Temperament and emotional intelligence in the case of sports managers

Emotional intelligence (EI) and temperamental characteristics are essential aspects for managers to develop human potential. A total of 50 sports managers (25 currently employed and 25 future sports managers) took part in the study, completing the Questionnaire for Self-Determination and Measurement of Emotional Intelligence, as well as the Temperament Self-Assessment Questionnaire, based on Jung’s typology(introversion, extraversion and four psychological functions: sensation-intuition and thinking-feeling). Through the t test for independent samples, we found significant differences between the two groups of participants, in the case of three factors of emotional intelligence but also in the overall score of EI. In other words, managersin sports organizations recognise and control significantly better their own emotions and mobilise their resources to a higher level to achieve a goal compared to future sports managers. At the same time, we highlighted significant differences in the case of extraverted sensing (ES) temperamental type. Experienced sports managers are more open, sociable and interpret information in a significantly different way compared tofuture sports managers. Specifically, managers in sports organizations rely significantly more, in the interpretation of information, on direct and concrete experiences, on the five senses (relating more strongly to external stimuli), and less on intuition (in which case, the interpretation of information occurs in the absence of concrete details). The findings of our study provide future sports managers with valuable information aboutemotional intelligence factors and temperamental characteristics specific to managers with experience in the field.