EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AS RELATED TO BURNOUT AMONG MANAGERS

GJBM Emotional Intelligence as Related to Burnout Among Managers ISSN: 0973-8533 Vol. 2 No. 1, June 2008 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AS RELATED TO BURNOUT AMONG MANAGERS Kiran Sahu* and Shelley Yadav** ABSTRACT The main objective of the present study is to find out the relationship between emotional intelligence and burnout among public and private, sector managers. A total sample of 200 managers (100 public and 100 private sectors) from Delhi based organizations was included in the study. The results indicate that there was significant difference regarding emotional intelligence and burnout. Among public and private sector managers. Emotional Intelligence was significantly and negatively related to emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and positively to personal accomplishment among public as well as private sector manager. Further, components of emotional intelligence, emotional competency, emotional maturity and emotional sensitivity, were also significantly and negatively related to dimensions of burnout, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, while positively related to personal accomplishment among both public and private sector managers. Key Words: Emotional maturity and Sensitivity, Burnout, Frustration, Emotional Intelligence Researchers and practitioners have given considerable attention to the role of emotional intelligence and burnout in management. Researchers have proposed that emotionally intelligent managers may be more successful than their counterparts (Caruso & Salovey, 2004, George, 2000), and consultancies offer emotional intelligence services to select and train managers (Schmit, 2006). Managers in public and private sectors daily face challenges in their professional lives. Managers are at a relatively high risk for burnout because they face considerable demands and frequently encounter challenging social interactions (Cords & Dougherty, 1993). These challenges govern their emotional agenda. * Reader, Department of Psychology, G.D.H.G. College, Moradabad, (U.P). ** Research Scholar, Department of Psychology, G.D.H.G. College, Moradabad, (U.P).

116 Kiran Sahu and Shelley Yadav In the changing scenario of the organizations where the job demands are even increasing and the job security is less, there is a lot of pressure, faced by an individual who is expected to perform all the time. Any failure in meeting social expectations real or imagined may cause stress and finally burnout. So burnout is an important characteristic witnessed in the managers of modern organizations. Burnout Stress Syndrome (Boss) is very Complex. Freudenberger and Richelson (1980) describe burnout as a State of fatigue or frustration brought about by devotion to an occupation cause, way of lift, cause or relationship that failed to produce the expected reward. Burnout is a psychological syndrome that involves a prolonged response to work stressors (Maslach Schaufelie Leiter, 2001). Understanding the correlates of the burnout of managers is important because burnout has several negative consequences including poor performance, turnover, alcohol and drug abuse, somatic symptoms and abusive behaviour (Cordes & Dougherty, 1993, Lee and Ashforth, 1996, Maslach, Jacpson, Leiter, 1996). To understand the correlates of burnout researchers have found it useful to distinguish between different dimensions. The most prevalent and accepted conceptualization has three dimensions : 1. Emotional Exhaustion: Emotional exhaustion refers to a lack of energy and a feeling of that one s mental and emotional resources are depleted. 2. Depersonalization: Depersonalization refers to treating people like object and concerns creating mental distance between oneself and the recipients of one's work, such as subordinates or clients in human service settings by developing negative and cynical attitudes about them. 3. Personal Accomplishment: The demotivating affects of feeling of inefficacy about their ability to related to recipients and this may result in a self-imposed verdict of failure. According to Maslach & Jackson person with higher scores on emotional exhaustion and depersonalization subscales and with low scores on personal accomplishment subscales would be perceiving themselves as burnout. It is well recognized that the behaviour of people in organizations is mainly governed by their emotional setting. The setting guides them performing various managerial functions such as planning, organizing, directly and motivating. Emotional intelligence can be used to formulate company policies, rules and regulations. Emotional intelligence is the underlying premise for all management training. More and more companies are seeing that encouraging emotional intelligence skills is a vital component of any organization management philosophy. Salovey and Mayer coined term Emotional intelligence in the early 1990 and made popular and one of the hottest buzzwords in corporate America by Daniel Goleman with the publications of his book, Why it can matter more than IQ in 1995. Vol. 2, No. 1, June, 2008

Emotional Intelligence as Related to Burnout Among Managers 117 Emotional Intelligence is a latent multidimensional construct (Cote, Miners, 2006, Wong & low, 2000). It has been found as a powerful tool for developing organizational effectiveness, motivating people and morale boost up. Its also seen as a moderator stress, health and psychological well beingness. Goleman (1998), defines EI as the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others for motivating ourselves for managing emotions well ourselves and in our relationships Salovey, Mayer & Caruso, 2000), in the ability models conceptualize emotional intelligence as a set of abilities to perceive emotional in the self and in others, use emotional to facilitate performance and regulate emotional in the self and in others. The components of emotional intelligence mentioned below: 1. Emotional Competency: It s the capacity to tactfully respond to emotional stimuli elicited by various situations having high self-esteem and ability to relate others. 2. Emotional Maturity: Constitutes evaluating emotions of others and oneself and balancing state of heart and mind, adaptability and flexibility and appreciating other's point of view. 3. Emotional Sensitivity: Constitutes understanding threshold of emotional arousal and having an insight into how other evaluate and relate to you. Emotionally intelligent managers are capable of setting priorities for tasks and attending of those of higher priority. EQ offers guidance on how to deal with inter-personal problems of communications. EQ guides managers to respond appropriately to different conditions of burnout. It has been found out that public and private sectors managers with high EQ are low on the burnout dimensions. Managers with high EQ can cope better with stress levels in life which in turn help them to develop effective coping strategies to manage and deal effectively with the various types of stresses at individual and organizational levels. Managers in public and private sectors handle all the situations logically, rationally and systematically and they appeared to be non-emotional, calculating, fact, oriented and objective. They were better able to reduce burned out situations and more cooperative, more trusted, more resilient and optimistic. The present study was planned to study the relationship of emotional intelligence and burnout among managers. HYPOTHESIS 1. There will be significant difference among public and private sector managers regarding emotional intelligence. 2. There will be significant difference among public and private sector managers regarding burnout. 3. Burnout will be negatively related to emotional intelligence. This implies that each component of burnout that is emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment will be negatively related to emotional intelligence. Global Journal of Business Management

118 Kiran Sahu and Shelley Yadav 3.1 Each component of burnout will be negatively related to emotional competency, first dimension of emotional intelligence. 3.2 Each component of burnout will be negatively related to emotional maturity, second dimension of emotional intelligence. 3.3 Each component of burnout will be negatively related to emotional sensitivity, third dimension of emotional intelligence. Sample A sample of 200 managers of Delhi city was taken. The age range was 28-55 years and experience range was 5 to 15 years. Tools 1. Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI): The MBI was used in the present study to measure burnout. The inventory consists of 22 statements that are divided into three subscales: EE, DP and PA. Anyone of the given response categories on 7 point rating scale rating from 1 (very milk), 2 (milk), 3 (somewhat moderate) 4 (moderate), 5 (some what strong) 6 (strong), 7 (very strong), if never is applicable to write (0). Maslach and Jackson reported alpha coefficient for the three subscales : EE-.87, DP-.75 and PA-.77. Maslach and Jackkson 1981 reported average reliability co-efficient of approximately.80 for the total scale. Maslach and Jackson 1979 in their work in the helping profession reported that correlations between the frequency and intensity dimensions across sub scales ranged from.35 to.73 with a mean of.58. 2. The EQ-Test : The EQ test developed by Chadha (2001), was used to collect data. The test contain 15 situation measuring different emotional responses and their blends. This test has been standardized from Indian Managers, Businessmen and Bureaucrats. The test-retest reliability for the test was found to be.94. The split half reliability in the case of old even items was.92 and that the first half and the second half was.90. Both reliability co-efficient are significantly higher which indicate that the scale is highly consistent and reliable. The empirical validity of the scale was calculated by administrating the scale of Daniel Goleman and Chadha scale by Singh (2003), this was.89. Procedure Managers were contacted individually to administered the EQ-test and Maslach Burnout Inventory. The product moment correlation coefficients were used. RESULT AND DISCUSSION Result in Table-1 shows significant difference regarding emotional intelligence among public and private sector manager. Thus, the hypothesis no. 1. There will be significant different among public and private sector managers regarding emotional intelligence is accepted from the result of the present study. On the components of emotional intelligence, there is Vol. 2, No. 1, June, 2008

Emotional Intelligence as Related to Burnout Among Managers 119 significant difference only emotional competency but on emotional maturity and emotional sensitivity this difference do not ruaches to the significant level in both sectors. When we look at the mean values we find that public sector managers scored higher on emotional intelligence as well as for its components as compared to private sector managers. This is because of public sector managers with high emotional intelligency adopts smoothing and collaborative strategies to deal with conflict and collaborative strategies to deal with conflict. Emotional intelligence enables them to help others and they strongly believes in joint efforts. Public sector managers are better able to regulate their emotions and have the ability to recognize accurately what another person is feeling enables one to develop a specific competency such as influence. They are more creative and practical towards emotional prompts elicited from the inner-self and immediate environment and they have the ability to appropriately and successfully respond to a vast variety of emotional stimuli being elicited from the inner self and effective communications. Table - 1 Significance of difference between emotional intelligence and burnout among public and private sector managers. Variables Public Sector Private Sector Mean SD Mean SD SED t EI 267.85 22.57 259.6 24.12 3.27 2.52 * EC 152.6 13.96 148.6 14.70 2.01 1.99 * EM 54.5 8.12 52.5 10.08 1.28 1.56 NS ES 60.75 12.22 58.6 12.46 1.72 1.25 NS BO EE 1.67 1.21 2.21 2.18.24 2.25 * DP 6.18 1.04 6.79 1.33.16 3.18 ** PA 47.74 4.12 46.51 4.14.57 2.15 * * Significant at.05 level ** Significant at.01 level. It has been found out that the public sector managers ranked higher than private sector managers on personality characteritis manifested in behaviours, related to analyzing their own and others motives and feelings, seeing things from another's perspective. Private, sector managers were probagilistic and attempted to update data based on past learning experiences, liked to talk about their personal adventures and dominance was high to be the centre of attention and dominance was higher among public sector managers as compared to private, sector managers (Singh, 1996). Result in Table-2 indicated that emotional intelligence was found to be negatively and significantly related with burnout among public and private sectors managers. The relationship Global Journal of Business Management

120 Kiran Sahu and Shelley Yadav between emotional intelligence and the three sub-dimensions of burnout, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization was found to be negatively significant and personal accomplishment was found to be positively significant. It reveals that higher scores on emotional intelligence are generally paired with lower scores on the sub-dimensions of burnout, emotional exhaustion and depresionlization but higher on personal accomplishment. Thus the hypothesis no.3 "Burnout will be negatively related to emotional intelligence. Table - 2 Correlation between emotional intelligence and burnout among public and private sector managers E.I. BO PUBLIC SECTOR PRIVATE SECTOR Vol. 2, No. 1, June, 2008 EI EC EM ES EL EC EM ES EE -0.37- - 0.26-0.35-0.28-0.24-0.37-0.31-0.34 Dp -0.22-0.24-0.26-0.20-0.47-0.40-0.43-0.38 Pa +0.71 +0.14 +0.45 +0.41 +0.76 +0.23 +0.35 +0.30 List of Abbreviations Emotional Intelligence Burnout EI - Emotional Intelligence EE - Emotional Exhaustion EC - Emotional Competency DP- Depersonalization EM - Emotional Maturity PA- Personal Accomplishment ES - Emotional Sensitivity Emotional intelligence negatively associated with emotional exhaustion among public and private sector managers. These managers with high emotional intelligence successfully perceive and become aware that their energy is being depleted when they process novel and complex information. This awareness may be necessary first step to regain any lost energy (see Jordan, Ashkanasy and Hartel, 2002). Managers with high emotional intelligence may judiciously select strategies to regain that energy, including socializing, meditating and exercising. Past research shows that some of these strategies are more effective than others, in that, they are more negatively associated. Schmutte, Merfine & Holy 2001), Emotionally intelligent managers have developed considerable knowledge and understanding of the effectiveness of difference strategies (Cote, Miners & Moon, 2006 Jordan, 2002, Salovey, Bedell, Detweiler & Mayer, 1999). This knowledge and understanding permit managers with high emotional intelligence to choose good strategies to regain their energy and in turn, avoid emotional exhaustion. Regarding depersonalization, emotional intelligence negatively correlated with depersonalization in both sector manager s. It has been suggested that emotional exhaustion prompts as second dimension of burnout, depersonalization because emotionally exhausted individuals tent of disassociates themselves from the recipients of their work and develop and impersonal attitudes towards them as a strategy to suppress emotional exhaustion towards

Emotional Intelligence as Related to Burnout Among Managers 121 them as a strategy to suppress emotional exhaustion (Cordes & Dougherty, 1993, Leiter & Maslach 1988, Moore, 2000). Managers with low emotional intelligence experience high emotional exhaustion. In contrast, there should be little likelihood for managers with high emotional intelligence to depersonalize others because their emotional intelligence has already mitigated emotional exhaustion. Managers with low level of emotional exhaustion display low depersonalization regardless of their emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence positively related with personal accomplishment. Past researches found that personal accomplishment is less strongly related to the other two dimensions of burnout than they are to each other (Lee & Ashforth, 1996, Maslach, 1996). Personal accomdishment may have a different set of antecedents than the other two dimensions of burnout (Cooper, 2001, Maslach, 2001) Lee and Ashforth s (1996), meta-analysis revealed that personal accomplishment was most consistently related with the contingency of organizational outcomes the degree to which reward and punishments are linked to a person s performance (Cordes & Dougherty, 1993). Throwing a glance at obtained relationship between dimensions of emotional intelligence and components of burnout we observe that emotional competency is negatively related with emotional exehaustion and depersonalization and positively with personal accomplishment in both public and private sector managers. Thus the hypothesis no. 3:1 Each component of burnout will be negatively related to emotional competency is accepted by the results of the present study. Emotional completency and burnout will be negatively correlated from this it may be inferred that managers with low burnout possess high emotional competency which implies their personal and social skills that lead to superior performances in the world of work. Aspinwall and Taylor (1987) describes that there is a reason to believe that individuals who have well developed psychological resources, including a sense of personal control, high selfesteem and optimism are more likely to cope proactively with respect to health, which may minimize the effects of stress. Emotional maturity is negatively related in the emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and positively with personal accomplishment in both sectors. Thus the hypothesis no. 3:2 Each component of burnout will be negatively related to emotional maturity is accepted from the result of the present study. Negative correlation between emotional maturity and burnout shows that managers with low burnout possess high emotional maturity by which they recognize the emotions of oneself and others, knowing one s own emotional strength and weaknesses is of great help. Public and private, sector managers full positively about the changes are catalyst to the unexpected changes, because they value a life filled with interesting experiences and know where to turn from resources to aid them in coping with stress and burnout. Emotional sensitivity is negatively related with emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and positively with personal accomplishment in public as well as in private sectors managers. Thus, the hypothesis no 3:3 Each component of burnout will be negatively related to emotional Global Journal of Business Management

122 Kiran Sahu and Shelley Yadav sensitivity is accepted from the result of the present study. The present findings shows that these managers have the ability to recognize their own strengths and weaknesses, clearly understand the requirements of the job, use their strengths and overcome weakness through continuous leaning on the job. Researchers has shown that the primary cause of failures among executives was their poor interpersonal relations at the work place. A manager with poor inter-personal relations will experience considerable stress and anxiety and exhibit lack of trust in others. Savicki and Cooley (1987) reported that low burnout were those in which workers were strongly committed to work, co-workers relationships were encouraged and supervisory relationships were supportive. Thus emotional intelligence is the lubricant of emotional and social life that helps managers interact in mutually beneficial ways. By emotional intelligence those managers are masters to star performance at the workplace. CONCLUSION In conclusion, the present research brings out that public and private sector managers have significant differences regarding emotional intelligence and burnout but emotional intelligence and burnout was negatively correlated in public as well as in private sector managers. These managers with high emotional intelligence were found to be low on the burnout dimensions. They manage burnout effectively in order to successfully achieve both organizational as well as individuals goals. REFERENCES Chadha, N.K. (2001). How to Measure Your EQ. In the book by Dalip Singh, Emotional Intelligence at work: A professional guide, New Delhi: Response Books. Cherniss, C. Egnations, E. and Wacker, S. (1976). Job stress and carreer development in new public development professional. Professional of Psychology, 7 (4). Cordes, C.L. & Dougherty, T.W. (1993). A review and in integration of research on job burnout, Academy of Management Review, 18, 621-656. Cote, S. & Miners, C. T.H., (2006). Emotional intelligence, cognitive intelligence and job performance. Administrative Science Quarterly, 51, 1-28. Daus, C.S. & Ashkanasry, N.M. (2005). The case for an ability based model emotional intelligences in organizational behaviour. Journal of Organisational Behaviour, 26-45, 3-466. Freudenberger, H.J. & Richelson, (1980). 6 Burnout : the high cost of high achievement. Garden city New York: Anchor Press/ Doubleday. Goleman, Daniel, (1996). Emotional Intelligence: Why it cal matter more than IQ, New York: Bantam Books. Greenglass, ER. (2001). Proactive coping, work stress burnout stress news. 13/2. Vol. 2, No. 1, June, 2008

Emotional Intelligence as Related to Burnout Among Managers 123 Leiter, M.P. & Maslach, C. (1988). The impact of interpersonal environment on burnout and organizations commitment. Journal of Organisational Behaviour, 9, 297-308. Maslach, C. (n.d.) Burned out: Human Behaviour, 5(9), 197. Roberts, Regina (2002). An Empirical Study of Emotional Intelligences. Burnout and conflict Resolution styles. Unpublished work carried out in Department of Psychology. University of Delhi, India. Sara R. (November 11th, 2002). Success Depends upon Your EQ. Udaan, Danik Bhaskar, 8-10 Savicki, V. & Cooley, E. (1987). The relationship of work environment and client contant of burnout in mental health professionals, Journal of Counselling and Development, 65. Singh, Dalip (1996). Transactional Analysis: A psychological study of some Behavioural Patterns of Indian managers, Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Delhi, Delhi. (2001). Emotional Intelligence at work: A professional Guide. New Delhi: Response books. (2003). Do Different Professional Require Different Level of Emotional Intelligence?. International Journal of Behavioural Sciences, 20(1-2). Global Journal of Business Management