Emotional Intelligence, Conflict Management Styles, and Work–Life Balance: Examining Gender Differences

Abstract

The main purpose of the present study was to find the relationship among emotional intelligence, conflict management styles and work-life balance of organizational employees. It also sought to see if there are gender differences in these psychological and work-related factors. The following hypotheses were formulated: Emotional intelligence will positively and significantly link with conflict management styles and work-life balance of employees. Further, it was hypothesized that work-life balance of employees would be significantly related to conflict management styles. Also, there would be difference in emotional intelligence, conflict management and work-life balance among employees across gender. The type of research design used was quantitative with correlational method. A sample of N=163 organizational employees across various public, private and semi-private organizations in Karachi, Pakistan. The subjects were 100 male and 63 female, obtained by convenience sampling. Three standardized questionnaires were used: the Brief Emotional Intelligence Scale (BEIS-10), the Dutch Test for Conflict Handling (DUTCH) and Hayman's Work-Life Balance Scale (WLB). Participants were approached from different public and private organizational settings in Karachi. Participants were told what the study was about and they were asked to participate in the study freely. The research instruments were administered with informed consent. The measures were completed by participants in English after which the obtained data were entered and analyzed via SPSS. The result found significant positive correlation between emotional intelligence and the conflict management styles (r = .589, p < .001). Emotional intelligence, however, did not associated significantly with work-life balance (r = .141, p = .072) and the conflict management styles did not associate significantly with work-life balance (r = −.026, p > .05). There were also no significant differences for emotional intelligence (p = .335), conflict management styles (p = .258), or work-life balance (p = .127) between the two gender groups.