Evaluating the Role of Emotional Intelligence in Employees’ Job Performance in First Bank, Akwa Ibom North-East, Nigeria

Abstract

Emotional Intelligence (EI) has become a very important topic in management and education in recent years especially in regard to how it affects today’s employees. In this study, effort was made to investigate the relationship between EI and employees’ job performance (JP) in First Bank, Akwa Ibom North-East, Nigeria, and it became imperative due to paucity of literature on EI and employees’ JP in the Nigeria’s banking sector. Survey design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised 79 employees in the five branches of First Bank in Akwa Ibom North-East. The relatively small size of the population does not allow the use of sampling technique. The instruments used for data collection were Emotional Competence Inventory and researcher-designed job performance questionnaire, validated by measurement and evaluation experts, and achieved a Cronbach’s Alpha reliability co-efficient of 0.80. Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used for data analysis.  Five hypotheses were formulated and tested using t-test and multiple linear regression analysis. All null hypotheses were rejected and the alternate accepted. The findings of the study revealed that there exist positive significant and joint relationship between EI variables and employees’ JP in First Bank. The study concluded that EI skills relate to employees’ JP in First Bank. It was recommended that, First Bank should organise seminars and workshops to help employees acquired self-awareness, self-regulation and empathy skills. It was also recommended that get-together, parties, picnics and other social events should be organised regularly to enable employees acquire social skills.