ROLE OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND WORK-LIFE BALANCE IN JOB STRESS AMONG FACULTY MEMBERS OF AUTONOMOUS COLLEGES

Abstract

The higher education sector has undergone substantial transformation in recent years, resulting in increasing academic, administrative and professional responsibilities for faculty members. Faculty members in autonomous colleges are expected to perform multiple roles, including teaching, student mentoring, research, curriculum development, examination responsibilities, institutional administration, accreditation-related activities and participation in extension programmes. These expanding responsibilities may contribute to job stress and may also interfere with the personal and family domains of faculty members. In this context, emotional intelligence and work-life balance have emerged as important personal and organizational resources that may influence the experience of job stress.

The present study examines the role of emotional intelligence and work-life balance in job stress among faculty members of autonomous colleges. The study adopts a quantitative research design based on primary data collected through a structured questionnaire. For demonstrating the proposed statistical analysis, an illustrative dataset of 180 faculty members is used. Emotional intelligence, work-life balance and job stress were measured using five-item Likert-type scales. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s alpha, Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis were employed to examine the relationships among the variables.

The illustrative findings indicate that emotional intelligence has a significant negative relationship with job stress, while work-life balance also has a significant negative relationship with job stress. Emotional intelligence is positively associated with work-life balance. Multiple regression results indicate that both emotional intelligence and work-life balance significantly predict job stress, with work-life balance showing a relatively stronger predictive contribution. The model explains approximately 25.5% of the variance in job stress. The findings suggest that strengthening emotional awareness, emotional regulation, interpersonal skills and institutional work-life balance practices can contribute to reducing job stress among faculty members.

The study recommends that autonomous colleges introduce faculty development programmes focusing on emotional intelligence, workload management, counselling, time management, flexible work practices, supportive leadership and institutional mechanisms for maintaining work-life balance.