PREDICTING OCCUPATIONAL STRESS FROM EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE OF CIVIL SERVANTS IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

The study focused on predicting the occupational stress of civil servants in Rivers State based on their emotional and social intelligence. The study adopted a correlational design. A total of 600 civil servants were drawn through a proportionate stratified sampling technique. Three validated instruments were used: the Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS), the Social Intelligence Scale (SIS), and the Occupational Stress Inventory (OSI), which had reliability coefficients of 0.827, 0.849, and 0.953 respectively. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. Relevant data were analyzed using multiple regression analysis.

The results showed that the combination of emotional intelligence dimensions and social intelligence components are significant predictors of the occupational stress of both female and male civil servants. The predictive strengths accounted for 81.9% and 91.6% respectively of the variance in the occupational stress.

Based on the findings, it is recommended that further research be conducted, by both individual researchers and government-sponsored researchers, to determine whether high or low emotional and social intelligence could increase or decrease occupational stress among civil servants, since it has been established that both emotional intelligence and its dimensions, as well as social intelligence and its components, can predict the occupational stress of civil servants.