Salesperson emotional intelligence at work: A resource-based perspective of subjective well-being determinants and organizational outcomes

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to integrate two frameworks, conservation of resources and broaden-and-build, to explain how positive psychology constructs (namely self-emotional intelligence, meaningful work, and flow) impact salesperson subjective well-being and, subsequently, outcomes relative to performance, organizational citizenship behavior, and turnover intention. Since employee well-being has become a persistent issue, and only recently has attention been devoted to this topic in the sales domain, understanding the drivers and outcomes of well-being is an important contribution to sales research. A need exists to understand how work condition resources impact well-being, as well as ways in which those might be enhanced (moderators). We explore a new perspective on emotional intelligence, self-emotional intelligence, as one possible personal resource that could impact how work conditions impact well-being. A sample of 195 business development and account management salespeople were surveyed, and the data was analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling to confirm nine of ten predictions. Our results suggest that the positive psychological resources of salesperson self-emotional intelligence, meaningful work, and flow drive salesperson subjective well-being, and this positive emotional state supports better sales performance, higher organizational citizenship behavior, and lower turnover intention. Further, salesperson self-emotional intelligence plays a limited role in moderating the drivers of salesperson subjective well-being.