Measuring and Enhancing the Emotional Intelligence of Construction Management Students: An Empirical Investigation

Social and personal competencies, such as self-awareness, optimism, and empathy, have been shown to enhance both satisfaction and productivity at work. Collectively, these competencies have been termed ‘Emotional Intelligence ’ (EI) and have been shown to differentiate leading managers from less able performers. There have, however, been relatively few empirical studies on EI conducted within the construction sector context and so little is known of how emotionally intelligent those choosing construction careers have the propensity to be, or how their EI can be enhanced. This paper reports on the findings of research which explored construction management MSc students ' EI and the effect of their programme’s content on their EI development. A standard EI measurement tool (SEI) was used to assess EI levels before and after specific modules. Follow-up interviews with students established how EI-enhancing interventions could be better integrated into the curriculum. The results revealed that the current content of modules studied did little to enhance EI levels amongst the cohort. They also suggested that there may be differences in EI development on the basis of both gender and age, although the sample size was too small to draw firm conclusions in this regard. On the basis of the findings, tentative suggestions are provided for enhancing the future EI content of postgraduate courses in the built environment. These include adding additional modules that cover work psychology, simulating the working environment through role-play and explicitly introducing the concept of EI into the construction curriculum