EFFECTS OF QUANTITY SURVEYORS’ EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ON JOB SATISFACTION AND CONSTRUCTION PROJECT SUCCESS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Emotional intelligence (EI) is fast becoming a household name in psychology literature because of the immense contributions it can make to the development of personal identity and interpersonal relationship. In advanced countries, the applicability of EI has been employed in other works of life including the construction sector of the economy. However, in the Nigeria construction industry, more focus has been on the intellectual aspects of the construction process with little attention being on non-cognitive researches, such of which EI is. With the concentration on cognitive aspect of life, the poor performance of the industry is still a problem. This study looked into the EI of one of the major contributors in the construction industry; the Quantity Surveyors (QS), by determining their EI class, factors affecting their EI, its relation to job satisfaction experienced by the QS, and its contribution to overall project success in the industry with Lagos state being the study area. The study adopted the self-reporting methodology for assessing EI of QS which was validated by three other construction professionals in the industry using a survey design. A total of 243 professionals which included 141 QS were the respondents for the study using two structured sets of questionnaire. The questionnaires were designed on a Seven-point Likert-type scale with Five (5) and Four (4) sections in the first set and the second set of questionnaire respectively. Primary data analysis was done using MIS, SD and factor analysis for data reduction. Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis H test, Dunnett test, SNK test, Bonferroni test and Correlation analysis were used to test the relationship between different respondent groups and test variables. The results showed that QS belong to class two of the EI assessment with well-developed EI. EI was shown to have a significant relationship with job satisfaction of QS and project success experienced in the industry. Experience, family background, knowledge and training, personality, gender and maturity stood out among the factors that affect EI of QS. The study recommended constant training and re-training of QS to enhance their emotional competences to acceptable standard. Also, it was suggested that to improve project success in the industry, more attention should be given to non-cognitive studies. However, future studies could determine EI of QS using performance test assessment and extending the work to other major players in the industry.