How does emotional intelligence improve employee satisfaction and performance with mediating effect of employee engagement? Perspective from Saudi Arabian private companies

The main focus of this study is to examine how Emotional Intelligence (EI) improves Employee Job Satisfaction and Performance (EJSP) with mediating effect of Employee Engagement (EE) in private sector organizations of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The nature of the research study is quantitative, and a correlational design has been adopted for the study. Primary data was collected from a sample of 537 employees of private organizations in major cities of KSA. SPSS and Smart PLS were used to run different statistical techniques to test the proposed model. The results of this research study reveal that EI positively impacts the performance and satisfaction level of employees where EE also mediates the relationship between EI and performance and satisfaction level of employees. Also, age, gender, and experience of employees act differently as a moderator in this study. The contribution from this research study would be an addition to existing literature. This research study holds a significant involvement towards theory, practice, and methodological progression in the field of learning and creating EI abilities and its vital influence on performance and satisfaction level of employees in the Saudi Arabian context, as no such study has been conducted in Saudi Arabia, to the best of our knowledge. The study is supposed to provide useful insights into the methodological advances in the field of EI as a learnable ability that can be created. EI should be enhanced to employees to get a significant level of performance and satisfaction in the working environment. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by IASE.