El Mayor Cucapá y el Indiviso

The relationship between EI and coping resources like self-esteem and self-efficacy has also been established in one way or another by research. People with high self-esteem score higher on EI than those with low self-esteem (Mohammydfar et al., 2009). The latter would need to depend on drugs like marijuana to cope with everyday problems, whereas the former would have the self-efficacy to cope with the same. It should, therefore, follow that regarding coping ability, those individuals with high EI tend to have higher levels of self-efficacy to cope with burnout than those with low EI. As such, those employees with high EI will not be expected to resort to drug and substance abuse for coping with burnout as high EI enhances their coping ability. This position is supported by Lopes et al., (2006). They found that emotionally intelligent employees have better resources to cope with stressing situations and demanding tasks, which in turn enable them to outperform in those situations.

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According to Joseph and Newman (2010), emotional perception and emotional regulation components of EI contribute to job performance in contexts with high emotional demand. This is mainly because, in such settings, there is the amplified need for adjustment, and hence, high emotional demands leading to the taxing of available coping resources. Once coping resources are taxed to the limit, then one is prone to burnout. As such, if one has high emotional intelligence, it is expected that one would have enough resources available to deal with job demands before the resources deplete levels of burnout. EI, therefore, becomes a crucial coping resource in jobs where employees must adjust to the work environment. Aid work is such an emotional adventure, which requires much adjustment, not only on the part of expatriates adjusting to a different environment from their own, but also and importantly, on the part of local aid workers. Local aid workers may need to adjust to working for a foreign organisation and team with different demands and cultural realities as well as balancing with local beneficiaries. This situation would be exacerbated by the fact that they must cope with the emergency with limited resources and higher demand for support on the part of beneficiaries. This study argues that emotional strain easily results from this situation.

The coping ability has been linked to EI in some professions including nursing, teaching, and other helping professions. Chan (2006), in a study of Chinese teachers in Hong Kong found that individuals with enhanced EI might be less vulnerable to burnout, because people with high EI have better access to emotionally transmitted information. To him, the teachers managed to convey emotions to make sense of their reactions to stress and to guide adaptive actions. Chan found that different components of EI predicted significant differences in efficacy beliefs for different groups of Hong Kong teachers. It was also found that high trait EI individuals exhibited greater self-efficacy to cope with stressful events.

EI has been found to enhance self-efficacy in many settings (Pettita & Vecchione, 2011). EI and self-efficacy are associated with more significant individual resources thereby making it easier for those with high self-efficacy and high EI to cope with stressful situations (Pettita & Vecchione, 2011).

In summary, there is a positive relationship between EI and CA. The relationship seems to be based on the fact that CA has a social support element that is strongly linked to EI. Coping based on social support tends to stem from appreciating others as important enough to lend adequate emotional support in times of need (Chesney et al., 2006). Social skills tend to be

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important in emotional intelligence, as they manifest in relating with, and managing self and others.

The next sub-section explores the relationship between EI and SI. 3.4.3 Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Spiritual Intelligence (SI)

Research has also established a relationship between EI and spirituality, especially the link between EI and SI when measured as religious orientation or what has been termed as religious behaviour. It was found that the number of religious group activities of the Christian group was positively correlated to the perceived EI (Pargament, 1997).

In other studies, strong positive correlations were found between religious commitment and self-reported EI (Tischler, Biberman, & Mckeage, 2002). It was also found that Christian volunteers were more likely to consider themselves emotionally intelligent, if they spent more time in group activities, and had more commitment to their religious beliefs (Tischler et al., 2002). Regarding the relationship between EI and SI with burnout, the relationship has an added benefit of strong social support from group membership which may also help in buffering against stress and burnout. This relationship is also expected in aid workers between EI and spirituality or SI. These two variables of EI and SI may relate positively to each other though negatively correlated to burnout.

EI is also linked with SI in some settings. For example, Kaur et al., (2013) in their research on Malaysian nurses found that SI influences EI and psychological ownership among the nurses. Together with EI, psychological ownership and burnout, SI was found to play an essential role in effecting the caring behaviours of Malaysian nurses. Also, Zohar and Marshall (2000) and Hoseein et al., (2010) found links between SI and EI, with SI and internal locus of control. In all these studies, the running theme is that SI is a core capability, or guiding construct, which has a positive influence on both EI and psychological ownership among other variables.

In a study of burnout in nurses in Tehran hospitals, Lavasani, Afzali, Davoodi, and Sharestani (2017) found that three main factors were significant. These were SI, EI, and hardiness. They were all negatively related to burnout but positively related to each other. Their findings amongst nurses indicate that all variables EI, SI, and hardiness significantly predicted nurses burnout. Interestingly, they found that job burnout had the most correlation with hardiness,

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then EI and lastly SI. From this study, it seems EI has more predictive value on burnout than SI. One can conclude that EI mitigates against burnout in nurses than SI. As such, it should be given more priority in the recruitment and training of nurses and related professionals to protect them from burnout.

Tischler et al., (2002) found that EI and spirituality appear to lead to similar or related attitudes, behaviours, and skills which they argue often confuses the boundaries between the two constructs. The two constructs may be related, but they are distinct. EI has no mention of transcendence or unconscious states, which are the core of SI.

The next section is focused on coping ability (CA) and how it is related to burnout in general and aid work in particular. An attempt will be made to try and connect EI and CA as well as CA and SI.