Emotional intelligence competencies in engineer's effectiveness and engagement

Little research has explored the importance of interpersonal skills, and more specifically, emotional and social intelligence (ESI) competencies for an engineer's effectiveness or engagement. Furthermore, to the knowledge, no studies have explored the explanatory power of ESI over and above general mental ability and personality for engineers. The paper aims to discuss these issues. In this study the authors gathered multi-source data for 40 engineers in a multi-national manufacturing company. The authors found that ESI as observed by their peers significantly predicted engineer effectiveness (¿R2=0.313), while general mental ability (g) and personality did not. In the same study, an engineer's engagement in their work was significantly predicted by the degree of shared vision within their teams, while g, personality and ESI did not predict engagement.