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org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND WORK

LIFE BALANCE OF EMPLOYEES IN RETAIL
SECTOR
R.Satish Kumar1
Asst Professor, School of Management Studies, Maharajah’s Post Graduate College,
Vizianagaram, (A.P), India.

K.Meera Jyothirmai 2
Research Scholar, GITAM Institute of Management, GITAM University,
Visakhapatnam (A.P), India.

ABSTRACT
Emotions are intrinsic part of biological makeup. In everyday work life it plays a significant role and
influences our behavior. Emotional intelligence concept is a sphere of how we sense our emotions,
recognizing emotions on others to manage and handle relationships. In organizations understanding
emotional intelligence of employees thereby leads to improve individual and organizational performance.
Work life balance of employee is a challenging issue in retail services. It grabs the attention of research
interest to know the level of satisfactory involvement or fit between the multiple roles in a person’s life.
Organizations need to ensure they not just encourage but mandate a practical and workable work/life balance
policy, benefiting and meeting the needs of both the organization and its employees. Organizations not
providing real opportunity for employees work -life balance are opening themselves up to increasing
numbers of dissatisfied and unproductive employees and hence increased attrition rates. This study is an
earnest attempt to bridge the gap especially in the area of emotional intelligence by highlighting the
relevance of work life balance in retail sector. This investigation will initiate a series of serious and
productive discussion on the subject of employee leadership. At the end the study confirms that both
emotional intelligence and work life balance together create organizational success and develop competitive
advantage for retail organizations.
IndexTerms: Emotional Intelligence, Organizational performance, Work-life balance, Leadership.

1. INTRODUCTION
Emotional Intelligence is a set of qualities and competencies that captures a broad collection of individual
skills and dispositions, usually referred to as inter and intra-personal skills, that are outside the traditional
areas of specific knowledge, general intelligence, and technical or professional skills. Emotional intelligence
consists of five factors: Knowing one's emotions, managing emotions, motivating one, recognizing emotions
in others, and handling relationships. EI may be a relatively new term, not more than 25 years old but the
roots of EI can be found in 5000 years ago in Bhagavad-Gita. In 1920’s emotional intelligence were stated in
the concept of “Social Intelligence”. In early 1900s Thorndike describes the concept of social intelligence as
the ability to get along with other people by being able to understand the internal states, motives and
behaviours of oneself and others, this concept is very close to the present day concept of EI.
Though we experience a wide range of emotions in our daily life its effect on human behaviour has always
been a topic of argument. In the last three decades, a growing body of research is proving just the opposite
by suggesting that emotions are valuable signals that help us survive and thrive. Different theories attempt to
understanding and explaining the skills, traits, and abilities associated with emotional intelligence. All of the
theories and models in conceptualization of EI are under the umbrella of three main lines of thought
including: trait approach, ability approach and mixed approach. These are the models proposed by Mayer
and Salovey, Bar-on and Goleman. Each of their theoretical framework conceptualise emotional intelligence
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from one of two perspectives: as a form of pure intelligence consisting of mental ability only, or as a mixed
intelligence consisting of both mental ability and personality characteristics like optimism, adaptability and
well-being.
Although the polices has been framed to work life balance in retail services, emotional intelligence played
vital part in managing relationships among employees and with customers. EI is a very important skill in
leadership. It is said to have five main elements such as self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy,
and social skills. This investigation is through light on impact of emotional intelligence on performance of
retail employees and the next objective is to know how to become an EI organization. Emotional Intelligence
(EI) refers to the ability to perceive, control, and evaluate emotions. Some researchers suggest that emotional
intelligence can be learned and strengthened, while other claim it is an inborn characteristic. Through this
study, it is concluded that emotional intelligence has greater impact on performance of employees. Secondly
an emotionally intelligent organization is based on an organisational strategy to improve business
performance.
In the area of emotional intelligence and work – life balance studied in this investigation has provided an
insight into many factors of retail employee aspects of life. It also provides direction in designing the present
study. Having reviewed several studies and having identified the gap, it is indeed felt an imperative need to
undertake the present investigation.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW
According to Emmerling & Goleman, there are various definitions of EI that are complementary to each
other; each one aims at understanding one‘s own and others emotions. In 1990, Salovey & Mayer coined the
term ―Emotional Intelligence and they defined Emotional Intelligence as a subset 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 actions. This was the very first definition of EI which was
then redefined in 1997 and it stated EI as, "the ability to perceive and express emotion, assimilate emotion in
thought, understand and reason with emotion and regulate emotion in self and others.
The review of studies suggests that this definition of EI is accepted and adopted by most of the scholars and
researchers around the world. Goleman published his book Emotional Intelligence, defined EI as an ability
which include self-control, zeal and persistence and the ability to motivate oneself and later he redefined EI
as the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves and for
managing emotions effectively in ourselves and others. Bar-On introduced the term Emotional
Quotient‘(EQ) in his doctoral dissertation as an analogue to Intelligent Quotient (IQ). He defined emotional
intelligence as an array of non cognitive capabilities, competencies and skills that influence one‘s ability to
succeed in coping with environmental demands and pressures. The most compendious definition of EI was
offered by Martinez; defined EI as "an array of noncognitive skills, capabilities and competencies that
influence a person's ability to cope with environmental demands and pressures”.
Lair Kidwell, David M. Hardesty, Brian R. Murtha, &Shibin Sheng (2011)examine the impact of EI in
marketing exchanges on sales performance and customer relationships. They find that EI is positively
related to performance and finally the results indicated a complementary relationship between EI and
cognitive ability in that EI positively influences performance at higher levels of cognitive ability. Abraham
Carmeli (2003) suggests that managerial skills in general and emotional intelligence in particular, play a
significant role in the success of senior managers in the workplace. The results indicate that emotional
intelligence augments positive work attitudes, altruistic behavior and work outcomes, and moderates the
effect of work-family conflict on career commitment but not the effect on job satisfaction.
The most formal definition of EI refers to the ability to identify and express emotions, understand emotions,
assimilate emotions in thought, and regulate positive and negative emotions in one and others. Talking about
competency in perception of emotion: it consists of recognition of emotion-related facial and voice cues of
others and awareness of one‘s own body states relating to emotion. Competency in understanding one‘s own
and others emotions involves knowing the causes and consequences of different emotions as well as being

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able to differentiate between varying emotions. This conceptualization suggest that the competencies of
perception, understanding, utilizing and managing emotions effectively in the self and others comprise the
core of emotional intelligence
With the assistance of EI literature the following objectives are set for investigation.

3. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

 To examine the role of Emotional Intelligence in managing Role Conflict and enhancing Quality of
Work Life and happiness among the retail employees.

 To Know the contribution of Emotional Intelligence in the total effectiveness of employees Specific
Goals

 To understand the relationship between emotional intelligence and performance of the employee.

4. METHODOLOGY
This study will be helpful to know the relation between the emotional intelligence and performance of the
employees. In the retail organization whose employees lacking in their performance due to low level of
emotional intelligence. This investigation assists in future, why some employees are outstanding performers
while others are not. On the basis of these results an organization can choose a strategy and actions to
improve the performance of their employees. It can give a new dimension in the future to conduct research
on the employees of other service sector also. The study of data is purely based on secondary data. To get
proper understanding of this concept of EI need knowledge on management theories and models of human
resources to achieve competitive advantage through creation and protection that increases distinctive value
in the organization. In this environment managers begin to conclude that the motto is “not knowing how to
do it, but yes increasing its value”.

Table 1: Common facets in salient models of EI:

There remains still no agreement about what features, factors, abilities or skills do or do not form part of EI.
As more and more tests of, and books about EI appear on the market the situation gets worse rather than
better. Most, but not all theories and systems include ideas about emotional awareness and regulation. Some
distinguish between intra and interpersonal emotional skills. Some use the concept of ability, others of skills,
and some of competencies. Some of the important facets have taken to imply for retail sector.

Facets High Scorers perceive themselves as being or having

Adaptability Flexible and willing to adapt to new conditions

Assertiveness Forthright, frank and willing to stand up for their rights

Emotion expression Capable of communicating their feelings to others

Emotion Capable of influencing other people’s feelings

Management(Others)
Emotion perception Clear about their own and other people’s feelings
(Self and Others)
Emotion regulation Capable of controlling their emotions

Impulsiveness (low) Reflective and less likely to give into their urges

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Relationship skills Capable of having fulfilling personal relationships

Self-Esteem Successful and self-confident

Self-Motivation Driven and unlikely to give up in the face of adversity

Social competence Accomplished networkers with excellent social skills

Stress management Capable of withstanding pressure and regulating stress

Trait empathy Capable to taking someone else’s perspective

Trait happiness Cheerful and satisfied with their lives

Trait optimism Confident and likely to ‘look on the bright side’ of life.

4.1 Research Hypotheses

 Hypothesis 1: Higher the EI, lesser will be the Work Interfering Family (WIF) conflict among retail
employees
 Hypothesis 2: Higher the EI, lesser will be the Family Interfering Work (FIW) conflict among retail
employees.
 Hypothesis 3: Higher the EI better will be the Quality of Work Life (QWL) of the retail employees.
 Hypothesis 4: Higher the EI, greater will be the perceived level of Happiness among retail
employees.

4.2 Research Variables' Definitions

Emotional Intelligence(EI): Emotional Intelligence is the ability to become aware of even subtle changes in
one’s and others' emotional tones and to control them, to keep calm in the midst of pressure, to initiate and
maintain healthy relationships with others, and to maintain an optimistic outlook towards work and life.
Work Family Role Conflict: Work Family Role Conflict is an unpleasant experience whereby the person
concerned feels that the demands placed on him/her by the two very important domains of his/her life work
& Family are incompatible with each other to such an extent that a proper balance between them cannot be
maintained (Hammer & Thompson, 2003). Work family Role Conflict is comprised of two domains: Work
Interfering Family (WIF) Role Conflict and Family Interfering Work (FIW) Role Conflict (Kelloway,
1999). WIF Role Conflict occurs when work related activities spill over or interfere with home
responsibilities and Family Interfering Work (FIW) conflict arises when family role responsibilities spill
over or impede work activities. The two types were separately considered in the study.
Quality of Work Life: QWL denotes as the degree to which a work can meet the needs of an individual
employee and create a sense of satisfaction within him/her. The concept is so broad that it covers the whole
continuum of needs ranging from fair remuneration or physical work environment to autonomy at workplace
or social relevance of the work.
Happiness: Happiness may be defined as the experience of frequent positive effect, infrequent negative
affect and an overall sense of satisfaction with life as a whole (Myers & Diener, 1995). Retail employees

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was especially the point of focus in the present study, since, researches reveal that this industry is
experiencing tremendous challenges in meeting the employment market demand and a good HR solution is
much needed in this domain to help the employees be more productive and happy in life (Rethinam & Ismail,
2008). The shift duties and frequent requirements take a toll on the Retail operation professionals, especially so for
the female professionals, since, males are deemed to take the larger share of home responsibilities, even today.
4.3 Data Collection

Data were collected through administering the questionnaires mentioned below under the tools of
Organizational Dispositional Variables of WIF Role Conflict, FIW Role Conflict, Quality of Work Life and
Happiness to assess the EI in retail employees. Only limited retail employees of north costal Visakhapatnam,
AP, who had expressed willingness to participate, were included in the sample. Each of the participants was
interviewed in order to purpose of the study. The concepts were explained though the term ‘Emotional
Intelligence’ and deliberately Variables are acquiring a deeper insight into the problem area.

4.4 Tools and Data Analysis

To measure variables of the study tools of Schutte et al., 1997 (Emotional Intelligence), Quality of Life
Scale (Dasgupta and Pal, 2001), Work Family Conflict Scale (Netemeyer et al., 1996), Subjective Happiness
scale (Lyubomirsky and Leeper, 1997) has empowered. Descriptive statistics of Pierson Correlation
Coefficient test are used for data analysis to know the Relation between Emotional Intelligence & Work
Interfering Family (WIF) Role Conflict, Family Interfering Work (FIW) Role Conflict, Quality of Work Life
and Happiness.
Table 2: Pierson Correlation Coefficient Test Results

S.no Hypothesis Pierson Correlation Coefficient Emotional

Test Results Intelligence

1 WIF Role Conflict Correlation -0.48

Significance level 0.05
Number 32

2 FIW Role Conflict Correlation Percentage -0.48

Significance level 0.05
Number 32

3 Quality of Work Life Correlation Percentage 0.56

Significance level 0.01
Number 32

4 Happiness Correlation Percentage 0.54

Significance level 0.01
Number 32

5. DISCUSSION
From the above table 2, two general trends may be disclosed. Emotional Intelligence bears statistically
significant relationship with all the Dependent Variables included in the study and the directions of the
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correlations are also in line with that of research hypotheses. Thus, it may be stated with confidence, that EI
does bear a negative relationship with Work Family Role Conflict and a positive relationship with QWL and
Happiness.
The negative relationship with Work family Role Conflict implies that people with higher level of EI
experiences lower level of Role Conflict, and are better at managing their role demands at both fronts. This
may be due to the fact that Emotionally Intelligent people are highly motivated and thus, meet their role
demands without experiencing much stress. Also, since, they understand and value others' emotions, they
tend to make better bonds with people around them, their empathetic nature probably makes the significant
others more understanding and empathetic towards them, thus practically lessening the role demands placed
upon them.
The positive relationship between EI and QWL implies that people with higher EI enjoys better QWL as
compared to those with lower EI. This may be because; High EI ensures high motivation, high inspiration
level, leadership quality, high negotiation skills and a pleasant personality. Thus, individuals with high EI
find themselves in a better position at the retail workplace irrespective of their position in organizational
ladder. Moreover they tend to develop more “friends” than “foes” in the workplace. This makes them derive
more satisfaction from workplace. Moreover their optimistic approach towards life goes a long way to
enhance their QWL.
The positive relationship between EI and happiness indicates that higher the level of EI in an individual,
greater his/her level of Happiness. This may be considered to be the most impactful finding of the present
study, since, the sole objective of mankind is to be happy, in whatever way they choose to achieve it.
Research reveals that Happiness is dispositional in nature, rather than being circumstantial (Myers & Diener,
1995). All of the four inner traits that have consistently been found to mark happy people are actually
components of EI: Self-esteem, a sense of control, optimism and extraversion. Moreover, building social
bonds have been found to be especially contributively towards long term Happiness and the ability to build
such bond is a key component of EI. Thus, much of the qualities possessed by Emotionally Intelligent
persons directly help them to achieve greater happiness in life, reducing the impact of negative emotions and
stress.

6. FINDINGS
The three major behaviours of work that interferes with personal life were unhappiness with the amount of
time for non – work activities followed by missing personal activities due to work and putting personal life
on hold because of work. The two major factors impacting work – life balance of retail employees are felling
exhausted at the end of days work and quitting their jobs or taking a career break because of work – life
balance issues. In retail outlets standing and attending every customer is rigorous job. Workings in festive
seasons are really challenging task. The least difference was found in paid leave of absence for education
and paid paternity leave. In case of paid maternity leave the prevalence of it was found to be higher than the
awareness of the work – life balance programs.
It was found that in retail employees were high on regulation of emotion in the self, followed by appraisal
and recognition of emotion in others, use of emotion to facilitate performance and appraisal and expression
of emotion in the self. It was noticed that Level of risk to an employee’s position with the usage of work-life
balance programs has a strong correlation with Appraisal and expression of emotion in self, use of emotions
to facilitate performance and Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others
Significant differences were found between gender and work interference with personal life, work related
factors interfering with personal life and level of risk to an employee’s position with the usage of work-life
balance programs. The differences were found between age and work related factors interfering with
personal life. Work related factors interfering with personal life were highest for the 35 – 45 years age
group, followed by the 45 – 55 years age group and was lowest for employees above 55 years. In marital
status related factors, interfering with personal life and likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs.
Work related factors interfering with personal life were higher for married retail professionals as compared

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to single or unmarried retail employees. Further married retail employees were more likely to use work - life
balance programs as compared to single or unmarried retail professionals.
Significant differences were found between management level and work interference with personal life,
factors impacting work – life balance and work related factors interfering with personal life. Work
interference with personal life was highest for retail professionals at the middle management level and
lowest for junior level management. Factors impacting work – life balance was highest for both junior and
middle management retail professionals and lowest for senior management retail professionals. Finally work
related factors interfering with personal life were highest for senior management retail professionals and
lowest for junior level management retail professionals. Employees who are working for longer years in
retail operations are managing and balancing work -life well then employees with lower tenure of job.

7. IMPLICATIONS
Retail service organizations need to ensure formal policies in place are consistent with what employees
actually experience. Policy provision alone is not sufficient to ensure employees’ work/life balance. Human
resource department should look at the uptake rates of policies across different areas in the organization
because this may provide clues to the existence of unsupportive cultures. Adopt a ‘give and take’
philosophy. Both employer and employee need to be willing to bend a little.
There should be a clear boundary drawn between work and non – work activities. Human Resources
and the Senior Management should take the initiative and communicate the importance of having a good
balance between personal and professional life. The widespread perception that visibility = productivity
should be changed. Focus on effectiveness rather than on length of work hours. Use communication
technologies and skilful time-management strategies to boost output.

8. CONCLUSION
Work Life Balance of retail employees in an issue that has attracted the interest of researchers, educationists
and the leaders of the retail management. Managing both professional and personal life effectively and
efficiently has become a major challenge for the retail employees. Retail organizations need to make efforts
to develop effective work life balance policies and encourage their employees to make use of the available
policies. This will help increase organizational commitment, improve productivity, efficiency, retain best
talent and motivate the retail employees to give their best. This study confirms that both emotional
intelligence and work life balance together create organizational success and develop competitive advantage
for retail organizations. Thus the human resources team and the leadership team of retail organizations
should take the initiative of enhancing and improving the emotional intelligence skills of their employees.
Improved emotional intelligence skills will help an individual understand and manage the emotions of one
and others better which will lead to high quality service delivery.
It is therefore imperative for retail senior management to strive to create a bridge between emotional
intelligence and work life balance in retail organizations. Emotional intelligence is an effective way to
integrate, enhance and provide better work and family life. Understanding the potential and the talent that
their employees bring in and ensure the articulation of difference that employees bring to the work place and
value them to make it a part of the organizational success. Retail organizations should come up with
effective and efficient work – life balance policies and programs and foster an organizational culture that
supports the use of available policies is also of great importance. This will help reduce the work – life
conflict for retail operational employee.

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