The Moderating Effect of Age, Gender, And Experience in the Impact of Emotional Intelligence on OCB

Abstract

Purpose: Research objective to assess moderating role of demographic factors such as age, gender, as well as experience, on linkage among EI (emotional intelligence) and OCB (organisational citizenship behaviour).

Design: The research has been done for senior level employees of IT service organizations like managers, executives and team leads in India having experience of at least 2 years. Sample of 550 employees has been selected utilizing simple random sampling technique. Google Forms has been utilised to collect data, or a closed-ended questionnaire was created for data collection. The IBM SPSS AMOS is the software used for developing a “partial least square structural equation model (PLS-SEM)” for assessment of impact at 5% level of significance.

Findings: The evaluation of proposed PLS-SEM model defines that EI have positive impact on OCB level as more emotionally aware and knowledgeable persons tend to have better motivation for contributing towards the organization. Also, integrating the role of demographics in the model, the analysis identified that demographic factors don’t directly influence OCB resulting in restricting organizations from integrating demographic-specific strategies. Instead, as the current experience level of employees has positive moderating influence on relationship among EI and OCB, thus, more IT service organizations could focus on enhancing the experience of employees in the organization by having mentorship programs, diverse projects allotment to employees, or providing training for enhancing the skillset. These efforts will help employees feel more belonged and motivated towards improving the organization's performance.

Originality: The research helps to broaden the body of literature in fields of OCB and EI. As the moderating role of demographics was not assessed and also evaluation for the linkage between EI and OCB was not present for the IT service sector in India, thus, findings of the research are valuable for IT service organizations in India to improve the EI level of employees. Even in practice organizations could use the findings for designing their HR policies to derive better OCB level among employees.