Demographic profile and emotional intelligence of applied health sciences teaching staff: A correlation study

This study aims to investigate the relationship between demographic profile and EI of teaching staff in a college in Najran Saudi Arabia. This study used descriptive-correlational design, and total enumeration sampling was utilized with 61 respondents. Statistical tools used in this study were frequency, percentage, Pearson-r, and Spearman-rho. Results revealed that: Pearson-r revealed the relationship between age and EI results the score of (r= -0.21, n=61, p=0.11) and the relationship between years of experience and EI results revealed a score of (r= -0.13, n=61, p=0.31); and Spearman-rho revealed a score of (r s = -0.28, n=61, p=0.03) and (r s2 = 0.08). The researcher concludes that: the teaching staff level of EI is average; the teaching staff age and years of experience have no relationship with their EI; there is a weak negative relationship between the teaching staff academic rank and their EI.


Introduction
*Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to identify and control emotions in ones' self and others, and the ability to use that consciousness to direct relations and actions (Bradberry and Greaves, 2009). According to Sutton and Wheatley (2003), emotions are deep-seated part of a teacher's work, and it has an effect on teacher efficiency, move, thinking, and motivation. Further, learning is not solely dependent on the intellectual quotient (IQ) of teachers (Llego, 2017). Education is one of the significant utilization of EI because of its great significance in teaching as it aids the teachers to know their students. Further, EI ranked first as a significant motivating factor for learning (Madhar, 2010).
Being a teacher faces many challenges, like preparing lessons, dealing students and colleagues with different behaviors and conviviality with their supervisor or administrators. One of the most stressful professions is the teaching profession. According to UKM (2009) Leads Research on Emotional Intelligence, the excessive workload is one the main reason for emotionally burden demeanor in the teaching profession. According to Ngah et al. (2009), Malaysian educators were inadequate to manage their emotions efficiently and lack emotion management when dealing with their workmates.
With all these in mind, it is then imperative to hire teachers that have high EI. Studies linked that demographics affect EI. According to Kumar and Muniandy (2012), the demographic profile has a positive relationship with emotional intelligence. Further, Llego (2017) claimed that EI is dependent on age and sex. Löckenhoff et al. (2008), states that as age increase, blending of positive and negative emotions also increases on both own and others emotion. Shipley et al. (2010) found out that EI was positively associated with work experience.
In Najran Saudi Arabia, there are no available data or studies conducted with this theme. The study may be the pioneer of research in the area. Given all these data, the main aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between demographic profile and EI of teaching staff in a college in Najran Saudi Arabia. Further, this study will also answer the demographic data of the respondents such as age, years of experience, and academic rank and the level of their EI. This study is hoped to spark new ideas for forthcoming researchers that are interested in the same field. The findings of this study could also be a baseline data about EI of educators in Najran Saudi Arabia.

Literature review
According to Salovey and Mayer (1990), EI is the ability to supervise others' and feelings and emotions, to differentiate among them and to utilize this clue to guide one's thinking and response and to contemplatively organize emotions to boost intellectual and emotional growth (Goleman, 2006). As argued by Madhar (2010), EI is important because it guides what people do, it influences whom people meet, it decides how people look, it enunciates how people feel, it determines the course of life, and job satisfaction of teachers depends on their attitude. Based on the study of Rust (2014), in education, teachers who exhibit increased levels of EI are related to the academic achievement of their students. It is, therefore, essential that teachers have high levels of EI. Literature and studies relate demographic data such as age, experience, and level of the position. According to Cicetti (2013), it was clear to him that, like wine, most of us improve with age in one area, he believed that we become better people as we age. Cook and Cook (2009) found out that professional levels are positively correlated with levels of EI. Indeed the higher one goes in an organization, the more critical EI can be and the higher an individual climb on the corporate ladder, the more emotionally intelligent he becomes. According to Shipley et al. (2010), found that EI is positively associated with work experience.
Hence, the researchers aim to investigate the relationship between the demographic profile and EI of Teaching Staff in a College in Najran Saudi Arabia.

Research design
This study utilized descriptive correlational design using a questionnaire because this study has no controlled variables and explained the influence of demographics on EI without attempting to infer causal connections (Polit and Beck, 2010).

Respondents
The respondents of this study were the 61 teaching staff of a private college in Najran Saudi Arabia, which offers allied medical courses coming from the six (6) departments, namely: Preparatory, Emergency Medical Services, Nursing, Health Administration, Medical Laboratory and Medical Imaging. Total enumeration was applied in this study to adequately represent the population (Polit and Beck, 2010). According to the Quality Department of the College, there are 64 teaching staff, and 61 (95.3%) participated in this study.

Instrumentation
The main instrument utilized in data gathering is a survey-questionnaire adapted from the Schutte Self Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT) that was based on Goleman Emotional Intelligence Theory that was used in the study of Llego (2017). The instrument from Llego (2017), was modified by removing one of the profile questions, which is sex because all the respondents in this study are males. The instrument was used in this study because of financial constraints, and it is openly available.
In a reliability test in Turkey through re-validity and reliability: the test-retest reliability of the scale yielded a score of 0.81 and Cronbach's alpha brought out a score of 0.92 (Tok et al., 2013). Further, Llego (2017), in the Philippines, conducted face validity with six experts in the field of education, he also did an internal consistency test on the EI questionnaire together with demographic profiles such as age, sex, position (academic rank), and length of service. The overall analysis revealed a Cronbach's alpha score of 0.87, which means that the instrument has relatively high consistency (Llego, 2017). Hence, the instrument was used by Llego (2017), was utilized in this study.

Ethical considerations
Before the conduct of the study, the researchers seek permission from the dean of the college. Further, the researchers also asked the approval of the different department heads in the college. Furthermore, a letter of consent to participate in the study was attached to the instrument.

Data gathering
Actual data collection and retrieval was conducted in the third week of March 2017. The participation of the respondents in this study was subject to their availability and willingness to answer the questionnaire; no force or coercion was done to them to answer the questionnaire.

Tools for data analysis
In answering the specific questions, Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 22 was used. For the demographic profiles such as age, academic rank and years of teaching, frequency and percentage were used to gather enlightenment on the variable of interest about dispersion, central tendency, and outliers (Plichta and Garzon, 2009). To illustrate the level of EI of the teaching staff in a private college in Najran Saudi Arabia, WM was use, this is to examine the relative significance of each quantity on the average (Plichta and Garzon, 2009); Table 1 depicts the EI scale used in this study and was adapted from Llego (2017). To answer the significant relationship of demographic profile such as age and years of experience with EI, Pearson-r was utilized for they are continuous data. To respond to the significant relationship of academic rank and EI, Spearman-r was used, for academic rank is an ordinal data, and EI scale is a continuous data.  Fig. 2 displayed the distribution of years of experience of the teaching staff. It can be seen that majority (54.1%) belongs to the teaching staff has 0-5 years of teaching experience, and very few (1.6%) has 25 years of experience. The remaining 44.3% has 6-24 years of experience. Fig. 3 showed the distribution of academic ranks of the teaching staff. It can be seen that vast majority (60.7%) are Lecturers, some (26.2%) are Instructors, and very few (9.8%) are Assistant Professors and (3.3%) Associate Professors.      For the relationship between age and EI results revealed (r= -0.21, n=61, p=0.11), this means that there is no significant relationship between age and EI of the teaching staff. For the relationship between years of experience and EI results revealed (r= -0.13, n=61, p=0.31), this means that there is no significant relationship between years of experience and EI of the teaching staff. Table 4 showed the relationship of academic rank and EI of the teaching staff. To interpret this table, it must be made clear that there is a significant relationship if the p-value is equal to or less than 0.05. Results revealed (rs= -0.28, n=61, p=0.03) and (rs 2 = 0.08), this means that there is a weak negative relationship between academic rank and EI of the teaching staff.

Discussion
The teaching staff is composed of middle adults to late adults which is more than 75%, according to EME (2006), hiring older workers can help maintain a dependable, committed workforce and provide considerable cost savings for short and long term. These teaching staff are also relatively new or inexperienced to the teaching profession. According to Hillman (2007), the advantage of employees who are neophytes is they are ready to demonstrate their value and are enthusiastic about impressing which will drive them to give their best so that they may gain respect and confidence from their employer. Majority of the teaching staff are in the classification of Lecturer and Instructor; this means that the majority of them just starting with the teaching profession. Also, the majority of them are not inclined with research further, and few teaching staff are tenured (DB, 2013).
The mean EI level of the teaching staff is average; this result implicates that they have fair productivity. According to Bradberry (2015), EI is linked to performance; emotional intelligence is the most substantial predictor of work. Teachers who are teaching at the tertiary level are expected to perform more because they are developing and harnessing future professionals that will supply the demands of society. It is more desirable to have a pool of teachers who possess higher EI in the tertiary level, especially those who are teaching allied medical courses because the people they are developing are the people who will deal not with machines but with life.
In this study it also found out that age has no relationship with the EI of the teaching staff, this is contradicting to the findings of Llego (2017) wherein he found out that EI is dependent on age. Further, the result also is contrasting with the statement of Cicetti (2013) that as people grow old, the more they become emotionally intelligent. The result of this study may be associated with other factors such as culture and upbringing; further research may be done to investigate other factors that affect EI, especially in Arab countries.
Also, in this study, revealed that there is no significant relationship between years of experience and the EI of the teaching staff; this means that even if the teaching staff earn more experience as years go by, their EI is not affected significantly. This finding is incongruent with the study of Shipley et al. (2010), wherein they found out that EI is positively associated with work experience. Meanwhile, this finding is congruent with the conclusions of Llego (2017), he found out that EI has no significant difference with different age group.
In terms of academic rank, this study found out that there is a weak negative significant relationship between academic rank and the teaching staff EI; this means that as the teaching staff get a higher rank, they become less emotionally intelligent in a small degree. This finding is in contrast with the finding of Cook and Cook (2009), occupational levels are positively correlated with levels of EI and the higher an individual climb on the corporate ladder, the more emotionally intelligent he becomes. This finding again may be associated with cultural differences and other factors.

Conclusion
In light with the finding of this study researchers concludes the following: the teaching staff in a College in Najran Saudi Arabia is composed of older workers, with less teaching experience and who are occupying the non-tenured positions such as Instructor and Lecturer; their age and years of teaching experience does not affect their EI, and as they step higher in their academic rank the less they become emotionally intelligent in a small degree.
With the findings of this study, the researchers recommend conducting a further and more in-depth review of this type of research, especially the inclusion of other variables. Further, it is also recommended to include an EI assessment when hiring new faculties to have a pool of not just cognitively intelligent but emotionally intelligent teachers as well.