Freshman Students' Emotional Intelligence and Team-Work Satisfaction Levels. A Comparative Study: Gender and Nationality

Abstract

It is generally accepted that intelligence quotient (IQ) is not asufficient predictor of academic success, and that emotionalintelligence (EI), which can helps us handle our emotions andrelationships with others more effectively, can account for as much as80% of our success. This appears to be particularly important forstudents who take courses requiring team or group work. Students withhigher levels of EI are more likely to achieve academic and socialsuccess. However, this is a formidable challenge for freshman studentswho have a lower EI, and thus lack the skills necessary for effectiveteam-work. This may result in reduced levels of satisfaction withteam-work and therefore adversely affect their success (Goleman, 1995).With this apparent importance of EI for effective team-work, the currentstudy measured the EI levels of freshman engineering students at thePetroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, and examined the relationship betweenEI and team-work satisfaction levels. Data were gathered using theSchutte Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS) and the Global SatisfactionScale (GSS). 285 students (203 males and 82 females) participated in thestudy. 240 of the participants were Emirati students, while 45 wereother Arab expatriate students. Student t-test was used to compare thedata according to gender and nationality variables, and the Pearsonproduct-moment correlation coefficient was used to measure the strengthof association between EIS and GSS scores. The results showed that thestudents' overall EI score was just below average as compared to a meanscore of 126 for first year college students computed by Schuttle andMalouff (1998). The female students' EI score was found to be differentfrom that of the male students at a statistically significant levelalthough no statistically significant difference was detected regardingnationality. The results from GSS indicated that the students' teamsatisfaction level was above average, and there was a strong positivecorrelation between their EIS and GSS scores suggesting that thesatisfaction levels were higher for students with higher EI levels. Itis discussed that the higher level of team-work satisfaction despite thelower levels of EI might be due to the collectivist nature of the Arabculture, which discourages expressing negative emotions explicitly.