Emotional Intelligence and Counterproductive Work Behavior of Employees Working in Public Sector Organizations: Mediating Role of Organizational Justice

Abstract

This study focused on the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI), perceived organizational justice (OJ), and counterproductive work behaviors (CWB), and of public sector employees. The study adopted cross-sectional survey design, to select the sample of 250 employees from the public sector organizations of Pakistan. Both male employees (n = 128) and female employees (n = 121) were included. The respondents filled the indigenous version Urdu translated of the Emotional Intelligence (SRMEI), the Organizational Justice Scale, and the Counterproductive Work Behavior Scale. The reliability analysis revealed that all the scales and subscales are reliable and valid measures. The correlation analysis showed that EI positively correlates with organizational justice and negatively correlates with CWB. Moreover, mediation results demonstrated a significant negative role of organizational justice in mediating the association between EI and CWB. The results of mediation suggested that higher emotional intelligence resulted higher perception of organizational justice, which is related to the lesser counterproductive work behavior of public sector employees.  Additionally, emotional self-awareness and emotional self-regulation as subcomponents of EI emerged better mediators for counterproductive work behaviors as compared to interpersonal skills. The findings help to support the significance of building emotional intelligence skills and fairness in HR-related policies and practices to decrease the occurrence of deviant/counter productive work behavior of employees in the public sector organizations. The research has provided empirical support for the indigenous contextual evidence in understanding better emotional self-awareness and self-regulation of employees at workplace, facilitating for their perception of fairness in the organization to minimize counter productive work behavior. Overall, this study offers novel evidence for understanding the relation of emotional intelligence as individual differences with counterproductive work behavior as individual outcomes through the perceptual experience of process (perception of organizational justice) from employee’s perspective.