The relationship between emotional intelligence and job performance: A study among sri Lankan teachers

Abstract

Teaching is a profession that is highly linked with emotions. Teachers should be more aware of their emotions and the way students' emotions are dealt with. This research talks about the relationship between Emotional intelligence and job performance by selecting 212 teachers from the central province, Sri Lanka. Previous studies have been conducted in various cultural contexts and identified the relationship between emotional intelligence and job performance, but these studies' results were inconsistent. It is suggested that cultural context can be a reason for this inconsistent result. Convenient sampling is used and it is quantitative research. Data was collected through a questionnaire survey and a significant correlation emerges from the data between emotional intelligence and job performance. The four main dimensions of Emotional intelligence, self-regulation, self-motivation, self-awareness, and social skill, are tested with job performance. The research found a significant relationship among emotional intelligence, self-awareness, self-motivation, self-regulation and social skill with job performance. Overall, this research contributes to the emotional intelligence literature by providing meaningful management implications to the school administrators and Sri Lankan higher education system.