effectiveness

was predicted by ESCI ratings.

NORTHERNEUROPE

UNITEDSTATES

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Software managers – leadership effectiveness and leadership style.This study (Bajaj, 2013, Bajaj & Medury, 2013) investigated how emotional and social intelligence competencies affected the leadership effectiveness of managers in a number of Indian software organizations. Building on the strong links between EI and leadership effectiveness, in particular transformational leadership, the researcher explored the relationships between emotional and social intelligence competencies, three leadership styles and leadership outcomes.

Conducted with a number of software organizations employing at least 100 people in the Northern Capital Region of India, 156 managers and their direct reports took part and completed the ESCI and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) 5x (rater form).

The MLQ 5x assesses three leadership outcomes (effectiveness, generates extra effort, generates satisfaction) and 3 leadership styles (transformational, transactional and passive/avoidant leadership). Structural equation modelling was used to explore the correlations between EI and these leadership measures.

The findings for these software managers were:

1 Emotional intelligence was significantly and positively related to leadership effectiveness. 55.7% of the variance in leadership effectiveness was explained by the demonstration of emotional and social intelligence competencies The Social Awareness and Relationship

Management clusters of the ESCI related most positively to leadership effectiveness. Team members were likely to perceive supervisors with high EI to be more effective, be satisfied with their leadership and put in extra effort.

2 Emotional intelligence was significantly and positively related to use of the transformational leadership style. 60% of the variance in transformational leadership was explained by EI, particularly by the Social Awareness and Relationship Management clusters. Individuals, teams and organizations experiencing significant change are likely to be positively influenced by leaders with high social awareness and relationship management competencies.

3 Emotional intelligence was significantly and positively related to use of the transactional leadership style. 68% of the variance in transactional leadership was explained by the Social Awareness cluster of competencies: Empathy and Organizational awareness. Team members who perceive their supervisors to have high social awareness were likely to feel rewarded and supported for their efforts.

4 The Relationship Management competencies were significantly negatively related to use of the passive/avoidant leadership style. 31% of the variance in this style was explained by EI. Relationship management related negatively to it.

This study offers a valuable insight into the cross-cultural relevance of EI and supports the case for the assessment and development of emotional and social intelligence competencies to improve leadership effectiveness across a range of leadership styles.

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Business unit managers – financial performance.Tasked with building and validating a 360-degree competency-based questionnaire for use in succession planning and management development, Ryan, Spencer and Bernhard (2012) explored the specific competencies that best predicted business unit profit growth in a European-based electronic controls firm. They carried out a two-part study.

In the first part, critical incident interviews were conducted with 15 superior performing business unit managers from the U.S. and six European countries. Interviews were coded and analysed with results showing that 12 competencies accounted for over 80% of the behaviors demonstrated by these managers. The competencies described most frequently in the interviews included Achievement orientation, Impact and influence, Team leadership, Interpersonal understanding, Analytical thinking, Teamwork and cooperation, and Initiative.

In the second part of the study, questionnaire items were developed for each competency to create a competency-based questionnaire, which was then completed by the bosses of 70 business unit managers from North America and two European countries. The outcome measure was business unit profit growth assessed over a two to three year period.

Results showed that:

1 Eight competencies predicted profit growth. Results of a preliminary review of the 12 competencies showed that eight of them were correlated with profit growth at levels that exceeded the screening threshold of r2>.05. They were Achievement orientation, Impact and influence, Developing others, Teamwork and cooperation, Analytical thinking, Concern for quality and order, Conceptual thinking, and Information seeking.

2 Eight competencies differentiated the best from the average managers. Achievement orientation, Impact and influence, Developing others, Initiative, Interpersonal understanding, Teamwork and cooperation, Concern for quality and order, and Conceptual thinking (p<.05).

3 Four competencies explained 17% of the variance in profit growth. Team leadership, Developing others, Achievement orientation, and Impact and influence made the greatest contribution to performance outcomes in this context.

The broad and open approach of this study revealed the significance of emotional and social intelligence competencies to the profitability of the business units led by these managers. Of note is that the four competencies that collectively explained 17% of the variance in profit growth are all elements of the Self-management and Relationship management clusters within the ESCI.

17%of the

variance in profit growth

Team leadership Developing others Achievement orientation Impact and influence

EXPLAINED

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High potential executives – performance.This research (Ryan, Emmerling & Spencer, 2009) explored the EI competencies that predict performance and differentiate effective executives in two different European organizations.

Study 1 explored the competencies demonstrated by managers in a professional knowledge worker company. Two contrasting groups were formed from amongst a pool of managers who had previously been identified as possibilities for promotion. Group 1 consisted of 17 managers who ultimately were promoted while group 2 consisted of 30 managers who were not. Prior to the promotion decision, each manager underwent critical incident interviews (Spencer & Spencer, 1993), which was then coded for evidence of 12 emotional, social and cognitive intelligence competencies. Results showed the two groups differed on 11 of the 12 competencies.

Further investigation explored the correlation with manager performance ratings for 15 managers who had been promoted and in their new position for one year or more. Initiative and Developing Others showing the strongest relationships with overall manager ratings.

Study 2 explored the competencies demonstrated by managers in a fast-moving consumer goods company. The company had been running a high potential program for three years, and decided to compare 44 participants’ competency results against another group of 62 managers who had not participated in the program. Again, 12 emotional, social and cognitive intelligence competencies were measured using critical incident interviews. Ten of the twelve competencies differentiated the high potential group of managers from the comparison group (p<.05). A subsequent study in this same organization used structural equation modelling to examine the predictive value of competencies. Results showed that six competencies (Achievement, Team leadership, Teamwork, Analytical thinking, Conceptual thinking and Expertise) explained 35% of the variance in the identification of star performers (i.e., managers with top performance ratings over multiple years).

These multi-stage, multi-context studies confirmed the researchers’ confidence in the ability of emotional, social and cognitive intelligence competencies to differentiate superior performers from others and to predict future performance.

35%of the variance in

the identification of star performers

(i.e., managers with top performance ratings over multiple years).

Achievement Team leadership Teamwork Analytical thinking Conceptual thinking Expertise

EXPLAINED

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Principals of urban schools – performance.This study (Williams, 2008) focused on a group of 20 principals from a large Midwestern United States urban school district.

Nominations from peers and supervisors, as well as ratings from teachers, over a two-year period were used to identify twelve outstanding and eight typical performers. Behavioral event interviews (Spencer & Spencer, 1993) were then used to gather demonstrated behaviors, coded against 20 emotional and social intelligence competencies.

An analysis of the frequency and complexity of the competencies used by these school principals showed significant differences between the two groups:

1 Outstanding school principals use more EI competencies. At least 50% of the outstanding group demonstrated 18 competencies at least once. In contrast, the same proportion of the typical group demonstrated only 10 competencies at least once.

2 Outstanding school principals use EI competencies more often. At least 25% of the outstanding group demonstrated eight competencies three times. None of the typical group demonstrated any competencies three times.

3 Twelve of the 20 competencies distinguish outstanding performance. The two groups differed significantly in their use of Self-confidence, Self-control, Conscientiousness, Achievement orientation, Initiative, Organizational awareness, Developing others, Leadership, Influence, Change catalyst, Conflict management, and Teamwork and collaboration.

4 Six competencies stand out as the most critical differentiators. 80 to 100% of the outstanding principals demonstrated Self-confidence, Achievement orientation, Initiative, Organizational awareness, Leadership, and Teamwork and collaboration in at least two of their three events, compared with only 25% of the typical group.

This study concluded that emotional and social intelligence competencies support school principals through the demands of their leadership role. It encouraged urban school districts to use competencies as the basis for preparing candidates for the role. It also recommended that universities and other development providers incorporate competency assessment and development into their programs.

25%of the outstanding

group demonstrated eight competencies

three times.

50%of the outstanding

group demonstrated 18 competencies

at least once.

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Family businesses – next-generation leadership talent.In his doctoral dissertation, Miller (2015) investigated the development of leadership talent in family businesses using several measures including 44 items from the ESCI-U.

The findings revealed that:

1 Emotional and social intelligence as seen by others is significantly related to leadership effectiveness amongst next-generation leaders of family owned businesses (β = .64, p<.01).

2 Leaders who rated themselves higher on EI and SI competencies were also more engaged in their work (β = .48, p<.01). However, those who were low in self-awareness were less engaged (β = -.21, p<.05).

The study offered a number of recommendations on how best to support the development of next-generation family business leaders, including focusing on communication within the family and conducting regular multi-rater assessments to ensure leaders are receiving honest feedback on how their behaviors are perceived by others.

Emotional and social intelligence is related to next-generation leaders’ effectiveness and engagement.

NEXTGENERATION

TALENT

LEADERSHIPEFFECTIVENESS

WORKENGAGEMENT

HIGHEI

HIGHSI

HIGHEI

HIGHSI

Emotional and social intelligence, as seen by others, is significantly related to leadership effectiveness amongst next-generation leaders of family owned businesses.

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IT professionals – engagement.This study (Pittenger, 2015) addressed a concern that the ‘engagement gap’ is greatest amongst IT professionals and could be contributing to performance deficits across the industry. It explored how EI impacts employees’ perceptions of their interpersonal environments and their levels of engagement.

By approaching several professional IT associations, the study recruited over 1,000 IT professionals working in global companies. 795 of them completed a number of surveys to measure their emotional and social competencies, their readiness to go beyond the confines of their roles, their perceptions of their interpersonal environments and their levels of engagement.

A shortened version of the ESCI-U was used, to gather self-report data only, limited to those competencies that the researcher perceived most applicable to employee engagement.

The relationships between competencies and employees’ perceptions of their interpersonal environment were many and complex. Following are two relevant findings that emerged from structural equation modelling:

1 Achievement orientation had an overall positive impact on all three aspects of interpersonal environment that were assessed. It related positively to shared vision (β =.385, p=.000), shared compassion (β =.192, p=.000) and shared positive mood (β =.442, p=.000). The tendency in IT professionals to overachieve seemed to relate to two things: their belief that success is a choice, and their sense of what matters for their organizations as well as for themselves.

2 Influencing others had an overall negative impact on all three aspects of interpersonal environment that were assessed. It related negatively to shared vision (β =-.101, p=.000), shared compassion (β =-.312, p=.000) and shared positive mood (β =-.138, p=.004). It was considered that this finding aligns with research on the personality traits of IT professionals. With a tendency to be introverted, influencing others is unlikely to appeal to most IT professionals.

The study offered an understanding of how specific EI competencies might make a difference to IT professionals, for whom low engagement levels can present particular concerns.

OVER 1,000 IT PROFESSIONALS

WORKING IN GLOBAL

COMPANIES.

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Shifting the balance of power.

The fourth report in the series, ‘Shifting the balance of power’, provides a summary of recent findings from neuroscience and psychology that show how EI can help leaders reconcile the need to be task focused and people focused.

The 360-degree Emotional and Social Competency Inventory is available through Korn Ferry Hay Group. If you would like to find out more about the tool and its applications, please visit www.kornferry.com/haygroup

Shifting the balance of power.Avoiding the perils of polarized leadership.

References Bajaj, B. (2013). An examination of the relationship between emotional intelligence, leadership styles and leadership effectiveness. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation) Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, Noida, India.

Bajaj, B. & Medury, Y. (2013). Relationship between emotional and social competences and transformational leadership style. International Journal of Research in Commerce, IT & Management. 3(2), 56-59.

Boyatzis, R.E. (2016). Commentary on Ackley (2016): Updates on the ESCI as the behavioral level of emotional intelligence. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 68(4), 287–293.

Boyatzis, R.E., Good, D. & Massa, R. (2012). Emotional, social and cognitive intelligence and personality as predictors of sales leadership performance. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 19(2), 191-201.

Boyatzis, R. E., Rochford, K., & Cavanagh, K. (2017). Emotional intelligence competencies in engineer’s effectiveness and engagement. Career Development International, 22(1), 70-86.

Costa, P.T., Jr. & McCrae, R.R. (1992). Revised NEO personality inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five- Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc.

Korn Ferry Hay Group (2017). ESCI research guide and technical manual.

Mahon, E. G., Taylor, S.N. & Boyatzis, R.E. (2014). Antecedents of organizational engagement: exploring vision, mood and perceived organizational support with emotional intelligence as a moderator. Frontiers in Psychology, 5:1322.

Miller, S.P. (2015). Developing next-generation leadership talent in family businesses: The family effect. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.

Pittenger, L.M. (2015). Emotional and social competencies and perceptions of the interpersonal environment of an organization as related to the engagement of IT professionals. Frontiers in Psychology, 6:623.

Raven, J.C. (1962), Advanced Progressive Matrices, set I, London: H. K. Lewis (distributed in the U.S. by The Psychological Corporation, San Antonio, TX).

Raven, J.C. (1982). The 1979 Standardisation of the Standard Progressive Matrices and Mill Hill Vocabulary Scale. Research Supplement No. 1 to the Manual for Raven’s Progressive Matrices and Vocabulary Scales. London: H. K. Lewis.

Ryan, G., Emmerling, R.J. & Spencer, L.M. (2009). Distinguishing high-performing European executives. Journal of Management Development, 28(9), 859-875.

Ryan, G., Spencer, L.M. & Bernhard, U. (2012). Development and validation of a customized competency questionnaire: Linking social, emotional and cognitive competencies to business unit profitability. Cross Cultural Management, 19(1), 90-103.

Spencer, L.M., Jr. & Spencer, S.M. (1993). Competence at work: Models for superior performance. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Williams, H. (2008). Characteristics that distinguish outstanding urban principals: emotional intelligence, social intelligence and environmental adaptation. Journal of Management Development, 27(1), 36-54.

©Korn Ferry 2017. All rights reserved.

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