Emotional Intelligence and Performance Among Nursing Professionals in Tertiary Hospitals in Benue State of Nigeria

Intelligence is the ability to utilize knowledge and skills to solve societal problems. There are various types of intelligences. Studies however have shown that rational intelligence is no longer seen as a good predictor of employee’ effectiveness. It is believed in recent times that emotional intelligence is a better predictor in determining employees’ effectiveness (Goleman, 1995; Mayer & Salovay, 1995; Gorji &Moghin, 2012; Schneider, Lyons & Khazan, 2013). Emotional intelligence relates to understanding, appreciating and relating effectively with other human beings so as to solicit commitment, motivation and cooperation in achieving organizational or individual goals. In the words of Pope and Singer (1990 p.25) emotional intelligence is the “intelligence of applying affection and emotion to guide the behavior, thoughts, effective communication with colleagues, supervisors, customers and the use of time in the course of doing work for improving results”. It means that intelligence is seen from the perspective of organizational relationship. Goleman (1998 p.16) define emotional intelligence “as the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships”. This definition has simplified the elements and scope of emotional intelligence and so made it easier to be understood. Research in management and organisation show that people with high levels of emotional intelligence are more effective in organizational commitment, performance and team leadership (Aghadasi, Kiamaneshb & Ebrahimb, 2011; Gholami, Shams &Amoozadeh, 2013), enjoy a sense of job satisfaction (Wong & Low, 2002; Ayub & Rafif, 2011; Seyal & Afzaal, 2013) and more adaptable to stressful events (Guy, Newman & Ganapati, 2014). Emotional intelligence is operationalized in terms of self-awareness, self-management, empathy, social awareness and social skills Performance is operationalized in terms of task performance, contextual performance, adaptive performance and counter work behavior. This study is concerned with the contextual aspect of performance. Contextual performance is defined as behaviours that support the organization social and psychological environment in which the technical core must function. Behaviours used to describe contextual performance include demonstrating effort, facilitating peer and team performance, cooperating and communicating (Koopmans, Bernards, Allard & Henrica, 2013). Nursing profession is an integral part of the health care system that encompasses the promotion of health, prevention of illness, and care of physically ill, mentally ill and disable people of all ages in all health care and other community settings