An Assessment of Emotional Intelligence Relationship with Employee Engagement for Public Universities in Kenya

Abstract

Emotional intelligence has become a well research construct in relation to leadership and performance.  Employee engagement has been of interest as scholars seek to establish now best to motivate employee to give their very best for organizational performance, public universities included.  There is limited literature on the relationship between emotional engagement and emotional intelligence specifically for Kenyan public Universities.  This paper therefore sought to address this gap.  The target population was public universities in Kenya;however, the sample was mainly drawn from the managers and employees of the four public Universities, namely University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University, Egerton University and Jomo Kenyatta University of Technology.  The research design was mixed.  A questionnaire was utilized to collect data which was analyzed using Pearson's Correlation Coefficient to establish the relationship.  The results indicate that there exists a positive relationship between emotional intelligence and employee engagement.