Relationship between work family conflict, emotional intelligence and self-efficacy among medical practitioners

Abstract

The medical professionals are facing multiple challenges including long and inflexible work hours and workload overburdening can lead to emotional fatigue. This emotional exhaustion, in return, affects their levels of self-efficacy, i.e. the belief in their abilities to achieve the goal set by the organization is weakened. These conflicts in work-life caused by high work demands and leading to emotional exhaustion can create a state of distress among the medical professionals. The present study was aimed to explore the relationship between work-family conflict, emotional intelligence, and self-efficacy among medical professionals. The sample of the study consisted of 140 medical professionals working in private, government, and semi-government hospitals of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Data was collected via online surveys through a purposive sampling technique. The scales used for this purpose were Work and Family Conflict Scale (Netemeyer, Boles & McMurrian, 1996), Emotional Intelligence Scale (Wong & Law, 2002), and Self- Efficacy Scale (Jerusalem & Schwarzer, 1981). It was hypothesized that there is a significant relationship between work-family conflict, self-efficacy, and emotional intelligence among medical practitioners. The results of the study also revealed that those having more family to work conflict were having less emotional intelligence and self- efficacy. Furthermore, findings revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between emotional intelligence with selfefficacy. The findings of this study contributed to highlighting the importance of emotional intelligence and self-efficacy in managing stress both, at work and home among medical practitioners. The findings also suggest that it is significant for medical professionals to have 8 high emotional intelligence and self-efficacy levels to muddle through the work-family conflict more healthily and finely.