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Emotional intelligence (EI) is becoming energy for successful management of projects (Asare, 2016). Projects are facing challenges which are largely associated with human competencies and skills rather than technical issues. Competencies and skills are critical in managing projects which influence the successful delivery of projects (Rezvani et al., 2016). Project failure rate is still very high in the world where leadership is not the main reason, but the lacks of social intelligence and skills (communication or conflict resolution) of project managers (Srića, 2008). In project management literature, scholars have long been debating on the skills (Sharma & Rao, 2000) and competencies (Gehring, 2007) that are useful in the project manager role and likely decrease project failures (Gillard & Price, 2005). Others have also debated on the value and involvement of emotional intelligence in organizations (Ashkanasy & Daus, 2005) and regarding various assessment tools available to improve performance” (Mayer, Salovey, Caruso, & Sitarenios, 2001). Few studies have suggested to inquire the relationship that may exist between these two domains or between factors of EI assessment instruments and interpersonal competence of project managers (Turner & Lloyd-Walker, 2008).
Emotional intelligence is critical project success factor in project management literature which is also an essential competency for project managers (Asare, 2016; Rezvani et al., 2016). Emotional intelligence is an ability of awareness to manage and understand own’s and others emotions that can affect major project outcomes (Mayer, Roberts, & Barsade, 2008; Rezvani et al., 2016). Emotional intelligence of project managers can be enhanced and developed to improve project performance (Doan, Nguyen, & Nguyen, 2020). Project managers with higher levels of emotional intelligence are likely to be more motivated and creative who involved team members through effective communication in complex tasks to increase likelihood of project success (Rezvani, Khosravi, & Ashkanasy, 2018). Emotional intelligence can explain variations in the performance of project managers and other team members. Project manager’s emotional self-awareness is about awareness of one’s feelings and being able to manage them and project manager’s emotional resilience allow them to maintain one’s performance when under pressure (Dulewicz & Higgs, 2001).
Emotional leadership competencies of project managers are linked with projects (Ahmed & Mohamad, 2016a) which plays a crucial role in teamwork and stakeholder management. So far, a very little attention has been paid to the distinctive features of Public sector project managers’ competencies, especially in terms of competencies necessary for team and stakeholder management (Jałocha, Kraneb, Ekambaram, Prawelska-Skrzypek, & Sciences, 2014). However, some researchers have dissimilar conceptualizations of the EI construct, which resulted in different approaches to the operationalization of the construct. These differences have led to a debate between researchers (Victor Dulewicz & Higgs, 2005; John D Mayer et al., 2008). The approaches to operationalization tend to fall into three broad categories, namely abilities (Mayer et al., 2001), competencies (Cherniss, Goleman, Emmerling, Cowan, & Adler, 1998) and personal factors (Bar-On & Parker, 2000; Dulewicz & Higgs, 2000). Emotional intelligence role is significant in projects but studies are lacking in this setting (Mazur, Pisarski, Chang, & Ashkanasy, 2014; Rezvani et al., 2016). Further research on emotional intelligence as an essential factor for successful management of projects is required to be conducted (Asare, 2016).