Effort-reward imbalance and attitude towards unethical work behaviour among police personnel: emotional intelligence as a moderator

Abstract

Emotional intelligence is a trainable skill capable of discouraging unethical work attitude among Nigeria police personnel by imparting on the perception of effort-reward imbalance. However, exploration of the moderating effect of emotional intelligence on the relationship between effort-reward imbalance and attitude towards unethical work behaviour has been absent from literature. Therefore, this research examined how emotional intelligence moderates the relationship between effort-reward imbalance and attitude towards unethical work behaviour among a sample of police personnel in Nigeria. The study is a survey adopting an Ex-post facto research design to collect data from two hundred and twenty-five (n=225) police personnel at Ogun State Police Command Headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta. A questionnaire measuring effort-reward imbalance, emotional intelligence, attitude towards unethical work behaviour and demographic variables was the instrument for data collection. Hypothesis was tested using moderated hierarchical regression. Results revealed that effort-reward imbalance and emotional intelligence were significant predictors of attitude towards unethical work behaviour (F=18.42; P<.001, R2=.35), explaining forty-seven percent (35%) of the variance in attitude towards unethical work behaviour. The independent predictions showed that effort-reward imbalance (β =.22; t= 2.21; p< .01) and emotional intelligence (β =-.29; t= -2.10; p< .01) contributed significantly to variance in attitude towards unethical work behaviour. Lastly, the interaction term between effort-reward imbalance and emotional intelligence on attitude towards unethical work behaviour yielded significant equation (F=12.24; p<.001, R2=.46; R2change=.11). Conclusively, effort-reward imbalance and emotional intelligence measures independently and interactively influence attitude towards unethical work behaviour among police personnel and suggests that inclusion of emotional training modules in the training and development of police personnel would create ethical work workplaces devoid of favourable attitude towards unethical work behaviour.

Key words: Attitude towards unethical work behaviour, Effort-reward imbalance, Emotional intelligence