Emotional intelligence is assumed to be important in many wakes of life. While typical performance approaches show systematically substantial positive relationships with wellbeing and negative relationships with illbeing, maximum performance approaches show a more mitigated picture with only small or no relationships, and even sometimes slightly negative relationships with wellbeing. The central hypothesis that can account for these counterintuitive findings is that emotional intelligence is a double-edged sword that is only improving psychological functioning in some contexts, but not in others. The current research project will investigate whether and to which extent different characteristics of the work context – ranging from the type of job, over the type of organization and the type of sector, to the broader cultural context – play a role in how much emotional intelligence contributes to optimal psychological functioning.