The role of emotional intelligence on employee creativity through the use of organizational climate and employee learning orientation: A study in Turkish retail sector

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is now seen as essential for business survival and growth. Today, it is a known fact that most of the global companies use EQ measurement in pre-selection tests or interview processes in the recruitment process. The higher the EQ is, the higher the self-recognition the people have on their emotions and the relation between the thoughts and emotions. Higher EQ also enables people to better understand needs of the other indivuals (Adebayo, Olayide and Saheed, 2012). On the other hand, creativity as a skill has become a crucial concept in today's modern business world. Emotions augment and support thinking that helps to evaluate multiple perspectives driving to creativity (Caruso and Salovey, 2004). Global modern business pays a significant attention on employee creativity (EC) for growth and sustainability. One of the most basic needs of organizations today is to have agile employees to adapt to rapid changes, in which creativity has become a mandatory skill for organizations. In this study, the aim was examining the mediating role of organizational climate in the association between EQ and EC and the moderating role of employee learning orientation. The quantitative analyzes conducted in line with the purpose of the research were carried out with the participation of a total of 347 employees in global organizations operating in the retail sector in Istanbul. Various analyzes were applied to the obtained data in line with the purpose of the study. SPSS statistics program was performed during the analyses. As a result of the analysis, it has been concluded as there was a positive and significant relationship between EQ and employee creativity, and the mediating role of organizational climate on this relationship was also partially significant. Besides, the impact of employee learning orientation's moderating role in the association between organizational climate and EC was not found to be significant. Among the EQ dimensions, self-management and relationship management and in addition, among the organizational climate dimensions, human relations and support, reward and hierarchy have been explained the higher variance of the dependent variable of EC. This study contributes to the relevant literature by making managerial suggestions on EQ, organizational climate, and employee creativity to the organizational behavior literature.