PurposeThe objective of the present study is to investigate the relationship between emotional exhaustion and performance. During the present coronavirus disease (COVID-19) global pandemic, as the world has come to a standstill and more than 200 countries have been seriously affected, the level of emotional exhaustion experienced by people worldwide is beyond one's imagination. But how organizations were coping with emotional exhaustion and maintaining performance has remained an important question. To address this, the authors developed a conceptual model suggesting that organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) can act as a mediator, and leadership style and emotional intelligence (EI) can act as moderators in alleviating the dysfunctional consequences of emotional exhaustion.Design/methodology/approachUsing a structured survey instrument, data were collected from 384 respondents from the faculty and administrative personnel in the Mangalore Diocese educational institutions. The authors used stratified sampling and tested the psychometric properties of the instrument using Lisrel software. To test the hypotheses involving two-way and three-way interactions, the authors used Hayes (2018) PROCESS as a statistical technique.FindingsThe results revealed that OCB mediated the relationship between emotional exhaustion and performance. To alleviate the dysfunctional consequences of emotional exhaustion, EI and transformational leadership interact to influence OCBs. The authors found that at lower and higher levels of EI, employees exhibited OCBs when leaders exhibited a greater level of transformational leadership. Furthermore, the transactional leadership style interacted with emotional exhaustion to reduce the adverse effects of later on performance.Research limitations/implicationsAs with any research based on self-report measures, the present study has inherent limitations of social desirability and common method bias. However, the authors have sufficient care to minimize, if not eliminate, these limitations. The research highlights the importance of EI, a contingency leadership style in organizations, to reduce the adverse effects of emotional exhaustion caused by the global pandemic.Practical implicationsThis study contributes to both organizations and literature on personnel psychology and organizational behavior. The study suggests that individuals need to invest resources in developing the skills of controlling and regulating their emotions and engaging in extra-role behaviors. In addition, leaders in organizations need to exercise transformational and transactional leadership styles to combat the present COVID-19 global pandemic situation.Originality/valueThis study provides new insights into the importance of EI, leadership style, and OCBs in restoring the loss of resources because of emotional exhaustion. The conceptual model developed and tested is the first of its kind in India, to our knowledge, and contributes to both theory and practice.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of emotional intelligence (EI) and psychological capital (PsyCap) on knowledge–service–leadership (KSL) excellence. A conceptual model is developed to explore knowledge sharing as the moderator in EI and PsyCap. Further, the study explores trust as a moderator in the relationship between PsyCap and KSL excellence. Using a structured survey instrument, this article gathered data from 963 faculty members working in various colleges and universities in three cosmopolitan cities (Chennai, Coimbatore and Tiruchirappalli) in the southern part of India. The hierarchical regression results reveal that (a) EI is positively and significantly related to PsyCap, (b) knowledge sharing moderates the relationship between EI and PsyCap, (c) PsyCap is positively related to KSL excellence, (d) trust moderates the relationship between PsyCap and KSL excellence and (e) PsyCap as a mediator in the relationship between EI and knowledge and leadership excellence. The findings underscore the importance of EI, PsyCap, knowledge sharing and trust in achieving excellence in educational institutions. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.