IMPACT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ON JOB STRESS OF EXECUTIVE LEVEL EMPLOYEES (AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF A COMMERCIAL BANK)

Abstract

As human beings we all have undergone some sort of stress in our life either positively or negatively. But unpleasant mental uncertainty may be harmful in our life if it happens continuously. Therefore, job stress holds a dominant place among the stress types. Job stress is conceptualized as the mental, emotional, and physical drain brought about by the perceived incongruence between job demands and employees’ capabilities and resources. Job stress affects the employees’ performance and as a result, employees do not work efficiently and effectively which affect to the performance of the organization at large. Banking sector of Sri Lanka is one of the leading parts of the financial sector and it plays a vital role in the country’s development. Like any other organization, employees of banks also suffer from the job stress. The preliminary survey confirmed that there was a high level of job stress in Executive level employees in NDB Banks in western province. Literature shows that employees who are having higher level of emotional intelligence can successfully manage their job stress. Emotional Intelligence is the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and feelings of others, for motivating ourselves and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships. Therefore this research aims at investigating the Impact of emotional intelligence on job stress. Reliable and a validated questionnaire was used as the primary data collecting instrument and data were collected from 120 respondents. Simple and multiple regression analysis were used to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings revealed that Emotional Intelligence and dimensions of emotional intelligence: (a) self-awareness, (b) self-management, (c) social awareness, significantly and negatively impact on the level of job stress of executive level employees in the respective bank except the dimension of (d) relationship management since it was positively impact on the level of job stress. Thus it can be concluded Emotional intelligence impact on reducing job stress in banking sector employees and people who are have high emotional intelligence can manage their stress appropriately