On the relationship between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction




Muhammad Khalil Ur Rahman (1)
Fazal Haleem (2)

(1) MS Management Science, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Pakistan
(2) PhD Scholar, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Pakistan

Corresponding author:
Muhammad Khalil Ur Rahman
Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan,
Pakistan
Email: Khalilhr04@gmail.com

Abstract

This study aims to examine the impact of emotional intelligence on job satisfaction in the telecommunication sector of Pakistan. A sample size of 400 was selected using convenient sampling procedure. The data was collected from officers, customer relationship manager and assistant level of employees. Initially, 400 questionnaires were distributed among these employees out of whom 350 filled questionnaires were received forming a percentage of 87.5 %. Data was analyzed through descriptive statistics and regression analysis. The findings reveal a positive and significant influence of emotional intelligence on job satisfaction that has important implications for managers and practitioners.

Key words: Emotional intelligence; well-being; self-control; emotionality; job satisfaction; telecommunication

Please cite this article as: Muhammad Khalil Ur Rahman, Fazal Haleem. On the relationship between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction. Middle East Journal of Business. 2018; 13(2): 13-17DOI: 10.5742/MEJB.2018.93372

Introduction
Emotional intelligence plays an important role in the success of individual and organizational life (Gunavathy & Ayswarya, 2011). In the organizational setting, emotional intelligence determines the health of the interaction relationship between managers and employees (Psilopanagioti, 2012). According to Mayer and Warner (2004), emotional intelligence is an ability to understand the feelings and emotions of self and others and make shrewd decisions based on this understanding. In addition, Gunavathy and Ayswarya (2011), argued that emotional intelligence is very important for the outcome of service sector organization. This argument is underpinned by researchers such as Fauzy and Shah (2012) and Jorfi et al., (2012), who appreciate the importance of emotional intelligence in organizational success. Moreover, it plays a psychological role interaction in the relationship between managers and their employees in the organization.
Emotional intelligence is an integral part of human personality that affects the mutual relationship between managers and employees that ultimately has an influence on a firms’ performance. Some actions might be perceived as right but others may be taken as otherwise by employees or managers. Thus, those emotionally intelligent individuals will be in a better position to understand and control the employee-manager relationship for their personal as well as organizational interest (Senor, Demirel & Sairak, 2009). Based on this brief introduction, the study aims to find the impact of emotional intelligence on job satisfaction.

Literature Review
Emotional intelligence is perceived differently by different scholars, for instance, it is an ability to understand, manage, and control emotions of self and others (Carter, 2005). To others (e.g Hein, 2007), it is the innate potential to feel, use, communicate, recognize, describe, remember, identify, manage, learn from, understand and explain emotions. Similarly, Samps (1997) perceive emotional intelligence as the extent to which employees like their job. Notably, job satisfaction determines attitudes of employees (Kumari and Pandey, 2011).
There is plethora of research on the Emotional Intelligence concept (Leuner, 1966, Payne, 1986, and Greenspan, 1989). Carmeli (2003) noted that emotionally intelligent senior managers outperformed in job performance those with low emotional intelligence. In addition, an emotionally intelligent person keeps health and stable relationship on both a social and personal level (Brackett, Mayer and Warner (2004). In addition, Jorfi et al., (2012), argue that emotional intelligence plays an important role in enhancing the manager-employee relationship and prosperity.

Several past studies have found out the influence of emotional intelligence on job satisfaction such as Konstantinos (2008), Simin (2008), Senor and Saralak (2009), Gunavathy and Ayswarya (2011), Fasihizadeh (2012) and Tobali (2013). These studies have demonstrated that there is significant association between emotional intelligence on job satisfaction. More to the point, Marjanovice and Dimitrijevic (2013) advocate the use of emotional intelligence in predicting employee well-being and assessing the appropriateness of an employee for a job. Highly emotionally intelligent persons are in a better position to control their behavior, be more satisfied with their job, have healthy interpersonal relationships, and enjoy good quality of personal and organizational lives. Interestingly, women have been found more emotionally intelligent and concerned with people than men (Jorfi et al., 2012).

There are different emotional intelligence models such as mixed model, bar-on model, and ability model. Mixed model basically combines some aspects of emotional intelligence and some of personality traits. Emotional intelligence and personality traits are highly correlated and that adds to the conceptual confusion about the real nature of relationship between the two (Van and Dec, 2012). The Bar-on model of emotional-social intelligence reflects an individual social and emotional intelligence with respect to his/her understanding of self and others, expressing one’s thoughts, beliefs and attitudes, and coping with social and work life challenges. More specially, the model integrates an individual’s interpersonal skills, adaptability, management of stress, and general method. According to Cherniss (2010), the ability model of emotional intelligence basically refers to the mental abilities of an individual to process emotional information. That is why the ability model is identified as information processing of emotional intelligence.

Hence on the basis of all the above discussions the following hypotheses have been developed.
H1: There is no statistically significant effect of emotional intelligence on job satisfaction in telecommunication companies.
H2: There is significant effect of well-being on job satisfaction.
H3: There is significant effect of self-control on job satisfaction.
H4: There is significant effect of emotionality on job satisfaction.

On the basis of literature the following conceptual model has been developed (Figure 1).

Figure 1



Research Methodology

1. Population and sample
This study was conducted on the top five telecommunication companies of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, Pakistan namely Zong telecommunication, Telenor telecommunication, Ufone telecommunication, Warid telecommunication and Mobilink telecommunication Pakistan. A sample size of 350 was collected from officers, customer relationship managers and assistant level of employees using convenient sampling method.

A Likert scale questionnaire was used to collect the data from the respondents. Items on the questionnaire were adopted from prior validated research on Emotional intelligence by Schutte et al. (1998) and job satisfaction by Edward & Rothbard (1999) and Weiss, et al. (1967).

2. Procedure and Statistical Method
Initially 400 questionnaires were distributed among the employees of the respective companies out of which 350 properly filled questionnaires were received forming a percentage of 87.5 %. SPSS was employed for advanced analysis of data.

Analysis and Results
Table 1 shows gender of the respondents. In this table 290 were male forming a percentage of 82.85 % while 60 were female having a percentage of 17.14 % and totally there were 350 respondents. It is not surprising that male participation is greater than female for reasons such as culture and religious values of the area and a male dominant society.

Table 1: Gender of the respondents


Table 2 shows the marital status of the respondents. In this table 170 employees are married, having a percentage of 48.57 % while, 180 of the respondents are unmarried having a percentage of 51.43 % and the totals are 350. Again the high rate of marriage is influenced by the cultural and religious values of the society.

Table 2: Marital status of the respondents


Table 3 shows the profession of the respondents. In this table 130 of the employees are officers, having a percentage of 37.14 %, while 120 of the employees are customer relationship managers having a percentage of 34.28 %, and 100 of the employees are assistant level of employees having a percentage of 28.57 %. The total employees are 350. Apparently, all the respondents have a substantial portion in the total response which indicates a more reliable and unbiased response.

Table 3: Profession of the respondents


The result of multiple regression analysis of the first hypothesis is tabled in Table 4. The first hypothesis is:
H1: There is significant impact of emotional intelligence on job satisfaction.
The result of the multiple regression shows that the about 35 percent of variance in job satisfaction is accounted for by three dependent variables of emotional intelligence. The F-value and significance values support the hypothesis that there is a positive and significant impact of emotional intelligence on job satisfaction.

Table 4: Result of multiple regression analysis: regressing EI variable against JS.


After testing the overall impact of emotional intelligence on job satisfaction, we analyzed the impact of the individual dimension of emotional intelligence on job satisfaction. The results of the following three hypotheses are depicted in Table 5.

Table 5: Coefficient regression analysis

Limitation of the Research
i. This study is limited only to the telecommunication sector of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
ii. The number of respondents for this study was 350 hence other research will increase it.
iii. This study was taken only in the telecommunication sector hence other sectors may provide more study data.

Conclusions
The impact of emotional intelligence on job satisfaction is tested in the telecommunication sector of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Measure for the constructs of emotional intelligence and job satisfaction is taken from prior validated research. Through structured questionnaires data on these variables are collected from the target population employing convenient sampling procedure. Both descriptive and multivariate analysis were conducted to get a feel for the data and to test the postulated hypothesis. The result of the study reveals that there is positive and significant impact of emotional intelligence and its dimensions, such as well-being, self-control and emotionality on job satisfaction. This implies that managers should conduct training and seminars to enhance the emotional intelligence skills in their employees to increase their satisfaction level and contribute to the bottom-line of the company.

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