Emotional Intelligence, Self-efficacy and Occupational Stress of Academic Personnel

Stress in the university has a wide-ranging and negative impact on the well-being of a teacher and his or her day-to-day functioning. This is evident in many aspects: physical, psychological, cognitive, and behavioral aspects of functioning. This study examined the combined effects of emotional intelligence and self-efficacy on occupational stress; the relative contribution of emotional intelligence and self-efficacy to occupational stress; and the effect of self-efficacy on the relationship of emotional intelligence and occupational stress. Emotional intelligence is a cross section of inter-related emotional and social competencies, skills, and factors that determine how effectively a person understands and express him/herself, understand others and relate with them and cope with daily demands. Self-efficacy is the belief that one can perform a novel or difficult tasks, or cope with adversity — in various domains of human functioning. Occupational stress, the physical, mental and emotional wear and tear brought about by incongruence between the requirement of the job and the capabilities, resources and needs of the employee to cope with job demands. This study is a descriptive-correlational study. The results showed consistency with the research hypothesis: EI and self-efficacy has combined effect on occupational stress. The results showed a negative significant correlation between EI and stress, and between self-efficacy and stress. Self-efficacy was found to predict significantly occupational stress, but emotional intelligence did not contribute independently to the prediction of stress. This study demonstrated the mediating effect of self-efficacy on the association of EI and occupational stress. The understanding of the role of emotional intelligence and self-efficacy in teacher stress may lead to preventive intervention efforts to enhance teacher EI and self-efficacy to effectively deal with stress of academic life.