This research observes the connection between the major components such as emotional intelligence (EI), employee job performance (JP), and organisational role stress (ORS). There has been previous research that has been carried out pertaining to EI and JP. However, there have been a very limited number of studies where a third variable has mediated emotional intelligence and job performance variables. There are even fewer studies wherein organisational role stress has been considered as a mediator. Most of the studies pertaining to emotional intelligence have been carried out in the Western context, and very few Indian studies exist. The information technology (IT) sector is considered one of the most rapidly growing sectors in India, and there is very limited research on the EI of Indian employees in the IT sector; hence, the same has been covered in this study. The current study is descriptive, as the variables under investigation are continuous.
Top1. Introduction
With the changing market economy, organisations are facing diverse changes and challenges. In this highly volatile and uncertain business environment, organisations can only rely upon their human resources to create better performance by becoming more adaptable to this new VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex & ambiguous) world. For several decades, there have been a lot of studies carried out by various researchers and behaviourists on the factors that can lead to a person’s success in their life. The traditional Intelligence or Intelligence Quotient (IQ) of an individual was one of the success factors identified. However, in addition to those, certain other factors such as “leadership”, “Self-confidence”, “adaptability”, and “interpersonal skills” also were identified that help an individual achieve success in life. These additional factors identified had no association with the IQ of an individual and were distinct and helped in the actual dealing of individual emotions and this led to the concept of EI.
In the words of Goleman (1998) said that EI is defined as the ability to sense, understand, value and effectively apply the power of emotions as a source of human energy, information, trust, creativity and influence. EI essentially is a mixture of both the emotions and intellect of an individual. The capability of an individual to recognise, evaluate and manage their emotions can be termed as EI. There have been umpteen numbers of studies that have been carried out by various researchers in the domain of EI. Most of the studies that have been carried out in the organisational context have found that employees who have high EI tend to be more aware of their emotions as well as those of others working along with them, and they would also be capable of expressing and controlling their emotions. EI enables individuals to think out of the box and creatively and also helps them overcome different problems and challenges with the help of emotions. EI is not about being emotional but being smart in dealing with individual emotions as well as the other individual’s emotions. As per Goleman (1995), emotional intelligence is one of the most significant traits that leads to success at work and hence, many companies have resorted to training their employees in the field of emotional intelligence. These companies believe that training their employees to regulate their emotions and those of others better can lead to better performance at work (Cobero et al., 2006).
Salovey and Mayer (1990) carried out the initial seminal work on Emotional intelligence, post which there have been many more researchers who have carried forward the work on EI in various domains such as management, medical research, psychology, etc. As per Salovey & Mayer (1990), “EI is the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions”. The researchers stated that employees who had a high emotional quotient were more self-aware about their emotions, which could be anger, anxiety, unhappiness, etc. and hence were also capable of regulating those emotions into more favourable emotional states such as motivation, enhanced creativity, etc.
As per the latest NASSCOM report (2020), it was found that in India, it is the Information Technology (IT) sector that has and is continuing to contribute the most to the Indian GDP as well as establish the presence of India in the International context. The IT sector has played a big part in the lives of people by providing employment and also helping employees working in the IT sector to enhance their standard of living (Gupta et al., 2015). To further enhance the contribution made by the IT sector in India, it becomes imperative to enhance the JP of the employees working in the IT sector, which can result in the enhancement of overall organisational performance, thereby contributing to the further growth of the sector (Dhani & Sharma, 2016). There is cutthroat competition in the IT sector, and hence, IT companies must work continuously towards enhancing the employees’ performance and productivity in the organisation. Therefore, many programmes and interventions have been regularly carried out by IT companies. One such important intervention programme carried out by all IT organisations is to enhance the emotional quotient of their employees.
There are five basic components of emotional intelligence, which are mentioned below.