Exploring the relationship between managers' emotional intelligence and job satisfaction in the personal protective equipment industry

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between managers’ emotional intelligence (EI) and job satisfaction within the personal protective equipment industry. Numerous studies have been conducted regarding these two concepts; however extremely few could be found regarding these concepts in relation to the personal protective equipment industry. A survey questionnaire was designed to elicit information from individuals within a business that is a notable market leader in the personal protective equipment industry in South Africa, regarding their perceptions of job satisfaction and EI. The complete questionnaire consisted of three sections. Section A comprised 99 EI questions reflecting the participant’s current preference for the different competencies within the emotional intelligence model, indicating EI strengths and development areas. There was no grading, however. If the participants mostly scored "usually", "almost always" or "always" for a specific section, this indicated a strong association with that certain competency. The short form of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire developed by Weiss et al. (1967:2) formed Section B and consisted of a 5-point Likert-type scale with 20 items. This scale is broadly used in the literature, being a familiar and constant instrument used among previous researchers and yielding outstanding coefficient alpha. Section C consisted of the biographical information of all participants. The validity of the measuring instrument was assessed by using factory analysis and calculating Cronbach alpha coefficients, with the assistance of the Statistical Consulting Service at the North West University, which analysed the data by making use of the IBM SPSS Statistics Version 22 (SPSS Inc. 2015). A literature study was completed for this research that focused mainly on exploring the impact EI has on a managers’ behaviour and how it impacts other elements of a business, such as the job satisfaction of employees. Elements such as leadership were also covered in this literature review. At the end of this paper various conclusions will be drawn and recommendations made on the basis of this literature review and the results obtained from the questionnaire. The participants in the study were 58 employees of Select PPE (Pty) Ltd, who were located in different areas in South Africa. Select PPE’s main business focus is supply, delivery and record keeping of personal protective equipment, altering and enhancing the system to suit the specific needs of each customer. Select PPE’s main market is the mining sector, but is not limited to it and includes the agricultural, oil, gas and retail markets. The results show that there is a definite relationship between managers’ EI and job satisfaction within the personal protective equipment business. With regard to the job satisfaction of the employees of Select PPE (Pty) Ltd, the results indicated that they tended to be more positive about intrinsic aspects of job satisfaction. However various limitations exist regarding this study, one of which is that the results of this study are not representative of the entire population of Select PPE (Pty) Ltd.