In this study, the author provided a discussion of international cross-cultural validation studies which reported low internal consistency reliabilities for the self-motivation facet of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue). A review of salient models of emotional intelligence (EI) revealed that self-motivation was consistently conceptualised as part of the sampling domain of trait and mixed models of EI, but not ability-based conceptualisations of the construct. The author provided a qualitative evaluation of the ten self-motivation test items as they appeared in the TEIQue with the purpose of exploring the operationalisation of the construct in a multi-cultural South African sample. The exploratory-descriptive research was conducted amongst permanent employees who have all completed the TEIQue as part of on-going employee assessments. The present study found limited support for a satisfactory operationalisation of the self-motivation facet of the TEIQue as it related to a multi-cultural South African research sample.PsychologyM.A. (Psychology, with specialisation in Research Consultation
