The debate in the literature on the measurement of emotional intelligence proceeds according to instruments developed by the proponents of the best known models of emotional intelligence that have evolved since the early 1980s. Emotional intelligence tests have been developed by Bar-On (1997a,b), Schutte, Malouff, Hall, Haggerty, Cooper, Golden & Dornheim (1998), Mayer Salovey& Caruso (2000b), Goleman (Boyatzis et al. 2000), Dulewicz & Higgs (2000), Palmer & Stough (2001) and others.

With the variety of tests currently available, and more being published, it is unclear that different measures of EI are assessing the same underlying construct.

Whilst this debate continues in academic circles, Goslings believes that the measuring of emotional intelligence has enormous value for individuals and organisations in that it helps to identify how people think, feel, and act in the workplace and discover emotional abilities they have that may need to be developed. Measuring emotional intelligence forms an integral part of Mike Gosling's model of Emotional Leadership Practice (ELP).