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AN IMPACT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
ON WORK–LIFE BALANCE IN IT INDUSTRY
IN AHMEDABAD
Harleen Kaur*, Dhruvi Prajapati**
*Assistant Professor, Chimanbhai Patel Institute of Management & Research (CPIMR), Ahmedabad,
Gujarat, India. Email: harleenkaur@cpi.edu.in
**Student, Chimanbhai Patel Institute of Management & Research (CPIMR), Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
Abstract: Instead of making life easier, globalization, the pace of information, and technology are causing information overload,
which puts strain on the workplace and work–life balance. Usually referred to as “soft skills” or “interpersonal or intrapersonal skills”
emotional intelligence is a set of abilities that is not strictly measurable. Conventional areas of knowledge are addressed. A crucial
component of greater performance in both job and personal life is emotional intelligence, which also helps to reduce stress. In this
study, the impact of emotional intelligence on work–life balance is studied. The data collected for this research is collected through
a questionnaire method by the employees of IT industry-specic to Ahmedabad. Data was statistically analysed by ANOVA. The
research paper aims to know the level of emotional intelligence and work–life balance and secondly, to examine the dependence
level of EI and WLB on one another. The study concludes that EI has serious repercussions on employees, so the organisation
should make efforts to increase the EI of their employees.
Keywords: Emotional Intelligence, Work–Life Balance, Employees, IT Industry
Information Technology is one of the most robust industries
in the world. More than any other industry or economic
facet, this industry has increased productivity, particularly in
the developed world, and, therefore, is a key driver of global
economic growth. The IT industry is heavily inuenced by
factors like the global market and the sustenance of its rate
of growth.
Work–life balance is a challenging issue for IT leaders and
managers and also attracted the attention of researchers.
Work–life balance, in its broadest sense, is dened as
a satisfactory level of involvement of “t” between the
multiple roles in a person’s life. In this climate managing,
the boundary between home and work is becoming more
challenging. Organisations need to ensure they not just
encourage but mandate a practical and workable work policy,
beneting and meeting the needs of both the organisation
and its employees.
Emotional intelligence is most commonly referred to as
the ability to perceive, use, understand, manage and handle
emotions. People with high emotional intelligence can
understand their own emotions and also of others. It is
essential that a person should possess the ability to express
and control emotions but it is also important to have the
ability to interpret, understand and respond to other person’s
emotions.
Work–life balance is the idea that a person can split their
time and energy in a way that balances work demands with
their personal life. Work–life balance basically means a
person’s satisfaction level by getting involved between the
multiple roles in a person’s life. In this era, managing both
work and home is becoming a challenge.
(Nanda & Randhawa, 2020) Emotional Intelligence,
Work-Life Balance, and Work-Related Well-Being: A
Proposed Mediation Model: In this study, the author’s goal
was to review the existing literature relating to emotional
intelligence, work–life balance, and work-related well-being
Journal of Strategic Human Resource Management
12 (1) 2023, 24-30
http://publishingindia.com/jshrm/
An Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Work–Life Balance in IT Industry in Ahmedabad 25
in order to build a model describing relationships between the
variables of the study which are job satisfaction, job stress
and work engagement. This paper suggested that work–
life balance mediates the relationship between emotional
intelligence and work-related well-being.
(Afni & Amar, 2019) The Effect of Emotional Intelligence
and Work Life Balance on Organisational Citizenship
Behaviour with Career Development as Mediating Variable:
The aim of this research was to analyse the effect of EI and
WLB on organisational citizenship behaviour with career
development as mediating variable at PT. This is the rst
study to examine career development as a mediating variable
that plays the effect of emotional intelligence and work–life
balance of organisational citizenship behaviour. In this EI
and WLB are treated as independent variables.
(Faldu & Trivedi, 2020) A Study on Impact of Emotional
Intelligence on Work–Life Balance of Teaching Professionals
with special reference to Saurashtra Region: In this research
paper, the author examines WLB as an individual issue
and EI plays a very important role. EI consists of ve
factors which are self-awareness, empathy self-motivation,
emotional stability and managing relations. This study
aims to understand the impact of emotional intelligence on
balancing the work and personal life of employees.
(Raq, Naz & Nisar, 2019) The Impact of Emotional
Intelligence on Employee Performance and Employee
Engagement: Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction: The
objective of this study is to explore the way that can link
the EI with the employees’ performance accurately. The
variables which were being used in the study were self-
awareness, self-management, self-motivation, social
awareness, and relationship management.
(O’Connor, Hill, Kaya & Martin, 2019) The Measurement of
Emotional Intelligence: A Critical Review of the Literature
and Recommendations for Researchers and Practitioners:
The purpose of this article is to review measure, widely
used measures of EI and make recommendations regarding
their appropriate use. This article was written primarily for
academics and practitioners who are not currently experts
on EI but who are considering utilizing EI in their research
and/or practice.
(Bandi & Chauhan, 2019) Effect of Emotional Intelligence on
Employee Performance: In this study, the effect of emotional
intelligence on employee performance in an organisation has
been investigated and the gap in the existing literature on
emotional intelligence has been identied. EI is also one
of the important factors in organisational commitment and
there is a strong relationship between emotional intelligence
and job satisfaction and employee performance with leads to
organisational commitment.
(Raghavan & Mariappan, 2019) A Study on Emotional
Intelligence and its Role on Job Performance: According
to the author, EI combines two of the three states of mind
cognition and affect, or intelligence and emotion. The aim
for conducting this study was to survey the determinants
of emotional intelligence of employees at workplace. The
study was conducted using the random sampling method.
(Issah, 2018) Change Leadership: The Role of Emotional
Intelligence: This paper focuses on the role of EI in dealing
with a specic HR problem which is change management.
This concept of HRM is evolving with time and currently,
a new dimension of it has evolved. This dimension is called
emotional intelligence. The word EI or emotional quotient
is given due importance by the corporate world nowadays.
(Yüksekbilgili, Akduman & Hatipoğlu, 2015) A Research
about Emotional Intelligence on Generations: The main
question of the study is to analyse the EI according to the
generations. EI is the ability to identify and manage personal
emotions and the emotions of others. EI is signicant and
useful for various elds. In this study, it is proved that there
is no signicant difference about EI in different generations.
(Moh & Bakir, 2018) The Impact of Managers’ Emotional
Intelligence on Employees’ Work–Life Balance: A Field
Study at Jordanian Private Hospitals: This paper aims at
testing the inuence of managers’ EI on employees’ WLB in
Jordanian private hospitals. The most important ndings of
the study show that the managers in the examined hospitals
have EI skills and the studied hospitals provide their
employees with work–life balance.
(Shylaja & Prasad, 2017) Emotional Intelligence and Work
Life Balance: Due to increase in information overload, there
is a lot more pressure being created on the employees in the
workplace. In organisations, when it comes to employee
management, WLB has become a challenge for many
managers, employers, leaders and organisations. In this
study, the aim was top to nd the impact of EI on employees
and organisations. The study was based on the variables such
as knowing our own emotions, managing them, motivating
own self, identifying emotions in others, and handling
relationships.
(Ealias & George, 2012) Emotional Intelligence and Job
Satisfaction: A Correlational Study: The primary aim of this
research paper is to nd out the relationship between EI and
job satisfaction. It also tries to analyse how the designation,
experience and marital status of an employee affect his/her
26 Journal of Strategic Human Resource Management Volume 12 Issue 1 February 2023
emotional intelligence and job satisfaction. The ndings
reveal that there is a very high positive relationship between
emotional intelligence and job satisfaction.
The present study focuses on the impact of emotional
intelligence on work–life balance of employees working
in the IT sector in Ahmedabad city. Problem statement
investigates the impact of emotional intelligence on work–
life balance of the employees working with the IT sector in
Ahmedabad city. Learning how to be emotionally intelligent
is not simply an issue for the employees of the IT sector in
Ahmedabad, but there are many things that can get affected
by the emotional intelligence of a person. So to examine this,
we made research on the impact of emotional intelligence on
the work–life balance.
●To determine the level of emotional intelligence and
work–life balance of employees in the IT sector.
●To know the impact of the relationship between
emotional intelligence and work–life balance of
working employees in Ahmedabad.
●To examine the dependence level of EI and work–
life balance with one another.
●To study the positive association of work–life bal-
ance with emotional intelligence.
Face-to-face interview with the respondent was conducted
with the aid of a questionnaire. The questions were
structured and non-disguised. The respondent was informed
of the purpose of the study. The questionnaire consists of a
combination of open-ended and close-ended question.
The primary data was generated by making signicant use
of structural questions, both open-ended and close-ended.
Primary data is fact and information collected specically
for the purpose of investigation at hand:
●Questionnaire
●Interviews with employees
Secondary sources are research reports that use primary
data to solve research problems. Secondary data has been
gathered by others for their own purposes, but the data could
be useful in the analysis of a wide range of real property. In
general, secondary data exists in published sources:
●Internet
●Magazine
●Newspapers and Journals
●According to the Survey conducted on over 150 IT
professionals, the various ndings are as under.
The sample unit for the research includes the employees who
are from IT industry reference to the Ahmedabad city. The
sample size of the research is 214 respondents. The various
ndings are as under.
Table 1: Gender of Respondents
Gender Frequency Percentage
Male 120 56.07
Female 94 43.93
Total 214 100
Table 2: Ages
Age Frequency Percentage
Above 18 Years 00 00
18 to 30 years 117 54.67
30 to 45 years 88 41.13
45 to 60 years 8 3.73
Above 60 years 10.46
Total 214 100
Table 3: Marital Status
Status Frequency Percentage
Married 127 59.35
Unmarried 87 40.65
Other 00 00
Total 214 100
An Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Work–Life Balance in IT Industry in Ahmedabad 27
Table 4: Income (Per Annum)
Income Frequency Percentage
Less than 1.5 Lakhs 10 4.67
1.5 to 3 lakhs 99 46.27
3 to 4.5 lakhs 78 36.45
More than 4.5 lakhs 27 12.61
Total 214 100
●Independent Variable: Age
Dependent Variable: Work–life balance and emotional
intelligence.
H0: Age has an impact on emotional intelligence which
affects work–life balance.
H1: Age does not have an impact on emotional intelligence
which does not affect work–life balance.
Table 5
Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig.
WLB
Between Groups .185 3.062 .324 .808
Within Groups 39.914 210 .190
Total 40.099 213
EI
Between Groups 1.861 3.620 2.482 .062
Within Groups 52.502 210 .250
Total 54.363 213
Interpretation
The above table of ANOVA analysis shows that the
signicance value of work–life balance is 0.808 and of EI
is 0.062 which is more than 0.05. This means that the null
hypothesis has been accepted. This means that age has an
impact on EI which affects the work–life balance of an
individual. This means that employees with more age have
less emotional intelligence which impacts the work–life
balance.
●Independent Variable: Income.
●Dependent Variable: Work–life balance, emotional
intelligence.
H0: Income has an impact on emotional intelligence which
affects work–life balance.
H1: Income does not have an impact on emotional
intelligence which does not affect work–life balance.
Table 6
Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig.
WLB
Between Groups .821 3 .274 1.463 .226
Within Groups 39.279 210 .187
Total 40.099 213
EI
Between Groups .098 3 .033 .127 .944
Within Groups 54.265 210 .258
Total 54.363 213
Interpretation
The above table shows that the signicance value of WLB
is 0.226 which is more than 0.05 and of EI is 0.944 which
is more than 0.05. This means that the null hypothesis
is accepted. This means that income has an impact on EI
which affects the work–life balance of an individual. This
means that employees who have higher incomes have less
emotional intelligence which affects their work–life balance
of employees in the IT industry in Ahmedabad.
28 Journal of Strategic Human Resource Management Volume 12 Issue 1 February 2023
Table 7
Model R R
Squ-
are
Adjusted
R Square
Std. Error
of the
Estimate
Durbin-
Watson
1 .424a.179 .176 .45870 .622
a. Predictors: (Constant), WLB
b. Dependent Variable: EI
Interpretation
●The r value represents the correlation between the
dependent and independent variables. The value
more than 0.4 is taken for further analysis. In this
case, the value is 0.424, which is good.
●R square value shows the total variation for the de-
pendent variable that could be explained by the in-
dependent variables. A value greater than 0.5 shows
that the model is effective enough to determine the
relation. In this case, the value is 0.179 which is less
so it is not good.
●Adjusted r square shows the generalisation of the re-
sults that is the variation of the sample results from
the population in multiple regressions. It is required
to have a difference between r square and adjusted
r square minimum. In this case, the value is 0.179,
which is equal to r square. So it is good.
Table 8
Model Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig.
1
Regression 9.758 19.758 46.376 .000b
Residual 44.606 212 .210
Total 54.363 213
a. Dependent Variable: EI
b. Predictors: (Constant), WLB
Interpretation
In ANOVA, generally, the p-value is used to study. The
p-value should be less than 0.5. Thus, in this case, the p-value
is 0.000 which is less than 0.05 which is the standard value
for comparison. Thus, the result is signicant.
Table 9
Model Unstandardized
Coecients
Standardized
Coecients
t Sig. Collinearity
Statistics
BStd. Error Beta Tolerance VIF
1(Constant) .725 .191 3.791 .000
WLB .493 .072 .424 6.810 .000 1.000 1.000
a. Dependent Variable: EI
Interpretation
In the above table, only one value is important which is the
signicance value. The value is below the tolerable level of
signicance for the study. In this case, the value is 0.000
which is less than 0.05 that is a 95% condence interval.
That means there is an impact of EI on WLB.
An Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Work–Life Balance in IT Industry in Ahmedabad 29
Table 10
Marital Status N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean
WLB 1 127 2.6417 .40558 .03599
2 87 2.5536 .46968 .05036
Interpretation
The table above represents the descriptive statistics. As
shown in the table, the mean of married employees in the
IT Industry is 2.64 with the standard deviation of 0.41. On
the other hand, the mean of unmarried employees in the IT
Industry is 2.55 with the standard deviation of 0.05. The
mean values indicate that the results are in favour of married
employees in the IT Industry.
Table 11
Levene’s Test
for Equality of
Variances
T-Test for Equality of Means
F Sig. t df Sig.
(2-tailed)
Mean
Dierence
Std. Error
Dierence
95% Condence
Interval of the
Dierence
Lower Upper
WLB
Equal
variances
assumed
4.121 .044 1.463 212 .145 .08809 .06022 -.03062 .20681
Equal vari-
ances not
assumed
1.423 166.625 .157 .08809 .06189 -.03411 .21029
Interpretation
In the above table, the signicance value for 2-tailed came
out to be 0.145 for married and 0.157 for unmarried which
is more than the standard value of 0.05. This implies that
conducting T-Test for equality of the means of both married
and unmarried employees both have an impact on work–life
balance.
●From the research report, it was found that emo-
tional intelligence does have an impact on work–life
balance of employees working in the IT sector.
●The employees who are unable to balance their work
in the organisation do not have higher emotional in-
telligence and end up suffering from diseases like
hypertension and stress relieving programs.
●Out of 214 respondents, 158 respondents strongly
agree that work–life balance enables people to work
better in the organisation.
●Only 35% of them strongly agree that they were
able to perform consistently in their organisation. It
can also be said that these respondents were able to
balance their work and life.
●Almost 78% of respondents were unable to control
their emotions in an appropriate manner.
●The employees who prioritise jobs more than their
personal life experience unhappiness in their per-
sonal life which has an impact on work–life balance
of an employee.
●It was also found that almost 205 respondents of
214 respondents agree that they are able to motivate
themselves whenever they feel low in some or an-
other way.
30 Journal of Strategic Human Resource Management Volume 12 Issue 1 February 2023
●In ANOVA analysis, it was interpreted that both age
and income both have an impact on emotional intel-
ligence which affects the work–life balance of the
employees of the IT industry in Ahmedabad.
●In T-Test analysis, it was conrmed that the means
of both married and unmarried employees both have
an impact on work–life balance of the employees
working in the IT Industry.
●IT industry should come up with various policies
on work–life balance which will support the organ-
isational culture in reducing the work–life-related
conicts faced by employees of the IT industry in
Ahmedabad.
●The HR teams should make efforts in organising
various programs and events which would increase
the emotional intelligence of the employees.
●Organisations should make efforts to promote emo-
tional intelligence among employees by conducting
various training programs.
●The organisation should make effort to make an or-
ganisational culture that would support the imple-
mentation of the work–life balance related policies.
●The organisations should provide various facilities
which will enhance the relationship between the top
managerial and the subordinates and helps them to
reduce job-related stress.
By conducting this research, it was identied that emotional
intelligence has an impact on work–life balance of employees
working in the IT industry. Work–life balance plays an
important role in employees’ performance and employees’
efciency.
Emotional intelligence has serious repercussions on
employees, so the organisation should make efforts to
increase the emotional intelligence of their employees.
Organisations should come up with effective work–life
balance policies and programs and foster an organisational
culture that supports the use of policies.
Workshop on work–life balance and providing awareness
on how to be emotionally intelligent in the workplace and
consequently in other areas of life can be provided by
organisations for employees to have a happy and satised
workforce.
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