Abstract
Research on the 3D printing industry in South Africa has predominantly focused on engineering and technical aspects, leaving a gap in studies related to management and organizational dynamics. To address this gap, our study aimed to examine the direct and mediating relationships between leader emotional intelligence, organizational emotional climate and employee job performance among 3D printing firms in South Africa. We employed a deductive research approach, a quantitative research method and a cross-sectional explanatory correlational research design. We used simple random sampling to select 148 employees of 3D printing firms in South Africa. Questionnaires served as the data collection instruments, and online data gathering was done using Google Forms. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 software was used for data coding, data entry, and descriptive statistics. Smart PLS 4 was used to conduct Partial Least Squares (PLS) Structural Equation Modelling. The study’s findings demonstrate that a significant positive relationship exists between leader emotional intelligence and employee job performance. A significant positive relationship also exists between leader emotional intelligence and organizational emotional climate. A significant positive relationship was found to exist between organizational emotional climate and employee job performance. The finding also showed that organizational emotional climate mediates the relationship between a leader’s emotional intelligence and employee job performance. The findings emphasize that fostering emotional intelligence among leaders in South African 3D printing firms could enhance both employee job performance and organizational emotional climate. Our findings emphasize that by prioritizing leader training and development in emotional intelligence, 3D printing firms could create a positive emotional atmosphere conducive to improved employee job performance.