ISSN: 2222-6990
Open access
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are key economic growth, innovation, and competitiveness drivers. This study investigates the mediating role of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) in the relationship between job satisfaction and firm performance among SMEs in Malaysia. This research explores various dimensions of job satisfaction, including work environment, salary and benefits, personal development, organizational infrastructure, leadership, working hours and work-life balance, to determine their impact on EQ and firm performance. EQ, encompassing emotional regulation and interpersonal effectiveness, is posited as a critical determinant of firm success. This study aims to develop actionable insights for enhancing SME competitiveness through EQ-driven strategies by addressing research gaps in understanding EQ’s role in SMEs. By adopting a quantitative approach, this study will employ a survey-based methodology of management-level employees across Malaysian SMEs. Data will be analysed through PLS-SEM to evaluate the hypothesised relationships. The findings aim to provide actionable insights for SME owners, policymakers, and researchers by highlighting EQ as a strategic tool for improving firm performance and fostering sustainable growth. Ultimately, this research provides a comprehensive framework for leveraging EQ as a competitive advantage, contributing to theoretical understanding and practical applications in SME management and policy formulation.
Abdel-Maksoud, A., Asada, T., & Nakagawa, M. (2008). Performance measures, managerial practices and manufacturing technologies in Japanese manufacturing firms: State-of-the-art. International Journal of Business Performance Management, 10(1), 1-16.
Abubaha, A. (2019). Job satisfaction strategies to improve performance of small businesses. Doctoral dissertation, Walden University, Minneapolis, MN.
Ahmad, M. R., & Raja, R. (2021). Employee job satisfaction and business performance: the mediating role of organizational commitment. Vision: The Journal of Business Perspective, 25(2), 168 179.
Alnuaimi, M., Alzoubi, H. M., Ajelat, D., & Alzoubi, A. A. (2021). Towards intelligent organisations: an empirical investigation of learning orientation’s role in technical innovation. International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 29(2), 207-221.
Alsughayir, A. (2021). The effect of emotional intelligence on organizational commitment: understanding the mediating role of job satisfaction. Management Science Letters, 11(4), 1309-1316.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. W.H. Freeman, New York.
Bar-On, R. (1997). Development of the BarOn EQ-i: A measure of emotional and social intelligence. Paper presented at the 105th Annual Convention of APA, Chicago.
Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497–529.
Blackburn, R. A., Hart, M., & Wainwright, T. (2013). Small business performance: business strategy and owner-manager characteristics. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 20(1), 8-27.
Brackett, M. A., Rivers, S. E., & Salovey, P. (2011). Emotional intelligence: implications for personal, social, academic, and workplace success. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 5, 88 103.
Campbell, L., & Wanrooy, B. V. (2013). Long working hours and working-time preferences: between desirability and feasibility. Human Relations, 66(8), 1131-1155.
Chand, P. K., Kumar, A. S., & Mittal, A. (2019). Emotional intelligence and its relationship to employability skills and employer satisfaction with fresh engineering graduates. International Journal for Quality Research, 13(3), 735.
Chatterjee, S., & Kar, A. K. (2020). Why do small and medium enterprises use social media marketing and what is the impact: Empirical insights from India. International Journal of Information Management, 53, 102103.
Cooper, R. K., & Sawaf, A. (1997). Executive EQ: Emotional Intelligence in Leadership and Organizations. Grosset Putnam, New York.
Daus, C. S., & Ashkanasy, N. M. (2005). The case for the ability-based model of emotional intelligence. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26(4), 453-466.
Deepika, D. (2016). Impact of leader’s emotional intelligence and transformational behavior on perceived leadership effectiveness: a multiple source view. Business Perspectives and Research, 4(1), 27-40.
Goleman, D. (1998). Working with emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam Books.
Grant, A. M. (2008). Does intrinsic motivation fuel the prosocial fire? Motivational synergy in predicting persistence, performance, and productivity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(1), 48-58.
Greenhaus, J. H., Collins, K. M., & Shaw, J. D. (2003). The relation between work-family balance and quality of life. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 63(3), 510-531.
Guy, M. E., & Lee, H. J. (2015). How emotional intelligence mediates emotional labor in public service jobs. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 35(3), 261-277.
Hair, J. F., Risher, J. J., Sarstedt, M., & Ringle, C. M. (2019). When to use and how to report the results of PLS-SEM. European Business Review, 31(1), 2-24.
Heimer, P., Haid, M., Benedikt, L., & Scholl-Grissemann, U. (2020). Factors influencing job satisfaction in the hospitality industry. SAGE, October-December 2020, 1–12.
Kafetsios, K. and Zampetakis, L.A. (2008). Emotional intelligence and job satisfaction: testing the mediatory role of positive and negative affect at work. Personality and Individual Differences, Vol. 44 No. 3, pp. 712-722.
Kanyurhi, E.B. and Akonkwa, D.B.M. (2016). Internal marketing, employee job satisfaction, and perceived organizational performance in microfinance institutions. International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 34 No. 5, pp. 773-796
Karatepe, O. M., and Kilic, H. (2007). Relationships of supervisor support and con?icts in the work- family interface with the selected job outcomes of frontline employees. Tourism Management, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 238-252.
Karthikeyan, V. and Lalwani, S. (2017). Emotional intelligence in banking sector–an integrative literature review. Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM) Vol. 19 No.10, pp. 9-14.
Kim, D. K., and Kim, B. Y. (2021). The effect of emotional intelligence on job satisfaction: a case study of SME management consultants in Korea. The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business, Vol. 8 No. 5, pp. 1129-1138.
Kim, T. T., Jung-Eun Yoo, J., Lee, G. and Kim, J. (2012). Emotional intelligence and emotional labor acting strategies among frontline hotel employees. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 24 No. 7, pp. 1029-1046.
Kimani N. Jean, K.N., Ngui, T. K., and Robert, A. (2017). Effect of Compensation Strategies on Employee Performance: A Case Study of Mombasa Cement Limited. International Journal of Innovative Social Sciences & Humanities Research 5(3):25-42, July-Sept., 2017
Kong, H., Jiang, X., Chan, W. and Zhou, X. (2018). Job satisfaction research in the field of hospitality and tourism. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 30 No. 5, pp. 2178-2194, doi: 10.1108/IJCHM-09-2016-0525.
Kulkarni, P. M., Janakiram, B., and Kumar, D. N. S. (2009). Emotional intelligence and employee performance as an indicator for promotion, a study of automobile industry in the city of Belgaum, Karnataka, India. International Journal of Business and Management, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 161-170.
Kumar, S. (2014). Establishing linkages between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership. Industrial Psychiatry Journal 2014, doi: 10.4103/0972-6748.144934, PMCID: PMC4261205 PMID: 25535436
Laborde, S., Dosseville, F., Guill´en, F. and Chavez, E. (2014). Validity of the trait emotional intelligence questionnaire in sports and its links with performance satisfaction. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, Vol. 15 No. 5, pp. 481-490.
Lamb, S., and Kwok, K. C. (2016). A longitudinal investigation of work environment stressors on the performance and wellbeing of office workers. Applied Ergonomics, Vol. 52, pp. 104 111.
Lambert, E. G., Hogan, N. L., Paoline, E. A., and Clarke, A. (2005). The impact of role stressors on job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment among private prison staff. Security Journal, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 33-50.
Lee, J. H., and Ok, C. (2012). Reducing burnout and enhancing job satisfaction: Critical role of hotel employees’ emotional intelligence and emotional labor. International Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 1101-1112.
Lee, B.Y., Wang, J., and Weststar, J. (2015). Work hour congruence: the effect on job satisfaction and absenteeism. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 26 No. 5, pp. 657-675, doi: 10.1080/095851.
Lillo-Banuls, A., Casado-Diaz, J. M., and Simon, H. (2018). Examining the Determinants of Job Satisfaction among Tourism. Tourism Economics. 2018, 24(8): 980-997. doi:10.1177/1354816618785541
Livingstone, H. A., & Day, A. L. (2005). Comparing the construct and criterion-related validity of ability based and mixed model measures of emotional intelligence. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 65, 757-779.
Lu, X., Lee, H. J., Yang, S. B., and Song, M.H. (2021). The dynamic role of emotional intelligence on the relationship between emotional labour and job satisfaction: a comparison study of public service in China and South Korea. Public Personnel Management, Vol. 50 No. 3, pp. 356-380.
Mahesh, B. P., Prabhushankar, M. R., Chirag, S. K., and Amit, V. S. (2016). A study of work-life balance and its effects on organizational performance. ISSN: 2454-6135 [Special Volume. 02 Issue.01, May-2016]. Publication Impact Factor (PIF) :1.026 www.sretechjournal.org 344
Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. (2002). Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), version 2.0. Toronto: Multi-Health Systems.
Mayer, J. D., and Salovey, P. (1993). The intelligence of emotional intelligence. Intelligence, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 433-442.
Mayer, J. D., and Salovey, P. (1997). What is emotional intelligence? in Salovey P and Sluyter D. (Eds), Emotional Development and Emotional Intelligence: Educational Implications, Basic Books, New York, NY, pp. 3-31.
Mayer, J. D., Roberts, R. D., & Barsade, S. G. (2008). Human abilities: Emotional intelligence. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 507-536.
McDowell, W.C., Matthews, L. M., Matthews, R. L., Aaron, J. R., Edmondson, D. R., and Ward, C.B. (2019). The price of success: balancing the effects of entrepreneurial commitment, work-family con?ict and emotional exhaustion on job satisfaction. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 1179-1192.
McIntyre, M. H. (2010). Gender differences in the nature and linkage of higher-order personality factors to trait and ability emotional intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences, 48, 617-622.
McIntyre, M. H., & Edwards, C. P. (2009). The early development of gender differences. Annual Review of Anthropology, 38, 83-97.
McQuitty, S. (2004). Statistical power and SEM in business research. Journal of Business Research, Vol. 57 No. 2, pp. 175-183.
Mueller, R. O., and Hancock, G.R. (2018). SEM. The Reviewer’s Guide to Quantitative Methods. Social Sciences, Routledge, London.
Naidu. A. T., and Satyanarayana, G. (2018). Impact of compensation on employee performance. Intercontinental journal of human resource research review. ISSN: 2320-9704 – Online ISSN:2347-1662. Vol. 6, issue 4, April 2018
Namasivayam, K., and Zhao, X. (2007). An investigation of the moderating effects of organizational commitment on the relationships between work–family con?ict and job satisfaction among hospitality employees in India. Tourism Management, Vol. 28 No. 5, pp. 1212-1223, doi: 10.1016/j.tourman.2006.09.021.
Neerpal, R. (2014). Impact of emotional intelligence and emotional labor on organizational outcomes in service organizations: a theoretical model. South Asian Journal of Management, Vol. 21 No. 4, pp. 54-71.
Neffe, C., Wilderom, C. P., and Lattuch, F. (2022). Emotionally intelligent top management and high family firm performance: evidence from Germany. European Management Journal, Vol. 40 No. 3, pp. 372-383.
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Larson, J., & Grayson, C. (1999). Explaining the gender difference in depressive symptoms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1061-1072.
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Jackson, B. (2001). Mediators of the gender difference in rumination. Psychology of Women Quaterly, 25, 37-47.
O’Boyle, E. H., Humphrey, R. H., Pollack, J. M., Hawver, T. H. & Story, P. A. (2010). The relation between emotional intelligence and job performance: a meta-analysis. Journal of Organizational Behavior. DOI: 10.1002/job.714.
Opatrna, Z., and Prochazka, J. (2023). Work-life balance policies and organizational financial performance: a scoping review. https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Palmer, B. R., Gignac, G., Monocha, R. & Stough, C. (2005). A psychometric evaluation of the Mayer Salovey-Caruso EQ Test version 2.0. Intelligence, 33, 285-305.
Pandey, D. K. (2019). Work-Life Balance and Organizational Performance. Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR). © 2019 JETIR May 2019, Volume 6, Issue 5 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162)
Petrides, K. V., Furnham A., and Martin G. N. (2004). Estimates of emotional intelligence. Evidence for gender – based stereotypes. Social Psychol. 144, 149-162.
Rajak, B., and Pandey, M. (2017). Exploring the relationship between job commitment and job satisfaction through a review of literature. Journal of Incisive Analysers, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 74 79, doi: 10.21844/mijia. v13i01.837.
Raziq, A., and Maulabakhsh, R. (2015). Impact of working environment on job satisfaction. Procedia Economics and Finance, Vol. 23, pp. 717-725.
Reynolds, J., and Aletraris, L. (2010). Mostly mismatched with a chance of settling: tracking work hour Mismatches in the United States. SAGE journal.
Ribeiro-Soriano, D. (2017). Small business and entrepreneurship: their role in economic and social development. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, Vol. 29 Nos 1/2, pp. 13, doi: 10.1080/08985626.2016.1255438.
Roxburgh, S. (1996). Gender differences in work and well-being. Effects of exposure and vulnerability. Health and Social Behavior. 37, 265-277.
Ruffman, T., Henry, J. D., Livingstone, V. & Phillips, L. H. (2008). A meta-analytic review of differences in emotion recognition between younger and older adults. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 32, 863-881.
Sarstedt, M., Hair, J. F., Ringle, C. M., Thiele, K. O., and Gudergan, S. P. (2016). Estimation issues with PLS and CBSEM: where the bias lies! Journal of Business Research, Vol. 69 No. 10, pp. 3998-4010.
Sarstedt, M., Ringle, C. M., and Hair, J. F. (2017). Partial least squares structural equation Modeling. Handbook of Market Research, Vol. 26, pp. 1-40
Sarwar, H., Nadeem, K., and Aftab, J. (2017). The impact of psychological capital on project success mediating role of emotional intelligence in construction organizations of Pakistan. Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Vol. 7 No. 1, p. 22.
Sawang, S., O’Connor, P. J., Kivits, R. A., and Jones, P. (2020). Business owner-managers’ job autonomy and job satisfaction: up, down or no change? Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 11, p. 1506.
Schaper, M., Volery, T., Weber, P. and Lewis, K. (2010). Entrepreneurship and Small Business. John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY.
Sekaran, U., and Bougie, R. (2013). Research Methods for Business, John Wiley and Sons, West Sussex.
Sembiring, N., Nimran, U., Astuti, E. S., and Utami, H. N. (2020). The effects of emotional intelligence and organizational justice on job satisfaction, caring climate, and criminal investigation officers’ performance. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 28 No. 5, pp. 1113-1130, doi: 10.1108/IJOA-10-2019-1908.
Sarstedt, M., Ringle, C. M., & Hair, J. F. (2017). Partial least squares structural equation modeling. Handbook of Market Research, 26, 1-40.
Sembiring, N., Nimran, U., Astuti, E. S., & Utami, H. N. (2020). The effects of emotional intelligence and organizational justice on job satisfaction, caring climate, and criminal investigation officers’ performance. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 28(5), 1113-1130.
Stamolampros, P., Korfiatis, N., Chalvatzis, K., & Buhalis, D. (2019). Job satisfaction and employee turnover determinants in high-contact services: insights from employees’ online reviews. Tourism Management, 75, 130-147.
Wong, C. S., & Law, K. S. (2002). The effects of leader and follower emotional intelligence on performance and attitude: an exploratory study. The Leadership Quarterly, 13(3), 243-274
Ibrahim, M. M., Piaralal, S. K., Zulkefli, N. A., & Arokiasamy, L. (2025). Empowering SME Firm Performance: The Mediating Role of Emotional Intelligence in Job Satisfaction. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 15(2), 832–849.
Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s)
Published by HRMARS (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode