Development of a questionnaire to measure emotional and social intelligence competencies

Practitioners and researchers have pointed out the influence of emotions on decision-making processes, on willingness to take risks, on the definition of strategies, and on the role of managers in ethical issues inside organisations, amongst others. The influence of emotions on everyday organisational life has called for the assessment and management of emotional and social intelligence competencies. The substantial increase in research on Emotional Intelligence (EI) in the field of management is another indication of the growing recognition of the importance of the individual¿s emotional facet to better understand professional outcomes (Fernandez-Berrocal & Extremera, 2006). Furthermore, higher performance in work settings is related to the ability to develop cognitive as well as emotional and social intelligence competencies and to applying this capacities in organisations (Boyatzis, Stubbs & Taylor, 2002). The assessment of the emotional facet of individuals in organisations, through emotional and social intelligence competency mapping, follows McClelland¿s (1973) proposition that competencies are better indicators of professional performance. Besides, according to Spencer (1997), the competency movement has been responsible for a better assessment of the competencies that are present in the best performers. However, while cognitive competencies have historically received great attention, only in the last two decades has there been a growing attempt to grasp the emotional dimension of workers. The aim of this article is to present the developmental process of a measurement instrument to assess workers¿ emotional and social intelligence competencies. In drafting this questionnaire, the foundational literature and the most recent literature on Social and Emotional competencies measurement were reviewed along with recognised questionnaires on Emotional Intelligence. A pilot study was conducted in order to make a preliminary assessment of the questionnaire¿s construct validity.