Examining the mediating role of workforce agility in the relationship between emotional intelligence and workforce performance in small entrepreneurial firms in India

Small firms drive the economy but frequently falter due to a lack of knowledge and resources. To investigate the effect of emotional intelligence on workforce agility and performance, a research study was designed and conducted at six small entrepreneurial organizations based in India. Task performance, adaptive performance, and contextual performance comprised the workplace performance factors examined. The results indicated that workforce agility mediated the relationships between emotional intelligence and work performance, but only for adaptive and contextual performance, not for task performance. The study offers implications for proactive practices that entrepreneurial small businesses can adopt to enhance employee productivity, given the increasingly unstable business environment today. The study examined the relationship between workforce agility, emotional intelligence, and workforce performance in small entrepreneurial firms in India. Through the study of six such organizations, the study investigated three domains of group performance: task performance, adaptive performance, and contextual performance. The study revealed that workforce agility mediated the relationship between emotional intelligence and work performance, specifically adaptive and contextual performance, but not task performance. The findings offer implications for entrepreneurial small firms seeking to sustain or accelerate productivity and growth under turbulent business conditions.