The impact of emotional intelligence on hospitality employees’ work outcomes: a systematic and meta-analytical review

Employees’ emotional intelligence (EI) has been studied for over a decade in the hospitality field. While the existing literature has advanced our knowledge of this construct, mixed and inconsistent findings regarding the influence of EI on hospitality employees’ work outcomes can be found in individual studies. To address such issues, we conducted a comprehensive literature review of the extant literature on hospitality employees’ EI. This review yielded 60 empirical studies (from both hospitality and non-hospitality journals), based on which we investigated the background and trend of research into hospitality employees’ EI. A total of 18 EI-related work outcomes were captured and classified into two groups. The direction, magnitude, and heterogeneity of the effect sizes of the relations between hospitality employees’ EI and such work outcomes were meta-analyzed. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed in the light of our key findings.