Purpose – Based on previous studies, this study extends current research and investigates whether the sub-factors of emotional intelligence increase job satisfaction or employee intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and perceived organizational support.
Research design, data, and methodology – This study categorizes service employees' (consultants) emotional intelligence into four sub-factors: regulation of emotion, appraisal of emotion, utilization of emotion, and expression of emotion. The study then investigates the sub-factor effects on job satisfaction. A total of 353 valid questionnaires were collected.
Results – The results of the path analysis showed that appraisal, utilization, and expression of emotion had a positive effect on intrinsic motivation, and utilization of emotion had a positive effect on extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation had a positive effect on perceived organizational support and job satisfaction, and perceived organizational support had a positive effect on job satisfaction.
Conclusion – As consultants' utilization of emotion is rendered as the ability to use emotion to improve performance, the conclusion is that such factors as monetary performance incentives are important in order to boost job satisfaction of the consultants.