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Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Occupational Stress among Executive Employees in Bank of Ceylon

V.J. Delima
Assistant Lecturer in Management, Department of Management, Eastern University, Sri Lanka


P. Luckmizankari
Assistant Lecturer in Management, Department of Management, Eastern University, Sri Lanka




ABSTRACT
Emotional intelligence has been a popular topic in the field of management. This study aimed to examine the impact of emotional intelligence on occupational stress among executive employees in Bank of Ceylon. Emotional intelligence is as independent variable and occupational stress is as dependent variable in this study. 150 executive employees were conveniently selected from Bank of Ceylon. 104 questionnaires were retrieved from executive employees of Bank of Ceylon at the response rate of 69%. This study found that emotional intelligence has an impact on occupational stress in Bank of Ceylon. The Bank needs to maintain higher level of emotional intelligence that will reduce the occupational stress of executive employees.
Key words: Occupational stress, emotional intelligence
1. INTRODUCTION
Working environment has been changing due to revolutionary interventions in last two decades. Massive technological changes, computer literacy, and changes in working hours are being impacted to working environment of organizations to survive and compete in market. As a result of impacts, employees have to bear occupational stress and emotions in the working place. Occupational stress is kind of risk to physiological and psychological factors of employees. Emotions are intense feelings that are related to the capability of employees and it also significant factor that affects the success of organization. Stress and emotions have become serious difficulties affecting to every employees of banking industry without any exception. Emotional intelligence became as an emerging concept to overcome difficulties of employees. Salovey and Mayer (1990) defined emotional intelligence as “the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions”. The aim of the study is to investigate the levels of occupational stress and emotional intelligence among Bank of Ceylon executive employees and how much it is affected by the employees’ demographic features. In addition, the relationship between occupational stress and emotional intelligence is being studied and to find out the impact of emotional intelligence on occupational stress among Bank of Ceylon executive employees.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Occupational stress is undesirable emotional and physical reaction resulting from employees when exceeding workload in working place.  A specific level of stress is required to live life. On other hand, if stress level is exceeding specified level then it can create physical and mental damages. Beehr and Newman (1978) defined “a situation wherein job-related factors interact with a worker to change his or her psychological or physiological condition such that the person is forced to deviate from normal functioning”. Emotional intelligence concept was introduced in the organizations to overcome the problem of occupational stress. Martinez (1997) defined emotional intelligence as "an array of non-cognitive skills, capabilities and competencies that influence a person's ability to cope with environmental demands and pressures". Previous studies show that if employees those who have highest level emotional intelligence, they will have highest level of self-confidence and it leads to achieve success in their work (Khosravi et al., 2011).
3. METHODOLOGY
3.1 SAMPLE DESIGN
The population of the study was the employees of the Bank of Ceylon. The data were collected through structured questionnaires which were administered to 150 employees of Bank of Ceylon. Convenience sampling technique was used to select the employees for the study. In the collection of data, respondents completed the questionnaires and returned them to Branch Manager and sent to the researchers. Out of 150 respondents, 104 were retrieved at the response rate of 69% which were used as the basis of the study.
3.2 MEASUREMENT OF VARIABLES
To measure the occupational stress and emotional intelligence, the 55 statements were rated on a 5 point Likert scale to measure occupational stress and 66 statements were rated on a 5 point Likert scale to measure emotional intelligence.
3.4 RELIABILITY TEST OF DATA
Reliability test has been carried out to confirm the trustworthiness of data in the context of study problem. Cronbach’s alpha reliability method was employed. The value of Cronbach’s alpha reliability is 0.854 for occupational stress variable and the value of Cronbach’s alpha reliability is 0.790 for emotional intelligence variable. These results are more than 0.6 therefore it reveals that variables used in this study were highly reliable.
3.5 STATISTICAL TOOLS
To identify the level of occupational stress and emotional intelligence in the Bank of Ceylon, mean and standard deviations were used. To identify the relationship between occupational stress and emotional intelligence and to determine the impact of emotional intelligence on occupational stress, independent t-test, ANOVA, correlations analysis and regression analysis were employed.
4. ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
4.1 RESPONDENT PROFILE
A total of 150 questionnaires were distributed among the branches of Bank of Ceylon. Out of 104 respondents, 49% were Senior Executives and 51% were Junior Executives. With respect to the gender, 61.5% were Male and 38.5% were Female. With respect to experience, 27.9% were in the group of 3-5 years, 18.3% were in the group of 5-7 years, 11.5% were in the group of 7-10 year, and 42.3% were in the group of above 10 years. With respect to weekly working hours, 1.9% were belonged to below 35 hours, 4.8% were belonged to 35-40 hours, 20.2% were belonged to 40-45 hours, 52.9% were belonged to 45-50 hours, and 20.2% were belonged to above 50 hours.
4.2 RESEARCH INFORMATION
4.2.1 DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS
The study was to identify the occupational stress and emotional intelligence of BOC employees. Statistical tools such mean and standard deviations were carried out to occupational stress and emotional intelligence.


Table 1: Occupational stress and emotional intelligence between the designation groups of executive employees
Designation
Occupational Stress
Emotional Intelligence
Mean
Standard deviation
Mean
Standard deviation
Junior Executive
3.18
0.45
3.18
0.19
Senior Executive
3.01
0.43
3.38
0.36



The study found that the mean value of stress reveals that junior executives have higher level of stress than senior executives (3.18 > 3.01). The mean value of emotional intelligence reveals that senior executives have higher level of emotional intelligence than junior executives (3.38 > 3.18).


Table 2: Occupational stress and emotional intelligence between the gender groups of executive employees
Gender
Occupational Stress
Emotional Intelligence
Mean
Standard deviation
Mean
Standard deviation
Male
3.03
0.38
3.31
0.33
Female
3.19
0.35
3.23
0.25


The mean value of stress reveals that female have higher level of stress than male employees (3.19 > 3.03). The mean value of emotional intelligence reveals that male has higher level of emotional intelligence than female employees (3.31 > 3.23).


Table 3: Occupational stress and emotional intelligence among the different experience group of executive employees
Experience
Occupational Stress
Emotional Intelligence
Mean
Standard deviation
Mean
Standard deviation
3-5 years
3.26
0.34
3.18
0.13
5-7 years
3.13
0.28
3.15
0.12
7-10 years
3.04
0.23
3.29
0.31
Above 10 years
2.98
0.42
3.40
0.39



The mean value of occupational stress is at highest level in 3-5 years of experience group of employees. The mean value of occupational stress is at lowest level in above 10 years of experience group of employees. The mean value of emotional intelligence is at highest level in above 10 years of experience group of employees. The mean value of emotional intelligence is at lowest level in 5-7 years of experience group of employees.


Table 4: Occupational Stress and Emotional Intelligence among the different weekly working hours group of executive employees
Weekly working  hours
Occupational Stress
Emotional Intelligence
Mean
Standard deviation
Mean
Standard deviation
Below 35 hours
2.39
0.19
3.66
0.72
35-40 hours
2.92
0.61
3.36
0.48
40-45 hours
3.08
0.29
3.27
0.32
45-50 hours
3.09
0.36
3.36
0.25
Above 50 hours
3.36
0.37
3.28
0.33



The mean value of occupational stress is at highest level in the above 50 working hours. The mean value of occupational stress is at lowest level in the below 35 working hours. The mean value of emotional intelligence is at highest level in the below 35 working hours. The mean value of emotional intelligence is at lowest level in the 40-45 working hours.

4.2.2 HYPOTHESIS         
H1.
H0 -
There is no significant difference between junior executives and senior executives employees in respect of occupational stress.

H1 -
There is significant difference between junior executives and senior executives employees in respect of occupational stress.




Table 5: Independent sample t-test for Occupational stress in respect of designation of employees
Variance Assumption
Levene’s test for equality of variance
t-test for equality of means
F
Sig.
T
df
Sig. (2-tailed)
Equal variance assumed
0.004
0.948
2.044
102
0.044
Equal variance not assumed


2.040
100.037
0.044



Levene’s test for equality of variances indicates that variances for respondents do not differ significantly (Sig. 0.948 > 0.05) from each other. Then “Equal variance assumed” assumption was taken and t-test reveals that p-value is less than significance level 0.05 (0.044 < 0.05), null hypothesis (H0) was rejected and it could be concluded that there is sufficient evidence to say, at the 5% level of significance, that “there is significant difference between junior executives and senior employees in respect of occupational stress.
H2.
H0 -
There is no significant difference between male and female employees in respect of occupational stress.

H1 -
There is significant difference between male and female employees in respect of occupational stress.


Table 6: Independent sample t-test for Occupational stress in respect of gender group of employees
Variance Assumption
Levene’s test for equality of variance
t-test for equality of means
F
Sig.
T
df
Sig. (2-tailed)
Equal variance assumed
0.030
0.864
-1.923
102
0.057
Equal variance not assumed


-1.825
69.301
0.072



Levene’s test for equality of variances indicates that variances for respondents do not differ significantly (Sig. 0.864 > 0.05) from each other. Then “Equal variance assumed” assumption was taken and t-test reveals that p-value is greater than significance level 0.05 (0.057 < 0.05), null hypothesis (H0) was accepted and it could be concluded that there is sufficient evidence to say, at the 5% level of significance, that “there is no significant difference between male and female employees in respect of occupational stress.
H3.
H0 -
There is no significant difference among different experience group of employees in respect of occupational stress.

H1 -
There is significant difference among different experience group in respect of occupational stress.


Table 7: One way ANOVA for Occupational stress in respect of different experience groups of employees
Test of homogeneity of variance
ANOVA
Levene statistic
Sig.
F
Sig.
1.357
0.260
2.654
0.053



Levene’s test for homogeneity of variance with a significance value of 0.260 indicates that variance for occupational stress for each of experience groups of employees do not significantly differ. Then variance of all the groups are equal assumption was taken and the p-value is greater than significance level 0.05 (0.053 < 0.05), null hypothesis (H0) was accepted and it could be concluded that there is sufficient evidence to say, at the 5% level of significance, that “there is no significant difference among different experience group of employees in respect of occupational stress.
H4.
H0 -
There is no significant difference among different weekly working hours group of employees in respect of occupational stress.

H1 -
There is significant difference among different weekly working hours group in respect of occupational stress.



Table 8: One way ANOVA for Occupational stress in respect of different weekly working hours group of employees
Test of homogeneity of variance
ANOVA
Levene statistic
Sig.
F
Sig.
1.562
0.190
4.206
0.003



Levene’s test for homogeneity of variance with a significance value of 0.190 indicates that variance for occupational stress for each of experience groups of employees do not significantly differ. Then variance of all the groups are not equal assumption was taken and the p-value is less than significance level 0.05 (0.003 < 0.05), null hypothesis (H0) was rejected and it could be concluded that there is sufficient evidence to say, at the 5% level of significance, that “there is significant difference among different weekly working hours of employees in respect of occupational stress.
4.3 CORRELATION ANALYSIS
Pearson’s coefficient of correlation is carried out to identify the relationship between occupational stress and emotional intelligence. The result reveals that there is significant moderate negative relationship between occupational stress and emotional intelligence in Bank of Ceylon (r = -0.306; P-value 0.002 < 0.01). The results of the correlation analysis also reveal that relationship between occupational stresses to emotional intelligence is also highly significant. The result proves that higher occupational stress, lower emotional intelligence of Bank of Ceylon employees and lower occupational stress, higher emotional intelligence of Bank of Ceylon employees.
4.4 REGRESSION ANALYSIS
Regression analysis was performed to determine the extent and significance to which the emotional intelligence impacts on occupational stress.


Table 9: Summary of regression analysis
Independent variable
R
R2
Adjusted R2
F
Sig.
Emotional Intelligence
0.306
0.094
0.085
10.523
0.002



The model reveals that adjusted R2 value is 0.085 which is in the model denotes that 8.5% of variation in occupational stress is explained by the emotional intelligence. The test of significance for the F-statistics is 10.523. Significance on table (p-value = 0.002) which is less than 0.005 and it indicates that the regression model statistically significant. It shows data is perfectly fit the model.
5. CONCLUSION
This study inspected whether the emotional intelligence has an impact on occupational stress in Bank of Ceylon. It is stated that emotional intelligence has a significant impact on occupational stress and emotional intelligence has moderate negative relationship with occupational stress in Bank of Ceylon. It can be concluded that emotional intelligence needs to be kept in higher level to lower occupational stress in Bank of Ceylon.
6. REFERENCES
Beehr, T. A., and Newman, J. E. (1978). Job stress, employee health, and organizational effectiveness: A facet analysis, model, and literature review. Personnel Psychology, 31(4), 665-699.
Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 9, 185–211.
Mrtinez, M.N. (1997), The Smarts that count, Human Resource Magazine, avaol.42, pp.72-78.

Khosravi, B. G., Manafi, M., Hojabri, R., Aghapour, A. H., Gheshmi, R. (2011). The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Effective Delegation, International Journal of Business and Social Science, Vol. 2.

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