Emotional competencies as drivers of management students’ academic performance: The moderating effects of cooperative learning

Emotional Intelligence is becoming a significant concept in Education and Management study programs. This paper analyses emotional intelligence through different emotional competencies (self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, leadership and social skills) and these competencies' influence on students' academic performance (AP). It also analyses the moderating role of cooperative learning (CL) in the foregoing relationship. The results, which are based on data from a questionnaire administered to Spanish university students enrolled in Management courses, were obtained through hierarchical regression . The findings show that only development of students' self-awareness and self-regulation fosters AP directly. These results change slightly in a CL environment, which encourages closer relationships of self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy and social skills to AP. However, only self-awareness and self-regulation continue to affect AP positively and directly. Contrary to our expectations, motivation affects AP negatively. The paper's primary contribution is to spotlight the individual contribution of each emotional competency in fostering AP. As the results show that very few of these competencies have a direct effect, the paper opens critical debate on the efficacy of both emotional competencies and CL, as well as how to implement them. • Not all emotional competencies contribute equally to academic performance. • Only self-knowledge and self-regulation affect academic performance directly. • Cooperative learning must be more varied and carefully implemented to avoid common problems and becoming it effective.