The relationship between strategic emotional intelligence usage within organizations and Machiavellism and its reflection on conflict management: A design engineering example

Emotional intelligence and conflict management are two popular areas of interest among researchers and companies both in our country and world. Candidates emotional intelligence and Machiavellism level are tried to be detected by character tests before a promotion or job recruitment since these concept are believed to effect efficiency. However these tests assume high emotionally intelligence candidates will be more suitable to all job environments. In this study this assumption is tested and it is hypothesized that people high in emotional intelligence will use it for their own interest and this usage is related with their Machiavellism level. The reflection of this relation on conflict management strategies is investigated. This study is performed in a design engineering department with 104 participants more of which are engineers. Ability based emotional intelligence tests STEM and STEU is applied to detect their emotional intelligence level. MACH IV is used for Machiavellism and ROCI-II is implemented to determine their conflict management style. Results are analyzed with t tests, ANOVA tests, Pearson Correlation test and hierarchical regression analysis. As a result it is partially confirmed that participants higher in emotional intelligence will use more frequently, concern for self conflict management styles when their Machiavellism level is also high. With this perspective it is believed that this research make a contribution to current literature focusing on ability based emotional intelligence and its possible usage for personal gain.