An Exploratory Study of Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Stress Management among Working Professionals

Abstract

Emotions contribute a lot in managing stress and anxiety at workplace and in life in general. The purpose of the present study ‘The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Managing Stress among Working Professionals’ was to investigate the role of emotional intelligence in managing stress among working professionals. The Schutte Self Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) were administered on 40 participants (females=19 and males=21) working in private sector with 9-to-5 job criteria and based in Lucknow. Descriptive statistics, Correlation analysis and t-test were used for analysis of data. The t-test analysis at 0.05 level of significance showed that there was a significant difference between perceived stress of working professionals with high and those with low emotional intelligence. The result also revealed that there was a negative correlation between emotional intelligence and stress. It indicated that professional with high emotional intelligence suffered less stress in their work environment. On the basis of these findings, suggestions were made to include emotional intelligence as an intrinsic component of selection, placement and training, and integrate emotional intelligence intervention techniques to help working professionals in coping and managing the stress.