Correlates of psychological capital, emotional intelligence and occupational stress among Nigerian graduate employees

Abstract

It is a documented fact that occupational stress is widespread worldwide. Moreover, there are clear signs of many variables, related to occupational stress. The study therefore, was conducted to demonstrate whether the presence of occupational stress in the world of work correlates in any form (high or low) with psychological states of development. The study adopted the positivist explanatory cross-sectional (survey) research design to systematically sample opinions of 1,532 male and female graduate employees across the various sectors of the Nigerian  economy, using a structured and validated questionnaire, and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The results showed that there was a significant positive relationship between psychological capital and occupational stress (r = 0.128, p<0.01); there was a significant positive relationship between emotional intelligence and occupational stress (r = 0.086, p<0.01); and there was a significant positive relationship between psychological capital and emotional intelligence (r = 0.493, p<0.01). The study recommended that human resource managers should develop psychological capital and emotional intelligence in employees in order to increase their levels of organisational performance, and reduce the negative impact of occupational stress.

Keywords: Emotional intelligence, occupational stress, psychological capital, graduate employee