Transposición del territorio en Ilha Grande y Vila do Aventureiro

This section considers the importance of EI in aid work. Focus will be on key correlates of EI which are related to aid work like health, relationship, teamwork and work performance. The section aims at bringing in EI into the context of aid work in order to appreciate its utility in the dynamics of aid work.

3.2.5.1 Emotional Intelligence and Health

Research has established that EI is a positive and significant predictor of good health. EI has been found to be linked to health, both physical and mental. Schutte et al., (2001) in a meta- analysis found that trait EI had significant relationships with mental and physical health. Martins, Ramalho, and Morin (2010) replicated the findings from this meta-analysis and concluded that EI is a strong predictor of health. It is therefore expected that in the study of aid worker burnout, the same relationship will be established primarily on mental health with aid workers of high EI coping better with burnout than those with low EI. In other words, it is expected that high EI aid workers are less prone to suffering burnout than their counterparts with low EI.

EI has also been linked to better psychological well-being in various occupations (Martins et al., 2010). There has not been specific research done on aid workers and EQ. High EI has been linked to physical and psychological health with those individuals with high EI being predicted to be able to manage their emotional states and know when to express their emotions and to regulate their emotional states effectively (Tsaousis & Nikolau, 2005). In general, those with high EI have been found to have high emotional adjustment and therefore emotional well- being.

3.2.5.2 Emotional Intelligence and Relationships

EI has been linked to better social relations for adults and children as well. Such social relations are essential to success at work through team-work and supervisor-subordinate relationships. High EI employees have a better self-perception of social ability and more successful interpersonal relationships with less interpersonal aggression and problems (Mayer et al., 2008). Such qualities help them to relate their work colleagues and superiors thereby making them less prone to burnout from interpersonal relationships. This would support the hypothesis that high EI should be negatively related to burnout in aid workers as these workers

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would have ready and strong social support to cope with burnout in the field in the form of team members, given their ability to establish good social relations.

Highly emotionally intelligent individuals are perceived more positively than low emotionally intelligent people. They have also been found to relate better to their families and significant others like spouses, fiancés, and children (Mayer et al., 2008). Good relationships with significant others help regarding coping with burnout as significant others form a pool of social support where these workers run for refuge in times of emotional turmoil. It should, therefore, follow that if strong social support is vital in dealing with burnout in aid workers, then high EI helps build the social support and therefore the buffer with burnout. As such, EI is therefore expected to be negatively associated with burnout, due to its buffering role in social relationships. The importance of proper interpersonal relationships cannot be overemphasised in aid workers given that they work with both team members, beneficiaries, and donors. 3.2.5.3 Emotional Intelligence and Teamwork

EI has been linked to high level of teamwork among work colleagues. Lopes, Grewal, Kadis, Gall, and Salovey (2006) asserted that EI contributes to the development of positive relationships with core workers and efficient team performance. The other benefit of such team performance is team self-efficacy and emotional support which would go a long way in buffering against stress and burnout. In aid work settings, emphasis on teams is very high given the nature of work. There is an emphasis on the team as can be seen in team houses, team vehicles for travelling and so forth. This emphasis helps to build emotional support in highly stressful environments. It tends to help reduce the effect of burnout. It can, therefore, be argued that individuals from high EI teams experience lower levels of burnout than their counterparts coming from low EI teams. Aid workers cannot work in isolation from each other or without beneficiaries or donors. The relationship between EI and teamwork is expected to be crucial in reducing burnout.

3.2.5.4 EI and Work Performance, Career Success, and Leadership

EI has been linked to working performance with high EI being strongly associated with high job performance and career success (Van Rooy & Viswesvaran, 2004). In the same vein, researchers found associations between EI and career move success than even IQ and other related constructs as measured by self-reports and works performance indicators like wages, upward mobility and salary increases (Goleman, 1995). What is not clear is whether the career

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success is not limited to particular occupations or job levels. It, however, seems the success stems from the ability to manage team dynamics and interpersonal relations with supervisors and subordinates. This link may probably extend to aid workers as interpersonal dynamics seem to be common to all occupations from Goleman’s perspective.

EI has been found to be related to excellent leadership and managerial success (Goleman,1998). As management and leadership roles demand people skills, it seems natural that such a relationship has been found in research though there are mixed findings. Goleman argued that the most effective leaders have high EI. This is mainly because trait EI measures tap into self-efficacy and self-rated performance by leaders (Joseph & Newman, 2010). It is therefore expected that aid workers who have high EI are likely to be successful in their roles.

This section portrayed that EI as a concept is related to aspects like personal health of workers, their relationships, relationships as well as work performance and leadership ability. Such a relationship assists in understanding the work setting as a strong determinant of burnout in aid work. The next section seeks to explore the actual relationship between EI and burnout. 3.2.6 Emotional Intelligence and Burnout

EI has been linked with burnout in some settings and occupations. This section will consider research associating EI and burnout as well as the effect on health-related outcomes and emotional adjustment; both in general, and specifically in aid workers.

Various studies have confirmed the significant but negative association between EI and burnout in teachers, students, nurses, and other occupations. This association is notwithstanding the fact that no specific associations have been made on aid workers (Saiiari, Moslehi, & Valizadeh, 2011; Santos, Mustafa & Gwi, 2015; Vaezi & Fallah, 2011, Mendez, 2002; Iqbal & Abbasi, 2013). EI has been found to relate negatively to burnout in various contexts and with different professions (Brackett & Mayer, 2003). It was found that employees with high EI are more aware of their emotions and others’ emotions leading to positive outcomes including profitability than their opposites (Mendes, 2002). Santos et al., (2014) found that trait EI predicted burnout in Malaysian human resources professionals. They found that it predicted work-related burnout but not client-related burnout. In their findings, they were using the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory to measure burnout. In other words, the

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relationship between EI and Burnout is not limited to the type of measurements used for Burnout or occupation.

Chan (2006), in his study of Chinese teachers in Hong Kong found that individual teachers with enhanced EI might be less vulnerable to burnout because they have better access to information transmitted by emotions and therefore appropriate action tendency for given emotions than their counterparts with low EI. He even went as far as to break down components of EI and argued that these directly and negatively affect components of burnout. In summary, Chan postulated that people with high EI use information conveyed by emotions to make sense of their reactions to stressors as well as guide their adaptive responses better than their counterparts. So EI seems essential in adapting to circumstances. Such findings may be extended to aid workers given the social role played by teachers who may be similar to that of aid workers.

Saiiari et al., (2011) found a negative correlation between EI and burnout among sports teachers in secondary schools in Iran. They found that those teachers who are high in EI are socially more active, have less excitement, and also suffer less sleeplessness and body pains and disorders than those with low EI scores. In this research, the relationship between components of burnout and those of EI, especially social skills, and social consciousness was clear. Vaezi and Fallah (2011) obtained similar results in Iran with English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers. Though they found a significant negative correlation between EI and burnout, they did not find any significant gender differences in the EFL teachers. It seems from the above findings that EI predicts burnout with high EI predicting low burnout and vice versa. The findings are in line with findings from Mendes (2002) that those individuals with high EI are likely to cope more effectively with the environmental demands and occupational stress than those with low EI. Vaezi and Fallah (2011) did not obtain any significant differences in teachers’ EI and Burnout concerning gender although some positive correlation was found between teachers' EI, teaching experience, and their ages.

EI and burnout were found to have a negative correlation, even in university professors using the MBI-ES and Schutte’s Emotional Intelligence test. (Iqbal & Abbasi, 2013). In the same vein, Mohammadyfar et al., (2009) found that EI and burnout explained were correlated, albeit negatively. They argued that EI and Burnout were significantly associated with physical and mental health.

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EI has been found to be essential for expatriate managers who deal with mixed emotions and feelings while adapting to a different culture of posting (Van Rooy & Viswesvaran, 2004). This also tends to be the case in aid work where there is high expatriation of skills and direct involvement with local communities and employees in the implementation of projects. High EI will, therefore, reduce susceptibility to burnout due to cultural challenges for expatriates.

It seems that high EI employees have also been found to have more confidence in their roles thereby being able to face their demanding tasks positively unlike their opposites who drift into burnout. There seems to be a universal trait across occupations. Mikolajczak et al., (2007) linked EI and burnout and argued that when confronted with emotional labour, participants who perceived themselves to be high in EI experienced lower levels of burnout and somatic complaints. This goes to support the premise that EI is negatively related to burnout and its symptoms.

Moon and Hur (2011) found that the emotional exhaustion dimension of burnout influences the job performance-EI relationship with emotional exhaustion showing a negative association with two components of EI (optimism and social skills). Such a relationship affects job performance negatively. In other words, job performance-EI relationship is stronger in contexts of high emotional exhaustion or burnout. Aidland or humanitarian aid work is an example where employees with high levels of EI especially optimism and social skills have better resources to outperform their counterparts with low EI.

In a study of the relationship between emotional intelligence to burnout and satisfaction among nurses in early nursing practice, Farmer (2004) found that overall EI has a negative relationship with burnout among nurses. In this group, participants reported significantly higher levels of perceived stress. In the study, Farmer used the MBI-HSS to measure burnout. From this research, it can be said that EI has an effect of preventing and ameliorating burnout.

The next section deals with the relationship between Emotional Intelligence and aid worker burnout.

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