In general, nursing is one of the major professions with high levels of workplace stress as you deal with patient deaths (Lambert et al., 2007). The well-being and health of nurses are strongly influenced by the amount of stress they exert in the workplace (Arentz et al., 2020). Taken similarly, even though the relationship between EI and nurses' stress has been mainly discussed in education, nursing, and medical research (e.g., Kikanloo et al., 2019;.
Por et al., 2011), but this relationship is not largely addressed in business and management research. Two types of stress are found in the literature: eustress and distress (Bienertova-Vasku et al., 2020). As such, at moderate levels of this type of stress, the individual can achieve high performance (Gharib et al., 2016).
Distress usually occurs when the individual perceives risks that may negatively affect him/her (Gharib et al., 2016). The relationship between the components of self-awareness and self-management was also significant for stress (Yamani et al., 2014).
Research Methodology 1 Research Model
Working well with others and managing relationships well is a process that begins with emotional awareness and the ability to recognize and understand what other people are experiencing, such as being in a bad mood or suffering from stress or anxiety (Bradberry & Greaves, 2009). There would be a relationship between relationship management and the amount of stress caused by the work relationship. People with social skills and a high level of relationship management are fully active in a complex environment and have a knack for inventing and mastering new methods (Klem & Schlechter, 2008).
Workplaces that do not have such close relationships and where workers do not spend any non-work time together are likely to be weak in relationship management with emotional intelligence (Klem & Schlechter, 2008). Examples of these items were "I expect that I will succeed in most things I try", "Some of the major events in my life have made me reevaluate what is important and what is not important", "I am aware on non-verbal messages that other people send' and 'I can tell how people feel by listening to the tone of their voice'. Demographics are more likely to influence employee attitudes at work (Boselie et al., 2005; Nikolaou & Tsaousis, 2002).
Due to the essential role of nurses in the Egyptian healthcare system, Egypt should take serious measures to strengthen nursing workforce capacity (Brownie, et al. 2018). A questionnaire is attached to the cover letter explaining the purpose of the study, the importance of participating in the study and the guarantee of confidentiality. In parts one and two, we asked participants to respond to the questions about EI and stress at work, respectively.
For reasons of sample size, Anderson and Gerbing (1988) and Ding et al. 1995) suggested that the minimum number of respondents should be between 100 and 150 in order to generalize the research results. Therefore, our sample size is sufficient to limit the standard error and generalize the results. Third, descriptive analysis was used to summarize means, standard deviations, and correlation coefficients for the research variables (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016).
Finally, a multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the research hypotheses (Johns & Lee-Ross, 1998).
Findings
To check the answer, we explained to the respondents that the answers would remain confidential (Donaldson & .. Grant-Vallone, 2002) and by performing factor analysis (Becker &. Second, to assess the quality of the measures, the research variables were tested against construct validity and reliability (Rose & Sullivan, 1993), using factor analysis techniques and Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The construct validity of the research measures was tested using a factor analysis technique (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988 ; Comery & Lee 1992; Herve, 2003).
All results confirm that the research measures are well designed (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988; Hair et al., 2010). The adjusted R2 was .181, revealing that EI accounted for .181 of the total variance in job stress. That is, the existence of a higher level of each EI dimension is a lower level experience.
Finally, the ranking of the β values (ignoring signs) in Table 6 suggests that social awareness had the greatest impact on workplace stress, followed by self-awareness, social management and finally relationship management (β and -.250 respectively ) (Kleinbaum et al., 2008).
Discussion
The findings also showed that nurses in Egypt are experiencing a high level of stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the possible interpretations is that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought more challenges to the Egyptian healthcare sector, such as the same as healthcare sectors around the world, such as the provision of the necessary equipment, isolation and intensive care units, and supported medicines. Healthcare institutions should therefore take steps to limit nurses' mental disorders during this crisis (Salari et al., 2020).
Opportunities should also be provided for nurses to discuss the stress they are experiencing, make suggestions for workplace adjustments and address the potential sources of organizational intervention during this pandemic (Arnetz et al., 2020). Our findings supported the relationship between the EI bundle and nurses' stress at the workplace (H1), nurses' emotional intelligence accounted for 18% of the total variation in their stress at the workplace. These findings are consistent with the universal thesis that suggests that EI helps employees manage and control their stress, and accordingly improve their overall well-being (Enns et al., 2018; Goswami.
The findings also confirmed the suggestion that employees with high levels of emotional intelligence tend to be realistic about what they can/cannot do and can effectively regulate their emotions in the workplace (Gohm et al., 2005; Kauts & Saroj, 2012). . We also found a negative relationship between each of the four components that define EI and nurses' stress and workplace (H1.1, H1.2, H1.3 and H1.4). In particular, we suggest that a nurse with a high level of self-awareness has the potential to respond more positively and optimistically to the stress he/she experiences.
Likewise, nurses with high self-management competencies have the potential to regulate their negative emotions under stressful situations. Finally, nurses with high relationship management abilities have the potential to handle the large amount of stress imposed by the work relationships, which confirms the findings of Klem and Schlechter (2008). The effect size of each component of EI on stress varied, positioning social awareness to start ranking, followed by self-awareness, social management, and relationship management, accordingly.
This result supports the view that EI components affect employees' emotions and well-being differently Kleinbaum et al.
Theoretical and Practical Implications
Having proper social awareness skills enables nurses to interpret the emotional reactions of others, to cope with stress and to take control in maintaining a positive mood. This study also pioneers research in considering EI and nurses' stress during the COVID-19 pandemic as one of the most unusual global health crises in recent times. Therefore, healthcare institutions should provide short-term EI training programs to their nurses to properly handle the high level of stress they have experienced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Similarly, healthcare organizations should offer EI training programs for the newly licensed nurses (Kozlowski et al., 2018; Landa et al., 2008; Michelangelo, 2015). There are two different views on the period or extent of the EI training program. The first suggests that EI skills are developed slowly (Kaya et al. 2017) and are not expected to improve with short-term interventions (Faralli, 2009).
Therefore, EI skills are expected to improve after 16 hours of training in one month (Sarabia-Cobo et al argue that long-term or repeated training is not necessary to achieve a significant increase in emotional intelligence. The findings also showed that Egyptian nurses, like other nurses around the world, are experiencing high levels of stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so healthcare institutions should take measures to reduce mental disorders among nurses during this crisis (Salari et al., 2020).
Improving nurses' emotional intelligence helps them maintain an effective stress coping strategy, which accordingly improves their well-being (Molero Jurado et al., 2019). Nurses should have the opportunity to discuss their stress concerns and offer suggestions for interventions (Arnetz et al., 2020). In addition, managers should think about how nurses' work is designed and what adjustments can be introduced to reduce work-related stress (Böckerman et al., 2020; Smith & Sainfort, 1989).
Limitations and Directions for Future Research
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