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Chapter I

INTRODUCTION

Restriction to free movement due to quarantine and lockdowns and social

isolation at the height of the crisis is one of the many factors that contribute to

psychosocial and emotional imbalance among people during the COVID-19

pandemic. And while this adverse psychosocial consequence can be observed in the

general population, the negative emotional breakdown may be severe to people who

are more prone to infection like the frontliners as their jobs dictate them to perform

their duties despite the fear of contagion and bringing the virus in their own families.

Teachers play a crucial role in a society’s response to a pandemic. Yet, the

dual role of teaching and virus control along with concerns regarding the health

consequences of an infection may contribute to the observed increase in emotional

reactions to COVID-19 and poor mental health. For example, Nielsen et al (2021)

investigated the changes in school teachers’ emotional reactions to COVID-19 and

mental health during three phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in Denmark. Findings

revealed that emotional reactions and poor mental health increased significantly from

27% in May to 84% in December 2020. Teachers, who were particularly vulnerable to

the adverse consequences of COVID-19, had the highest prevalence of fear of

infection and poor mental health.

The COVID-19 pandemic has profound implications for the working

environment among frontline employees (Burdorf et al., 2020). Frontline employees

encompass job groups working with customers, clients, patients, pupils, etc. and they

often maintain essential functions that cannot be maintained from home (The Lancet

Editorial 2020). Not surprisingly, the working environment and mental health

particularly among healthcare professionals have received attention during the

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pandemic (Huang & Zhao, 2020; Song et al., 2020; Sun et al., 2020; Vindegaard &

Benros, 2020). Yet, when it comes to the control of a virus outbreak, also institutions

outside of the hospital sector play a major role, for example, public schools.

Globally, school closures are a frequently used approach to control virus

outbreaks (Viner et al. 2020). Yet, according to UNESCO, the duration of school

closures varies considerably between different countries and regions (UNESCO,

2021). In the Philippines, in the middle of March 2020, immediate closure of schools,

social distancing and lockdowns did happen. As the situation worsened, work from

home scheme was introduced.

At the start of 2021, the decision to continue education via blended learning

modality was introduced. Preparation of self-help materials like modules, video-

recording of lessons, radio and television-based instructions became the platforms of

education continuance amid the pandemic. In the middle part of the year, a limited

face to face was introduced. In 2022, it was announced that by November, students

would return to schools and continue their education.

From start to the middle half of 2022, psychosocial and emotional distress

have been felt and experienced by teachers. School teachers are expected to hinder

spread of infection while carrying out their core tasks (Li et al. 2020a). This dual role,

combined with the risk of infection due to multiple social contacts, affects teachers’

emotional reactions to COVID-19 and mental health, and these consequences may be

more pronounced in risk groups that are particularly vulnerable such as those from 50

and above years old (Preskorn, 2020). Knowledge about these effects of the pandemic

is not only of importance for teachers, but also for pupils, parents and the school

leaders, who are directly or indirectly affected by teachers’ wellbeing (Naghieh et al.

2015). Additionally, the teachers’ ability to navigate their double role during
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pandemics, i.e., hindering spread of infection while teaching, is of interest to society

as a whole due to the spillover effect of virus outbreaks at schools on the infection

rates in the society, pressure on the health care sector, and the economy.

A range of cross-sectional studies conducted during the 2020 lockdown

describe teachers’ mental health problems in the context of COVID-19 (Aperribai et

al. 2020; Li et al. 2020b; Lizana and Vega-Fernadez 2021; Sokal et al. 2020b;

Stachteas and Stachteas 2020; Zhou and Yao 2020), while one Spanish cross-sectional

study reported the level of poor mental health among teachers in relation to reopening

of schools (Ozamiz-Etxebarria et al. 2020). Interestingly, one UK report described

fluctuations in anxiety among teachers

from October 2019 to September 2020 and highlighted peaks in anxiety in the week

before initial lockdown and again in the week that a school re-opening was announced

(Allen

et al. 2020). In Chilean teachers, quality of life decreased during the pandemic

compared with pre-pandemic measures (Lizana et al. 2021), and a study among

Canadian teachers

reported increased exhaustion and cynicism during the first three months of the

pandemic (Sokal et al. 2020a). Thus, teachers’ mental health may be challenged

during the pandemic, but due to the cross-sectional nature of the majority of previous

studies, there is still a dearth of knowledge about the emotional equilibrium of

teachers during the pandemic as schools first dealt with limited face to face and then

to a full blast return to education by November of this year.

While previous studies have mainly dealt with teachers’ working conditions

during lockdowns and the consequent implications of remote teaching (Aperribai et

al., 2020; Li et al. 2020b; Lizana & Vega-Fernadez, 2021; Sokal et al., 2020b;
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Stachteas & Stachteas, 2020; Zhou & Yao, 2020), the present study intends to

describe the emotional quotient of teachers and the challenges that they experienced

along four domains of emotional quotient namely: self-awareness, self-management,

social awareness and social skills, as well as the extent of the experiences of

challenges in these four domains during the pandemic.

As observed among employees of the healthcare industry, (Aoyagi et al. 2015;

Goulia et al. 2010; Nabe-Nielsen et al. 2020; Seale et al. 2009), fear of infection and

transmission of infection and poor mental health outcomes are also felt among other

frontliners like school teachers (UNESCO 2021). For example, a Spanish study

reported the prevalence of poor mental health among teachers from pre-school

education to university level, where depression among teachers are felt and are caused

by anxiety (16%), stress (29%) and reopening educational institutions in September

2020 by 19% (Ozamiz-Etxebarria et al., 2020). These figures are similar to another

study conducted in the United Kingdom in June 2020, where the proportion of

teachers experiencing high work-related anxiety peaked in the week before initial

lockdown and again in the week that school re-opening was announced in June 2020

(Allen et al., 2020). Likewise, we observed a peak immediately before the second

school lockdown in December 2020 and also relatively high levels of the outcomes in

May 2020 when the youngest pupils were back in school and a reopening for the

oldest pupils was announced (Allen et al., 2020).

In China, teachers reported that the most preferred psychological intervention

during the pandemic was practice of stress management skills followed by reading

psychology education materials, receiving online psychological counseling, and using

a telephone hotline (Lizhi et al., 2021). In the context of COVID-19, a mindfulness

and cognitive reframing-intervention showed positive effects on resilience and

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psychological wellbeing of teachers (Zadok-Gurman et al., 2021). Another

intervention study partly carried out during the pandemic reported positive effects of a

14-week training program on stress coping ability, burnout, information and

communication technology competency and emotional quotient in the classroom

(Pozo-Rico et al., 2020). Thus, it appears that teachers’ mental health could be

improved through targeted interventions (Macartney et al., 2020; Walger et al., 2020),

and being physically present at the schools did not seem to imply a substantially

higher risk of infection and possible transmission to the pupils’ parents and the

teachers’ partners compared with remote teaching (Vlachos et al., 2021).

Nevertheless, the potential work-related exposure to virus could influence

schoolteachers’ perception of a safe working environment (Nabe-Nielsen et al.,

2021b). In the same vein, perceived risk of COVID-19 infection was associated with a

higher level of perceived stress among health and social care professionals (Finell &

Vainio, 2020).

Because of the dearth of local empirical data on the experiences of school

teachers in the Philippines, the study context of the high school teachers in the District

of Tagaytay is put to the fore. How good are the teachers in these schools in managing

emotions especially in experiencing stressful conditions during the pandemic? What is

the level of their emotional quotient in relation to the four domains of self-awareness,

self-management, social awareness and social skills? What is the extent of their

experiences of the challenges along the four domains of EQ? What can be done to

reinvigorate their emotional quotient? These questions are examined in the light of the

rich theoretical and empirical groundedness of this study.

The proponent of this paper is of the belief that when teachers put emphasis on

the four dimensions of emotional quotient, they would be better able to deal with
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stressors that come their way, including their personal relationship with other people,

their peers, their parents and with themselves. Thus, results of this study can provide

some baseline data for possible school activities that could be introduced in the

various schools in the District of Tagaytay, hence, this study.

Emotional Quotient (EI)

Osman et al. (2014) define emotional quotient as the 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. In addition, emotional quotient is an array of non – cognitive

capabilities, competencies and skills that influence one’s ability to succeed in coping

with environmental demands and pressures. It is the “streets smarts” in a person

reflecting on his ability to deal successfully with other people, his feelings and his

everyday social environment. By dealing with these pressures successfully, he is able

to better positively identify his overall well – being (Navarro, 2001).

The term “emotional quotient” was coined by Mayer and Salovey (1990) in

Navarro (2001). Mayer and Salovey are originators of the theory of emotional

quotient. Theirs is the ability model of emotional quotient. For them, emotional

quotient combines feelings with thinking, and thinking with feeling. Initially they

defined emotional quotient as “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. This definition talks mostly about perceiving and regulating

emotion. More recently, Mayer and Salovey have given more emphasis to thinking

about feelings. Their update definition is that emotional quotient involves the ability

to perceive accurately, appraise, and express emotion; to access and/ or generate

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feelings when they facilitate thought; to understand emotion and emotional

knowledge; and to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth.

Mayer and Salovey break emotional quotient into four related parts: (1)

Identifying Emotions which is the ability to correctly identify how people are feeling;

(2) Using Emotions which is the ability to create emotions and to integrate feelings in

the thinking process; (3) Understanding Emotion which is the ability to understand

the causes of emotions; and (4) Managing Emotions which is the ability to figure out

effective strategies that uses emotions to help achieve a goal rather than being used by

emotions.

Goleman and Bayatsis in Rao (2012) expressed emotional quotient (EQ)

aspects as follows: self – awareness, self – management, Empathy or social awareness

and social skills. Self - awareness is a personal competency which determines how

one manages self. It knows one’s internal states, performance, resource and

intentions. Self – awareness means recognizing a feeling as it happens. Self –

awareness encompasses emotional awareness, accurate self – assessment and self –

confidence. This is the cornerstone of emotional quotient. Self - management refers

to the ability to manage one’s emotions and impulse. It is managing one’s internal

values, impulses and resources. This encompasses self – control, trustworthiness,

conscientiousness, adaptability and innovation. Empathy or Social Awareness is a

social competency often termed as people skills. This is a fundamental people skill

and builds self – awareness. It means to recognize emotions in others, sensing others’

feelings and perceptions and taking an active interest in their concerns. It

encompasses understanding others; developing others, service orientation, leveraging

diversity and political awareness. Social Skills refer to adaptations of initiating

desirable responses in others, social skills or handling relationships. This encompasses

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influence, communication, conflict management leadership, change catalyst,

collaboration and cooperation and team building capabilities. People who excel in

these skills do well at anything that relies on interacting smoothly with others. They

are social stars.

In today’s competitive environments, organizations and individuals are facing

multifaceted challenges not only in enhancing the productivity but also coping with

the pressure of setting efficient and effective human resources practices in the form of

hiring, training and retaining skillful employees. To support this, effective human

resource policies are mandatory for the success of an organization and to overcome

these challenges, management are finding new avenues of implementing effective and

dynamics human resource policies. In this regard, new dimensions of organizational

behavior such as understanding the emotional quotient of the employees, integration

of work design characteristics, employee commitment and satisfaction have gained

much attention on the strategic roadmap of an organization. Organizational behavior

management systematically studies attitudes and behaviors of employees and provides

the ability to understand how to manage them efficiently and effectively and how they

can be changed.

Researchers found that the efficiency and organizational behavior of employee

is strongly influenced by emotional quotient. According to Yuan et al. (2012),

employees who perceived leaders demonstrating transformational leadership were

likely to develop increase emotional quotient behavior which improve their task

performance and increase organizational citizenship behavior. Emotional quotient

dimensions had a significant impact on job satisfaction, organization citizenship

behavior and employee performance in hotel industry. The results demonstrated that

emotional quotient helps understand one’s emotions effectively while using and
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controlling emotions induce voluntary and positive behavior. In particular, emotional

quotient with the use of emotion and self – emotion appraisal was important in

increasing organizational citizenship behavior. Moreover, the use of emotion had

greater influence on organizational citizenship behavior than self – emotion appraisal.

Thus, if employees understand, control, and use their emotions effectively, they will

create positive working environments and significantly improve outcomes such as

increased organizational citizenship behavior (Hanzaee and Mirvaisi, 2013).

Pandemic-Related Emotional Stressors among Teachers

According to Ferren (2021), pandemic-related stressors have taken a toll

among teachers. The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened stressful working

conditions. For example, the transition to virtual instruction is a completely new

experience and one that caused a lot of stress for teachers. They had no advance

notice, no or hastily prepared trainings, and little support from unprepared schools and

districts as they attempted to reinvent their profession in the third quarter of 2020

(Schwartz, 2020). In the United States, one survey of teachers found that prior to the

pandemic, 1 in 7 had not used digital media services to teach (WGBH, 2021). Another

survey found that out of 106 districts analyzed, just over half provided professional

development over the summer of 2020 to prepare teachers for remote learning in the

new school year (Dusseault et al., 2020), even though 74 percent of the country’s 100

largest districts started the school

year in a remote learning-only model (Sawchuk, 2020).

While navigating the stress of relearning how to teach, teachers were also

facing

threats of layoffs and budget cuts. Early in the pandemic, researchers predicted wide-
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spread teacher layoffs like those that occurred after the Great Recession in 2008

(Evans et al., 2019). As of now, it seems that the influx of federal relief funds has

prevented mass layoffs, but teachers faced uncertainty for months before those dollars

were delivered (Aldeman, 2021). As the 2020-21 school year began, that stress was

compounded by pressure to return to the classroom before many teachers felt it was

safe to do so (Goldstein & Shapiro, 2020). Teachers were thrust into conflicts with

their schools, school districts, students, and communities over reopening and other

safety measures (Surge, 2020) and those who did have to return to in-person

instruction faced the threat of contracting COVID-19. These new pandemic-related

stressors took their toll. Nearly half of public school teachers who quit their jobs after

February 2020 did so because of the pandemic, citing longer hours and working an

average of 52 hours per week, having to navigate the remote environment, and

experiencing technical problems (Diliberti et al., 2021; CASEL CASES, 2020).

The effects of the pandemic on teachers’ professional lives have been

aggravated by the stress and trauma they experience in their personal lives. Teachers

have not been

exempt from losing loved ones and colleagues to COVID-19, and members of

communities have been disproportionately affected, as they are more likely to be

exposed

to, contract, and die from the virus.

As of June 2021, American Indian or Alaska Native individuals were 2.4 times

more likely than white individuals to die from the virus, and Black individuals and

Hispanic or Latino individuals were 2 and 2.3 times more likely to die, respectively.

Yet having the space and time to grieve and process loss was a luxury that many

people were not afforded this past year. As the Centers for Disease Control and
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Prevention noted, “Grieving the loss of a loved one while coping with the fear and

anxiety related to the COVID-19 pandemic can be especially overwhelming” (Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019).

Teachers have gone above and beyond during the pandemic, leaving many

burnt out and with little time to process the events of the past year. The influx of relief

funds presents a unique opportunity to transform how teachers are supported in

their profession, not just during the recovery but also in the long term. In order to

ensure that the education system is able to fully recover from the impacts of the

pandemic, it is critical that schools and districts invest in their teachers, especially in

their

social and emotional health.

Reinvigorating Teachers’ Emotional Quotient

At the end of March 2020, over 5, 000 teachers were asked about how they

felt during the pandemic. The top-five emotional feelings they battled were: (1)

anxiety; (2) fearfulness; (3) worriedness; (4) overwhelmed with tasks; and (5)

sadness. The reasons teachers gave for these stress-related feelings could be divided

into two buckets. The first is mostly personal, including a general fear that they or

someone in their family would contract COVID-19, the new coronavirus. The second

pertains to their stress around managing their own and their families’ needs while

simultaneously working full-time from home and adapting to new technologies for

teaching. Given the unexpected new demands our teachers are facing, we might

assume that how teachers are feeling now is entirely different from the emotions they

were experiencing before the pandemic. But is it? In 2017, our center conducted a

similar survey on teachers’ emotions. A national sample of over 5,000 teachers

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answered the same questions about how they were feeling. Back then, the top five

emotions were frustrated, overwhelmed, stressed, tired, and happy. The primary

source of their frustration and stress pertained to not feeling supported by their

administration around challenges related to meeting all of their students’ learning

needs, high-stakes testing, an ever-changing curriculum, and work-life balance. And

so, before the pandemic, America’s teachers were already burning out. Add in new

expectations of becoming distance-learning experts to support uninterrupted learning

for all their students and caring for the ever-evolving demands of their families, and

it’s no surprise that 95 percent of the feelings they reported recently are rooted in

anxiety.

It was not a surprise therefore that during the pandemic, this emotional stress

has all the more aggravated the teachers’ feelings of anxiety, fearfulness, worry,

overwhelm and sadness. Consequently, the need to reinvigorate the teachers’

emotional state is imperative if one has to continue teaching successfully amid the

COVID-19 pandemic.

The Yale Center for Emotional Quotient in the United States has emphasized

the importance of exploring the emotional quotient of teachers during the pandemic

crisis. Accordingly, it articulated the idea that how emotions drive effective teaching

and learning, the decisions teachers make, classroom and school climate, and educator

wellbeing could either break or make effective dispensations of duties and

responsibilities. The Center elucidated the following ideas:

a. Emotions matter for attention, memory, and learning. Positive emotions

like joy and curiosity harness attention and promote greater engagement.

Emotions like anxiety and fear, especially when prolonged, disrupt

concentration and interfere with thinking. Chronic stress, especially when

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poorly managed, can result in the persistent activation of the sympathetic

nervous system and the release of stress hormones like cortisol. Prolonged

release of this and other neurochemicals impacts brain structures associated

with executive functioning and memory, diminishing the ability to be effective

teachers and undermining student learning;

b. Emotions matter for decision making. When teachers are overwhelmed and

feeling scared and stressed, the areas of the brains responsible for wise

decision making also can become “hijacked.” In contrast, the experience of

more positive states like joy and interest tend to help people evaluate

individuals, places, and events more favorably compared to people

experiencing more unpleasant emotions. Pleasant emotions also have been

shown to enhance mental flexibility and creativity, which are key to

navigating the novel and evolving demands of living through a pandemic;

c. Emotions matter for relationships. How teachers feel and how they interpret

the feelings of others send signals for other people to either approach or avoid

them. Teachers who express anxiety or frustration (for example, in their facial

expressions, body language, vocal tone, or behavior) are likely to alienate

students, which can impact students’ sense of safety in the classroom - and

likely at home in a virtual learning environment—thereby having a negative

influence on learning. Further, dysregulated emotions can undermine healthy

relationships between teachers and parents. For most students, a successful

distance-learning experience will require a solid partnership between teachers

and learners;

d. Emotions matter for health and wellbeing. How teachers feel influences

their bodies, including physical and mental health. Stress is associated with
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increased levels of cortisol, which has been shown to lead to both physical and

mental health challenges, including depression and weight gain. Both the

ability to regulate unpleasant emotions and the experience of more pleasant

emotions have been shown to have health benefits, including fostering greater

resilience during and after traumatic events; and

e. Emotions matter for performance. Chronic stress among teachers is linked

to decreases in teacher motivation and engagement, both of which lead to

burnout. Teachers who are burned out have poorer relationships with students

and are also less likely to be positive role models for healthy self-regulation -

for their students and their families. It’s no surprise that teachers who are

burned out are more likely to leave the profession, which impacts student

learning and puts a huge drain on schools.

The foregoing ideas highlight the importance of creating possible protective

factors for teachers’ emotional well-being. First, teachers with more developed

emotion skills tend to report less burnout and greater job satisfaction. These skills

include the ability to recognize emotions accurately, understand their causes and

consequences, label them precisely, express them comfortably, and regulate them

effectively. But the challenge is that most teachers have not received a formal

education in emotion skills. Second, teachers who work in a school with an

administrator with more developed emotion skills tend to experience fewer negative

emotions and more positive emotions. These teachers also are likely to have better-

quality relationships with their students. When students have stronger connections

with their teachers, they, in turn, are more engaged and committed to learning; they’re

also more willing to take risks and persist in the face of difficulty.
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Consequently, administrators need a greater focus on teachers’ emotional

health and wellbeing while in this pandemic so that they can thrive through this

pandemic and be psychologically ready to return to school after the crisis has passed.

The more sensitive we can be to our teachers’ emotional needs today, the better we

will be able to support them now and when schools reopen. The space between how

we feel and how we want to feel presents an opportunity to work together to improve

the emotional climate of our schools. The emotional climate is the feelings and

emotions a learning space evokes; that space includes both the physical one and the

learning climate that is evoked through the interactions between and among

administrators, teachers and students. This can be applied to traditional school settings

and to virtual ones as well.

Synthesis

This study is somewhat similar to other empirical works in that: (a) the studies

and this current investigation explicated the importance of possessing a stable

emotional quotient as seen in the studies of Osman et al. (2014); Navarro (2001);

Goleman et al. (2012); Brackett et al. (2011); Yuan et al. (2012) and Hanzaee et al.

(2013); (b) the studies described some pandemic-related emotional stressors

experienced by teachers as manifested in the works of Ferren (2021); Schwartz

(2020); WGBH (2021); Sawchuk (2020); Evans et al. (2019); Aldeman (2021) Surge

(2020); Diliberti et al. (2021) CASEL CASES (2020); and the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention (2019); and (c) they offered workable strategies that can be

utilized to reinvigorate the teachers’ emotional quotient and resolve some challenges

encountered as reflected in the studies of Ferren (2021) and Diliberti et al. (2021).
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However, the current investigation is also unique in that: (1) it will determine

the level of emotional quotient of high school teachers in Tagaytay City District in

terms of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and social skills; (2) it

will compare the level of emotional quotient of the high school teachers across the

four domains; (3) it will identify the extent of experiences of challenges among the

high school teachers along the four domains of emotional quotient; (4) it will compare

the extent of experiences of challenges encountered by the high school teachers along

the four domains of emotional quotient; (5) it will establish correlation between the

emotional quotient and extent of experiences of challenges among the high school

teachers along the four domains of EQ; (6) it will compare the level of emotional

quotient of the high school teachers when grouped by certain teacher-related

antecedents; and (7) it will endeavor to craft a seminar plan to reinvigorate the high

school teachers’ emotional quotient and resolve the challenges experienced by them.

Relevance / Significance of the Study

Though emotional quotient may not be necessary for every type of job, it can

be a vital trait for most people in leadership positions. Teachers are considered leaders

in their own rights. To be effective leaders in the workplace, managers, supervisors,

and other authority figures, one must be able to function productively with people

under their charge. A good leader is able to create the type of work environment

where each person feels relevant and motivated to succeed.

Leaders with high emotional quotient are able to use their social skills to foster

rapport and trust with their employees. They tend to view their team members as

individuals with unique abilities, backgrounds, and personalities, rather than as a

uniform collective. Effective leaders seek to understand and connect emotionally with
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their staff - genuinely sharing in their joys as well as their concerns. The ability to

build mutual trust and respect can become especially important if an unpopular

decision is made within the business setting, but the managers need to keep their

teams working efficiently (Llopis, 2012).

Like all other types of relationships, work relationships may experience

problems sooner or later. When conflict arises, leaders with high emotional quotient

may be better able to control their own impulses, view the situation from all

perspectives, and seek mutually beneficial solutions. Effective leaders are transparent

and are not afraid to admit when they are wrong. They are also more likely to try to

improve work relationships.

While leaders with high EQ are more likely to maximize the efforts and output

of their employees, leaders with low EQ are more likely to have a negative impact on

the productivity of their teams. Leaders with low EQ may display attitudes and

behaviors such as: (a) criticizing other people when they mistakes; (b) refusing to

accept personal responsibility for errors; (c) always playing the role of the victim; (d)

refusing to accept critical feedback; (e) using passive, aggressive, or passive-

aggressive styles of communication; (f) refusing to integrate with the team; and (g)

not being open to others’ opinions. Despite these issues, however, some experts

believe emotional quotient may be trained and developed (Grant, 2014).

Though emotional quotient is usually painted in a positive light and is often

considered to be a valuable personality trait, a balanced view of the concept can be

important. Emotional quotient, like any other skill or talent, may be used positively or

negatively depending on the intentions of the person wielding the ability (Deleon,

2015).
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As people with high EQ are better able to manage their own emotions and

evaluate the emotions of others, they have the capacity to be more deceptive and

manipulative than other people. Business leaders with high EQ and self-serving

motives may toy with the emotions of their employees, using them to climb the

corporate ladder with little regard for their workers’ long-term welfare.

Such leaders may also pretend to offer friendship and support, while secretly

seeking to undermine the ambitions of team members who could become potential

rivals. They may even expose their workers to public embarrassment, shame, or guilt

in an effort to reach their own personal goals. Those seeking to become effective

leaders may do well to reflect on the importance of emotional quotient in the

workplace.

Theoretical Framework

Sadovvy et al. (2021) assessed the moderating effect of emotional quotient in

the direct impact of the stress generated by the pandemic on work performance and

counterproductive work behaviors (CWB) in a multi- occupational sample of 1048

professionals. One group of professionals were teachers which comprised about one

fifth of target respondents.

The idea of Sadovvy et al. (2021) is presented in the following framework as

shown on Figure 1. According to the authors, a moderating variable between the

feeling of stress or burnout and work performance is the emotional quotient of

teachers.
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Figure 1. Emotional Intelligence (EQ) As a Moderating Variable of

Work Stress and Work Performance

Findings in this study confirmed the significant role of emotional quotient in

the direct impact of the stress of the pandemic on work performance, which when

lower may anticipate more counterproductive work behaviors and poorer work

performance levels on a multi-occupational sampling. Those with higher emotional

quotient dispose of suitable tools to cope with the requirements of the job and

therefore minimize the influence of the current epidemiological situation by

displaying less disruptive behaviors at work and enhanced work performance levels.

This pandemic urges us to begin with the development and implementation of EQ

promoting intervention programs to foster it and promote healthier working

environments. Ultimately, these atmospheres could prevent the progression of stress

in employees helping them reach their top performance or at least not losing their job

while unemployment rates are skyrocketing worldwide.

The results proved a relationship between Covid stress, performance and EQ,

which has a moderating effect between the stress and both indicators of performance,

even when sociodemographic variables were controlled. In essence, professionals

with high levels of EQ and low Covid stress showed the highest performance and the
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lowest CWB when compared to those who presented less emotional capabilities and

higher stress. These results confirm the importance of EQ in improving the

effectiveness of work performance and reinforce the role of EQ as a protective

variable that can safeguard occupational health.

Emotional quotient as a moderator is a well-known and proven capacity that

preserves mental health of individuals is defined as the ability of being emotionally

intelligent. Thence, Emotional quotient (EI) is described as the faculty to perceive,

facilitate, comprehend and manage own and other's emotions (Mayer et al., 2016).

The lack of this competence in such a situation characterized by daily stress in which

humanity is currently immersed may be translated into severe future consequences

(Drigas &

Chara, 2020; Moro ́n & Biolik-Moro ́n, 2021). According to the Job Demands-

Resources Theory (JD-R) (Bakker & Demerouti, 2017), specific work characteristics

(i.e. job demands and job resources) are associated with work outcomes (e.g. well-

being, work performance).

Therefore, from the ability approach, EI could be considered as a personal resource

that may fulfill a similar function played by job resources (Cˆot ́e, 2014; Schaufeli &

Taris, 2014).

As a matter of fact, emotions have persuasive properties that tempt us to act on a way

or another and thus when these are balanced the foundation on which they are built

propels an effective manner of handling different sort of events (Baba, 2020; Van

Kleef et al., 2015).

In other words, individuals with high EQ (Emotional Quotient) are: (1) more

capable of being aware of the emotions they experience during a certain situation and

thus managing them without being seduced by acting on anxiety, (2) more supportive
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and helpful with other people impacted by stress and other negative feelings and thus

(3) more adaptable not only towards stress, but to any kind of disruptive emotions

(Alonazi, 2020; Baba, 2020; Druskat et al., 2005; Mishra & Mohapatra, 2010).

Oppositely, individuals with less EQ tend not to be able to recognize and understand

what they feel and consequently may present severe difficulties in labeling their

emotional state seeking to handle it properly, which may result in a deteriorated

ability to regulate their perceived stress and in consequence becoming more incapable

of avoiding the wide-ranging consequences of it (Baba, 2020; Druskat et al., 2005;

Mishra & Mohapatra, 2010).

Workers having a higher EQ has a mechanism through which this ability may

act as a “stress buffer” by: (a) minimizing the stress of the circumstances perceived as

demanding, (b) shutting off the “fight or flight” response after the stressor has

disappeared and (c) measuring the extent of stress reactivity as an indicator of

physiological and psycho- logical capacity (Drigas & Chara, 2020; Lea et al., 2019; M

́erida-Lopez et al., 2019).

In essence, a higher EQ represents the advantage of identifying more easily

stress sources and thus direct attention towards them by coping more appropriately

achieving in turn an enhanced position when performing at work in comparison to

those individuals that cannot count on this emotional asset (Alonazi, 2020; Rezvani et

al., 2020; Sanchez-

Gomez & Breso, 2020). Therefore, there is enough evidence to support the

relationship between stressful situations and performance, as well as the moderating

role of EI between work demands and work outcomes (Cˆot ́e, 2014).

Deductively, since an organization is represented as a group of individuals

who work together in an organized way for a shared purpose, the current pandemic is
 22

urging us that mental health must be on the list of one of those purposes as the work

environment and the behaviors related to it are determining characteristics that may

unleash side-effects in employees' well-being (Giorgi et al., 2020; Wilkinson, 2020).

Additionally, employees or workers may develop a battery of (a) behavioral,

(b) physical and (c) psychological reactions that could deeply affect their inner

stability translated into headaches, gastric disturbances, lower motivation, depressive

thoughts or even isolation ultimately impacting their work performance (Giorgi et al.,

2020; Pedrosa et al., 2020). Additionally, the subsequent pressure stemming from

consecutive warnings, deadlines and targets on behalf of the higher positions in an

organization may trigger a sense of unendurable stress that employees are prone to

suffer causing in turn health issues and absenteeism at work (Bains & Chitrao, 2020;

Wee et al., 2019). On top of that, stigma and discrimination by their peers and the

possible emotional contagion of these in the workplace may affect individual self-

efficacy causing emotional exhaustion, anxiety or even depressive symptoms that

inhibit them to perform their duties well (Barsade, 2002; Giorgi et al., 2020;

Valenzano et al., 2020; Moreno et al., 2020; Sanchez-Gomez et al., 2021).

A school is a socially-structured institution of people working toward a

common goal. According to Pipas (2013), interpersonal relationship between people

takes place through contextual communication in an environment where attitudes and

behavior cannot be studied in isolation. From this point of view, it is important to

understand human relationships in relation to other variables that are included

throughout the organization.

Each individual is a unique entity with unique personality which brings to the

organization a new culture, a host of attitudes, values and past experiences. Where

individual needs not compatible with organization’s requirements, situations of

 23

dissatisfaction, frustration and conflict may occur. It is the task of managers to create

an organizational environment that allows individual’s needs satisfaction, adopting a

positive organizational behavior and disappearance of conflicts to favorably achieve

organizational goals and performance in work.

Pipas (2013) identified the following characteristics of organizational

behavior: (a) it is a way of thinking about individuals, groups and organizations; (b) is

multidisciplinary where it uses principles, models, theories and methods from other

disciplines; (c) it has a distinctly humanistic orientation about people and their

attitudes, perceptions, learning abilities, feelings and goals are of a paramount

importance; (d) it is geared towards performance. On studying factors affecting the

performance individual and the organization as a whole and how it can be improved

the use of the scientific method is important in the study of variables and relations;

and (e) it is oriented on the applied part of things in that it can provide answers when

questions arise regarding the management of organizations.

Armstrong (2009) in Pipas (2013) identified few factors affecting

organizational behavior like the actions, reactions and interactions of people that

constitute organizational behavior which could be influenced by the following factors:

(1) the characteristics of people at work like individual differences, attitudes,

personality, attributions, orientation and the roles they play; (2) how employee in an

organization is motivated; (3) the process of employee engagement; (4) the process of

organizational commitment; (5) how organizations function; and (5) organizational

culture.

Organizational behavior is individual behavior and group dynamics in

organizations. The study of organizational behavior is primarily concerned with

psychosocial, interpersonal, and behavioral dynamics in organization. However,

 24

organizational variables that affect human behavior at work are also relevant to the

study of organizational behavior. These organizational variables include jobs, the

design of work, communication, performance appraisal, organizational design, and

organizational structure.

According to Naqshbandi (2011) in Eynollahzadeh (2015), one of the internal

variables which can directly or indirectly influence behavior in the organization is

“emotional” or the affective intelligence of employees. Employees with high affective

intelligence level are more skilled in setting and managing own and other affection

along positive interaction establishment. So, these employees will have higher

organizational citizenship behavior, and consequently, higher occupational

performance. In addition, affective intelligence is a skill whose holder can control his

self – awareness, improve self- management, understand its empathy, and behave is

such a way that improves own and other spirit (Lam & Kirby, 2002 in Eynollahzadeh,

2015).

Research studies reveal that one of the factors that influence efficiency of people is

emotional quotient. Consequently, emotional quotient influences the organizational

behavior of each person. Yuan et al. (2012) found that employees who perceived

leaders demonstrating transformational leadership were likely to develop increase

emotional quotient behavior which improve their task performance and increase

organizational citizenship behavior. Arabshahi (2013) found that knowledge sharing

behavior of teachers is significantly related to dimensions of EQ such as self –

awareness, social skills, coping with pressure and overall creation. Emotional

quotient has a positive impact on job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior

and employees’ performance (Seyal, 2013; Hanzaee and Mirvaisi, 2013; Abbas and

Syed, 2015; Turnipseed and Vande Waa, 2012; Naqshbandi in Eynollahzadeh, 2015).
 25

In the context of this study, schools are considered workplaces. They are a

community of people of different personalities, the teachers, in particular, display

different emotions as they struggle to accomplish the given task and in dealing with

students they work with. In doing so, the teachers need a lot of social and emotional

learning which entails emotional quotient.

Conceptual and Analytical Framework

Considering the foregoing theoretical foundations of this study, the conceptual

analytical framework of this study is put forward. Page (2017) articulates that

emotional quotient is the capacity to understand and manage one’s emotions. The

skills involved in emotional quotient are: self-awareness, self-management, social

awareness and social skills. The four domains of EQ included the following:

Self-awareness is about understanding oneself: knowing one’s weaknesses,

strengths, drivers, values and their impact on other people – forces for good intuition,

essentially.  In practice, this would look like self-confidence and a thirst for

constructive criticism. A self-aware and emotionally intelligent manager would plan

their time properly and get the work done well in advance of any deadlines.

Self-management is the ability to control and redirect disruptive impulses and

moods. Think of trustworthiness, integrity, and comfort with change. It is not letting

one’s emotions crippling an individual and instead marshaling one’s positive

emotions and aligning emotions with one’s passions.

Social Awareness is about understanding other peoples’ needs, their

backgrounds and experiences so that one can easily adapt to them. It is an individual’s

consciousness or mindfulness about other people and their idiosyncrasies in order to

establish a common ground and a common understanding.

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Finally, social skill is building a relationship with others to move them in

desired directions. It is about the importance of cultivating among individuals the

abilities and skills to communicate with people regardless of the unique differences of

people.

Given the theoretical foundations of this current investigation, the following

conceptual processes as shown in the research paradigm in Figure 2 shows the

relationship of the different variables of the study.

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

Teacher -Related
Antecedents  Level of Emotional Quotient of
a. Sex; High School Teachers in terms of:
b. Age; a. self-awareness;
c. Highest Educational b. self-management; Seminar Plan to
Attainment c. social awareness; and
Reinvigorate High
d. Years of teaching; d. social skills
School Teachers
e. School currently  Extent of Experience of
Challenges Encountered along
Emotional Quotient
teaching; and
f. Current assignation the four domains of EQ
of teachers (Junior
or Senior High
School)

Figure 2. Research Paradigm

This study will utilize the IPO model – which is a system’s theory in

education. The IPO model is a system theory because it rests on the assumption that a

team is more than one-to-one relationships between variables, and more than the sum

of its members. It suggests that there are interactions and feedback between many

contributing factors (Forsyth, 2010). Inputs are the conditions that exist prior to

group activity, whereas processes are the interactions among group members. Outputs
 27

are the results of group activity that are valued by the team or the organization

(Organizational-Industrial Psychology, 2017).

In this study, inputs include any antecedent factors such as organizational

context, task characteristics, and team composition (Landy & Conte, 2009) that may

influence the team itself, directly or indirectly. As written by Forsyth (2010), inputs

can include individual-level factors, team-level factors, and environmental-level

factors (like policies or programs). In this study, the Input Phase will gather

information on teacher-related antecedents such as sex, age, highest educational

attainment, years of teaching, school currently teaching and current assignation.

Meanwhile, processes are operations and activities that mediate the

relationship between the input factors and the team’s outcomes (Forsyth, 2010).

Processes include group norms, as well as a group’s decision-making process, level of

communication, coordination, and cohesion (Landy and Conte, 2009). Specifically,

processes can be things such as: steps taken to plan activities, initiating actions,

monitoring resources, monitoring progress, maintenance of interpersonal

relationships, dealing with conflict, or members’ sense of commitment to the team. In

this study, the Process Phase will determine the level of emotional quotient of high

school teachers in terms of: self-awareness; self-management; social awareness; and

social skills and the extent of experience of challenges encountered along the four

domains of EQ.

Lastly, outputs are the consequences of the team’s actions or activities. Most

often this refers to the team’s tangible output – what they made, achieved, or

accomplished (Forsyth, 2010) Whether the team wins or loses, whether their product

is of adequate quality, and whether they were successful in completing their goals

efficiently are all questions of tangible outcome. Other outcomes are also important,
 28

such as changes in the team's cohesiveness, the degree to which the team learns to be

prepared for future tasks, the uniqueness of the team’s solution, and whether it

increases in efficiency through practice. Team outputs were also categorized as

productivity/performance, member satisfaction, and innovation (Landy & Conte,

2009). In this study, the Output Phase will endeavor to craft a Seminar Plan to

reinvigorate the teachers’ emotional quotient and resolve the challenges experienced

in the workplace.

Purposes of the Study

This study generally aims to determine the emotional quotient and challenges

experienced by the high school teachers along four domains of EQ and craft a

proposed seminar plan to reinvigorate the teachers’ emotional equilibrium and

provide resolutions to the challenges encountered along the domains of emotional

quotient.

Specifically, this study will work on the following specific purposes:

1. Describe some teacher-related antecedents such as sex, age, number of years

teaching, school currently teaching, highest educational attainment and

teaching assignation either as Junior and or Senior High School teacher;

2. Determine the level of emotional quotient of high school teachers in Tagaytay

City District in terms of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness

and social skills;

3. Compare the level of emotional quotient of the high school teachers across the

four domains;

4. Determine the extent of experiences of challenges among the high school

teachers along the four domains of emotional quotient;

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5. Compare the extent of experiences of challenges encountered by the high

school teachers along the four domains of emotional quotient;

6. Establish correlation between the emotional quotient and extent of experiences

of challenges among the high school teachers along the four domains of EQ;

7. Compare the level of emotional quotient of the high school teachers when

grouped by certain teacher-related antecedents; and

8. Craft the proposed seminar plan to reinvigorate the high school teachers’

emotional quotient and resolve the challenges experienced by them.

Statement of the Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses will be tested in this study:

1. There is no significant difference in the level of emotional quotient of the high

school teachers in Tagaytay District across the four domains;

2. There is no significant difference in the extent of experiences of the challenges

encountered among high school teachers in Tagaytay District across the four

domains of emotional quotient;

3. There is no significant correlation between the emotional quotient and extent

of experiences of challenges among the high school teachers; and

4. There is no significant difference in the level of emotional quotient of the high

school teachers when grouped by:

4.1 Sex;

4.2 Age;

4.3 Number of years teaching;

4.4 School currently teaching;

4.5 Highest educational attainment; and

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4.6 Teaching assignation.