Control with a smile: When emotional intelligence replaces surveillance with empathy

Abstract

Emotional intelligence has become an important criterion for evaluating leadership, as it is presented as a humane alternative to traditional supervision. However, its application within labor relations marked by power inequalities can also reproduce subtle mechanisms of control. This article aimed to propose an integrated framework explaining how emotional intelligence can function as an instrument of organizational regulation rather than promote worker empowerment. A critical documentary review was conducted drawing on contributions from organizational psychology, critical sociology, and Foucauldian analysis of self-governance. The results identified five interrelated mechanisms: the presentation of emotional intelligence as a neutral leadership standard; the strategic use of emotional reading to influence subordinates; the commodification of feelings under emotional capitalism; the transformation of employees into agents of their own regulation; and the absorption of resistance by the dominant leadership discourse. It was concluded that emotional empowerment can reproduce power relations when emotional skills are directed toward control, adaptation, and productivity rather than care and autonomy. The proposed framework broadens the critical understanding of emotional intelligence and opens a research agenda concerning soft leadership tools