Effect of Emotional Intelligence on Academic Employees Performance in Federal Universities in South-South, Nigeria

The study examined the effect of emotional intelligence on academic employees’ performance in federal universities in South-South Nigeria. Specifically, this study sought to assess the influence of social skills on communication with students in federal universities in South-South Nigeria. Research questions and five hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study employed a descriptive survey design. The population comprised four thousand, four hundred and seventy-eight (4,478) staff members, from which a sample size of 354 was determined using Freund and Williams’ formula. Two hundred and eighty-seven (287) respondents returned their questionnaires accurately completed. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and analysed using descriptive statistics. The Z-test was used to test the hypotheses. The findings indicated that social skills had a significant positive influence on communication with students in federal universities in South-South Nigeria (Z = 11.171, p < .05). The study concluded that social skills had a significant positive influence on instructional effectiveness, maintaining discipline, handling diverse learning needs, providing career guidance, and communicating with students in federal universities in South-South Nigeria. The study recommended, among other things, that federal universities in South-South Nigeria should incorporate self-awareness training workshops into academic staff development programmes to help lecturers identify their strengths, weaknesses, emotions, and teaching styles