Linking emotional intelligence to turnover intention: LMX and affective organizational commitment as serial mediators

PurposeThe present study attempts to examine the mediating effect of leader member exchange (LMX) and affective organizational commitment on the relationship between followers' emotional intelligence (EI) and their turnover intention.Design/methodology/approachUsing a cross-sectional design, survey data were obtained from 182 employees in Tunisia. Survey responses were analyzed using Model 6 in PROCESS (Hayes, 2017).FindingsAs predicted, LMX and affective organizational commitment were found to sequentially and totally mediate the causal relationship between EI and turnover intention.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations include using a cross-sectional design, convenience sampling and self-report measures for EI, LMX, affective commitment and turnover intention.Practical implicationsOrganizations need to encourage more emotionally intelligent responses in employees which improve the quality of their leader–follower relationships. The quality of LMXs enhances the affective commitment that drives lower turnover intention.Originality/valueWhile the relationship between EI and turnover intention has been theorized, this study is one of the first to enable us to explore the mechanisms underlying this relationship. Specifically, a sequential mediation model linking EI with turnover intention through LMX and affective commitment was proposed.