EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE AS PREDICTORS OF OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AMONG CIVIL SERVANTS IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

The study investigated emotional and social intelligence as predictors of occupational stress of civil servants in Rivers State. The study adopted a correlational design. A total of 600 civil servants were drawn through proportionate stratified sampling technique. Three instruments were used: Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS), Social Intelligence Scale (SIS), and Occupational Stress Inventory (OSI). These instruments were validated and had reliability coefficients of 0.827 for EIS, 0.849 for SIS, and 0.953 for OSI respectively.

Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. Relevant data gathered were analyzed with multiple regression analysis as the statistical tool.

The results showed that the relationship management dimension of emotional intelligence is a significant predictor of the occupational stress of civil servants, while emotional self-awareness, emotional self-management, and emotional social awareness dimensions are not. Additionally, the relationship management dimension of emotional intelligence is the strongest predictor.

Furthermore, the components of social intelligence such as social skills and social awareness are significant predictors of the occupational stress of civil servants, while social information processing is not a significant predictor. The social skills component of social intelligence is the strongest predictor.

The findings also showed that the dimensions of emotional intelligence and the components of social intelligence, when considered collectively, significantly predict the occupational stress of civil servants, and the combined prediction could account for up to 74.9% of the variance in the occupational stress of civil servants.

Based on the findings, it was recommended that employers of civil servants provide training to enable them to acquire the competencies inherent in emotional and social intelligences, as these skills or competencies are acquirable and have been found to reduce stress among workers.