1. health and fitness
2. therapy

International Journal of Basic Sciences & Applied Research. Vol., 4(1), 51-55, 2015
Available online at http://www.isicenter.org
ISSN 2147-3749 ©2015
The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Occupational Stress
among Managers, Trainers and lifeguards of Eastern Azerbaijan province
Swimming Pools
Leila Habibzadeh1, 2, Hossein Talebian Nia1, 2*
1
Department of Physical Education, East Azarbaijan Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz,
Iran
2
Department of Physical Education, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran
*
Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]
Abstract
The present study aims at determining the relationship between emotional intelligence
and stress managers, trainers, and lifeguards in Eastern Azerbaijan Province. Method
of the study is of descriptive-correlation type, and the statistical population consists of
all managers, trainers, and lifeguards working in swimming pools of this province
during academic year 2013-14, where 414 were selected as sample. Data collection tools
included Brad Berry and Greaves’ questionnaire of emotional intelligence, standard
Slocum questionnaire, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used for data analysis.
Findings showed that, that there is a meaningful relationship between general level and
micro-elements of emotional intelligence variable (self-awareness, self-management,
social awareness, and relationship management) and occupational stress among
managers. Also, there was no meaningful relationship in general level and variable
micro-elements of emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-management, social
awareness, and relationship management) with occupational stress among managers
and lifeguards. It is by and large suggested that in order to enhance emotional
intelligence of the society under examination, to take measures and undertake
interventions to reduce their occupational stress.
Keywords: Emotional intelligence, Occupational stress, Managers, Trainers, Lifeguards.
Introduction
Emotional intelligence is the most recent evolution in the field of recognizing the relationship between thinking
and emotion. This term was first suggested by Salovey and Mayer (1990). Emotional intelligence as a sort of capability
is the capacity of emotional intelligence that is a set of non-cognitive capabilities and skills that increase people’s
success ability in facing with environmental pressures and requirements (Dehshiri, 2011). Since emergence of
emotional intelligence structure in the literature of psychology, this structure has been examined in different fields,
including work and work place. In fact scholars have always tried to find out the relationship between this structure and
important and efficient factors in occupational success. According to the results obtained from different studies, one
may generally say that those people with a high level of emotional intelligence can use all of their existence
capabilities, and convert limitations to opportunities. Emotional intelligence can provide mental health requirements by
creating a dynamic environment, facilitating learning together with joy and happiness as well as a desirable social
relation along with controlling emotions and feelings (Zare’ian, 2006). Daniel Golman (1995) describes emotional
intelligence as: another form of intelligence consisted of recognizing one’s emotions and using them to take appropriate
decisions in life, and is applied to the capability for desirable management of mood and control of traumas. Emotional
intelligence is a factor that creates motivation and hope upon failure of not reaching the goals. Moreover, low emotional
intelligence may turn the staff indifferent and careless, reducing their performance drastically, and as a result reduce
organizational efficiency. Emotional intelligence at its lowest level is able to make work centers more efficient and
dynamic. On the contrary, occupational burnout in organizations may be very costly, leading to abundant loss
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Intl. J. Basic. Sci. Appl. Res. Vol., 4(1), 51-55, 2015
(Taghizadeh, 2009). Hence, identifying man power exposed to the risk of burnout and utilization of therapeutic
interventions such as teaching skills of encountering mental pressure in avoiding or reducing burnout in these people is
necessary. In recent decade, the issue of stress and its effect in organizations has allocated one of the main subjects of
organizational behavior management to itself, and neural pressure in organization drains and eradicates activities like a
pest. Paying attention to work places and the staff’s conditions is an issue that leads to enhancement of work quality,
maintenance of the staff’s health and welfare, and has been marked for gaining more and better benefit from working
years. Regarding the effect of occupational stress on life and the staff working in such systems, those factors related to
satisfaction should be addressed in order to progress and enhancement of the staff’s level of efficiency (Nasiri, 2013).
Almost everybody is plagued with a sort of stress related to their job. Most of these stresses are marginal and
short-term, having a small effect on individuals. But for many people, the stress is severe and long-term. Allocated
tasks may lead to stress. First, the task volume might be very big. Some people oblige themselves with doing difficult
and time consuming tasks; because they either need the money or they think that maybe their manager would not be
satisfied with them. The results obtained from studies have shown that high task volume is related with health
incidences and problems (Benson, 2009). Secondly, some tasks are more stressing compared to other activities. For
example, repetitive tasks where labors’ capability is not used cause stress. Every job imposes different sort of stress to
the individual based on the conditions that arise. Therefore, the present study aims at examining the relationship
between emotional intelligence and occupational stress among managers, trainers and lifeguards at swimming pools in
East Azerbaijan province.
Methodology
Research method was of correlation type. The statistical population of this study included all managers, lifeguards
and trainers working at swimming pools in East Azerbaijan province between 2014-2015, whereby 414 (215 women
and 199 men) including 120 managers, 122 trainers, and 172 lifeguards participated in the study. The independent
variable was emotional intelligence and the dependent variable was occupational stress. During the phase of conducting
the research after providing some introductory explanations about measurement tools and the purpose of the test, the
way of answering the tests was explained for the participants in details. Regarding moral considerations, after obtaining
written consent from the participants and providing them with necessary awareness, they were assured that the collected
information would be used in this study only and they would be protected from any abuse. To measure the research
variables, a questionnaire was used as follows.
Brad Berry & Greaves’ questionnaire of emotional intelligence: This questionnaire was developed by Brad Berry
and Greaves in 2004, and consists of 28 questions. The questionnaire measures four elements of self-awareness, selfmanagement, social awareness and contact management. Scoring of this scale is done according to Likert’s 6 degrees
scale (never, rarely, sometimes, often, frequently, and always). The validity coefficients of this questionnaire were
reported between 0.73 to 0.90 and the simultaneous validity of this questionnaire with emotional intelligence test was
reported to be 0.68 (Greaves, 2005). Moreover, the stability of emotional intelligence questionnaire in the present study
was calculated to be 0.769.
Slocum’s questionnaire of occupational stress: The questionnaire included 10 questions. Every question includes
5 options (never, rarely, sometimes, often, frequently, and always). Sub-scales of physical environment, measure the
conflict of the role of ambiguity. The stability of this questionnaire is measured by calculating Cronbach’s alpha in
numerous studies, and for structures of physical environment, occupational conflict and factors of role ambiguity have
been calculated as 0.93, 0.86, and 0.91 respectively, which shows the stability of the said questionnaire (Miorzayi,
2007). In categorizing level of stress, those with scores between 23 and below are low-stress and those with scores
between 24-36 have medium occupational stress, and those with scores of 37 and above have high stress.. Pearson’s
convergence coefficient was used for data analysis. Meaningfulness level in all analyses was held α0.05.
Results
To examine the relationship of emotional intelligence and its micro-elements (self-awareness, contact management,
social awareness, and relation management) with occupational stress, Pearson’s r was used.
According to table 1, it was observed that between emotional intelligence and managers’ occupational stress, r=0.11
and P=0.21, because level of meaningfulness is more than 0.05. Therefore it may be concluded that there is no
meaningful direct convergence between the above said variables (table 1).
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Intl. J. Basic. Sci. Appl. Res. Vol., 4(1), 51-55, 2015
Table 1. The relationship between emotional intelligence and manager’s occupational stress
Emotional intelligence
Managers’ occupational stress
N
120
r
0.11
P
0.21
Also, analyses showed that the sub-scales of managers’ emotional intelligence and occupational stress had convergence
as self-awareness with occupational stress (r=0.14), managing self-emotion with occupational stress (r=0.17)
relationship management and occupational stress (r=0.12) that were not meaningful in terms of statistics (p0.05). But
there was a meaningful relationship between the social awareness aspect and managers’ occupational stress(r=0.17,
p0.05). Other analyses showed that the relationship between emotional intelligence and trainers’ occupational stress is
meaningful (table 2, p0.05).
Table 2. The relationship between emotional intelligence and trainers’ occupational stress.
Emotional intelligence
Trainers’ occupational stress
N
122
r
0.18
P
0.04
The analyses also showed that the sub-scales of managers’ emotional intelligence and occupational stress had
convergences as self-awareness element with occupational stress (r=0.033), self-emotion management and occupational
stress (r=0.033) and between social aspect of emotional intelligence and occupational stress (r=0.04) among trainers,
which were not meaningful in terms of statistics (p0.05). But the relationship between contact management and
occupational stress was meaningful (r=0.18, p0.05). And also there was no meaningful relationship between emotional
intelligence and occupational stress among lifeguards, in terms of statistics (table 3, p0.05).
Table 3. The relationship between emotional intelligence and lifeguards’ occupational stress.
Emotional intelligence
Lifeguards’ occupational stress
N
172
r
0.03
P
0.67
The analyses also showed that the sub-scales of managers’ emotional intelligence and occupational stress had
convergence as social awareness aspect of emotional intelligence with occupational stress (r=0.01), self-emotion
management and occupational stress (r=0.1) and relationship management with occupational stress (r=0.13) was not
meaningful (p0.05). But the relationship between self-awareness and occupational stress (r=0.214) among lifeguards
was meaningful (p0.05).
Discussion and Conclusion
The general purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between emotional intelligence and
occupational stress among managers, trainers, and lifeguards working at swimming pools of East Azerbaijan province.
Results showed that there is a meaningful relationship between emotional intelligence and its variable micro-elements
(self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship management ) and occupational stress among
trainers.. Also other results showed that there is no meaningful relationship in general level and variable micro-elements
of emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship management) and
occupational stress among managers and lifeguards. From among the results was absence of a meaningfulness
relationship between emotional intelligence and managers’ occupational stress. This finding is in line with results from
the study conducted by Raedeke et al. (2002) on emotional intelligence, examined the relationship between emotional
intelligence and sources of occupational pressure and its effects in a sample of jobs in mental health institutions. The
results revealed absence of a meaningful relationship between emotional intelligence and occupational tensions which
is in line with the results of the present study. Also results obtained from a study conducted by Taris et al. (2006)
entitled… examined “the relationship between occupational tension and emotional intelligence and burnout among
male managers working at hospitals and public health centers of Toronto city”…results showed that there is a
meaningful difference between emotional intelligence and occupational tension and occupational burnot. is in line with
the results of the present study. Also with the results obtained from a study by Almvhandy et al, (2007) on the fact that
stress does not increase due to personal or environmental factors, but is more created as a result of an individual’s
interaction with the surrounding environment. This finding is in line with the results obtained from a study conducted
by Maleki et al, (2012) who examined the presence of a positive and meaningful effect of emotional intelligence
teaching on aggression, stress and psychological welfare among elite athletes, are in line with the results of the present
study. Moreover, this finding is in line with results of a study conducted by Mohammadzadeh et al. (2011) on presence
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Intl. J. Basic. Sci. Appl. Res. Vol., 4(1), 51-55, 2015
of a meaningful relationship between perfectionism, stress, and burnout among male and female swimming trainers are
in line with the results of the present study. Numerous definitions of emotional intelligence suggest that those with high
level of emotional intelligence act very well in recognizing emotions in themselves and others, correct application of
emotions, capability of tangling with stress, managing the relations and provoking themselves and others (Salovy and
Mayer, 1990). Also in Golman’s definition (1995), emotional intelligence includes the degree of self-awareness, social
skills, self-adjustment, the feeling of independence and responsibility, self-arising, self-thrift and decisiveness, decisionmaking, sympathy, as well as individual’s capability for accepting the realities, flexibility, problem solving, etc.
Regarding limited hours of swimming classes, trainers must be able for correct decision making and proper
effectiveness, and must choose a correct plan to achieve their goals. Hence, swimming trainers with high level of
emotional intelligence experience more stress to achieve their educational goals. Also, there was no direct meaningful
convergence between emotional intelligence and occupational stress among lifeguards. Kazemi et al. (2010)… there is
no meaningful relationship between self… management of emotional intelligence and the skill of tangling with
stress,… is in line with the results of the present study. As reported by Richard et al. (2008), it seems impossible for
trainers that cannot evaluate themselves, to be dominant on how to build relationship with athletes in critical moments
and to have a proper decision about their team’s plan. Also, if trainers would not be able to adjust and control their own
emotions, there would be the possibility that athletes’ progress would be at stake due to the absence of clarity and
congruency among relationships, and trainers’ performance may be less effective on psychological states of the players,
where in some cases, it may lead to trainers’ inappropriate mental behaviors. Other results have also showed that there
was no direct meaningful relationship between micro-elements of emotional intelligence (self-management and social
awareness) and occupational stress among swimming pool trainers. Also, results showed that there is a reverse
meaningful relationship between self-awareness element of emotional intelligence and occupational stress among
lifeguards that is as lifeguards’ self-awareness increases, occupational stress decreases. As reported by Jordon,
Ashkanasy, and Charmine, those who have high level of emotional intelligence upon involvement in their tasks, are
able to overcome the tension related to their job more appropriately, and they find better solutions to solve problems.
This finding is in line with the results of the study conducted by Ghaltash et al. (2009) on presence of a reverse
meaningful relationship between emotional intelligence and occupational burnout, are in line with the results of the
present study. These results are justifiable regarding Goleman’s definition (1995) who considers self-awareness to be
the root and origin of other elements of emotional intelligence. Goleman notes that those with higher level of selfawareness can easier organize their real needs by better awareness about their own strong and weak points, they are
more rigorous in their tasks, have realistic hopes, and accept those responsibilities they are able to take. Moreover, they
treat themselves and other honestly, and well know that how strong every feeling may affect them and those around
them. They are straightforward and speak frankly, and are able to use their thought to control their emotions. Lifeguards
with higher level of self-awareness, as they well know their own capabilities, are always highly self-confident and selfesteemed. Therefore, it is clear that having more self-awareness and an ability to know their strengths, which is among
necessities of self-awareness, would lead to decrease in occupational stress. The highest level of stress was observed
among trainers. Stressors in trainers may be due to time pressure, numerous tasks, and high expectations of swimmers’
managers and parents. These potential stressing sources are not much observed in other organizations and occupations.
Also, the sensitivity of managers, trainers, and lifeguards’ tasks, long working hours, and physical and chemical
conditions of swimming pool environment may be among factors creating mental pressure which leads to the outburst
of stress.
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