Comparison of Managerial Resourcefulness with Emotional Intelligence

Abstract

Managerial resourcefulness has been defined as the ability of a manager to employ self-regulating practices in order to enhance performance at the workplace. Existing literature has conceptualized managerial resourcefulness in terms of affective competence, intellectual competence and action-oriented competence. Emotional intelligence refers to an individuals’ ability to understand emotions, be aware of the feelings of others, differentiate between them and use this information to guide one’s thinking and behaviour. This article attempts to compare the construct of managerial resourcefulness with that of emotional intelligence. Comparisons are made across the various dimensions of both constructs to assess the extent of overlap between them. Review of the existing literature reveals that while there is a significant degree of overlap among dimensions of the two constructs, emotional intelligence differs with respect to its multiple-level treatment. Emotional intelligence is treated at a more general level than managerial resourcefulness and is deemed to be all-inclusive in nature, while managerial resourcefulness looks at competencies in specific managerial tasks of problem solving, people-management and emotional self-control.