Does Emotional Intelligence Influence an Employee's Job Satisfaction? An Empirical Assessment

Abstract

Since job performance is a function of job satisfaction and emotional intelligence, the current research empirically evaluates the association between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction of respondents. The research tests whether emotional intelligence significantly affect job satisfaction or not. The research is based on a quantitative, descriptive cross-sectional survey. The sample size is 140 and they were selected through the convenience sample method. Primary data was collected using a self-designed questionnaire in the Likert scale format, and were administered at the job places of the respondents. Data were analysed using the Pearson correlation and the linear regression analysis methods, and presented in Tables. The research findings of the study indicated a positive significant association between overall emotional intelligence and job satisfaction. There is also a positive significant association between three out of the four dimensions of emotional intelligence evaluated and job satisfaction. The findings indicate that respondents higher on the emotional intelligence scale are more satisfied than respondents lower on the emotional intelligence scale. The findings imply that emotional intelligence is a multidimensional construct. Management of organisations should consider implementing measures that will improve emotional intelligence to ensure job satisfaction of workers. Further study should consider the causal analysis and also introduce control variables such as gender and age to determine if the current findings will be replicated.