Emotional intelligence and innovative work behaviour: A review

With the headway of globalization, the achievement and endurance of an organisation are pawned to innovation and adaptability. Innovation plays a crucial role in gaining a competitive advantage within the organization. For any organization to be innovative, employees' innovative work behavior assumes an indispensable role. Capturing innovative ideas from employees at different levels, building an active and collaborative workforce within organisation, recognizing employees’ effort, and communicating effectively with all stakeholders are the vital building blocks of innovation. Building the culture of innovation that drives productive and sustainable innovation practices can spark from within the workforce helping organizations to remain competitive and stay ahead in the long haul. Research indicates that innovation and creativity are attained through emotional intelligence. Given this contention, the purpose of this paper is to examine the role emotional intelligence plays in bringing innovative work behavior within the employees. An extensive literature review on the said constructs was conducted where both variables were studied independently and the linkages that both variables exhibit together were also studied from different database sources like Emerald insight, Science Direct, Taylor and Francis, Springer, Google Scholar, etc. and also, the models of emotional intelligence were put forth.