Emotional Intelligence and Stress: An empirical analysis on working Mavens in Indian IT Industry
Dr. Bhanupriya Khatri
Assistant Professor
USB-MBA, Chandigarh University, Mohali, India Contact: +91-9348260802, Email: bhanupriyakhatri23@cumail.in
Dr. Megha Sharma
Associate Professor
DoMS, NIIS Institute of Business Administration, Bhubaneswar, India Contact: +91-8209473874, Email: meghash222@gmail.com
Dr. Harshita Shrimali Professor & HOD Department of MBA
Geetanjali Institute of Technical Studies, Udaipur, India Contact: +91-9314141052, Email: harshita14011979@gmail.com
Dr. Vikas Tyagi
Associate Professor
USB-MBA, Chandigarh University, Mohali, India Contact: +91-9411500553, Email: vikastyagidit@gmail.com
Abstract
Emotional Intelligence is an indispensable constituent which regulates the accomplishment in lifetime and emotional health. It describes the aptitude to meritoriously compact with sentiments and demonstrative circumstances in the organization which contribute to personnel in dealing with pressure. Emotional Intelligence can elucidate the specific metamorphoses in copying up with stress in organizations.
The present study is an authentic effort to generate a relationship between elements of emotional intelligence (Emotional Competence, Emotional Maturity and Emotional Sensitivity) and stress on IT experts. Major IT professionals take it problematic to manage sentiments due to high stress to strive with changeable expectations of the employer. The anxiety connected to the job desires to be deciphered shorn of any interruption. So, contemporary study tries to discover and assess the effectiveness of different stress management techniques used by various IT companies for their employees.
Based on the assessment, the suggestions are set for enhancement and advancement of those procedures. The study will take 212 working mavens from five IT companies which are; Infosys, Wipro, Tatwa technology, Tech Mahindra and TCS from Bhubaneswar and data was analyzed using PLS-SEM.
Keywords: Emotional Intelligence, Stress management, Working Mavens, IT industry.
Emotional Intelligence (EI) capability to recognize, practice, comprehends, and accomplishes emotions in an expectant and prolific conducts. It’s around distinguishing people’s demonstrative condition and the sensitive conditions of people. It’s a capacity towards realizing our peculiar sentiments, to appreciate, to expressing, and to comprehend one’s feelings that effects people around us. It is an insight of other people; sympathetic in what way they sense and contributes the control to succeed relations extra excellently. The notion of EI was stated by Salovey and Mayer (1990) has explained about EI is a capability toward undertint and control self and others emotions and feelings, to categorize amongst them and to monitor one’s intellectual and engagements (p. 189).
Stress is a natural word for the concerns of the disappointment of a social or physical impact to react suitably to expressive or bodily intimidations to the creature, whether real or fictional it comprises a state of affairs of apprehension and adrenaline construction, petite term resistance as a surviving instrument, and overtiredness. Major stress signs comprise bad temper, muscular stiffness, incapacity to focus and an assortment of bodily response, such as nuisances and raised heart beats.
The term “stress” mainly coined by researchers previously, Hans Selye (1930) widened and promoted the thought to embrace the response of the physique to any kind of request. According to Selye, “stress” denotes to be a form, of “stressor” to the inner response affecting pressure. It shields an enormous variety of sensations from slight annoyance to the thoughtful of unadorned glitches that strength consequence in an actual cessation of well-being.
Efforts stances at the midpoint of contemporary natural life and utmost of the individuals devote common of their times at efforts. Today, IT mavens have to handle hard-hitting stretches, they prerequisite to exert full day long in order to compact with the demand of top management and organization. In this procedure, they might sense depressed and sad which pointers to strain and which in fit overlays method for deprived routine. So currently, it is imperative to suppress stress, which have developed part of IT specialists’ everyday lifetime.
A growing digit of IT specialists have been thinking it difficult to manage sensitive pressure. Consistent professional glitches such as wrist difficult due to persistent holding of mouse, slip disc and eye exhaustion are collective nowadays, but managing hassle that rises due to anxiety of Job insecurity or to be competent to with the intensifying difference traces the performance of personnel, ultimately, captivating a chief clang on his healthiness. As an employee to achieve the expertise in IT industry, the person must be capable with additional tasks that encompasses employed under firmer targets, dealing more persons from business units across countries and modifying on lots of appearances of code to get-up the fluctuating outlines of client’s necessities.
EI is connected to deal with (Schutte, Malouff, Thorsteinsson, Bhullar, & Rooke, 2007), predominantly normal/problematic intensive handling (Saklofske, Austin, Galloway, & Davidson, 2007). The relation among EI and stress is also recognized in a theoretical works (see Ciarrochi, Dean, & Anderson, 2002; Gohm, Corser, & Dalsky, 2005).
An empirical analysis is studied to examine the relationship between EI and stress amongst IT experts. It’s anticipated for accomplishing the highest prominent EI dimension in stimulating stress among IT professionals in India. Supplementary goal that enthused this knowledge is to develop to the procedure of literature by on condition that experimental indication on the stimulus of (EI) on stress. This study observed a comparatively comprehensive variety of (EI), expending a classic study of emotional intelligence established by Salovey and Mayer (1990) that contains of 4 proportions: awareness of emotion, dealing personal emotion, handling others’ sentiments, plus capability to apply emotion.
The admiration of the EI throughout the historical era has engaged investigators to inspect its strength in numerous capacities of human functioning. Consequently, it has been originated that attribute or capability of EI are associated to life accomplishment (Bar-On, 2001), life fulfillment and happiness (palmer, Donaldson, & Stough, 2002), associations between persons (fitness, 2001), work-related pressure (Nikolaou & Tsaousis, 2002; Slaski & Cartwright, 2002), Job achievement and accomplishments (vakola, tsaousis& Nikolaou, 2004), headship & direction (palmer, walls, bergess, & stough,2000),etc. In current ages, there is a growing attention in what way demonstrative responses and understandings have emotional impact to both bodily as well as psychosomatic well-being. For instance, it has been seen that unwanted emotive conditions are related with harmful forms of physical activeness, while optimistic emotive conditions remain related with improved designs of answering in together circulatory action and insusceptible scheme (Herbert & Cohen, 1993). Salovey, Rothman, Detweiler, and Steward (2000) deliberated widely the prominence of expressive conditions on bodily fitness.
Bar-on (1997) comprises stress administration and adaptableness as binary main mechanisms of emotional intelligence, whereas Matthews and Zeidner (2000) specified that adaptive handling might be intellectualized as EI in achievement, sympathetic mastery opinions, demonstrative development, and both intellectual and sensitive discrepancy.
The exploration test led by Pooja Garg and Renu Rastogi (2009) to analyses the connection among EI and stress resiliency amongst a section of scholars discovered that scholars being enthusiastically brainy them to be strong to strain and pressure, which regulate their achievement at individual and organizational level. A research was completed by Anil kumar Choubey, Santosh kumar Singh and Rakesh Pandey (2009) to inspect the part of emotional intelligence (EI) in forecasting stress and well-being. The curbing part of emotional intelligence in health proposition was also inspected. A varied illustration of 209 adults fitting to diverse professional assemblies in the age range of 21 to 50 years was measured. The conclusions discovered that emotional intelligence and its numerous mechanisms aptitudes, in over-all, are connected with fitness consequences. Likewise, the conclusions also revealed that emotional intelligence is related with lesser heights of stress. Additionally, significant remark was that the aptitude to assess and precise feeling, though, was created to unpleasantly disturb a person’s strength, the conclusions of the qualified examines acknowledged it as a imaginable reserve in high stress situation.
A research was showed by Azman Ismail, Amy Yao, Elizabeth Yeo, kong Lai-kuan and Ju Soon-Yew (2010) to find out the result of work-related pressure and EI on job contentment in private institutes of advanced knowledge in Sarawak, Malaysia. A review technique was applied to meet 80 survey forms from teachers who have functioned in the organizations. The consequence established that the capability of teaching workforces to accomplish their emotional health and other member’s emotions has enlarged their capabilities to device mental anxiety in implementing occupation. Consequently, it depicts to advanced job satisfaction. Conversely, the inability of teaching employees to accomplish their emotions has diminished their proficiencies to grip mental anxiety in executing work. Therefore, it could lead to inferior job gratification.
Dulewicz, Higgs and Slaski (2003), by means of a comparatively minor example of retail executives, inspected the character that variables such as strain, sorrow, self-confidence and deprived eminence of employed lifetime in daily lifecycle. They confirmed that emotional intelligence was powerfully linked with both bodily and mental strength.
In one more thought-provoking research, Ciarrochi, Deane and Anderson (2002) acknowledged the regulating part of emotional intelligence in the association between stress and several dealings of psychological fitness, such as unhappiness, desperateness and cheerless ideation amongst new persons. In
these research studies, mostly the fundamental spirit of emotional intelligence, specify that an undesirable association between stress, bad well-being and emotional intelligence stages, assuming that persons counting great in emotional intelligence are anticipated to manage efficiently with ecological anxieties as those usually measured by professional tension and well-being methods (Nikolaou & Tsaousis, 2002).
A research paper was primed by Mohmmad Ali Mohammadyfar, Mahmmod S. khan, and Bahman kord Tamini (2009) on 250 main academicians of Tehran, Iran. The purpose of the research was to find out the EI and work-related hassle on the fitness of the employees. The consequences exhibited that emotional intelligence and job stress were enlightened 43.9% of emotional health and 13.5% of inconsistency of bodily well-being.
An analysis led by Forushani and Besharat (2011) directed that EI elucidates 58 percent of change in the anxiety for 150 girls’ scholars. A person with extraordinary EI were further aware with sentiments, experienced lesser stress-related reactions and problems and conveyed sophisticated health (Forushani, & Besharat, 2011; Gohm et al., 2005). Regardless of the explanations for forestalling sophisticated EI would be acknowledged with improved psychological health, EI might have maladaptive consequences in diverse conditions. Petrides and Furnham (2003) originated that personalities with advanced EI are more vigorous and penetrating to temper instruction happening, whether optimistic or undesirable actuation. For certain persons, sensitivity to temperament connected stimuli under argumentative conditions may generate better pain if not accomplish fine (Schuttee et al., 2007).
Nurhamiza Mumina, Syed Azizi Wafa, Syed Khalid Wafa & Khan-Vun Teong (2016) specified a noteworthy undesirable association among the capacity to observe sentiment, the aptitude to bring about one’s personal sentiment, and the skill to cope up others reaction with stress.
There are so many studies available where EI and stress were compared on health care professionals, bank officials, management students and social workers. Although there are separate studies available where either Emotional Intelligence or Stress are studied on IT professionals but there is no study where the impact of EI on stress has studied together. More specifically here we are trying to find the impact of three main factors of EI i.e. Emotional Sensitivity; Emotional Maturity and Emotional Competence on Stress.
The objective of this study is:
The tool used to measure Emotional Intelligence (EI) consist of three psychological dimensions— Emotional Competency, Emotional Maturity and Emotional Sensitivity—which stimulate an individual to be aware of truthfulness and handle the emotions tactfully to understand more about the changing aspects of social actions.
avoiding emotional tiredness.
Stress - The tool used for the Stress have nine items: Exhaustion, acute stress, fear based stress, overwork, workplace conflict stress, anticipatory stress, encounter stress, psychosomatic problem and memory concentration.
Model Diagram
The sampling technique is convenience sampling. The sample of the present research was taken from 05 IT companies which are; Infosys, Wipro, Tatwa technology, Tech Mahindra and TCS from Bhubaneswar. Initially around 268 IT employee’s constituent the sample, out of that 133 were females and 135 were males but later on only 212 IT employees were selected to be the part of final research, out of that 99 females and 113 males.
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S. No. |
Company |
Total no of officials |
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1 |
Infosys |
38 |
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2 |
Wipro |
45 |
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3 |
Tatwa Technologies |
51 |
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4 |
Tech Mahindra |
35 |
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|
5 |
TCS |
43 |
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TOTAL |
212 |
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Measures
Measurements for Cronbach alpha of EC, EM, ES and stress are 0.901, 0.910, 0.834 and 0.933 respectively. All constructs for Emotional Intelligence and Stress were measured using 5-point Likert scale.
Common Method Variance
Common method Variance was mainly scanned by means of Harman's single-factor test (Podsakoff et al., 2003) formerly applying PLS-SEM study. The consequences showed that the major variance clarified by the chief aspect was 47.26 % of the entire variance which is further down the 50% threshold recommended (Podsakoff et al., 2003). Henceforth, common method bias was not an apprehension in this analysis.
Subsequently, PLS-SEM has been applied as the foremost goal of this research study was forecasting of significant constructs. In evaluating research measurement model, the convergent validity was inspected by observing into indicator loadings, average variance extracted (AVE), composite reliability (CR) and Dillion-Goldstein’s rho (rho_A). Table 2 denotes that all numbers presented perfect loadings exceeds the suggested standard of 0.7. Internal reliability has been accomplished as rho_A and Composite reliability were beyond the threshold rate of 0.7. Average Variance Extracted is more than threshold value of 0.50, so convergent validity is content. All HTMT numbers were established as per standards and are below threshold value of 0.90 which are shown in Table 2. So, convergent validity and discriminant validity has been demonstrated by the research model.
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|
Construct |
Indicator |
Loading |
rho_A |
CR |
AVE |
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Emotional Competency |
EC1 |
0.914 |
0.914 |
0.928 |
0.721 |
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EC2 |
0.884 |
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EC3 |
0.875 |
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EC4 |
0.695 |
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EC5 |
0.861 |
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Emotional Maturity |
EM1 |
0.809 |
0.912 |
0.933 |
0.737 |
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EM2 |
0.879 |
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EM3 |
0.872 |
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EM4 |
0.862 |
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EM5 |
0.869 |
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Emotional Sensitivity |
ES1 |
0.787 |
0.837 |
0.883 |
0.602 |
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ES2 |
0.807 |
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ES3 |
0.791 |
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ES4 |
0.761 |
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ES5 |
0.731 |
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Stress |
S01 |
0.808 |
0.934 |
0.944 |
0.651 |
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S02 |
0.834 |
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S03 |
0.818 |
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S04 |
0.781 |
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S05 |
0.855 |
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S06 |
0.804 |
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S07 |
0.784 |
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S08 |
0.808 |
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S09 |
0.767 |
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Emotional Competency
Emotional Competency
Emotional Maturity
Emotional
Sensitivity Stress
Emotional Maturity 0.6395
Emotional Sensitivity 0.6508 0.5834
Stress 0.8876 0.7855 0.7608
The VIF values must be below the threshold value of 3.33 and our values are under the threshold value which ranges between 1.59 to 1.77. Bootstrap Re-sampling technique was evaluated for evaluating the implication of projected hypotheses. All three hypotheses for direct relationship were supported as shown in Table 4. Analysis demonstrated that EC and EM negatively influences Stress with (β= -0.5078, t= 4.93, p<0.05), (β= -0.3191, t=3.75, p<0.05), respectively and ES positively influences Stress with (β= .221, t= 2.91, p<0.05).
|
Hypothesis |
Relationship |
Std Beta |
Std Error |
t-value |
P-value |
Decision |
|
H1 |
Emotional Competency -> Stress |
-0.508 |
0.103 |
|
4.933 0.0000 |
Supported |
|
H2 |
Emotional Maturity -> Stress |
-0.319 |
0.085 |
|
3.757 0.0002 |
Supported |
|
H3 |
Emotional Sensitivity -> Stress |
0.221 |
0.076 |
|
2.917 0.0037 |
Supported |
Next, Co-efficient of Determination was studied 79.6 % of variance of stress was jointly explained by EC, EM and ES. To examine the effect size, Cohen’s f2 is examined to know large, medium and small size with value of 0.35, 0.15, 0.02 respectively. To elucidate the stress, EC (0.71), EM (0.31), ES (0.15) indicates large effect size, medium effect size and small effect size respectively.
Finally, Stone Geisser’s Q2 was applied to evaluate the predictive relevance. The Q2 value for Stress was
0.51 which is exceeding 0. So, it creates appropriate predictive relevance.
Correlation between Emotional Sensitivity and Stress is 0.221. So, we may say that if there is an increase in Emotional Sensitivity, the stress will also be increased.
Being highly emotional sensitive means that we are going to feel stress more intensely and react to it differently than others. People who are high ES engage additional situational facts than others, and that comprises upright and immoral equally. Observing information is tiring. Its largely unconscious process that use up lots of energy and when there is too much of it, we become overwhelmed.
It’s really becoming difficult for IT employees to manage their emotions and stress at work place. All too often, IT professional moving so quickly and trying so hard to meet everyone’s demand including top management and customers, they don’t even realize that they are stressed or that they have taken on too much.
Emotional maturity can be defined as a capability of self-control which results in efficient thoughtful and knowledge at workplace. According to Chamberlain (1960), the people who have high EM are generally regulates the emotions under control. Correlation between Emotional Maturity and stress is -0.3191. Negative correlation specifies that high emotional maturity will leads to low stress level and vice versa. As a result Stress level of IT mavens will decrease with increase in emotional maturity and the stress will be high with low emotional maturity. Thus, stress can be managed by the people if they learn how to regulate their emotions, by showing right emotion at right time, and capability to cope with the adversative situations in best possible way.
Emotional competence directly controls ones feeling towards efforts and enactment at work place.. It is an ability to control and manage moods, impulses for best situational outcome. The correlation between Emotional competence and stress is -0.5078. So emotional competence is also negatively correlated with stress. Because in work situation the IT professionals required to use their expertise, wisdom and knowledge with an real instruction of sentimentalities at workplace and their eagerness to give finest in achieving the personal as well as organizational goals. Understanding one’s emotions and feeling can help the employee to deal efficiently with stressful situation, emotional competence determines the success of adaptability and adjustments in stressful changing scenario.
As we have studied the impact of EI on stress, it is now important to evaluate and suggest the stress management techniques normally used by the IT companies.
“Coping with stress and endeavoring for mental health well-being should be a prime matter of concern for all and should be dealt properly and not treated merely as a life style issue of the IT marvels” says Nithya Chandrasekaran, a consultant physician for many IT companies. To deal with this IT companies come with “Help Hotlines” to provide one to one counselling to their officials who are facing difficulties in coping with day to day work stress. Now the IT sector have understood the importance of stress management techniques and are trying to help their employees to fight and to defeat the stress in a better way.
Company like Infosys which insist their employees to do 15 minutes yoga or meditation before they start their work and also come with a creative and recreational rooms for games to reduce stress during the job to enhance their productivity of their employees. Companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra and Wipro have regular and very frequent “stress break” envisioned to help the employees to have a balance between work and fun. Many companies of IT sector also come with an adventure travel and yoga sessions for their employees to help them to deal better with a stressful situation. Company like
Wipro and TCS have regular family day functions, stress buster activities, picnics, Art of living courses and workout programs for their employees. Infosys has also installed green food stalls in their food court to encourage their employees to eat healthy during their working hours. Furthermore, time to time intervention programs related to emotional intelligence and stress management should be introduced in the IT companies along with counselling sessions and effective psychometric tests to measure their emotional intelligence, stress, adjustments, work attitude, job satisfaction, quality of work life, optimism and self-efficacy etc.
These intervention programs can help employees to keep a positive attitude and to also understand that there are events those can’t be controlled. It is important to learn and practice the relaxation techniques, meditation, yoga, regular exercise, eat healthy and well-balanced meals. Also need to understand that how to be assertive with their feelings, opinion or belief instead of being aggressive defensive or passive. Another important aspects are time management and acquire strength to deny the request that may generate extreme pressure at work place. One should also find period for relaxations, interests and take enough break to recover or face the stressful events. Last but not the least one should also not hesitate to take clinical help from a psychologist if required.
EI i.e. Emotional Sensitivity has positive correlation with stress. The other two EI components i.e. Emotional Maturity and Emotional competence has the known absolute negative correlation with stress. Pressure and anxiety have different influence on every single individual. Discrete variances are present in managing with traumatic circumstances. Certain individuals drive into bits in the minor hassle; while other people look seem imperturbable in lawfully traumatic state. Hereby, emotional intelligence (EI) arise for our liberation and escorts us to react suitably to dissimilar stressing situations. Certain persons flourish on traumatic circumstances whereas other people are overwhelmed. Emotional Intelligence helps IT mavens to deal with the nerve-wracking circumstances. Stress management hence mainly be determined by prominent on emotive equilibrium between a probable trauma situation and our response. The emotional intelligence abilities generate the ability in people to select numerous course of deed towards dealing the pressure deprived of crumpling, to remain optimistic to answer a problematic condition, and sense that people can handle the circumstances. At last, we can conclude that emotional intelligence be able to handle the stress which regulate the achievement at individual and organizational facade.
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