In-depth study of Emotional Competence Proficiency of Employees during Selling Encountersin Organized Retail

Abstract

The domain specific framework developed by Verbeke et al. (2004) has been applied in this research to identify the dimensionality of Emotional Competence (EC) Skills of employees during selling encounters in organized retail. An effort has been made to identify and differentiate the EC proficiency of employees during selling encounters. A sample of 200 employees in selling tasks was selected in Ahmedabad region. The factor loading was applied and seven Emotional Competence proficiencies named Empathy with Emotions of Customers, Self Representation, Character, Convincing Customers, Ethical Sincerity, Ethical Emotional Flexibility and Ironic Behaviour, were found, which represented the EC proficiency of employees during selling encounters. The mean analysis revealed that the EC proficiency of employees during selling encounters was found to be moderate. The analysis of Emotional Competency of employees during selling encounters in three different retail formats showed that the employees were less ethically sincere and more ethically and emotionally flexible, but up to certain limit during their selling encounters. The employees had empathy towards emotions of customers and ability to explore new perspectives, especially in employees of apparel stores and electronic stores. But, the employees were found less effective in terms of their self representations while managing emotions of customers.