Examining the relationship between emotional intelligence, job satisfaction and perceived job performance among school teachers in Malaysia

Abstract

In today's society, emotional intelligence is increasingly seen as an instrument which can influence employees' performance significantly, improve emotions and contribute to the quality of interpersonal relationships at the workplace. Despite the popularity of emotional intelligence, most teachers do not see the importance of its role in the teaching profession. Previous studies did not focus much on the mediating factor with regards to relationship between emotional intelligence and job performance. Therefore, this research examined the differences of school teachers' emotional intelligence level based on their demographic profile. Mayer and Salovey's Ability Model of emotional intelligence was adopted to assess the mediation effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between emotional intelligence and perceived job performance. This research used a quantitative research methodology using survey questionnaire to collect data. 408 questionnaires were collected from both public primary and secondary school teachers in Peninsular Malaysia. The findings revealed that there were significant differences between age and working experience, with emotional intelligence level. This empirical research confirmed that use of emotion, regulation of emotion and intrinsic factors of job satisfaction are positively related to perceived job performance. In the mediation analyses, intrinsic factors of job satisfaction functioned as a mediator between use of emotion and regulation of emotion on perceived job performance. Overall, this research has highlighted that emotional intelligence and job satisfaction are essential in influencing perceived job performance among Malaysian school teachers. The outcome of this study can be used to facilitate school administrators in their planning to effectively improve school teachers' job performance.