ABSTRACT
This study is on emotional intelligence and implication for career development in selected Federal Universities in South East, Nigeria. The study sought to assess the significant areas that require emotional intelligence in the management of selected Federal Universities in South East, Nigeria; assess the implication of emotional intelligence on the non-academic staff; ascertain the attributes of emotional intelligence that enhance academic staff career development; determine the extent of the relationship between motivation and training and examine the extent to which emotional intelligence affect career development in selected Federal Universities in South East, Nigeria. The study adopted the survey research design and data were collected from primary source through questionnaire and oral interview. Data were also obtained from secondary sources. The target population of the study comprised both academic and non-academic staff of Federal Universities in South East, Nigeria. A sample size of six hundred and fifty one (651) respondents was determined using the Finite population formula of Godden (2004). The chi-square statistics, Z-test, linear regression and the Pearson product moment correlation coefficient through the application of statistics package for social science (SPSS 17.0 windows) were used to test the hypotheses stated. The findings indicated that leadership, negotiation and decision making are significant areas that require emotional intelligence in the management of selected Federal Universities in South East, Nigeria; the implication of emotional intelligence on non-academic staff are team work, job satisfaction and management of stress; self-regulation, motivation and empathy are attributes of emotional intelligence that enhance academic staff career development; there is a significant positive relationship between motivation and training and emotional intelligence has significant effect on career development in selected Federal Universities in South East, Nigeria. The study concluded that emotional intelligence has tremendous implication on career development of staff. The study recommended that management should ensure that the concept of emotional intelligence is developed over the life span of staff through enhanced training, and also organizations should map out strategies to manage worker’s stress, which will help in career success.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declaration. . . . . . . . . i
Approval. . . . . . . . . . ii
Dedication. . . . . . . . . iii
Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . iv
Abstract. . . . . . . . . v
List of Tables. . . . . . . . . . vi
Chapter One Introduction. . . . . . . 1
1.1 Background to the Study. . . . . . 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem. . . . . . 7
1.3 Objectives of the Study. . . . . 8
1.4 Research Questions. . . . . . . 8
1. 5 Research Hypotheses. . . . . . . 8
1.6 Significance of the Study. . . . . . 9
1.7 Scope of the Study. . . . . . . 9
1.8 Limitations of the Study . . . . . 9
1.9 Definition of Terms. . . . . . . 10
1.10 Profile of Selected Federal Tertiary
Institutions in the South East. . 11
References
Chapter Two Review of Related Literature. . . . 30
2.1 Conceptual Framework. . . . . . 30
2.2 Characteristics of Emotional Intelligence – – – 36
2.3 Benefits of Emotional Intelligence . . . 37
2.4 Reasons for Emotional Intelligence . . . . 38
2.5 Theoretical Review . . . . . – 41
2.6 Training . . . . . . 51
2. 7 Emotional Intelligence And Learning . . 55
2.8 Motivation . . . . . 56
2.9 The
Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Occupational Stress – 58
2.10 Recognition and Reward and Career Development . . 58
2.11 Emotional Competencies Applicable to Workplace Situation . 59
2.12 Emotional Intelligence and Leadership . . . 62
2.13 Emotional Intelligence and Success . . . . . 64
2.14 Emotional Intelligence and Gender . . . . . 66
2.15
Emotional Intelligence and Academic Achievement in Tertiary Institutions
. 68
2.16 Management Approaches to Emotional Intelligence . . 71
2.17 Organizational Support for Career Development . . 75
2.18 Contribution of Career Development to the Organisation . 76
2.19 Emotional Intelligence and Employability Satisfaction . 81
2.20 Factors that affect Career Development . . . 88
2.21 Career Development and Job Satisfaction – – – 91
2.22 Emotional Intelligence and Career Development of Employees – 92
2.23 Empirical Review . . . – . 95
2.24 Summary of the Review of Literature . . . . 97
References
Chapter Three: Methodology . . . . . 108
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . 108
3.2 Research Design . . . . . . 108
3.3 Sources of Data . . . . . . 108
3.4 Area of the Study . . . . . . 109
3.5 Population of the Study . . . . – 109
3.6 Determination of Sample Size . . . . 109
3.7 Description of Research Instrument . . . . 112
3.8 Data Analysis Techniques . . . . – 113
3.9 Validity of the Research Instrument . . . . 114
3.10 Reliability of the Research Instrument . . 114
References
Chapter Four:
Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation of Data . . 118
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . 118
4.2 Test of Hypotheses . . . . . . 123
4.3 Discussion of Results . . . . . 123
References
Chapter Five: Summary
of Findings, Conclusion and Recommendations – 135
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . 135
5.2 Summary of Findings. . . . – 135
5.3 Conclusion. . . . . . – 135
5.4 Recommendations. . . . . . 136
5.5 Contribution to Knowledge. . . . . . 136
5.6 Suggestion for Further Studies. . . . . 137
Bibliography
Appendix I
LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1 Breakdown of the Population. . . 109
Table 3.2 Breakdown of the Sample Size. . . 112
Table 3.3 Reliability test using Spear man rank order correlation
coefficient. . 115
Table 4.1 Distribution and Return of the Questionnaire. 118
Table 4.2 The significant areas that require emotional intelligence in the management of Nigerian federal universities sector? . 119
Table 4.3 The implication of emotional intelligence on non academic
staff of Nigeria federal universities? . . . . 120
Table 4.4 Attributes of emotional intelligence enhance academic staff career development in Nigeria federal universities. . . 121
Table 4.5 The extent of the relationship between motivation and
training . 122
Table 4.6 The extent to which emotional intelligence affect career development in Nigeria federal universities. . . . 122
Table 4.7 Contingency Table for testing Hypothesis. . . 123
Table 4.8 Chi-Square Tests. . . . . . 124
Table 4.9 Contingency Table for Testing Hypothesis .. . 125
Table 4.10 Descriptive Statistics. . . . . 125
Table 4.11 One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test. . . 126
Table 4.12 Contingency Table for testing Hypothesis. . . 127
Table 4.13 Chi-Square Tests from the frequency cross tabulation. 127
Table 4.14 Contingency Table for testing Hypothesis . . 128
Table 4.15 Correlations. . . . . . . . . 129
Table 4.16 Descriptive Statistics. . . . . . 129
Table 4.17 Correlations. . . . . . . 129
Table 4.18 Contingency Table for testing Hypothesis . . . 130
Table 4.19 Descriptive Statistics. . . . . 130
Table 4.20 Model Summary (b) . . . . 130
Table 4.21 Anova (b) . . . . . . 131
Table 4.22 Coefficients (a) . . . . . . 131
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE
STUDY
The origin of emotional intelligence could be traced
back to Charles Darwin’s work on the importance of emotional expression to
survival and successful adaptation. In the 1900 even though traditional
definitions of intelligence emphasized cognitive aspects such as memory and
problem- solving, several influential researchers in the intelligence field of
study had begun to recognize the importance of non-cognitive aspects. For
instance, as early as 1920, R. K. Thorndike used the term social intelligence
to describe the skill of understanding and managing other people (Hein, 2005).
Emotional
intelligence develops over a person’s life span and could be enhanced through
training and teaching and learning in formal educational contexts (Jaeger,
2003).
Emotional
intelligence is generally regarded as a factor with the potential to contribute
to more positive attitudes, behaviours and outcomes and has been related to
career success (Goleman, 1998). Researchers and career counsellors have also
recognised the significance of emotional intelligence in career success, career
satisfaction and well-being (Kidd, 2008). No wonder, Pool and Sewell (2007)
further regard the development of Emotion intelligence as desirable for
enhancing individuals’ employability and career choices.
Creating
a career in a world with decreased job security, fast-paced technology and increasing
personal responsibility for constant up-skilling, employability and lifelong
learning are some of the key challenges faced by today’s workforce (Sinclair,
2009).
Researchers
have noted that the complexities of the increasingly turbulent career context
have significantly impacted people’s career attitudes and affective experiences
of their working lives (Kidd, 2007).
Some
of these attitudes and experiences relate to less positive work experiences
resulting from more frequent career transitions, a sense of instability and
dissatisfying and insecure working conditions. In response to the more
turbulent and uncertain career contexts, people seem to adopt a more proactive
stance toward their careers by taking personal ownership for their career
development and focusing on their subjective experiences of career success and
continued employability (Lumley, 2010).
Individuals’
employability provides them with an inner sense of stability and security and
relates to their ability to achieve sustainable employment and move
self-sufficiently within an uncertain and unpredictable labour market (Hillage
and Pollard, 1998).
Employability
is regarded as a form of functional flexibility or career resiliency and
reflects individuals’ self-efficacious beliefs about the possibilities of their
getting and maintaining employment even in the face of uncertain work
circumstances (Berntson, Näswall and Sverke, 2008).
Employability
presupposes proactive career behaviours and abilities that help people to fulfill,
acquire or create work through the optimal use of both occupation-related and
career meta-competencies (Schreuder and Coetzee, 2011).
Career
meta-competencies include awareness of the motives and values (or career
anchors) that drive one’s career decisions and experiences of career
satisfaction, behavioural adaptability and emotional literacy in dealing with
setbacks and failures (Coetzee and Bergh, 2009).
As a career meta-competency, research
increasingly recognises emotional intelligence as an important attribute of
people’s employability and career decision-making (Yorke and Knight, 2004).
Emotional
intelligence positively relates to less dysfunctional career thinking, greater
career decision-making self-efficacy, a higher level of willingness to explore
a variety of career preferences, and to commit to attractive career options
(Puffer, 2011).
People’s
emotional intelligence is also positively associated with important employment
experiences and their emotional attachment to their current careers and jobs
(Carson and Carson, 1998).
However,
the research literature provides evidence of the relationship between people’s
emotional intelligence and their employability, there seems to be a paucity of
research regarding the relationship between people’s emotional intelligence and
their career anchors, and how their career anchors relate to their
employability satisfaction (Coetzee, Bergh and Schreuder, 2010).
Career
anchors are regarded as an important aspect of individuals’ career
self-concept, which provides clarity of career values, motives, interests and
needs. Awareness of one’s career anchors and how these influence one’s job and
career satisfaction have been related to positive career choice outcomes
(Schein, 1990).
Emotional
intelligence positively relates to less dysfunctional career thinking, greater
career decision-making, self-efficacy and a higher level of willingness to
explore a variety of career preferences and to commit to attractive career
options (Puffer, 2011).
Salovey
and Mayer (1990) state that original model of emotional intelligence is
relevant to the present study.
Gardner
(1983) stresses that interpersonal intelligence is the ability to understand
other people and what motivates them and intrapersonal intelligence is the
capacity to form an accurate model and understanding of oneself and to use the
model to operate effectively in life.
Salovey
and Mayer’s (1990) model proposes that emotional intelligence consists of a set
of four conceptually related mental processes: efficiently handling psychological
and social problems, accurately appraising and expressing emotion in the self
and others, regulating emotion in the self and others, and using emotions
adaptively in order to solve problems and achieve one’s goals. The ability to
monitor one’s own emotional landscape is thought to lead to greater insight and
self-knowledge (Goleman, 1998).
Salovey
and Mayer (1990) opine that people differ in the degree to which they display
their emotional intelligence. Individuals who appraise and express (perceive
and respond to) their emotions accurately are likely to be better understood by
the people with whom they interact. They also have the potential to better
influence people when they are able to perceive the emotions of the people with
whom they interact, as well as to develop empathy (the ability to comprehend
another’s feelings and re-experience them oneself).
Career
choice is a culmination of a series of decisions. Decisions regarding people’s
values, tasks and activities of interest, levels of aspirations, how their work
roles interact with their non-work roles, and what information to seek and how
to seek it are important part of the decision-making processes which are likely
to be influenced by the emotional makeup. Emotions experienced in the career
decision-making process may influence the career options being considered,
tolerance for risky career decisions, amount and type of career exploration
activities individuals will engage in the choice process, how much effort to
invest in the process and how the information related to career choice is
processed (Emmerling and Cherniss, 2003).
Based
on the aforementioned influences, it is expected that an individual’s
dissatisfaction with his/her current career choice can motivate the individual
to engage in career planning, exploration and decision-making with the aim of
finding a more satisfying career. The current increased wave of unemployment,
career instability and change and trend toward boundary less careers or protean
careers calls for the ability to use emotions adaptively in the career
choice-making process (Lumley, 2010).
Cooper (1997)
argues that those who trust and use their feelings effectively could achieve a
more successful career. Although numerous empirical studies on the relationship
between EI (emotional intelligence) and career development appear in the
literature, relatively little is known about this relationship in developing
countries (Caruso and Wolfe, 2001).
Many elements of
the present consensus on the role of emotional intelligence in career
development developed from studies of western samples may be directly
applicable to developing countries. However, it is likely that differences in
macro-environmental factors namely, socio-cultural and economic situations may
render the commonly accepted notions of the role of emotional intelligence in
career development inappropriate in many developing countries (including
Nigeria) (Thomas and Inkson, 2006).
The role of emotional intelligence in the society and
particularly in the workplace has generated a lot of interest within the
scientific community and the general public in the last few decades. Emotions
play significant albeit often misunderstood roles in the career decision-making
process (Emmerling and Cherniss, 2003).
The lack of a coherent theory that explains the role
of emotions in career decision-making might have been responsible for the
researchers’ and practitioners’ limited insight into this major aspect of
mental life. The seeming absence of theory and research on emotional processes
in the career decision-making literature and general literature on judgment and
decision-making, until recently, is surprising given the significant role of
affective processes in other sub-disciplines within psychology (Emmerling and
Cherniss, 2003).
Emmerling and
Cherniss (2003) state that this might be due to an implicit desire to separate
the practice of career which focused on interest testing, self-exploration
strategies and examination of career resource materials, from the practice of
psychotherapy which focused on emotional processes.
In Nigeria, the
tradition or cultural practice is that the family or the parents know the best
and as such, they dictate the type of occupation that the children will choose
regardless of the children’s abilities and interests (Salami, 2007).
The reason for
parents’ decision-making might be that their children should go into well-paid
jobs so that family financial problems can be solved. Furthermore, the cultural
beliefs and societal expectations are that the females do not need to be too
serious about occupational choice. They are expected to go into female
gender-role stereotyped lower occupations, where salary levels are relatively
low, because they are expected to be helpers to their husbands who are expected
to be the breadwinners for the family (Salami, 2001).
For this, the
females may be less career mature than the males. Generally, there is lack of career maturity
for the secondary school students (Salami, 2008).
This might be due
to perceptions of restrictive post-graduation vocational options. Where to go
next after graduating from secondary school students may pose problems (Salami,
2001).
A sense of limited
career options may be magnified by lack of meaningful employment options
witnessed in contemporary Nigerian economy for there is mass unemployment
(Oyebade, 2003). When high school students think of mass unemployment of the
graduates, they might not be motivated to take the matter of career
decision-making seriously. Instead, they might likely feel frustrated and
confused. Given the arguments for the fundamental role of emotion in career
decision-making and career development, and the limited research on the role of
emotion in the career development process, an investigation of the role of
emotion in relation to career decision-making and career maturity is warranted
(Emmerling and Cherniss, 2003).
Career
development, for most people, is a lifelong process of engaging the work world
through choosing among employment opportunities made available to them. It is a
process of getting ready to choose, choosing, and continuing to make choices
(Brown, Brooks and Associates, 1996).
The National
Career Development Association (NCDA) (1993) states that helping individuals
increase self-understanding of their abilities, interests, values, and goals is
a vital foundation of the career development process. The NCDA suggest that
career development activities help students develop positive work habits (for
example, organization, following directions, completing assignments on time),
set goals, make informed decisions, identify interests and abilities, and
explore jobs (for example, job shadowing, and apprenticeships). A major turning
point in adolescents’ lives involves the career choice that they make while in
senior secondary school.
Frequently, career
choice viewed by family and community as a mere start to workplace readiness;
however, this decision plays a major role in establishing youth in a career
path that opens as well as closes opportunities. Since some adolescents with
special needs like those with severe mental retardation may not even complete
secondary school education because of their unique characteristics, the
emotional intelligence is to assist these adolescents in their career
development as early as possible. Therefore, whether college-bound or
work-bound, meeting the challenge of this developmental milestone is critical
in adolescents’ lives. This is why career development plans and activities are
important for individuals with disabilities (Jaeger, 2003).
Besides, career
development has been described as the way an individual manages his career
either within or between organizations. It includes how a person makes effort
to learn new skills, and make improvements to help in his career. Individuals
with disabilities should not be left out in career development plans. Like
other employees, they want to do good jobs, appreciate constructive
supervision, enjoy new challenges and want to get ahead. Therefore, educators
must seek to understand their unique needs and challenges as well as tackle
their problems by ensuring that necessary career information, plans, and
activities are put in place. The ultimate goal is to make persons with special
needs become adjusted and successful in life (Caruso and Wolfe, 2001).
Research
on career success benefits and concern not only to individuals but also to
organizations because employees’ personal success can eventually contribute to
organizational success (Judge, Higgin, Thoresen and Barricj, 1999).
Career
success is also a way for individuals to fulfil their need for achievement and
power because it improves people’s quantity and quality of life. Scholars are
noting that employees may remain committed and productive members of an
organization as long as they believe that the organization helps them achieve
positive career experiences, or intrinsic career success (Lee and Maurer,
1997).
Career
paths become increasingly ambiguous and individuals must take on increased
responsibility for managing their own careers as organizations are facing more
complex business environments (Hall and Mirvis, 1995).
Managers
in public and private sector are experiencing substantial transformation in
organizations via organizational as well as career changes which affects long-term
relationship and psychological contract between organizations and employees.
Understanding the role emotional intelligence plays in career satisfaction will
benefit organizations and individuals interested in identifying high potential
employees. In many of the writings on emotional intelligence, the components
and competencies underlying this construct have been touted as important
determinants of life and career success (Goleman, 1995).
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND IMPLICATION FOR CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN SELECTED FEDERAL UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTH EAST, NIGERIA
