PSYCHOLOGY MASTER'S THESIS ABSTRACT

Duane White
Industrial/Organizational
December 2002

Emotional Intelligence and Self-Monitoring: Determiners of Influence Tactic Choice

    This study was designed to examine the effects of emotional intelligence and self-monitoring on the choice of tactics individuals use to influence others in the work place.  Emotional intelligence is a concept of personality and behavior predictability which postulates that individuals vary in their ability to monitor their “own and other’s feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions” (Salovey & Mayer, 1990, p. 189).  Self-monitoring is the level of desire and ability held by an individual to gain approval of others by regulating their self-presentation through attention to social and situational cues received (Snyder, 1974).  Influence tactics are defined as the means by which individuals attempt to influence others’ behaviors in the workplace.  Nine influence tactic categories first proposed by Yukl and Falbe in 1990 were used.

    Eighty-seven MBA students from a large state university in Northern California composed the sample for this study.  All but 2 participants held part time or full time jobs and 33 participants held supervisory positions.  Three published self-report scales were used.  These 3 scales are the 33-item Scale of Emotional Intelligence (SEI) by Schutte et al. (1998), the 18-item Self-Monitoring Scale (SMS) by Snyder and Gangestad (1986), and the agent version of the Influence Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ) by Yukl, Lepsinger, and Lucia (1992).  Data was analyzed using correlation and hierarchical regression to ascertain the level influence of each independent variable and the combined effect of these variables on the choice of influence tactic.  A series of t-tests were conducted for each influence tactic using the pair of correlation coefficients (r) or the 2 independent variables (SEI and SMS) to compare the effects of the independent variables.

    Results suggest that emotional intelligence and self-monitoring are related to the frequency of use of 2 of 3 influence tactics that are viewed as more socially sensitive influence tactic categories.  This is important, because it indicates that these constructs are manifested in the behavior of an individual.  Furthermore, because these tactics are viewed as pro-individual and socially sensitive means of influence, the findings of this study lend support to the notion that emotional intelligence and self-monitoring improve the likelihood that individuals will perform socially desirable behaviors.  These results indicate that organizations should draw from the emotional intelligence and self-monitoring constructs when developing employee selection, training and career development programs to increase the aggregate level of emotional intelligence, and self-monitoring within their organization.

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