The success of the most work organizations depends on the work efficiency of their own employees. In order to increase (or maintain) work efficiency, it is necessary to establish a positive work atmosphere, so managers must possess certain emotional abilities besides the formal knowledge. In other words, the manager must constantly develop his own emotional intelligence in order to create a positive work environment among employees through certain emotional skills (such as positive communication, empathy, managing negative emotions, etc.). The main research problem of this paper was to examine the attitudes of Croatian employees about the role of emotional intelligence in successful business, ie, to what extent they believe that emotional intelligence is important for successful management and to what extent they believe that their own managers have certain emotional skills. Also, differences in attitudes with regard to the gender of the respondents were examined. A survey questionnaire was used for the purposes of this research. A total of 83 Croatian employees from various companies, 38 men and 45 women, participated in the research. The average age of the participants was 33.9 years. The results of the research showed that Croatian employees are largely familiar with the importance of emotional intelligence in business and that Croatian managers possess some emotional skills with which they establish a positive work atmosphere. The results also showed that women on average more than men assess the importance of certain emotional skills in a successful business.