RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRINCIPALS' EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND TEACHERS' JOB INVOLVEMENT IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ABIA STATE

Abstract

Principals and teachers are expected to work hand in gloves in the school administrative process. Thus, this study investigated the relationship between principals’ emotional intelligence and teachers' job involvement in secondary schools in Abia State. The study was guided by two research questions and two hypotheses tested at 0.05 significance level. Correlation research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study consist of 16,650 teachers in secondary schools in Abia State. Multi-stage sampling techniques were used to draw a sample size of 639 teachers being 4% of the population, representing the entire population. The instruments for Principals’ Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (PEIQ) was adapted by the researchers and Teachers Job Involvement Questionnaire (TJIQ) were adopted based on the already existing inventory. The instruments were validated by three experts in the Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka and the reliability to ascertain the consistency of the instrument was established using Chronbach alpha reliability index which yielded an aggregate coefficient of 0.78 for (PEIQ) and 0.84 for (TJIQ). Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was utilized for data analysis. The findings of the study revealed that there was a high positive relationship between principals' self-management, self-relationship and teachers' job involvement in secondary schools in Abia State. The study also revealed that these principals’ emotional intelligence components have significant relationships with teachers’ job involvement. The findings of the study amongst others recommended that principals should be encouraged by all stakeholders in education to demonstrate relationship management behaviours to facilitate mutual interactions with the teachers.