The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Organizational Entrepreneurship: a study on personnel of Kerman University of Medical Sciences

Background: Entrepreneurship support, at all hierarchy levels, is a crucial issue for increasing performance and enhancing competition in large organizations. The main objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between staff’s emotional intelligence and organizational entrepreneurship in Kerman University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This descriptive-analytic study was performed in a cross-sectional form in 2012. A total of 285 employees of Kerman University of Medical Sciences were evaluated in regard to their emotional intelligence using Shring standard questionnaire and organizational entrepreneurship using Neghabi & Bahadori questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Spearman test and through SPSS18 software package. Results: Among three components of organizational entrepreneurship, that is risk of entrepreneurship, pioneering and innovation, the first two components showed significant relationship with emotional intelligence. There was no significant relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational entrepreneurship based on sex, age group, job experience and educational level except for bachelor and above degrees. Conclusion: We might benefit from the relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational entrepreneurship for educational purposes; for example, by improving emotional intelligence, organizational entrepreneurship can be enhanced. Keywords: Intelligence, Emotional intelligence, Entrepreneurship, Organizational entrepreneurshi