CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Emotional intelligence (EI) is a new concept, which has been used and defined in the management literature since 1990. Different studies have demonstrated that emotional intelligence is one of the virtues associated with success in life (Ranjbar et al, 2012). Developing emotional intelligence among the staff can solve many problems in education, health and management (Miri et al, 2013). There is a growing body of evidence regarding the emotional aspects of work in an organization. Although, few management researchers have accepted this concept, the concept of emotional intelligence has been used by the administrative authorities in many workplaces to explain issues related to the job satisfaction, performance, absenteeism, organizational commitment and leadership (carmeli, 2003).
In the context of the emerging ‘affective revolution’ in social and organizational psychology, emotional
intelligence is proposed as an important predictor of key organizational outcomes including job satisfaction and employee commitment (Carmeli, 2003). Emotional intelligence is considered to play a significant role in the work environment. It is a basic requirement in any profession that is based on human relations especially in the teaching.
Emotions play an important role in the teaching profession which requires both technical expertise and
psychologically oriented teaching, so an emotionally intelligent teacher is a person who can work in harmony with his/her thoughts and feelings (landa & Lopez-Zafra, 2010). Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive, evaluate and express emotions rapidly and to understand and manage them using emotional information and to direct thoughts, actions and affects to have a successful work experience. There are two types of Emotional Intelligence measure: ability and trait. The trait Emotional Intelligence theory distinguishes between the intrapersonal and interpersonal domains. Intrapersonally, use of emotions can lead to regulating stress and negative emotions so that one can perform better at work. Interpersonally, the ability to understand and respond appropriately to the motivations and feelings of other people can lead to the appraisal and regulation of emotions in others and achieving maximum performance (Nozaki & Koyasu, 2013). Researchers specifically propose that such an ability can predict work outcomes, such as organizational commitment, intention to quit, the staff turnover, job satisfaction and job performance. Studies have shown that the selection of personnel based on the emotional intelligence had better results compared to the traditional methods which may have a greater reliance
on cognitive abilities and technical knowledge, while this issue has been rarely studied in the teaching profession (Miri et al, 2013).