Emotional Intelligence, Creative Potential, Practiced Creativity, Emotional Self-Efficacy

Today’s world requires a professional working life in which there are individuals equipped with different skills, and using composition of those skills. Thus, person-job fit, difficulties individual faces in the job and the overall process during their career paths have become important phenomena. In this process, some of the factors make positive contributions to people’ both personal and professional life. In this study, among those factors, Emotional Intelligence, Creativity from both potential and practice perspective and Emotional Self Efficacy have been investigated. The main objective of this study is to unravel the stated untapped pathway between Emotional Intelligence and Creativity in educational context-in University subject domain. In this respect, the mediating role of Emotional Self Efficacy in explaining Potential and Practiced Creativity has been mentioned. Data for this study was collected from a sample of 265 students receiving education both from state and private universities located in Istanbul, Turkey. Snowball sampling was applied in order to reach as much students as possible. The data were analyzed by using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 22.0 software. Firstly, Factor and Reliability Analyses of all measurement instruments were conducted and their factor structure was revised based on the results. Then hierarchical regression analysis was done in order to test the mediating effects. The results show that; Emotional Self Efficacy mediates the effects of Adaptability on only Creative Potential for students. In other words, individuals who; have problem solving ability, are flexible and realistic can have a potential for being creative. When they have a belief in their capability of perceiving emotions in self and the others, using emotions to facilitate thought, understanding emotions and emotional knowledge in the self and the others and regulating emotions in the self and the others (Mayer, Salovey and Caruso, 2004 cf. Kirk, Schutte and Hine, 2008) effect of adaptable abilities lost its effect in explaining their creative potential.

• Acar, F. T. (2001) Duygusal zeka yeteneklerinin göreve yönelik ve insane yönelik liderlik  davranışları ile ilişkisi: Banka şube müdürleri üzerine bir alan araştırması. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Istanbul University.
• Bar-On, R. E., and Parker, J. D. (2000) The handbook of emotional intelligence: Theory, development, assessment, and application at home, school, and in the workplace. Jossey-Bass.
• Amabile, T. M. (1983) The social psychology of creativity: A componential conceptualization. Journal of personality and social psychology, 45(2), 357.
• Amabile, T. M. (1997) Entrepreneurial creativity through motivational synergy. The Journal of Creative Behavior,     31(1), 18-26.
• Amabile, T. M., Conti, R., Coon, H., Lazenby, J. and Herron, M. (1996) Assessing the work environment for     creativity. Academy of Management Journal, 39(5), 1154-1184.
• Bandura, A. (1997) Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. Macmillan.
• Bar-On, R., Brown, J. M., Kirkcaldy, B. D. and Thome, E. P. (2000) Emotional expression and implications for occupational stress; an application of the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i). Personality and Individual Differences, 28(6), 1107-1118.
• Baron, R. M., and Kenny, D. A. (1986) The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological     research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,     51(6), 1173.
• Barron, F., and Harrington, D. M. (1981) Creativity, intelligence, and personality. Annual review of Psychology,     32(1), 439-476.
• Carmeli, A., McKay, A. S., and Kaufman, J. C. (2014) Emotional intelligence and creativity: The mediating role of generosity and vigor. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 48(4), 290-309.
• DiLiello, T. C., and Houghton, J. D. (2008) Creative potential and practised creativity: Identifying untapped creativity in organizations, Creativity and Innovation Management, 17(1), 37-46.
• Dulewicz, V., and Higgs, M. 2000. Emotional Intelligence-A review and evaluation study, Journal of managerial Psychology, 15(4), 341-372.
• Gundlach, M. J., Martinko, M. J., and Douglas, S. C. (2003) Emotional intelligence, causal reasoning, and the self-efficacy development process, The International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 11(3), 229-246.
• Hahn, M. H., and Lee, K. C. (2013) An Empirical Analysis of the Effect of Social and Emotional Intelligence on Individual Creativity Through Exploitation and Exploration, in Digital Creativity Springer New York, 79-98.
• Joseph, D. L., and Newman, D. A. (2010) Emotional intelligence: an integrative meta-analysis and cascading model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(1), 54.
• Kirk, B. A., Schutte, N. S., and Hine, D. W. (2008) Development and preliminary validation of an emotional self-efficacy scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 45(5), 432-436.
• Martins, E. C., and Terblanche, F. (2003) Building organisational culture that stimulates creativity and innovation. European Journal of Innovation Management, 6(1), 64-74.
• Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., and Caruso, D. R. (2008) Emotional intelligence: new ability or eclectic traits? American psychologist, 63(6), 503.
• Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., Caruso, D. R., and Sitarenios, G. (2001) Emotional intelligence as a standard intelligence. ISO 690.
• Mayer, J. D., and Salovey, P. (1993) The intelligence of emotional intelligence”, Intelligence, 17(4), pp. 433-442.    
• Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P. and Caruso, D. R. (2000) Emotional Intelligence as Zeitgeist, as Personality and as Mental Ability in The handbook of Emotional Intelligence, eds.R. Bar-On and J. Parker, Jossey Bas Wiley Company, pp.92-117. 
• Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., and Caruso, D. R. (2004) Emotional intelligence: Theory, findings, and implications.     Psychological inquiry, 197-215.
• McLean, L. D. (2005) Organizational culture’s influence on creativity and innovation: A review of the literature and implications for human resource development. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 7(2), 226-    246.
• Oldham, G. R., and Cummings, A. (1996) Employee creativity: Personal and contextual factors at work. Academy of Management Journal, 39(3), 607-634.
• Petrides, K. V., and Furnham, A. (2001). Trait emotional intelligence: Psychometric investigation with reference     to established trait taxonomies. European Journal of Personality, 15(6), 425-448.
• Petrides, K. V. and Furnham, A. (2003) Trait emotional intelligence: Behavioural validation in two studies of     emotion recognition and reactivity to mood induction. European Journal of Personality, 17(1), 39-57.
• Petrides, K. V., and Furnham, A. (2006) The Role of Trait Emotional Intelligence in a Gender‐Specific Model of Organizational Variables.Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 36(2), 552-569.
• Reiter-Palmon, R., Robinson-Morral, E. J., Kaufman, J. C., and Santo, J. B. (2012) Evaluation of self-perceptions of creativity: Is it a useful criterion? Creativity Research Journal, 24(2-3), 107-114.
• Salovey, P., and Mayer, J. D. (1990) Emotional intelligence. Imagination, cognition and personality, 9(3), 185-211.
• Sánchez-Ruiz, M. J., Hernández-Torrano, D., Pérez-González, J. C., Batey, M., and Petrides, K. V. (2011) The relationship between trait emotional intelligence and creativity across subject domains. Motivation and Emotion, 35(4), 461-473.
• Woodman, R. W., Sawyer, J. E., and Griffin, R. W. (1993) Toward a theory of organizational creativity. Academy of Management Review, 18(2), 293-321.