Emotional intelligence, academic achievement, and business graduate employability

Graduate Employability

Once each student graduates from the various colleges and training institutions, it is their expectations that they will be able to either get gainful employment that is equivalent to their academic and training levels and one that is sustainable. If the graduates will not be able to get the gainful employment, then it is hoped that they should be able to create employment as the contemporary trends are. There are however some other intervening factors that can help in achieving this, some of them are the emotional intelligence of that particular graduate or job seeker and the academic achievement of that particular candidate. These three factors, employability, emotional intelligence and the academic achievement interact in specific manner to shape the ultimate quality of employability of a given candidate. They have a symbiotic relationship particularly in the current competitive environment where education and innovation has influenced change and in the process change has influenced these two in a seamless cycle. It is the interest in the relationship among these three factors that informs the gist of this paper, to be able to understand the extent of the influence that each factor plays in influencing the employability of the graduate at the end of it. In the scope of this paper, the concept of employability will be restricted to the students graduating from business school. This will give a more defined and refined approach towards a topic that spans wide across various disciplines and job specializations.

2.2 Graduate Employability

The various trainings that people undergo in colleges and even the on-job trainings that are regularly presented are all aimed at ensuring the individual who is undergoing the training is sharpened enough to optimally perform in the job market hence stay in the competitive job market. Further, employability as described in the concept of resident skills within the graduate populace, is the level to which the institutions and employers have supported the knowledge of the students, the skills, reflective disposition, attributes as well as the identity of the graduates, which are requisite to succeed in the workforce. In brief, according to the University of Kent (2017) employability is \"the capability of getting and keeping satisfactory work.\"

However, the employability of a graduate, in the concept of the market demand, is often shaped or influenced by several external factors or influences. There are the labor standards set out in a given region, the market expectations that greatly vary from one geographical region to another, the curriculum in the various zones, the client demographics and behaviorisms, the economic trends of the time and the competition can also easily determine and change the employability standards of graduates.

There are various ways that can be used to measure graduate employability, as diverse as this concept is, so are the measurement determinants and indicators that should be considered when measuring graduate employability. In the event that the ability to get a job is the basis of definition of employability, then the measurement yardstick would be number or percentage of graduates from the specific disciples who get into employment. If the basis of definition of employability is the qualities that a graduate walks out of the institutions with, then employability can be measured through a structured audit of the developmental opportunities that the institution presents to the students. If the basis of the definition is on the level of satisfaction of the students with the job they are holding, then the basis of measurement of employability would be the survey results on the satisfaction of the graduates with whatever they studied as relates to having prepared them for the job market in line with the skills acquired. These metrics will greatly influence the determination of the employability of graduates hence it cannot be assumed that there is a singular formula or approach to determining the employability of graduates (Blades R. & Fauth B.et.al, 2012:Pp22-28).

2.3 Emotional Intelligence

The concept of emotional intelligence has been widely referred to by behaviorists as a central consideration in the shaping of an individual\'s character and disposition particularly at the organizational level or the job market. It is a central attribute that is looked at or evaluated using various IQ tests when carrying out recruitment process by the HR departments.

Emotional intelligence (EI) is widely seen as the capacity of one to identify as well as manage their emotions as well as the emotions of others they interact with (Psychology Today, 2017). EI or sometimes referred to as Emotional Quotient (EQ) is significantly different from intelligence quotient or IQ. As the EI can be improved, the IQ of an individual cannot be improved and it has been observed that the EI of an individual can influence more the success of an individual than the IQ. Some of the qualities that determine the level of EI of an individual are self-control, empathy, teamwork, self-confidence, effective communication and achievement orientation (Gleeson B., 2017).

Emotional intelligence models

There are three main theories or models on EI that are of interest in the scope of this paper; the ability EI, the Trait EI and the Mixed EI model.

The ability-based model; this model was extensively developed by Mayer and Solvey and it indicates that EI a the ability of an individual to perceive emotions, integrate these emotions in order to aid in the thought process and the understanding of the emotions and regulating emotions with the aim of promoting personal growth. This model views emotions as a tool for interacting with the social environment that one finds themselves. It highlights four major types of emotional abilities;

Emotional perception-is the capacity of the individual to recognize their own emotions and to know the emotions that re expressed through their voices, demeanor, faces and it is known to be the most basic and requisite quality.

Emotional use- this is seen as the ability to use the emotions I order to achieve or undertake other cognitive activities. An individual with high EI will use their emotions in handling challenges at work or at home and effectively solve problems and to solve given task at work.

Emotional understanding- this is the capability to tell the various shades of emotions and how they interact with each other. This also covers how emotions evolve from one kind to another.

Emotional management -- this is seen in the capacity of the individual to self-regulate emotions and additionally regulate the emotions of another individual. In work environments or crisis, an individual with high emotional management capacity will be able to harness both the negative and positive emotions to channel them towards completion of work tasks or problem solving endeavor.

The Trait Model; this model departs from the premises that EI is an ability-based capacity but an innate attribute that individuals posses. It proposes that EI can be seen from the emotional self-perception as well as emotional traits which are not measured in the scientific sense of it but by the respondents self-report. This model assumes, though could be erroneously, that the individual is able to accurately describe their own traits with accuracy. Significantly, this model points out that EI should only be viewed in conjunction with absolute exploration of personality of the individual. This is what sets apart this model since all the others look at EI as brain based ability and not the environmental aspect of the personality.

Mixed model; this theory is often associated with Daniel Goleman as the main proponent and contemporary psychologists accept it as a viable model. It involves various competencies that are further broken down to the particular skills. The EI competencies under this model are self-awareness (Emotional self-awareness, accurate self-awareness, self-confidence), self-management (self -- control, trustworthiness, conscientiousness, adaptability, achievement orientation, initiative), social awareness (empathy, organizational awareness, service orientation) and social skills (influence, leadership, developing others, communication, change catalysts, change management, building bonds, teamwork and collaboration). Here, these abilities are not considered innate but those that must be developed over time for one to achieve higher EI each passing stage. It posits that EI can be developed throughout the lifetime of an individual (MTD Training, 2010).

2.4 Academic performance

Many scholars in the field of education have done extensive research on the issue of academic performance and how to measure it or gauge high or low performance. The concept has had diverse academic considerations with some looking at the output as the factor that determines the academic performance; there are other approaches that consider the process from the input to the output. However, one of the models that tend to describe academic performance best is the Input-Environment-Output model by Astin. This model emphasizes that in measuring academic performance, there is need to consider the inputs like the family background, the demographics characteristics, as well as the academic social experiences that the students come to the college with. Then there is the environment that is consisted of people, cultures, programs, and the various experiences that the students undergo while in college. Then the last is the outcomes like the characteristics of the individual students, the attitudes, the skills, beliefs, values, attitude and behavior as these students leave the college (York T.T., 2015). This theory is a comprehensive approach to describing academic performance since it looks at the entire system that contributed to making who the graduate turned out to be. As per this definition, the EQ hence has been seen to be more important than IQ since the entire emotional process is examined to determine the academic performance.

2.4.1 Direct effect of emotional intelligence on academic performance

The EI still remains to be the independent variable and here academic performance comes in as the mediating variable. This is variable that may add to the extent of the effect that independent variable affects the dependent variable.

It is known that the EI that is high can be found among people who are optimistic in life and always see the possibility in whatever they set out to achieve. It is apparent that the EI of an individual is able to influence their academic performance since they will be more optimistic of finishing their academic ventures (Malik S.Z. & Shahid S., 2016:Pp199). The high EI will also see the student handle his colleagues in a much better manner than those with lower EI hence they form peers and acquaintances better, a fact that will help them in their academic journey.

2.4.2 Direct effect of academic performance on graduate employability

Traditionally, the academic performance has often been looked at as one of the yardsticks for an individual who took his school matters seriously. May employers will set out some minimum academic qualifications and grades that applicants need to meet before even making the application. This means that the academic performance still widely informs the selection criteria for employability.

2.4.3 Mediating effect of academic performance

From the above discussed relationships that exist between the EI and the employability, it is clear that academic performance positively influences the relationship between these two aspects. The academic performance will significantly determine whether the graduate who is fairly stable in the EI will be called for that job interview advertised. The key to whether the student will get the employment is often based on the academic performance, the student may be emotionally intelligent and hence very employable, but before he is even subjected to the EI test to determine his level of emotional intelligence there will be minimum academic qualifications that they will be required to have.