Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies: Home

Abstract:
Emotional Intelligence is increasingly being recognized as an attribute that managers require in improving the performance of their organizations. The objectives of this study were to determine the relationship between management's EI and performance of academic institutions, and to establish the moderating effects of organizational factors on the relationship between manager's EI and organizational performance, among academic institutions in Eldoret municipality, Kenya. A survey research design was used for this study. The institutions studied were selected using stratified random sampling technique. The three strata considered were primary schools, secondary schools, and colleges/tertiary institutions. From each institution sampled, the respondent was the head of the institution. The target population was 127 managers and a sample size of 113 was used. Questionnaires were used to collect data. A modified Emotional Competency Profiler (ECP) was used to determine the EI of the managers. Apart from the data from the managers, each manager's EI was also rated by four subordinates called raters. Data was analyzed statistically using SPSS. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were carried out and the hypotheses tested. From the findings of the study it was established that management's EI had a significant positive linear relationship with organizational performance. It was also found that contextual factors considered in this study had slight moderating effects on the relationship between EI of the manager and performance at 95% confidence level. Results also showed that the managers exhibited moderate levels of EI and there were no significant differences in scores for either gender. The contextual factors do not have moderating effects on the relationship between manager's EI and performance. The purpose of the study was to determine the influence of managers' emotional intelligence on performance of academic institutions. It was therefore concluded that EI of the manager is an important management trait that influences performance of academic institutions. The study therefore recommends that there is need to create awareness on the importance of EI on performance and enhance the managers EI through training. The findings of the study will form the basis for policy makers to incorporate emotional intelligence in training of managers

Keywords: emotional intelligence, performance, organizational factors, management, emotional competency profiler (ECP)

Download full paper