Studying emotional intelligence in hybrid settings: The case of India’s evolving IT sector

While traditional emotional intelligence (EI) models have laid a strong foundation, they fall short in capturing the emotional demands of hybrid work, where adaptability, empathy and digital trust are not optional but crucial for an organization’s performance. The study explores the emotional landscape of hybrid IT work settings, where employees handle the invisible boundaries of remote communication, digital overload and limited face-to-face cues. Methodologically, the study is guided by established perspectives on competency-based theory and socio-technical systems theory in the context of hybrid work. The paper explores the behavioural foundations that shape the four core components of EI – self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management – using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses applied to 422 responses from Indian IT professionals. Six distinct factors (empathy, self-expression, interpersonal influence, emotional clarity, trustworthiness, adaptability) emerged as critical drivers shaping the emotional competence in this evolving workspace. To understand how these factors interact, network analysis was conducted, revealing two interrelated clusters: intrapersonal drivers, supporting self-regulatory competencies, and interpersonal drivers, shaping social capabilities. Self-expression emerged as the central factor, bridging the two clusters and shaping the overall emotional effectiveness. The findings extend EI theory into the digital age and provide a tailored and practical framework for organizations to develop emotionally sustainable workplaces and guide future leadership development.