DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES AS INDICATORS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE: A STUDY OF SELECTED ENTERPRISES OF UTTARAKHAND

Emotional Intelligence is “a form of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one's thinking and action”(Salovey and Mayer, 1990). EI is identified as an essential factor responsible for determining success in professional and personal life. An individual having high emotional intelligence shows greater ability to perceive and understand his own and other's emotions and possess the ability to manage and regulate his emotions. The present research study focused on exploring the impact of demographic variables namely age, gender, education and total working experience on emotional intelligence. The study was conducted in the state of Uttarakhand and the survey instrument was administered to the 360 middle level managers of selected enterprises operating in the state. Data was collected using ‘The Schutte Self Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT)' developed by Schutte et al. (1998) for measuring the Emotional Intelligence of the respondents. Results of the study showed that demographic variables such as age, gender and working experience have a significant impact on the emotional intelligence score of middle level managers. It was also found that educational qualification does not have any significant impact on the emotional intelligence score of the middle level managers.