Six Seconds Case Study: The Amadori Case: Supplying McDonalds

A summary of a three year Six Seconds case study, looking at the benefits of EQ on engagement and performance within business.

AMADORI, a supplier of McDonald’s in Europe, assesses links between emotional intelligence, individual performance, organizational engagement, and organizational performance. This study answers 3 questions:

Does Emotional intelligence affect Individual Performance?

Does Emotional Intelligence affect Organization Engagement?

Does Organizational Engagement impact Organizational Performance?

1. Does EQ Affect Individual Performance?

The managers in the top 25% of EQ scored higher on the company’s performance management system. EQ Scores Predicted 47% of The Variation in Managers’ Performance Results.

Discussion: EQ & Individual Performance

While many studies correlate emotional intelligence with business performance, this finding is unique because of the strong, significant link between the “hard” outcome of results and the “soft skills” of emotional intelligence. Since we know that emotional intelligence is learnable, this finding suggests that massive individual performance benefits can be reached by developing these skills, and by selecting managers who already exhibit these skills.

It’s also worth noting that unlike many of the other studies of emotional intelligence, this study is looking at an industrial sector. Thus, even in a basic infrastructure industry, it appears that emotional intelligence is a critical success factor.

2. Does EQ Affect Organizational Engagement?

The plants with the highest EQ managers scored higher on the Organizational Engagement Index. Manager EQ Scores Predicted 76% of Employee Engagement.

Discussion: EQ & Organizational Engagement

The managers’ level of emotional intelligence appears to positively influence employee engagement. While this is a small number of plants, the trend is very powerful. In this sample, 76% of the variation in engagement is predicted by variation in manager EQ — suggesting that increasing manager EQ is imperative for organizations concerned with increasing employee engagement.

3. Does Organizational Engagement Impact Organizational Performance?

The Plant with the lowest level of engagement performed the worst:

High Plant Engagement Correlated with Highest Employee Retention Rate

Discussion: Engagement & Organizational Performance

While the link between engagement and outcomes as measured by the OVS is well established, this study provides an important additional ingredient. The objective performance data from the company’s Key Performance Indicator substantiates the link between employee engagement and performance. Further, this finding adds evidence that the outcomes measure by the Organizational Vital Signs assessment are linked to “real world” performance.

Conclusion

The study provides evidence to affirm the three of the questions:

Does Emotional intelligence affect Individual Performance? Yes, strongly.

Does Emotional Intelligence affect Organization Engagement? Yes.

Does Organizational Engagement impact Organizational Performance? Yes.

There is strong evidence that emotional intelligence is predictive of individual performance; we found that 47% of the variation in performance is predicted by variation in EQ. Plants with more emotionally intelligent managers had higher organizational engagement. Plants with higher organizational engagement reached better performance.

It appears that Emotional Intelligence, as measured by the Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Assessment, is a significant (perhaps even essential) capacity not only for individuals but also for entire organizations. These findings suggest that emotional intelligence and organizational engagement are key drivers of performance.

63% Reduction in Personnel Turnover

In addition to the results of the study, one striking result was a drastic 63% reduction of personnel turnover of Amadori’s sales force. Sales managers participated in the EQ training, and the competency framework and manager-coach process was extended to the external sales force (300 sales agents all over Italy).

This study originally published April 3, 2013, updated Feb 5, 2019. Read the full case study on the Six Seconds website: https://www.6seconds.org/2019/02/13/amadori-case-engagement-emotional-intelligence/