CAN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE MODERATE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COPING SELF-EFFICACY AND PERCEIVED STRESS? A STUDY AMONG ITES EMPLOYEES
Stress in the workplace is a significant phenomenon that arises due to various factors such as long working hours, monotonous jobs, dominating and demanding bosses, the targets that the employees must achieve, etc. In the present world, stress has become inevitable due to significant changes in the nature of work. Perceived stress is a feeling or a thought that an individual has about how much stress they are experiencing over a given time. This study aims to examine whether emotional intelligence acts as a moderator between coping self-efficacy and perceived stress among 132 volunteered Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) employees working in organizations across India. For collecting data, three instruments namely assessing emotions scale developed by Schutte et. al., perceived stress scale developed by Cohen et. al., and coping self-efficacy scale developed by Chesney et. al., was used. We conducted a two-stage hierarchical multiple regression analysis to test our conceptual model. From the results, it can infer that emotional intelligence acted as a significant moderator in the relationship between coping self-efficacy and stress for the employees surveyed. The results can be applied in ITES sector, while developing policies and practices for the employees to help them cope with stress. Also the results can be used by the researchers to evolve the knowledge created in stress, emotional intelligence and self-efficacy research.
Emotional Intelligence, Perceived Stress, Self-Efficacy, Coping Self-Efficacy, Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) Employees, Two-Stage Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis