An Investigation into the Relationship between Occupational Stress, Burnout and Emotional Intelligence among Healthcare Professionals

Burnout has become an unavoidable consequence of occupational stress in almost all the organizational settings and emotional intelligence plays an influential role by regulating the negative emotions of the individuals. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between occupational stress, burnout and emotional intelligence among healthcare professionals. The Occupational Stress Index, Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI-HSS) and Multidimensional Measure of Emotional Intelligence were administered on a sample of 600 healthcare professionals from the private hospitals of Delhi, NCR. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to obtain the association between occupational stress, burnout and emotional intelligence of the professionals. Results suggest that emotional intelligence has a significant negative relationship with occupational stress and two dimensions of burnout (emotional exhaustion and depersonalization); whereas a positive relationship has been observed with the personal accomplishment dimension of burnout. The results indicates that professionals high on emotional intelligence have the ability to handle emotions of self and others in demanding situations and such professionals are high on personal accomplishment and hence success.