Development and Factorial Validation of Emotional Intelligence Inventory for Mechanical Technology Occupations in South-South Nigeria

Abstract

The 21st century workforce has experienced numerous changes one of which is the high demand for soft skills, including emotional intelligence, by employers in every occupation. It thus becomes essential that mechanical technology occupations in South-south Nigeria should be staffed with emotionally intelligent workers and that their emotional competencies should be measured with appropriate instruments. The study therefore sought to develop and factorially validate an emotional intelligence inventory for mechanical technology occupations in South-South Nigeria. The instrumentation research design was adopted and the Delphi method was used for collecting data needed for developing the instrument. The population for the study consisted of 4,018 persons made up of all the 22 lecturers of mechanical technology education courses and all the 3,996 registered tradesmen in mechanical technology occupations in South-South Nigeria. The sample comprised 351 respondents in the following roles: 10 academic experts for the Delphi study and 341 mechanical technology tradesmen for the trial testing of the instrument. Random sampling and multi-stage stratified random sampling techniques were adopted. Eight research questions and eight null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 probability level. Three instruments, namely the Delphi Round 1 questionnaire, the Delphi round 2 questionnaire and the emotional intelligence inventory for mechanical technology occupations (EIIMTO) in South-South Nigeria were used for data collection. The data generated from the study were analysed using the mean, standard deviation, percentage, factor analysis, Cronbach Alpha reliability technique, Pearson product moment correlation and the two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The findings made include the following: 62 emotional intelligence competency items were found to be very indispensable for successful career in mechanical technology occupations in South-South Nigeria. The developed Emotional Intelligence Inventory for Mechanical Technology Occupations (EIIMTO) in South-South Nigeria has a four-factor structure with 34 emotional intelligence competency items. The four factors were emotional-awareness and expression (9 items), perseverance and emotional-resilience (8 items), self-confidence and conscientiousness (8 items) and flexibility and sociability (9 items). The inventory was found to have high construct validity, high coefficient of internal consistency of 0.89 while the coefficient of stability was 0.84. The study also found that there was a significant difference in the mean scores of mechanical technology workers with respect to their occupational area. Age, experience, job status and marital status were not significant factors in the mean scores of mechanical technology workers in the EIIMTO. Furthermore, there was no interaction effect of occupational area and age, age and experience or job status and marital status on the mean scores of mechanical technology workers in the EIIMTO. It was recommended, among others, that the developed Emotional Intelligence Inventory for Mechanical Technology Occupations (EIIMTO) should be effectively used as a valid and reliable instrument for assessing the emotional competencies of workers in mechanical technology occupations in South-South Nigeria.