OCCUPATIONAL STRESS FEATURES, EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND JOB SATISFACTION: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY IN PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING

This study was conducted to measure the effect of occupational stress (i.e., physiological stress and psychological stress) and emotional intelligence on job satisfaction in private institutions of higher learning in Sarawak, Malaysia. A survey method was used to gather 80 usable questionnaires from academic employees who have worked in the organizations. The results of exploratory factor analysis confirmed that the measurement scales used in this study satisfactorily met the standards of validity and reliability analyses. The outcomes of testing research hypothesis using a hierarchical regression analysis showed two major findings: First, interaction between emotional intelligence and physiological stress significantly correlated with job satisfaction. Second, interaction between emotional intelligence and psychological stress insignificantly correlated with job satisfaction. This result demonstrates that the capability of academic employees to manage their emotions and other employee emotions has increased their abilities to control psychological stress in implementing job. As a result, it could lead to higher job satisfaction. Conversely, the incapability of academic employees to manage their emotions and other employee emotions has decreased their abilities to control psychological stress in implementing job. Consequently, it could lead to lower job satisfaction. Further, this study confirms that emotional intelligence does act as a partial moderating variable in the occupational stress models of the organizational sector sample. In addition, implications and discussion are elaborated.