Navigating COVID-19 with emotional intelligence

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. COVID-19 has affected educational systems worldwide, leading to the widespread closure of schools, colleges and universities. The COVID-19 pandemic is also having a dramatic impact on societies and economies around the world. With various measures of lockdowns and social distancing in place, it becomes important to understand emotional intelligence of faculty members working in institutions of higher learning on a large scale in this pandemic. Aim: The purpose of this article is to examine the perception of faculty members toward their emotional intelligence during COVID-19 and to study the impact of demographic variables on their emotional intelligence. Method: The data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The data for the study were collected through both the primary and secondary sources. Online questionnaires were used to gather the primary data. The measuring items used for the study were sourced from existing validated scales and literature. Descriptive statistics was employed to know the descriptive information across various demographic variables on a total sample of 683. The various demographic variables, which were considered for the study, were gender and designation. Results: The results revealed that the faculty members perceived their emotional intelligence at an above-average level in the present pandemic, that is, COVID-19. The results also revealed that the perception of the respondent faculty members toward their emotional intelligence from different universities and states is more or less the same and also the demographic variable gender has a significant impact on emotional intelligence during the present pandemic. Conclusion: Besides having theoretical implications that open pathways for conducting further research, the findings of the study may serve as a reference for service practitioners in designing strategies that will ensure superior performance of faculty members in higher educational institutions during the pandemic.