EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AS RELATED TO DECISION-MAKING SKILLS OF LEADERS OF TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN SANTA CRUZ, LAGUNA AS BASIS FOR PROPOSED ACTION PLAN

Abstract

Emotional Intelligence is the aggregate of abilities, competencies, and skills that represent a collection of knowledge meant for coping with life effectively. Thus, it is closely related to the personal and professional growth of the individuals who must make decisions under stressful and difficult situations. The present study aimed to explore the relationship between the emotional intelligence of school leaders and their decision-making skills. 45 respondents had been selected from various private tertiary schools in Santa Cruz, Laguna. Data was collected using a standardized questionnaire. Data was analyzed using statistical software. In this study, the first variable Emotional Intelligence was divided into five components, namely (1) Self-Awareness, (2) Self-Regulation, (3) Self-Motivation, (4) Empathy, and (5) Social Skills. To determine the level of emotional intelligence, constructs were used.  The constructs were statement/indicators and respondents mark their agreement/disagreement to the indicators using a 5-point Likert scale.  To determine the agreement/disagreement for each indicator/statement, the mean was computed.  The computed mean value was then compared to the range set forth in the study.  The standard deviation was also computed to determine the variation in the response. The result for the   level of emotional intelligence was found out to be “Very High” and with an overall standard deviation value of 0.58, signifying homogeneity of the data, the data suggest that the respondents “agree” to this level.

The second variable for this study is the level of decision-making skills of school leaders. It consisted of three (3) components, and these were (1) Participation, (2) Empowerment, and (3 Accountability. To measure the levels for the said components, constructs were designed consisting of 5 indicators/statements with a 5-point Likert Scale to be used as rating scale. All the components had “Very High” levels.  The overall all level therefore is also “Very High” level with an overall computed mean value of 4.60.  The overall standard deviation of 0.54 is relatively low compared to the value of the mean which shows that the data had small deviation with the individual responses being very close to each other. The goal of this study is to determine whether Emotional Intelligence has a significant effect on the decision-making skills of the teachers and school administrators.  For this purpose, the Spearman Correlation Coefficient is used to analyze the existence of a relationship between level of emotional intelligence and level of significance.  If a significant relationship existed, then it can be concluded that emotional intelligence affects the decision-making skills of the respondents. The result revealed that there is a weak positive relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Decision-Making Skills.  At 5% level of significance, Emotional Intelligence does not significantly affect Decision-Making Skills of the respondents while at 10% level of significance, Emotional Intelligence significantly affects Decision Making Skills of the respondents.