Emotional intelligence and decisions in project management – a literature review

Emotional intelligence (EI) plays a crucial role in the effectiveness of project management, exerting a direct influence on the decisions made throughout the process. This paper aims to review the EI concept and decisions in the context of project management. A systematic literature review (SLR) was performed, having as data a set of 23 articles, published in specialised journals, available on the electronic platform 'WOS' and 'Scopus'. Through an approach that combines an SLR and bibliometric analysis, it was possible to understand the ability of managers to recognise, understand and manage emotions, both their own and those of team members. The overall performance of projects is impacted by strategic choices and decision making and, ultimately, human emotions are involved. It was not possible to assert an empirical relationship between EI and decisions in project management. The presented synthesis might lead to clearly assess the current state of knowledge, concerning the different approaches already studied, to address and assess the EI in the context of project management.