Trait emotional intelligence can predict the health behaviour of employees: An empirical study in Indian pharmaceutical industry

Emotional Intelligence can be measured either as an ability, based on maximum performance tests or as a trait, based on self-perception tests. A lot of academic, professional and behavioural attributes have been studied in relation to EI and research has shown that trait EI is better correlated with health outcomes than ability EI. Health behaviour is an understudied subject that has been shown to be linked with EI. The present study evaluated the correlation of EI, measured both by an ability and a trait measure among one hundred nineteen employees of the Indian pharmaceutical industry with health behaviour, as measured by Vickers health behavioural checklist, and to assess the role of age in association with these parameters. Trait EI, as measured by Schutte self-report test, was found to be better correlated with health behaviour than ability EI, as measured by an Indian scale by Chadha and Singh. Further, trait EI was found to be predictive of health behaviour. Age was positively correlated with both ability and trait EI, but not with health behaviour. The potential implication of the results for the organization and the future direction of research in this field has been discussed in the Indian scenario