Taking charge and employee outcomes: the moderating effect of emotional competence

This study examined how taking charge was related to job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, and job performance among Hong Kong Chinese newcomers, and how emotional competence moderates the latter relationships. The results of a two-wave survey involving 137 newcomers supported the proposition that taking charge would be positively associated with job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment, but not with job performance. In addition, emotional competence significantly moderated the relationship between taking charge and job performance, such that taking charge was positively related to job performance only when newcomers’ emotional competence was high.