Innovative teaching as a bridge: linking emotional intelligence to employee performance in Chinese junior middle schools

Teachers’ emotional intelligence (EI), the ability to perceive, regulate, and utilize emotions, plays an important role in sustaining effective teaching and enhancing professional performance in junior middle schools. This study examines how EI translates into employee performance (EP) among Chinese junior middle school teachers, with innovative behavior (IB) conceptualized as a key mediating mechanism. Using survey data collected from 307 teachers and analyzed through partial least squares structural equation modeling (SmartPLS), we investigated four EI dimensions: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. Our findings indicate that self-awareness, self-management, and relationship management significantly enhance EP, whereas social awareness exhibits a weaker direct association. In addition, IB serves as a critical conduit linking EI to performance outcomes, underscoring the importance of innovation-related behaviors in teaching practice. These findings extend educational and psychological research by clarifying how teachers’ emotional resources are mobilized into innovative actions that support performance under institutionally constrained school environments. Practically, our study highlights the value of promoting EI to strengthen teacher resilience, adaptability, and creative pedagogical engagement in Chinese junior middle schools.