RESUMO

Within the organizational field, emotional intelligence is linked to socially competent behaviors, which allow the development of labor and organizational abilities necessary for professional development. Thus, in workers, emotional intelligence is related to a wide range of organizational variables. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) in the Colombian context, specifically, in a population of managers. The study was instrumental. The sample consists of 489 Colombian managers, obtained through non-probability sampling (a purposive sample), who work in companies located in Bogota. The results indicated that the four-factor oblique model presents favorable fit indices, as well as the higher-order model, the latter having additional theoretical support. These results indicate that it is possible to consider partial scores for each of the four factors of the WLEIS, as well as an overall emotional-intelligence score. Also, the WLEIS scores have validity evidence based on relations to other variables (convergent and discriminant evidence) and are reliable. These first findings for Colombian managers contribute to the accumulation of international evidence of emotional intelligence measured with the WLEIS.

RESUMO

Abstract The Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, WLEIS, is one of the most widely used instruments for measuring emotional intelligence in the world. This scale was designed for the work context and evaluates the assessment and expression of a person's emotions, the assessment and recognition of emotions in others, the regulation of a person's emotions, and the use of emotion to aid performance. However, in the Chilean context, there have been no studies on the validity of WLEIS for senior management within firms. The present study seeks to obtain evidence of validity based on WLEIS' internal structure using a sample of 100 Chilean managers. This is an instrumental type study. An exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis corroborated the dimensions of WLEIS, which presented adequate levels of reliability. The average scores in the factors were then compared according to age, sex, and level of educational. The implications of these findings are discussed in the last section.

Resumen La Escala de Inteligencia Emocional de Wong y Law, WLEIS, es uno de los instrumentos para la medición de la inteligencia emocional más utilizados en el mundo. Esta escala fue diseñada para el contexto laboral y evalúa la valoración y expresión de las emociones propias, valoración y reconocimiento de las emociones en otros, regulación de las propias emociones y el uso de las emociones para facilitar el desempeño. No obstante, en el contexto chileno no existen estudios sobre la validación del WLEIS en altos mandos gerenciales dentro de las empresas. El presente estudio busca obtener evidencias de validez basada en la estructura interna del WLEIS en una muestra de 100 gerentes chilenos. El estudio es de tipo instrumental. A través de un análisis factorial exploratorio y confirmatorio, se corroboraron las dimensiones de WLEIS, que presentaron niveles adecuados de fiabilidad. Luego, se compararon los puntajes promedios en los factores según edad, género y nivel educativo. Las implicaciones de estos hallazgos son discutidas sobre la literatura existente en el campo.