Emotional intelligence and employee performance in family-owned businesses: evidence from task performance, contextual performance, and counterproductive work behaviour

Purpose This study aims to examine how emotional intelligence (EI) relates to task performance, contextual performance (CP) and counterproductive work behaviour (CWB) among employees in Greek family-owned enterprises and whether these associations remain after accounting for demographic characteristics and social desirability. Design/methodology/approach Questionnaire data were collected from 69 employees. EI was measured with the Wong and Law EI Scale, employee performance with the Individual Work Performance Questionnaire and social desirability with the short form of the Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Analyses included reliability assessment, Harman’s single-factor diagnostic, hierarchical regression, partial correlations and exploratory EI-facet analyses. Findings EI explained substantial additional variance in task and CP beyond demographic characteristics and social desirability, but virtually no additional variance in CWB. Exploratory analyses indicated that use of emotion and regulation of emotion were most strongly associated with constructive performance outcomes. Originality/value By examining multiple performance dimensions simultaneously, incorporating social desirability as a response-bias control and exploring EI facets, the study clarifies where EI appears most relevant within multidimensional employee performance and extends evidence to employees in Greek family-owned enterprises.