Expert Systems with Applications 41 (2014) 1981–1987

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Expert Systems with Applications

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What emotional intelligence traits make citizens really active? An

empirical study
Edit Komlósi ⇑
Institute of Management, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Pannonia, 10 Egyetem u. 8200,Veszprém, Hungary
Faculty of Business, Computing and Law, University of Derby, Kedleston Road, DE22 1GB Derby, UK

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: The trait emotional intelligence and its relation to civil organizational membership, labor market status,
Emotional intelligence gender and age was studied in 725 inhabitants of a Hungarian historic town as part of a tourism desti-
Active civil membership nation project with the support of the local government. The research also explored the reasons why peo-
Reason to settle down ple chose to settle in this town.
Regarding the research method a firmly reliable and internationally used TEIQue (Trait Emotional Intel-
ligence Questionnaire) was applied. The results showed that locals have average global emotional intel-
ligence level with high well-being (including optimism, happiness and self-esteem facets) and
emotionality (including relationship, empathy, emotion expression and emotion perception facets). Citi-
zens who were active members of a local community (e.g. museum-, sport-, environment protection club
or association) gained higher global emotional intelligence averages compared to those who were not
members. Those locals who had an active working status and were members of any local community
have the highest emotional intelligence averages globally and also on factor levels (well-being, emotion-
ality, sociability and self-control). There was a difference in gender: although men’s and women’s global
emotional intelligence levels were similar, women’s average scores were higher in well-being and emo-
tionality while men’s in sociability and self-control. They also differed in the reasons given to choose Ves-
zprém as a hometown. While men rather settled down for work and family reasons, women’s decisions
were influenced by falling love with the town and surroundings and the school years they spent locally.
The correlation analyses confirmed the relation between emotional intelligence and civil membership
and also a strong relationship was found between emotional intelligence and education. Self-control,
sociability, self-motivation and adaptability were identified as items related to active civil membership.
Significant correlation was found between civil membership and emotional intelligence among the
26–35 and 51–64 age groups. Unexpectedly with women no relationship was found between emotional
intelligence and civil membership while among men emotionality and well-being showed correlation
with membership. Education relations by gender indicated that women’s level of education correlates
with all emotional intelligence factors except self-control whereas men’s level of education showed rela-
tionships with sociability and self-control.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Tourism Board 2011). Destination tourism is a segment that

Tourism is a major economic value in Hungary as it makes a di-
rect contribution to the national economy of 4.6% of GDP and an
indirect contribution of 12% (Hungarian Tourism Board 2011).
According to the ITB World Travel Trends Report (2010), more than
800 million people travel every year, making the tourism sector one
of the leading employers and providing a job to every 12th person—
in Hungary, 6.2% of the working population are employed directly in
the tourism sector and 5.1% are employed indirectly (Hungarian
⇑ Address: Institute of Management, Faculty of Business and Economics, Univer-
sity of Pannonia, 10 Egyetem u. 8200,Veszprém, Hungary. Tel.: +36 20 2567242.
E-mail address: editkomlosi@gtk.uni-pannon.hu
Bierman (2003, p.2) defines as ‘‘a country, state, region, city or town
which is marketed or markets itself as a place for tourists to visit’’.
But what influences a person to settle down in a place?Hancock
and her research group (2009) found that doctors for instance
choose small towns as a long term residence because they are
motivated by the wish for a familiar place where it is likely to be
involved in the community and give them opportunity for self
actualization.
Veszprém is a historic town with circa 63,000 inhabitants dat-
ing back more than a thousand years. The place is called ‘Queens’
Town’ as Hungary’s first queen, the Bavarian Gizella, was crowned
here and she with King Stephen I. founded the Veszprém Bishopric
as a pledge to the Catholic Church. The town’s geographic

0957-4174/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2013.09.001
1982 E. Komlósi / Expert Systems with Applications 41 (2014) 1981–1987
advantage is the fact that it is situated between Lake Balaton (the
largest freshwater lake in Central Europe) and the Bakony moun-
tain range. The town hosts many international events and festivals,
economically can boast to have numerous international companies
who settled down for a long term and to have the largest university
in the region with five faculties. Therefore economically the poten-
tials are four-fold:
(a) expand the one-day visits
(b) invite more investors
(c) provide quality international tertiary education
(d) and make the town an attractive place to live
All of these will generate more income for the place and raise
the standard of living, welfare and well-being of the locals.
The present research was supported by the local tourism desti-
nation management organization (TDMO) and city government
who approached to have a mutual survey which would reveal
the inhabitants’ feelings in order to know the reason for settling
down and to help develop the town’s future tourism and investor
marketing. Also among the aims was to see the attitudes and feel-
ings of the people in today’s economic difficulties and role of the
various civil organizations, associations and clubs in the inhabit-
ants’ lives. Local government plays an essential role in creating
an environment for locals in which they empower themselves to
make collaborative rules of participation and identifies the individ-
uals who form different networks in order to create a mutual sus-
tainable goal for the town (Kusakabe, 2013).
2. Literature review
2.1. Active citizenship
The connotation of active citizenship has a political touch as in
most cases the government encourages educational boards to
involve youth as early as possible in doing positive things for the
local community. The purpose of these is to open locals’ eyes to
their rights and responsibilities for their settlement at an early
age (Lawson, 2001).
Gaventa and Jones (2002) identified and summarized the vari-
ous definitions and explained the three theoretical approaches to
citizenship as follows. According to the liberal approach citizenship
is conceptualized at the nation-state level where independent and
self-interested individuals have equal rights. The communitarian
theory emphasizes the individual sense of identity and belonging
which further shape group identity and rights. The civil republican
approach states that common public culture shapes civic identity
where the emphasis is on taking part in public affairs. Although
the three conceptualizations may differ in parts their mutual point
lies in the concept of citizens’ active participation.
The research of Putnam (1993) confirmed that community
activity (e.g. membership of associations or sport clubs) plays a
major role in regional differences. Democracy worked where peo-
ple were actively involved in communities. Moreover active partic-
ipation increases well-being and quality of life as being a group
member with mutual aims improves interaction which then fur-
ther results in satisfaction (McMillan & Chavis, 1986).
To join a group or a community one is said to have high self-es-
teem so as not to be afraid of being accepted (Anthony, Wood, &
Holmes, 2006).
2.2. Emotional intelligence
The origins of emotional intelligence can be traced back to
Thorndike, 1920 concept of social intelligence defined as the ability
to understand and manage individuals and take sensible actions in
human relations. Nearly forty years later, Eysenck (1958:175)
questioned whether personality can be measured and said ‘the an-
swer depends on what we mean by personality, what we mean by
measurement, and, indeed, one might even maintain that it de-
pends on the meaning of the term ‘‘can’’’. The contemporary forms
of emotional intelligence only appeared in the late 1980s/early
1990s when various terminology emerged (Bar-On 2006; Cooper
& Sawaf 1997; Goleman 1996; Payne 1989; Petrides & Furnham
2001) among which Daniel Goleman’s (1996) work on emotional
intelligence hit a sensitive and thought provoking area that slowly
but firmly has influenced even the most ‘down-to-earth’ econo-
mies ever since. Salovey and Mayer (1990:189) were the first to
define emotional intelligence as such. Their initial definition of
emotional intelligence as ‘the ability to monitor one’s own and
others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and
to use this information to guide one’s thinking and action’ was later
modified to ‘the ability to perceive emotion, integrate emotion to
facilitate thought, understand emotions and to regulate emotions
to promote personal growth’ (Mayer & Salovey 1997:10).
At the beginning of the Twenty-first Century, to diminish
misconceptions and clarify the various theoretical distinctions,
Petrides and Furnham (2001) examined the state of play of emo-
tional intelligence theories and measurements. According to
Pérez-González, Petrides, and Furnham (2005), there is a clear
conceptual distinction between ability emotional intelligence (or
cognitive-emotional ability) and trait emotional intelligence (or
emotional self-efficacy). According to them ‘trait emotional intelli-
gence is a distinct, compound trait located at the lower levels of
personality hierarchies’ (Petrides, Pérez-González, & Furnham
2007, p.26).
Bar-On (2000, 2006) combined previous approaches and used
the concept of emotional-social intelligence to define skills, com-
petencies, and facilitators and verify human behavior. Emotional
intelligence also bonds numerous fields of psychological science,
such as human cognitive abilities, self regulation theory, and
neuroscience of emotion (Zeidner, Matthews, & Roberts 2004).
2.3. Measuring emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence measurements have been developed
either with a firm or vague theoretical background and information
on their reliability, validity and factor structure (Petrides, 2011). To
create measures researchers either developed self-report question-
naires (e.g. Schutte et al, 1998) or have evolved test items that are
maximized answered on the correct or incorrect basis (Mayer,
Caruso, & Salovey, 1999), assuming they all operationalized the
same contract which obviously resulted in conceptual confusion
and conflicts (Pérez-González et al., 2005) .
Petrides (2009) clearly indicates that emotional intelligence
when regarded as mental abilities cannot be measured. Ability can-
not be objectively scored as perceptible criteria of scoring and to
determine the correct responses are biased (Spain, Eaton, & Funder,
2000; Watson, 2000). Nevertheless researchers such as Mayer,
Salovey, Caruso, and Sitarenios (2002) claim that ability tests
underwent changes which have improved their validity. Multifac-
tor Emotional Intelligence Scale, (MEIS, Mayer et al., 1999) and its
developed descendant the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional
Intelligence Test (MSCEIT, Mayer et al., 2002) are presently the
most extensively used ability tests but factor structures and inter-
nal consistency of ability measurements still have some queries
(Legree, 1995; Pérez-González et al., 2005). Another test co-devel-
oped by Mayer (Mayer & Geher, 1996) is the EARS, (Emotional
Accuracy Research Scale) which include several situations. The test
liability is dubious as it was generated by asking an individual in an
interview about the experience in the given situations (Stough,
Saktofske, & Rarker, 2009). The other situational judgment test
 E. Komlósi / Expert Systems with Applications 41 (2014) 1981–1987
developed by Mayer et al. (1999) is MEIS (Multifactor Emotional
Intelligence Scale) consisting of stories of a fictional person and se-
ven emotional feelings have to be indicated on a five-point Likert
scale whether these are present or not. The drawback is again that
the situations are subjectively measured as there are good and bad
extremes and stereotyped emotional intelligence categories
(Petrides, 2011). The Freudenthaler and Neubauer Emotional Intel-
ligence Performance Test alpha is very moderate (0.69) and the
managing of own and others factors have relatively low
correlations (0.18–0.51) with the Big Five, the five basic domains
of personalities (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agree-
ableness, and neuroticism).
Trait emotional intelligence tests’ validity (including those that
are regarded as mixed by some researchers such as Mayer, Salovey,
& Caruso, 2000) have not been as extensively explored and com-
pared as the ability counterparts. Up until the present only a few
studies have investigated the validity of different trait emotional
measurements. Brackett and Mayer (2003) after comparing the
MSCEIT (Mayer and Salovey, 1997) ability test with two self-report
measures, the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-I) and Self-report
Emotional Intelligence Test (SREIT) found that the two trait tests
were moderately interrelated while neither trait of the trait test
showed relations to the ability (MSCEIT) one. Gardner and Qualter
(2010) studied the concurrent and incremental validity of three
trait emotional intelligence tests, the Schutte Emotional Intelli-
gence Scale (SEIS, Schutte et al., 1998), the Multidimensional Emo-
tional Intelligence Assessment (MEIA, Tett, Fox, & Wang, 2005) and
the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue, Petrides &
Furnham, 2001) and found the TEIQue to be a superior predictor of
multiple psychological criteria in all cases suggesting that out of
the three, the TEIQue should be used by future researchers.
Pérez-González et al. (2005:126) claimed that hardly any ‘trait
emotional intelligence measures have been developed within a
clear theoretical framework and even fewer have sturdy empirical
foundation’, thus they distinguished, examined thoroughly trait
emotional intelligence measurements regarding predictive, incre-
mental and discriminant validity and factor structure.
According to Anastasi and Urbina (1997) for individual testing
the minimum Cronbach alpha accepted for reliability is 0.80. Three
tests’ alphas, the Emotional Quotient Inventory, EQ-I developed by
Bar-On (2000) with 0.85, the Swinburne University Emotional
Intelligence Test, SUEIT developed by Palmer and Stough (2001)
with 0.85 and the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire,
TEIQue developed by Petrides and Furnham (2001) with 0.90 are
regarded as generally good.
3. Research method
3.1. Questionnaire design
3.1.1. Emotional intelligence
TEIQue, (Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire) was ap-
plied in this research based on its psychological theory and the
ensuing nearly ten years of programmatic research. The long form
(153 items) of the adult test (TEIQue 1.5) started to be developed in
1998 and underwent several revisions until finalized in 2001. The
short form of the adult test that was applied in this research (30
out of 153 items, methodologically selected) (TEIQue 1.5SF) was
validated in 2010.
The model covers fifteen facets, each item belongs to one factor
only. The positive and negative items counterbalance one another
within and among the fifteen facets, as well as within and among
the four factors (well-being, self-control, emotionality, and sociabil-
ity) plus one (containing two auxiliary facets, self motivation and
adaptability, which add up to the Global TEIQue scores). The
scoring is at factorial level as well as there is a global emotional
1983
intelligence score which fall into low, average and high emotional
categories (Petrides, 2009) .
By 2012, TEIQue had been translated into more than 17 lan-
guages. In 2011 its Hungarian adaptation (Komlósi & Göndör
2011; 2013) and validation process started on university students.
The test has been already applied in Hungary with middle manag-
ers in production firms (Komlósi and Göndör 2011; Komlósi, 2012)
and in a telecommunication company’s branch (Kovács & Komlósi,
2013). An ongoing PhD research is exploring hotel functional man-
agers’ emotional intelligence levels in relation to their performance
within organisational culture (Komlósi, 2013).
3.1.2. Reason to settle down and membership
Among the six listed motivations, individuals had to indicate
the one and main reason that influenced them to settle down
and the lengths of time living in the town.
Citizens were also asked about being a member of any (one or
more) local civil organizations, clubs or/and associations. Those
who were could optionally give the name of the institution(s).
3.1.3. Personal data
The questionnaire included gender, age, education, present la-
bor market status items to examine the differences.
3.2. Data collection
The questionnaire was sent out both online (using LimeSurvey)
and paper to the local public and private institutions, corporations,
civil organizations etc. The questionnaire was available between
1st of March – 29th of July 2012. The online link also appeared
on the local website (TDMO, Local Government and the University
of Pannonia, Faculty of Business and Economics etc.), in newspa-
pers and advertised on the local television and radio.
4. Empirical analysis and results
4.1. Statistics
725 of the 747 questionnaires returned were analyzable. Table 1
lists the demographic characteristics supplemented by the data on
length of living in the town, civil membership and reason to settle
down.
Regarding the gender 65% female and 35% male (women 10%
overrepresented, men 10% underrepresented according to the local
demographic) completed the survey most of which were between
the age of 26–64 which was representative according to the ratio of
this age of the locals.
The level of education reveals that Veszprém deserves the title
of university town as more than 45% of the respondents had uni-
versity degrees.
According to the labor market status nearly 60% of the respon-
dents were employed.
To gain a well-founded result it was vital to include the length
someone had been living in the town. About 73% of the locals have
lived here more than 10 years and nearly 15% between 4–10 years.
Therefore the results shown can be generalized for locals who set-
tled down permanently.
71 local civil organizations and clubs were named by 21% of the
responses who indicated their membership in either one or more
of these associations.
Both from economic and touristic points of view it is important
to understand one’s choice of a place to settle down. A great major-
ity of people’s main reason was to stay in the town where they
were born, and also where they had studied. It is evident that
family reason (like coming back to the roots, marriage) was an
1984 E. Komlósi / Expert Systems with Applications 41 (2014) 1981–1987

Table 1 When it comes to emotional intelligence scores the results indi-

Demographic data of the research sample. cate that locals’ global EI scores fall into the average category. At
Population N % factorial level however emotionality and well-being mean scores
characteristics are in the high emotional intelligence domain.
All 725 When looking at the results for emotional intelligence the re-
Gender Male 257 35.4 search reveals that men’s and women’s global scores are somewhat
Female 468 64.6 alike, they fall in the average level (Diagram 2.). The main differ-
Age 18–25 172 23.7 ences are rather at factorial level. Women score significantly higher
26–35 168 23.2 than men in emotionality. It indicates that females have higher
36–50 197 27.2 empathy level, in other words they can understand other people’s
51–64 140 19.3 needs and desires, and therefore be more skilful in conversations
65 and above 48 6.6
and negotiations because they take others’ viewpoint into account.
Education primary school 21 2.9 Furthermore they score high in relationships which is about starting
vocational school 83 11.4
GCSE 180 24.8
and maintaining emotional bonds with the family and close friends
technical college 112 15.5 that positively affect well-being and productivity. Women are more
university degree 329 45.4 precise and clear about emotional perception and in communicat-
Labour status student 137 18.9 ing their feelings to others (emotional expressions). Local women’s
employed 432 59.6 well-being scores are also higher than the men’s; they expect posi-
pensioner 103 14.2 tive things in life (optimism), seem confident and satisfied with
unemployed 30 4.1
their achievements (self-esteem). On the other hand men score
on maternity leave 23 3.2
higher in self-control. They can control emotions and feelings better,
Length of living less than 1 year 27 3.7
can change unpleasant mood more quickly and prolong pleasant
1–3 years 64 8.9
4–10 years 106 14.6 mood (emotional regulation). Thinking before action and decision
more than 10 years 528 72.8 making (low impulsiveness) and developing methods to cope with
Civil membership yes 152 21 stress effectively are more likely with men (stress management).
no 573 79 One of the most interesting outcomes of the research is the dif-
Main reason to settle born and stayed here 289 39.9 ference between the emotional intelligence levels of civil organiza-
down fell in love in the town and 79 10.9 tion members and none members. 120 out of the 725 respondents
surroundings indicated being a member of one or more of the local civil associ-
attended school and stayed here 114 15.7 ations. Their levels of emotional intelligence have been contrasted
after
because of work 88 12.1
to the randomly selected 120 employed who are not members.
family reasons 109 15.1 Members score higher not just globally but at factorial level. Dia-
relationship (love, friend, 46 6.3 gram 3 illustrates that when taking all responses into consider-
acquaintances) ation both members’ and employees’ scores are higher than the
population average.
influencing factor. A very significant finding for the local govern- In order to verify the global and factorial emotional intelligence
ment is that the ratio of people who chose this place as hometown score results correlation analyses have been applied.
because they fell in love with it is nearly the same as the ones who
came because they found a job here. 4.2. Correlation analysis
It was interesting to examine the gender difference among the
six reasons to settle down. The results show (Diagram 1.) that The paper identifies significant relationships between the lo-
while men’s decisions are rather influenced by workplace/job cals’ global emotional intelligence, education and civil organization
opportunity and family reason(s) women are more influenced by membership. Table 2 illustrates the correlation results of the whole
their school attendance and the emotion of falling in love with sample as well as gender differences.
the town and surroundings. Could it mean that men decisions While the level of education appears to correlate with all emo-
are influenced by practicality and security and women tend to lis- tional intelligence factors civil membership has a significant corre-
ten to their intuition and feelings more? lation with the sociability and self-control factors beside the global
emotional intelligence level(the auxiliary facets add up to the

Diagram 2. Inhabitants’ emotional intelligence level compared to men and women

Diagram 1. Comparing women and men reasons to settle down in the town. separate results.
 E. Komlósi / Expert Systems with Applications 41 (2014) 1981–1987
global). Among the factors self-control correlates significantly with
all variables. Age correlates negatively with well-being which indi-
cates that with age optimism, self-esteem and happiness levels
decrease.
Taking gender into consideration the previously indicated dif-
ferences (Diagram 2) are confirmed by the correlation analyses. A
similarity can be identified with the length of stay item that has
a strong relationship with self-control. Both genders’ education
has strong positive relationship with global emotional intelligence.
It suggests that people with higher degrees have higher emotional
intelligence. Nevertheless, while women’s educational level shows
relation with all factors except self-control in men’s results only
self-control and sociability factors correlate with education. Since
global emotional intelligence showed relation with civil member-
ship it has been expected that this correlation would be identified
with both genders. Contrary to the expectation, membership has
significant correlation with well-being and emotionality amongst
men but not within women. The paper does not intend to study
the cause-effect relationship between the variables yet it would
be worthwhile to examine if a man who joins a civil organization
already has high emotional intelligence or if it is developed during
his membership.
Another interesting phenomenon is the relation to age. Previous
research indicated (e.g. Komlósi & Göndör 2011; Petrides &
Furnham, 2006) that emotional intelligence correlates with age.
Longitudinal studies indicated that as people get older they
become better socialized and emotionally less unstable (Robins,
Fraley, Roberts, & Trzesniewski, 2001). The results of this study
are some way diverse regarding age.
The women’s results indicate a negative relation between age
and well-being as well as between age and sociability but positive
with self-control. The younger a woman is the higher her well-being
and sociability factor levels are while the older she gets the higher
her self-control factor level becomes. Men’s results do not indicate
such significant correlations. Table 3 illustrates more specifically
that only two age groups (26–35 and 51–64) confirm relationship
between membership and emotional intelligence out of which lo-
cals between the age of 51–64 group indicates strong correlation.
Emotionality, sociability and well-being factors have significantly
high relationship with civil membership. One of the explanations
might be that these individuals still feel active and knowledgeable
when their spare the being members.
Regarding time to have the possibility to be involved in civil
organizations, women on maternity leave and pensioners’ results
have been compared. As illustrated in Table 4 there is a strong rela-
tionship between membership and well-being and also with the
Diagram 3. Comparing civil members’ emotional intelligence average to randomly
selected not members and all population.
1985
auxiliary facets (self-motivation and adaptability) among women
on maternity leave. Pensioners’ results do not indicate any signifi-
cant correlation.
Concerning the reasons one settles down, a strong positive rela-
tion can be found between self-control and civil membership
among only those who stayed because of falling in love with the
town and surroundings. Although the ratio of those who settled
for work has similar, membership does not have a significant rela-
tion with either emotional intelligence factors. Nevertheless it is
interesting to observe the significant correlations between emo-
tionality and length of stay as well as education among those
who settled down because of work (Table 5).
5. Results and conclusion
The aim of the paper was to explore the main reason one settles
down in a community and joins a civil organization as well as to
see locals’ emotional intelligence level and its relation to civil orga-
nization membership, reason to settle down, education and labor
status. Furthermore the paper illustrated the results of gender
and age differences.
The results supported the expected relation between emotional
intelligence and civil membership generally. The population data
indicated significant correlations not just between civil member-
ship and global emotional intelligence but at factorial level with
self-control, sociability and within the auxiliary facets self-motiva-
tion and adaptability. Interestingly while women’s emotional intel-
ligence level did not indicate significant relation to membership,
men’s results confirmed the expected correlation. Moreover
amongst men emotionality and well-being had significant relations
with membership which can indicate active organizational partic-
ipation as it was indicated in the literature (McMillan & Chavis,
1986). If self-esteem determines joining a community (Anthony
et al., 2006) than men between 26-35 and 51-64 and women on
maternity leave are the most likely to do. The research revealed
that there is a strong positive relationship between emotional
intelligence and level of education. Women’s education level
showed relation with all emotional intelligence factors except
self-control which only increase with age. It can imply that self-con-
trol is a trait for women that needs time to master. On the other
hand men’s educational level demonstrated strong positive rela-
tion only with emotional intelligence self control and sociability fac-
tors. It may indicate that for men self-control and within sociability
emotion management, assertiveness and social awareness can be
acquired by education.
Based on previous research with TEIQue (Komlósi & Göndör
2011; Komlósi, 2012) women had high emotionality and men high
self-control level. Similar results were expected and found in this
paper.
Education has a major role in encouraging active citizenship
(Lawson, 2001). The outcomes of the study confirmed this. Also
the level of self-control showed strong relation to education and
civil membership among those who fell in love in the town and
settled while it was not the case with those who live in the town
because of work. Nearly 16% of the respondents gave the ‘attended
school and therefore stayed here’ answer as a main reason to settle
down.
If we consider the positive strong relation of education and
emotional intelligence and the fact that the town has regionally
well-known primary- secondary schools and a university one of
the proposals to the local government would be to work out long
term strategies for students to settle down. Another implication
is for the TDMO to use the knowledge of those who are civil mem-
bers to authentically and perhaps enthusiastically represent and
market the town for tourists to stay longer.
1986 E. Komlósi / Expert Systems with Applications 41 (2014) 1981–1987

Table 2
Relationship between emotional intelligence (global and factorial level) length of stay in the town, education, civil membership and age by gender.

Well-being Sociability Emotionality Self-control Auxiliary Global EI

All (N = 725) P < 0.05 (r = 0.08) p < 0.001 (r = 0.12) 0.05 0.01 0.05 0.15 0.02 0.07 Length of stay
0.14 0.11 0.16 0.12 0.17 0.18 Education
0.05 0.08 0.05 0.08 0.08 0.09 Civil membership
0.13 0.07 0.05 0.11 0.07 0.06 Age
Women (N = 468) P < 0.05 (r = 0.1) p < 0.001 (r = 0.15) 0.05 0.01 0.08 0.15 0.03 0.08 Length of stay
0.16 0.11 0.20 0.09 0.23 0.20 Education
0.01 0.05 0.01 0.05 0.05 0.04 Civil membership
0.13 0.09 0.00 0.15 0.06 0.04 Age
Men (N = 257) P < 0.05 (r = 0.13) p < 0.001 (r = 0.21) 0.05 0.00 0.05 0.14 0.01 0.06 Length of stay
0.09 0.13 0.08 0.19 0.07 0.14 Education
0.16 0.11 0.19 0.11 0.15 0.18 Civil membership
0.12 0.05 0.09 0.01 0.09 0.09 Age

Table 3
Relationship between emotional intelligence (global and factorial level) and civil membership by age.

Age Well-being Sociability Emotionality Self-control Auxiliary Global EI

18–25 (N = 172) p < 0.05 (r = 0.15), p < 0.001 (r = 0.25) 0.08 0.10 0.01 0.04 0.10 0.09 Civil membership
26–35 (N = 168) p < 0.05 (r = 0.16), p < 0.001 (r = 0.25) 0.16 0.11 0.14 0.11 0.10 0.16 Civil membership
36–50 (N = 197) p < 0.05 (r = 0.14), p < 0.001 (r = 0.23) 0.01 0.04 0.04 0.01 0.02 0.01 Civil membership
51–64 (N = 140) p < 0.05 (r = 0.17), p < 0.001 (r = 0.28) 0.22 0.22 0.25 0.16 0.26 0.28 Civil membership
65+ (N = 48) p < 0.05 (r = 0.29), p < 0.001 (r = 0.46) 0.02 0.03 0.07 0.14 0.10 0.04 Civil membership

Table 4
Relationship between emotional intelligence (global and factorial level) length of stay in the town, education, civil membership and age by labor status (on maternity leave and
pensioner).

Well-being Sociability Emotionality Self-control Auxiliary

Maternity leave (N = 23) p < 0.05 (r = 0.41) p < 0.001 (r = 0.66) 0.22 0.21 0.34 0.10 0.19 Length of stay
0.02 0.24 0.16 0.13 0.22 Education
0.66 0.38 0.13 0.34 0.42 Civil membership
0.31 0.04 0.04 0.03 0.11 Age
Pensioner (N = 103) p < 0.05 (r = 0.2) p < 0.001 (r = 0.31) 0.12 0.19 0.04 0.13 0.12 Length of stay
0.07 0.11 0.18 0.06 0.15 Education
0.06 0.11 0.03 0.12 0.07 Civil membership
0.23 0.24 0.21 0.17 0.23 Age

Table 5
Relationship between emotional intelligence (global and factorial level) length of stay in the town, education, civil membership and age by reason to settle down (fell in love and
stayed-because of work).

Well-being Sociability Emotionality Self-control Auxiliary

Fell in love and stayed (N = 79) p < 0.05 (r = 0.21) p < 0.001 (r = 0.35) 0.01 0.06 0.03 0.37 0.15 Length of stay
0.03 0.21 0.13 0.23 0.10 Education
0.04 0.01 0.20 0.31 0.17 Civil membership
0.17 0.18 0.05 0.26 0.03 Age
Because of work (N = 88) P < 0.05 (r = 0.21) P < 0.001 (r = 0.34) 0.10 0.04 0.29 0.28 0.11 Length of stay
0.14 0.04 0.26 0.12 0.18 Education
0.15 0.18 0.00 0.08 0.11 Civil membership
0.02 0.01 0.15 0.16 0.03 Age

6. Limitation and future work Acknowledgement

The paper has its limitation to determine the cause and effect of
the correlations. Also there are many other factors that can be tak-
ing into consideration when one examines relationships to emo-
tional intelligence. The large database (N = 725) provides
information that can be further examined in the future. Moreover
the experimental study is planned to be repeated in other Hungar-
ian and later on other European countries to compare the results.
Personally the next research will be designed to examine the
relationship between hotel functional managers’ emotional intelli-
gence level to their performance intension within organizational
culture.
I wish to thank the Veszprém Tourism Destination Manage-
ment Organization, the Local Government and The Faculty of Busi-
ness and Economics at the University of Pannonia for their help in
making this research possible. A special thanks to Dr. Katalin
} rincz to invite me to the local tourism marketing project and
Lo
my two PhD supervisor Dr. Christine Jones and Professor Alan
Clarke for their support and encouragement. I wish to thank Dr.
Mary Fresacher for her sincere interest in the research, as well as
her proofreading and helpful comments. A great support was my
father-in-law in the correlation analyses and my family to
devote patience and time. Last but least I would like to thank to
 E. Komlósi / Expert Systems with Applications 41 (2014) 1981–1987
Dr. Binsham Lin who saw the possibility in my research and
encouraged its publication.
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