International Journal of Economy, Management and Social Sciences, 2(6) June 2013, Pages: 322-328

TI Journals

International Journal of Economy, Management and Social Sciences

ISSN
2306-7276

www.tijournals.com

A Study of Relationship between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and

Decision Making Strategy in Kerman Governmental Organizations
Ardeshir Shiri 1, Mehdi Dehqani 2, Hamid Reza Ale Taha 3
1
2
3

Department of Management, University of Ilam, Ilam, Iran.

Master of business administration (MBA) in Ilam university, Ilam, Iran.
Master of industrial management in Kerman university of sciences and researches, Kerman, Iran.

AR TIC LE INF O

AB STR AC T

Keywords:

Nowadays, emotional intelligence has significant importance. Various studies and researches done
in this field indicate its role and importance in different aspects of people such as educations, job,
life's social environment. Present study has been done with a aim of examining the relation
between emotional intelligence and adopting decision making strategy among governmental
organizations staff in city of Kerman. The method of this research is descriptive and correlative and
its population is governmental organizations staff in Kerman In 2012. Among 3119 individuals in
these organizations, 342 individuals were selected by applying classified sampling and in a random
way. Data collection tools include standard questionnaire for emotional intelligence and decision
making strategy which after determining its validity and reliability was distributed in the
population. In order to data statistical analyzing, descriptive and inferential statistical methods
(Pearson's correlation coefficient and regression) and by applying software SPSS at significance
level of P 0/05 were used. Findings reveal that there is a significant relation between emotional
intelligence and decision making strategy in governmental organizations in Kerman.

emotional intelligence
self-awareness
self-motivation
empathy
self-control
social skills
decision making strategy

2013 Int. j. econ. manag. soc. sci. All rights reserved for TI Journals.

1.

Introduction

The concept of emotional intelligence, first in 1990 by Daniel Goleman and as a shape of emotional intelligence was introduced which
consists of the ability to control his/her own and others' feelings and emotions, to accept people point of views and to control relations and
social abilities. According to some researchers, emotional intelligence has some variables relating to personality, which has some
attributions to behavioral inter-situational indicators such as empathy, courage, optimism. People with higher emotional intelligence can
encounter problems at their work place and life with more successes and have more healthiness [1] [2]. Martinez (1997), considers
emotional intelligence as a collection of non-cognitive skills, abilities, and capacities that strengthens the individual's ability in facing with
requests and external pressures [3]. Basically, decision is made based on prediction of a series of solutions and options and an optimal
selection among them, hence it never can be with 100 percent confidence and certainty [4]. Strategic decisions are like point from which
other organization's decisions and activities are resulted. Therefore, decisions determine organization's movement pathway and make
motivations. In addition, strategic decisions play a key role in harmonizing enterprise's various activities and resource allocation. There are
two kind of strategy in decision-making: 1- having logical and emotional strategy in decision-making. The aim of present study is to
examine the relation between emotional intelligence and decision-making strategy in Kerman's governmental organizations, which in the
following parts, every aspect of emotional intelligence and their relations with logical and emotional strategies in decision-making will be
discussed.

2.

Research review

Hassan Khooei (2006) has found that there is a relation between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction. Men and women have no
differences in self-motivation, self-awareness, self-control, and social skills, but women have higher emotional intelligence and empathy
compared with men[5]. Afkhami (2007), has not found any relation between emotional intelligence and organizational commitment but,
has reported that emotional intelligence has reverse relation with organizational commitment [6]. In a study under title of decision-making
strategy: Applying Network Techniques in Evaluation of Suppliers Shahrabi, Zaeri, and Pari Azar (2006), have elaborated on network
techniques in strategy of suppliers' evaluation [7]. Also Aghajani, Kalasangiani, and Hosseinzadeh (2008) in a research entitled offering a
comprehensive model of effective environmental factors on strategic decision-making process have discussed a model that includes four
environments of universal, national, private and inter-organizational [8].
In a study by Budnik (2003), a significant relation between emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and nurses intent for leaving nursing
career was observed [9]. In Benson & Findlay study (2007), it was observed about surgeons that there is a relation emotional intelligence
and burnout of individual in sample group [10]. In another study by Mcqueen (2004) it was revealed that emotional intelligence plays an
* Corresponding author.
Email address: shiri_Ardeshir@yahoo.com

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Internat ional Jour nal of Economy, Mana ge ment and Social Sciences , 2(6) June 2013

important role in making successful human relations, hence emotional working has significant role in nurse- patient treatment relations
[11]. However, it can lead to burnout through long terms. Busso (2003) in a study entitled the Relationship between Emotional Intelligence
and Contextual Performance as Influenced by Job Satisfaction and Locus of Control Orientation reports that emotional intelligence has
positive relation with contextual performance and job satisfaction while it has negative relation with external control and job satisfaction
and external control does not reveal the relation between emotional intelligence and contextual performance [12].

3.

Theoretical considerations

Emotional Intelligence (EI)

Formal thesis of emotional intelligence has been offered by Salovey & Mayer (1990). They consider emotional intelligence as a kind of
social intelligence, which includes the ability for controlling one's own and others' emotions and to discriminate them and to apply
information for proceeding thought and action [13]. Daniel Goleman (1998) has described emotional intelligence as follows: it is another
kind of intelligence that consists of knowing one's own emotions and feelings and to use them in order to making appropriate decisions in
life. It is the ability for ideal handle of temperaments and mental status and to control our impulses. It is a factor that makes hope and
motivation in the individual when s/he cannot achieve the goal. empathy that means being aware about feelings of people around us. It is a
social skill that is assimilating with people and to control one's own emotions toward others and having ability to encourage and guide them
[14]. According to Howard Gaurdner (1983), emotional intelligence is formed by two components of "inter-personal intelligence" and
"intra-personal intelligence". Intra-personal intelligence is about the individual's awareness about his own feelings and emotions, to express
his believes and feelings, to respect himself, to identify intrinsic talents, having independency in performing tasks and in whole, the degree
of individual's control upon his feelings and emotions. Inter-personal intelligence refers others' understanding and wants to know what
motivates people. Goleman in 1998, describe five elements of emotional intelligence as follows:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Self-awareness: the ability to identify and understanding one's own mental status, feelings, emotions, and motivations and their
effect on others.
Self-control: the ability to controlling or changing the path of destructive demands and mental attributes, hesitation in judgment,
and deliberate before acting.
Social intelligence: the ability to understanding others' emotional attributes and having the skill of behavior toward them based on
their emotional reactions.
Communication skills: having skills in relations management and making networks and the ability of finding common fields and
making close relationships.
Self-motivation: having enthusiasm and interest in job regardless monetary or job position aspects and having interest in
following objectives with energy and perseverance.

According to Goleman, emotional intelligence competencies include an acquisitive ability based on emotional intelligence that leads to
significant performance in field working. In other words, the value of emotional intelligence determines the potential ability for acquiring
practical skills. In his view this model can explain personal (individual) differences in people's performance in the workplace [1].
Decision-making strategy
Decision-making includes choosing a solution among different solutions for achieving the goal. The goal can be fundamental one or a
message or a solution for a problem. Choosing a solution is done in different conditions such as confidence conditions, risky conditions, or
conditions of non-confidence. Decision is made by the decision maker in the decision-making environment. This environment intensely is
influenced by decision maker's believes and values and is based on some goals [15]. Generally, decisions are made based on commitments,
mission and production level [16]. Mack Kerimon states that four conditions are needed for beginning a strategic decision-making. In
fact, these conditions constitutes the strategic domain [15]:

There should be differences between present situation and ideal situation.

Difference should be enough obvious that attracts attention and is considered as critical situations
Decision maker has enough motivation for decreasing this difference.
Decision maker has confidence to his ability for decreasing the difference and after identifying the problem tries to find solutions.

The process of strategic decision making is classified based on new characteristics and being innovative, complicacy and non-ending
operations. In fact, organizations are facing with a low understanding of decision making situation and possible solutions, they have no
clear idea about the effective solution and they are facing with lack of information for developing and evaluating the solution. Strategic
decision-making is different from decision-making in no-certain conditions, in which different options are obvious while their results are
not clear. Strategic decision-making is a decision-making in uncertain situations. It means that no factor could be considered simply and
directly [17]. There are two types of strategy in decision-making: logical and emotional strategies in decision-making. Being logical in
decision-making is mainly based on being rational that is decision-making based on precise evaluation of all of information. The mean by
emotional strategy is that final decision is made according to emotions and is done mostly in some conditions that little information is
available for evaluating situations. The aim of present study is to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence and the strategy
of decision-making and also the effect of emotional intelligence on decision-making strategy among staff at Kerman governmental
organizations.

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4.

Research Objective

The ai of this study is to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence and the strategy of decision-making in Kerman
governmental organizations.

5.

Research hypotheses

Major hypothesis
There is a significant relation between emotional intelligence and the strategy of decision-making in Kerman governmental organizations.
Secondary hypotheses
1. There is a significant relation between self-awareness and logical strategy in Kerman governmental organizations.
2. There is a significant relation between self-motivation and logical strategy in Kerman governmental organizations.
3. There is a significant relation between self-control and logical strategy in Kerman governmental organizations.
4. There is a significant relation between social intelligence and logical strategy in Kerman governmental organizations.
5. There is a significant relation between communication skills and logical strategy in Kerman governmental organizations.
6. There is significant relation between self-awareness and emotional strategy in Kerman governmental organizations.
7. There is significant relation between self-motivation and emotional strategy in Kerman governmental organizations.
8. There is significant relation between self-control and emotional strategy in Kerman governmental organizations.
9. There is significant relation between social intelligence and emotional strategy in Kerman governmental organizations.
10. There is significant relation between communication skills and emotional strategy in Kerman governmental organizations.

6.

Conceptual Model of the Research

The aim of this research is to study the relation between emotional intelligence and the strategy of decision-making in Kerman
governmental organizations. Therefore, the conceptual model of study is as follows:

Self-awareness

Self-motivation

Logical
strategy
dimension of
emotional
intelligence

Self-control
Emotional
strategy
Social
intelligence

communication

skills

Dimensions
of decision
making
strategy

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Internat ional Jour nal of Economy, Mana ge ment and Social Sciences , 2(6) June 2013

7.

Research methodology

This research study is a fundamental one in terms of objective and it is a field and library research based on data collecting method.
Research scope:
Subject scope: generally it includes debates of organizational behavior management and organizational and management bases and
especially embraces the concepts of emotional intelligence and the strategy of decision-making.
Time scope: data and information used in this research obtained in summer of 2012.
Place scope: place scope of this research is staff in Kerman governmental organizations.
Population and statistical sample:
In present study, sample consists of staff in Kerman governmental organizations in 2012. The number of staff at the time of this research
was 3119' which after applying Cochran's formula and stratified sampling relative to the sample size, 342 individuals were selected as the
sample size. In the next part, sampling will be explained in details.
Sampling and Sample Size:
In present research sampling is a stratified one relative to sample size. In order to obtain sample size Cochran's formula was applied. Table
1 shows sample size of population and statistical sample.
Table 1. Population and sample size of Kerman's governmental organizations

row

izationorgan

size population

sample size

1
2

Organization of cooperation, labor, and social affairs

115

13

organozation of education and training

372

41

Organization of industry, mining, and commerce

246

27

Foundation of martyrs and veterans affairs

95

10

Agriculture organization

545

60

Organization of ways and urbanization

367

40

Welfare organization

200

22

Organization of Islamic propagation

38

Organization for economic affairs and finance

103

11

10

Organization of management and planning

74

11

Organization of cultural heritage and tourism

205

22

12

Organization rural cooperation

55

13

Organization of real estate and document registration

400

44

14

Technical and professional organization

80

15

Organization for amendments and charity affairs

48

16

The post organization

60

17

Organization of Islamic culture and guidance

116

13

3119

342

Total
Sample size has been obtained by Cochran's formula as follows:

nz 2 pq
( N 1)d 2 z 2 pq

Where,
N= population size
n=sample size
Z=standard unit variable value that equals 1.96 in confidence level of 96%
P=the value of present attribute in population. If it is not present, it will consider as 0.5.
q=the percentage of individuals lacking present attribute in population. (q=p-1).
d= permitted (allowable) error that here is 0.05. Therefore by replacing population size in this formula, we have:

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3119 *1.96 2 * 0.5 * 0.5

3118 * 0.05 2 *1.96 2 * 0.5 * 0.5

As shown in table.1, the sample is indicated with a certain proportion for each organization [18].
Measurement and Data Collecting Tools
In this research a standard questionnaire that measures the relation between emotional intelligence and the strategy of decision-making, has
been designed by the researcher and based on 5-option Likert's scale (strongly disagree, disagreed, neither agree nor disagree, and strongly
agreed). This questionnaire is composed of two parts; first part is related to measuring the dimensions of emotional intelligence and second
part refers to the dimensions of the strategy of decision-making and it consists of 18 items. In order to determining validity of face validity
was used in a such a way that questionnaire was offered to eight professors in this field and their opinions about items and their opinions
were asked about each item and its valence in evaluating the goal, by their opinions some minor adjustments were done in the questionnaire
and finally its validity was approved by them.
In order to determining the reliability of questionnaire, 30 sample questionnaires were distributed among the population and by using
software SPSS, its Cronbach's alpha coefficient was obtained. Calculated Cronbach's alpha for emotional intelligence questionnaire and for
questionnaire of decision-making strategy was 0.88 and 0.86 respectively, which reveals that reliability is good. Cronbach's alpha
coefficient for each factor is presented in tables 2and 3.
Table 2. Cronbach's alpha coefficient related to dimensions of emotional intelligence

Factor
Self-awareness
Self-control
Social intelligence
Social skills

' alphaCronbach
0.89
0.87
0.88
0.88

Table 3. Cronbach's alpha coefficient related to dimensions of decision-making strategy

Factor
Logical strategy
Emotional strategy

8.

Cronbach's alpha
0.86
0.87

Findings obtained from inferential statistics

In order to examining the relation between model's variables (emotional intelligence and decision-making strategy), and mentioned
hypotheses, Pearson's test and software SPSS were applied that in next will be discussed.
Result from testing main hypothesis:
By accomplishing Pearson's correlation test and regression foe examining the relation between variables of this hypothesis in Kerman's
governmental organizations in the confidence level of 0.95, the value of P-value was calculated that sig=0.000 and because sig<0.05
therefore, null hypothesis is rejected. It means that there is a significant relation between emotional intelligence and decision-making
strategy in Kerman's governmental organizations.
Result from testing secondary hypotheses:
Conclusion from testing secondary hypothesis 1: By accomplishing Pearson's correlation test and regression foe examining the relation
between variables of this hypothesis in Kerman's governmental organizations in the confidence level of 0.95, the value of P-value was
calculated that sig=0.179 and because sig>0.05 therefore, null hypothesis is approved. It means that there is a significant relation between
self-awareness and logical strategy in Kerman's governmental organizations.
Result from testing secondary hypothesis 2: By accomplishing Pearson's correlation test and regression foe examining the relation between
variables of this hypothesis in Kerman's governmental organizations in the confidence level of 0.95, the value of P-value was calculated
that sig=0.000 and because sig<0.05 therefore, null hypothesis is rejected. It means that there is a significant relation between selfmotivation and logical strategy in Kerman's governmental organizations.
Result from testing secondary hypothesis 3: By accomplishing Pearson's correlation test and regression foe examining the relation between
variables of this hypothesis in Kerman's governmental organizations in the confidence level of 0.95, the value of P-value was calculated
that sig=0.016 and because sig<0.05 therefore, null hypothesis is rejected. It means that there is a significant relation between self-control
and logical strategy in Kerman's governmental organizations.
Result from testing secondary hypothesis 4: By accomplishing Pearson's correlation test and regression foe examining the relation between
variables of this hypothesis in Kerman's governmental organizations in the confidence level of 0.95, the value of P-value was calculated
that sig=0.075 and because sig>0.05 therefore, null hypothesis . It means that there is no significant relation between social intelligence
and logical strategy in Kerman's governmental organizations.

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Internat ional Jour nal of Economy, Mana ge ment and Social Sciences , 2(6) June 2013

Result from testing secondary hypothesis 5: By accomplishing Pearson's correlation test and regression foe examining the relation between
variables of this hypothesis in Kerman's governmental organizations in the confidence level of 0.95, the value of P-value was calculated
that sig=0.025 and because sig<0.05 therefore, null hypothesis is rejected. It means that there is a significant relation between
communication skills and logical strategy in Kerman's governmental organizations.
Result from testing secondary hypothesis 6: By accomplishing Pearson's correlation test and regression foe examining the relation between
variables of this hypothesis in Kerman's governmental organizations in the confidence level of 0.95, the value of P-value was calculated
that sig=0.052 and because sig>0.05 therefore, null hypothesis is approved. It means that there is a significant relation between selfawareness and emotional strategy in Kerman's governmental organizations.
Result from testing secondary hypothesis 7: By accomplishing Pearson's correlation test and regression foe examining the relation between
variables of this hypothesis in Kerman's governmental organizations in the confidence level of 0.95, the value of P-value was calculated
that sig=0.081 and because sig>0.05 therefore, null hypothesis is approved. It means that there is a significant relation between selfmotivation and emotional strategy in Kerman's governmental organizations.
Result from testing secondary hypothesis 8: By accomplishing Pearson's correlation test and regression foe examining the relation between
variables of this hypothesis in Kerman's governmental organizations in the confidence level of 0.95, the value of P-value was calculated
that sig=0.000 and because sig<0.05 therefore, null hypothesis is rejected. It means that there is a significant relation between self-control
and emotional strategy in Kerman's governmental organizations.
Result from testing secondary hypothesis 9: By accomplishing Pearson's correlation test and regression foe examining the relation between
variables of this hypothesis in Kerman's governmental organizations in the confidence level of 0.95, the value of P-value was calculated
that sig=0.811 and because sig>0.05 therefore ,null hypothesis is approved. It means that there is no significant relation between social
intelligence and emotional strategy in Kerman's governmental organizations.
Result from testing secondary hypothesis 10: By accomplishing Pearson's correlation test and regression foe examining the relation
between variables of this hypothesis in Kerman's governmental organizations in the confidence level of 0.95, the value of P-value was
calculated that sig=0.282 and because sig>0.05 therefore, null hypothesis is approved. It means that there is a significant relation between
communication skills and emotional strategy in Kerman's governmental organizations.

9.

Conclusions and Suggestions

Results obtained from this research reveal that there is a significant relation between emotional intelligence and decision-making strategy in
Kerman's governmental organizations. Therefore, emotional intelligence is one of important factors that every organization must evaluate
it. The significance of this subject is revealed specially when the organization need to evaluate the strength and weakness points of its own
human resources for requirements shifting. Results from regression test show that emotional intelligence, self-motivation, self-control, and
communication skills have most effect on logical strategy. Hence, self-motivated individuals having communication skills use mostly
logical strategy in making their decisions. While self-aware, self-controlled having social intelligence individuals mostly use emotional
strategy in making their decisions and of course the effect of self-control is more upon emotional strategy.
Therefore, it is suggested to the officials that by regarding this fact that decision-making process is an important affair in organization and it
is one of managers' tasks for the organization, in recruitment of managers which must be done according to logical strategy self-motivated
may be selected.

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