274 Int. J. Indian Culture and Business Management, Vol. 6, No. 3, 2013 Copyright © 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Developing a scale for measuring ability-based emotional intelligence in Indian context Vishal Gupta* Human Resource Management Group, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Joka, D.H. Road, Kolkata – 700 104, West Bengal, India Fax: +91-33-2467-8062 E-mail: vishal.gupta@iiml.org *Corresponding author Shailendra Singh Human Resource Management Group, Indian Institute of Management, Prabandh Nagar, Off Sitapur Road, Lucknow – 226013, Uttar Pradesh, India Fax: +91-522-2734025 E-mail: shail@iiml.ac.in Abstract: Emotional intelligence (EI) involves the ability to carry out accurate reasoning about emotions and the ability to use emotions and emotional knowledge to enhance thought. Over the past two decades, EI has emerged as one of the most visible and high-profile constructs in individual differences research. Although proponents of EI argue that it affects people’s physical and mental health as well as career achievements, there has been debate about both the conceptual definition and empirical measures of EI in recent years. In this paper, we first discuss the definition and domain of the EI construct. Next, we develop psychometrically sound and practically short ability-based EI measure using three different samples. The 20-item scale shows significant correlation with academic achievement and conflict avoidance behaviour. This developmental effort could facilitate future EI studies for Indian society, in particular, and for other Asian countries, in general. Keywords: EI; emotional intelligence; ability-based measure; scale development; Indian context. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Gupta, V. and Singh, S. (2013) ‘Developing a scale for measuring ability-based emotional intelligence in Indian context’, Int. J. Indian Culture and Business Management, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp.274–299. Biographical notes: Vishal Gupta is an Assistant Professor in the Human Resource Management Group at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, India. He obtained his Doctorate in Human Resource Management from the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, India in 2012. His research interests include emotional intelligence, high performance human resource management, positive psychological capital, creativity, and leadership.