The effect of emotional intelligence on organizational commitment: Understanding the mediating role of job satisfaction

This study aims to analyze how emotional intelligence (EI) influences organizational commitment along with the correlation between job satisfaction and these two aspects. To collect the data for this study, a polite and pre-validated, self-structured questionnaire was used. Additionally, ethical issues were considered with the assurance of anonymity. The study also took the convenience sampling approach and collected samples from customer service employees working in all main branches of Saudi banks located in Riyadh. It further employs the structural equation modeling method for analyzing the data with AMOS 22.0 software. Before examining the structural model framework and hypotheses, a confirmatory factor analysis was used to estimate the measurement model and support the research. Results showed that emotional intelligence affects both job satisfaction and organizational commitment significantly and positively. Moreover, results showed that job satisfaction, as a mediator, has a significant indirect impact on EI and organizational commitment. Emotionally intelligent customer service employees of Saudi commercial banks demonstrated high psychological empowerment visible through their perception of work as meaningful, increased feeling of competence, guaranteed freedom of choice, and significant impact on the workplace.