The Effect of Social Support, and Emotional Intelligence on Job Satisfaction - Dissertation Example

?CHAPTER FIVE DISCUSSION Introduction and Brief Summary of Key Findings This chapter will relate the findings of the study with the literature review, and made policy recommendations based upon the literature review the findings of this study. Specifically, the literature that supports the findings will be examined, and the literature that does not support the findings will also be examined. The literature that does not agree with the findings will then be further examined to see where the discrepancies might lie. Policy recommendations will then be formulated, depending upon how well the findings are in accord with the literature. The gaps in the literature will also be examined, for these gaps may hold clues on how to better formulate future recommendations. The conclusion is that that the first hypothesis, stated below, is in accord with the literature, as is the second hypothesis, also stated below. The third hypothesis, however, is not in accord with the literature and really is inconclusive, therefore represents a gap in the literature. The recommendations is that police forces should emphasize emotional intelligence and social support, as these are apparently mediating factors for job stress, and have significant impact on job satisfaction. The purpose of this study is to ascertain for police forces the importance of emotional intelligence and social support on police forces and job satisfaction. As the study indicates that these factors are significantly correlated with job satisfaction, the purpose is fulfilled, as it definitively shows to police forces the importance of these factors and the need for emphasizing them. The first hypothesis is that social support and emotional intelligence are correlated, and this was validated by the study. The second hypothesis is that social support and emotional support are correlated with job satisfaction, and this, too, was validated. The third hypothesis is that job stress is correlated with job satisfaction, regardless of the other two factors, and this was not validated. This paragraph will re-state what the key findings were for this study. The median age for the police officers is 28. The median years of experience is 11. Almost two-thirds of the districts studied were high stress (62.3%). About the same percentage of the participants were male (62%). The study also found that 54.6% of the participants had low social support, and 45.4% had high social support. The percentages for emotional intelligence were 48.5% of the participants demonstrated low emotional intelligence, while 51.5% of the participants demonstrated high emotional intelligence. There were four categories associated with the grouping of social support and emotional intelligence – low emotional intelligence and low social support was the highest of the groupings at 31.3%. The next highest grouping was high social support and high emotional intelligence at 28.3%. After this is low social support, high emotional intelligence at 23.3%. The last grouping is high social support and low emotional intelligence at 17.2% (Table 1). The first research hypothesis was that officers with high social support from co-workers would report high emotional intelligence. The study found the correlation was significant, and individuals with high social support and high emotional intelligence comprise the second highest grouping. The second research hypothesis is that police offices with high social support and high emotional intelligence will report high levels of job satisfaction. The correlation was significant for this hypothesis as well. The third hypothesis was that high perceived job stress would correlate with low job satisfaction regardless of social support and emotional intelligence. The findings did not support this. 1. Literature Review ( Literature Review that agrees with finding) The first finding was that high social support from colleagues would equate to high emotional intelligence. The correlation for this was significant. This was in accord with Thorndike (1920), as he states that high emotional intelligence means that the individual is act wisely in human interactions and able to understand men and women better than would those with low emotional intelligence (Thorndike, 1920). Monte-Berges & Augusto (2007) found that this was true for nursing students, as there was a positive correlation between emotional intelligence and social support in their study (Monte-Berges, 2007). Lopes et al. (2002) made similar findings with college students (Lopes et al. 2002). George (2007) also found a positive correlation between social support and emotional intelligence, stating that empathy, which is the cornerstone of emotional intelligence, enables individuals to make strong social contacts, therefore have strong social support (George, 2007). The second hypothesis was that police officers with high emotional intelligence and high social support would experience high job satisfaction. This hypothesis was validated by this study. This is in accord with the study in the literature review by LaRocco, House, and French (1980), which stated that social support assisted in reducing stress among police officers (LaRocco, House and French, 1980). This is also in accord with Graf (1986), who found that both the number of supportive persons and the degree of satisfaction with one’s support system were negatively correlated with perceived occupational stress (Graf, 1986). This is also in accord with Armeli et al. (1998), who found that one of the mediating factors regarding stress and burnout is the perceived organizational support factor (Armeli et al., 1998).  While these studies demonstrate that high social support is positively correlated with high job satisfaction, other studies demonstrate that high emotional intelligence is positively correlated with high job satisfaction. The limited research on the relationship between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction suggests that trait-based (self-report) emotional intelligence measures tend to yield more positive results than those obtained when utilizing ability-based emotional intelligence measures (Abraham, 2000; Carmeli, 2003; Sy et al., 2006; Wong & Law, 2002). Daus & Ashanasky (2005) further found that police officers with high levels of emotional intelligence have better job performance and experience less anxiety and stress on the job (Daus & Ashanasky, 2005). Van Rooy et al. (2004) made similar findings (Van Rooy et al., 2004). 2. Literature review that disagrees with the findings The third hypothesis is that perceived stress would correlate with low job satisfaction, regardless of emotional intelligence and social support. This hypothesis was not validated by the research. This contradicts the findings of McCarty et al. (2007), who specifically measured the levels of burnout and how burnout levels differed between men and women.  McCarty found that burnout affects job performance, as well as relationships with family members and friends (McCarty et al., 2007). Bratt et al. (2000) also contradicts this finding. Bratt et al. (2000) found that job stress was the most significant factor in negative job satisfaction, even when taking into account group cohesion (Bratt et al., 2000). As group cohesion would suggest social support, Bratt’s study found that, even when social support was strong, job stress still would lead to decreased job satisfaction. This is in clear contradiction to the findings of the study at hand. Jamal (1990) also found that job stress was clearly correlated with low job satisfaction, as well as low organizational commitment, and turnover motivation in nurses (Jamal, 1990). 3. Synthesis of literature and Summary The literature review that was conducted initially, along with other studies, are in accord with two of the hypothesis that this research sought to study – that there would be a correlation between high emotional intelligence and high social support, and that there would be a correlation between high emotional intelligence and high social support on job satisfaction. These findings were not necessarily a surprise, as the literature demonstrates that these hypotheses would be validated. The perhaps surprising finding was that job stress did not have an impact upon job satisfaction if the other variables, social support and emotional intelligence, were high. Or, rather, that social support and emotional intelligence would not be mediating factors between job stress and job satisfaction. As stated, this study did not find that this hypothesis was validated. The literature indicates that job stress has a negative impact upon job satisfaction, and one study even used the mediating factor of perceived group cohesion and found that job stress has more of an impact upon job satisfaction then does group cohesion. The reason for this is that the literature that studied the factor of job stress on job satisfaction did not explicitly use social support and emotional intelligence as mediating factors. The literature did indicate that job stress has a negative impact on job satisfaction, and that is not really a surprise. But these studies did not explicitly attempt to mediate the effect of job stress on job satisfaction with these two other variables. What the study at hand could suggest is that there is a gap in the previous literature regarding job stress and job satisfaction, in that these variables were not used as mediators. The study at hand could also suggest that social support and emotional intelligence are stronger than previously thought, as they apparently were able to mediate the corrosive effect of job stress on job satisfaction. Perhaps the gender gap would explain the findings, although intuition would dictate the opposite – women would probably have better social support and emotional intelligence then men. At least one study bears this out, finding that women have better coping mechanism then men when dealing with stress, and one of these coping mechanisms involve talking with family and friends, which would be considered social support (Ni He et al., 2002). Further, Brackett & Mayer (2003) found that women have higher emotional intelligence then do men (Brackett & Mayer, 2003). Perhaps the best way to get to the bottom of this conundrum would be to separate the men from the women when asking this question. Another way would be to tease the variables out still further – for instance, if there is high stress, high emotional intelligence and high social support, what are the outcomes? If there is low stress, low emotional intelligence and low social support, what are the outcomes? If there is low stress, low emotional intelligence and high social support, what are the outcomes? High stress with low emotional intelligence and high social support? Etc. By further breaking down the categories, and then breaking them down by gender, this might give a better picture for this question and might significantly alter the results as well. 4. Conclusion and Implications The literature review supports the first and second hypotheses in this study. For instance, the literature agrees that high social support is positively correlated with high emotional intelligence, and that high emotional intelligence and high social support is positively correlated with job satisfaction. The literature review did not support the third hypothesis, which was that social support and emotional intelligence would not be mediating factors for high job stress. In other words, the hypothesis was that high job stress would negatively impact job satisfaction regardless of the other factors. The literature suggests, although does not outright support, the theory that job stress would be have a negative correlation with job satisfaction, regardless of other factors. The reason for the discrepancy could be that the literature cited in this study does not explicitly measure job stress and mediate job stress with emotional intelligence and social support. One study came close to mediating job stress with social support, and no study mediated job stress with emotional intelligence. So, it could just be a case that there is a gap in the literature on this particular question. Another theory is that the study at hand needs to be more specific with the variables, and tease out the variables to where they are grouped in different categories. Also, they should be grouped by gender. This would give a better indication about the basis for this question, and would also give a better indication if the initial hypothesis was valid. There are a variety of reasons why this study is important. One of the reasons is that studies have shown that the stress of a police job negatively impacts interpersonal relationships, and is a major contributing factor in divorce (Roberts & Levenson, 2001). This study, is, in turn, important, because divorce causes further job stress. Regardless, it is important to find out how job stress impacts one’s job satisfaction, because job stress and job satisfaction impact every area of the police officer’s life. Further, it is important to discover how the variables of emotional intelligence and social support are in combatting the stress of the police force. For one, it would be helpful in screening future police officers. As emotional intelligence is something that is innate, and emotional intelligence is a positive variable in job satisfaction, police forces should be looking at emotional intelligence as a hiring factor. After all, if the police force has people with better emotional intelligence, then it is likely to have a happier work force, and this would, in turn, have a positive effect on job turnover and force morale. In short, the study is important because it emphasizes how important social support and emotional intelligence is upon employee morale and job satisfaction. Apparently, these factors are more important than job stress. Because of this, forces may strive to increase social support in the force, as well as increase emotional intelligence by conducting training on these elements. While the force may not be able to help job stress, as it is a part of the job, the force may be able to overcome this stress by emphasizing and improving these two factors. 5. Recommendations As stated above, future research on this area should focus upon the one question that was not supported by the evidence, that regarding the job stress and the mediating factors of emotional intelligence and social support. It would be best to tease this question out so that one can know exactly which of the factors – social support or emotional intelligence – has a bigger impact upon job stress or the lack thereof. Further, the entire study should be parsed out by gender. This is important, because of the studies that show that there is a gender gap with regards to social support and emotional intelligence. This is a gap in this study, because the study does not indicate which gender has low emotional intelligence and low social support, with regards to the participants. The hypothesis would be that men most likely will have less social support and emotional intelligence then women, because that is what the research shows. More interesting would be to ascertain the impact of job stress on men and women, and how these interact with the emotional intelligence and social support. Men probably have better support on the force than do women, as women are in the minority on the police force and might suffer from discrimination and harassment. Therefore, women might experience greater job stress than men – how well is that mediated by social support and emotional intelligence? And do women police officers actually have more emotional intelligence and social support then do men? This is a gap in the literature, as this exact question has not heretofore been addressed. Perhaps women police officers are more masculine then other women, and this would effect the emotional intelligence and social support quotients. At any rate, this would be a better way to break down the study, so that further variables can ascertain the phenomenon that is being studied. Also of interest would be to break down the police force by duty – for instance vice can be parsed out from traffic, homicide, etc. Each of these duties would have inherently more stress or less stress then other duties, and this is important. The higher the stress – such as the stress experienced by homicide officers – the more interesting would be the findings to see if the job stress is still mediated by social support and emotional intelligence. 6. Policy recommendations In reviewing various police board standards throughout the United States, it is obvious that the factors of social support and emotional intelligence are receiving short shrift in police departments. Specifically, none of the websites that were visited that talk about municipal police force training and certification mention these two factors, and there are not any training exercises that would be specifically geared towards increasing social support and emotional intelligence among police officers. For instance, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has established certification and training standards for its officers, as well as screening procedures. The screening procedures deal with physical fitness and a background check, but not test about emotional intelligence. The training procedures emphasize hands-on skills, such as fingerprinting and crime scenes, but do not address social support (http://www.mpoetc.state.pa.us/ portal/server.pt/community/mpoetc/7545). Other municipalities show a similar bent. While the factors of social support and emotional intelligence may seem too “squishy” for police forces, the study at hand shows that they are important to combat job dissatisfaction, so police forces should add these into their training and screening curriculum. 7. Practitioner Recommendations Given what was found in this study, it is important that police forces pay special attention to social support and emotional intelligence. Social support is important, so, to this end, police forces may institute a kind of wellness training, such as that suggested by Kurke & Scrivner (1995). Part of the wellness training suggested by Kurke & Scrivner is encouraging the employees to make time for family and friends, and showing them how to make this time for these supportive individuals (Kurke & Scrivner, 1995). Other ideas that might help would be to organize employee retreats and bonding exercises. Medland et al. (2007) suggests that these kind of employee retreats is helpful in fostering increased psychosocial wellness, social support and in alleviating burnout (Medland et al., 2007). Further, forces should conduct screening on emotional intelligence for incoming police officers, and, if a police officer scores low on the emotional intelligence scale, that police officer may receive additional training and therapeutic interventions to help that officer become more emotionally attuned. 8. Conclusion The first part of this project was the introduction. This went over the statement of the problem, which is that stress is a corrosive influence in police departments, and is costly in terms of manpower and time. It also went over the purpose of the study, which is that this study will research the confluence between job stress, emotional intelligence, social support and job satisfaction. The need for the study is that there is not a study that researches this confluence, therefore this study fills in this gap. The study’s significance is that it can assist police forces in increasing job satisfaction. Further, this chapter covered the research questions, hypotheses, definitions, and limitations. The limitations were that that there could be response bias and generalization. The delimitations were that absent police officers would not be a part of the study. The literature review is the next chapter. This literature review covered studies regarding stress, emotional intelligence, social support and job satisfaction. The preliminary findings were that emotional intelligence possibly could positively affect the job satisfaction of employees, as it assists officers in having empathy with others. The literature on social support finds a generally positive correlation between social support and job satisfaction and lowered stress. Finally, the factors that go into job satisfaction were examined, including the effect of race and gender on job satisfaction, as well as age. The next chapter described the methodology, which is based upon surveys. It also explained how the data would be analyzed, how many surveys would be given, and how the surveys would be administered. The ethical concerns are also addressed in this chapter. The findings is the chapter after this, and the findings show that the first and second hypotheses were borne out by the study, and the third one was not. This chapter synthesized the rest, and showed the need for more study on the topic by using different variables and teasing out some of the other variables. The recommendations are that police forces should institute programs that assist officers with the perception of social support and assist officers in having greater emotional intelligence. Bibliography Armeli, S., Eisenberger, R., Fasolo, P. & Lynch, P. 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