Emotional Intelligence and Employee Retention in Small Business Enterprises in Akoko South West LGA
CHAPTER ONE
Objective of the study
The objectives of the study are;
- To identify the extent to which the leader’s emotionally intelligent role influences to create positive employee attitudes and behavior
- To examine whether the leaders‟ emotional intelligence and their behavior affected to determine whether the employees will stay longer or quit
- To identify the significance of improving emotional intelligence within organizational leaders
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction
The concept of emotional intelligence goes back to early studies in the 1920s (Bar-on and Parker, 2000). In the early 1980s, scholars began to systematically conceptualize the idea of emotional intelligence. Notably, Gardner’s (1983) conceptualization of intrapersonal intelligence and interpersonal intelligence and Steiner’s (1984) work on emotional literacy were the building blocks for what Salovey and Mayer (1989-1990) first termed as emotional intelligence. Based on previous work, Bar-on (2000) viewed emotional intelligence as a cognitive intelligence which is defined as an array of emotional, personal and social abilities and skills that influence an individual’s ability to cope effectively with environmental demands and pressures. Goleman (1995) has defined emotional intelligence as “the abilities such as being able to motivate oneself and persist in the face of frustrations; to control impulse and delay gratification; to regulate one’s moods and keep distress from swamping the ability to think; and to emphasize and to hope.” In 1998, Goleman refined the definition of emotional intelligence to “the capacity for organizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotion well in ourselves and in our relationships” (Goleman, 1998). He applied EI as a concept in the workplace setting. Goleman presents emotional intelligence as a skill with two key areas in his emotional competence framework; “personal competence” which represents how to manage ourselves (i.e. self-regulation, self-motivation, etc.) and “social competence” which represents how to manage relationships (i.e. empathy, and social skills) (Goleman, 1995). Emotional intelligence is a powerful psychological skill that can affect behaviour and performance in important ways (Brown, 1997). Salovey and Mayer’s (1990) conception of emotional intelligence strives to define emotional intelligence within the confines of the standard criteria for a new intelligence. Following their continuing research, their initial definition of EI was revised to “the ability to perceive emotion, integrate emotion to facilitate thought, understand emotions and to regulate emotions to promote personal growth.” The ability-based model views emotions as useful sources of information that help one to make sense of and navigate the social environment. The model proposes that individuals vary in their ability to process information of an emotional nature and in their ability to relate emotional processing to a wider cognition. This ability is seen to manifest itself in certain adaptive behaviours. The model claims that EI includes four types of abilities: perceiving emotions, using emotions, understanding emotions, and managing emotions. The mixed model was introduced by Daniel Goleman and it focuses on EI as a wide array of competencies and skills that drive leadership performance. Goleman’s model outlines four main EI constructs: self-awareness, selfmanagement, social awareness, and relationship management (Goleman, 1995). Bar-On (2000) defines emotional intelligence as being concerned with effectively understanding oneself and others, relating well to people, and adapting to and coping with the immediate surroundings to be more successful in dealing with environmental demands. Bar-On posits that EI develops over time and that it can be improved through training, programming, and therapy. Bar-On hypothesizes, individuals with higher than average EQs are, in general more, successful in meeting environmental demands and pressures. He also notes that a deficiency in EI can mean a lack of success and the existence of emotional problems.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought emotional intelligence and employee retention in small business enterprise in Aboko South West LG
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain Emotional intelligence and employee retention in small business enterprises in akoko south west LGA. In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of emotional intelligence and employee retention in small business enterprises
Summary
This study was on Emotional intelligence and employee retention in small business enterprises in akoko south west LGA. Three objectives were raised which included: To identify the extent to which the leader’s emotionally intelligent role influences to create positive employee attitudes and behavior, to examine whether the leaders‟ emotional intelligence and their behavior affected to determine whether the employees will stay longer or quit and to identify the significance of improving emotional intelligence within organizational leaders. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 staffs of selected small business enterprise in Aboko South West LG. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made managers, secretaries, sale reps and cashiers were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
The major conclusion of this study was that there’s a moderately positive relationship between the leaders‟ EI and employee retention intention. Since the correlation between variables is moderately positive it implies that there may be some other factors or reasons that would impact the employees‟ retention intention more intensely. However, it would be much essential for organizations to pay their attention to this aspect too, since they would definitely get an added advantage by improving EI of not only within leaders but also within the whole staff
Most people tend to think that retention of employees is a part of human resource management and planning efforts. Turnover, as the opposite of retention, often has been seen as a routine HR matter requiring records and reports. Indeed, retention of employee is not a matter that can be dealt by the reports or records, it is purely depends on how we understand individual concerns and we react towards them. Nonetheless, the results of this study suggest that a manager’s EI has a positive influence on the retention intention of their staff and that improving the EI of management within an organization may have a positive impact on its performance and its capacity to retain talent.
Recommendation
Basically the researcher would provide two options for organizations to increase the EI of its management in two prominent ways. First, by hiring and promoting people into management rolls those are with high EI and secondly by improving the EI of managers through a learning and development intervention. In fact we suggest the organizations, when it comes to gauging job candidates especially into supervisory and managerial positions they can view emotional intelligence as being as important as other qualifications or abilities and also can use EI testing before hiring. Selecting managers who have high EI would definitely have a positive impact on the extent to which an organization succeeds in retaining its most critical workforce as the study reflects
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