From manager's emotional intelligence to objective store performance: Through store cohesiveness and sales-directed employee behavior

The relationships among manager's emotional intelligence, store cohesiveness, sales-directed employee behavior, and objective store performance were investigated. Non-managerial sales employees of a large retail electronics chain in South Korea (N = 1611) rated the emotional intelligence of their own store managers as well as the group cohesiveness within their stores. Store managers (N = 253) separately rated the sales-directed behavior of their employees. Objective sales data were collected one month later for each store. No direct relationship between manager emotional intelligence and objective store performance was found. Instead, the results supported the hypothesized four-variable, three-path mediation model: store manager's emotional intelligence was related to store cohesiveness, which in turn was related to the sales-directed behavior of the frontline employees, which ultimately predicted the objective performance of the stores. Manager emotional intelligence and store cohesiveness are seen as intangible organizing resources or socio-psychological capital for non-managerial store employees. Implications for future research and more effective management of retail firms are discussed.