Emotional Intelligence and Job Performance of High School Female Teachers

Emotional intelligence (EI) has become a well-known concept in the field of work psychology. There has been an increasing realization that, beside other skills and attributes, EI is an important predictor of potential job performance. This present study aimed to explore EI as predictor of job performance among high school female teachers. The impact of work related attitudes, job satisfaction, turnover intention, and organizational commitment was also located on the relationship of EI and job performance. Female teachers (210), who had been teaching grade 10 students for 2-10 years in 35 randomly selected government high schools comprised the sample. Emotional Intelligence Test (Schutte et al., 1998), Job Satisfaction Scale (Warr, Cook, & Wall, 1979), Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (Mowday, Steers, & Porter, 1979), and Continuance Commitment Subscale (Allen & Meyer, 1990) were used to measure the study variables. Marks of students and self-evaluation forms were employed to measure the job performance of the teachers. A theoretical model was developed, positing EI predicting job performance via job attitudes; that is job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions. EI came out as a poor job performance predictor as was indicated by path analysis and regression analysis. However, teachers with high EI indicated more job satisfaction than teachers with low EI; and their students secured better grades. This has important implications for educational authorities, school administrators, and teachers in terms of teacher recruitment, training, performance and professional development.