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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 93 (2013) 2219 – 2223

3rd World Conference on Learning, Teaching and Educational Leadership (WCLTA-2012)

Emotional intelligence, skills competency and personal development among

counseling teachers

Sharif Mustaffa*a, Zaidatul Nasirb, Rashid Azizb, Mohd Nasir Mahmoodc

a
Counselling Centre, University Technology Malaysia, Skudai, 81310 Johor, Malaysia
b
Faculty of Education, University Technology Malaysia, Skudai, 81310 Johor, Malaysia
c
Akademi Bahasa, Universiti Technologi Malaysia, Skudai, 81310 Johor, Malaysia

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this case study is to analyze the relationship between the levels of emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self -control, self-
motivation, empathy and social skills) and skills competency and personal development of secondary school counselors in Johor. Sixty
secondary school counselors were randomly selected as respondents. The study was carried out quantitatively using questionnaires as
instruments to obtain data. The study shows that majority of the respondents have moderate level of emotional intelligence and high level of
skills competency and personal development. In addition, it is also found that the relationship of emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-
control, self-motivation, empathy and social skills) and skills competency is at medium strong level. Meanwhile, emotional intelligence (self-
awareness, self-control, self- motivation, empathy and social skills) has a strong and significant relationship with personal development.
Therefore, it can be concluded that strengthening emotional intelligence in educational practices will refine and enhance personal development
and skills competency among secondary school counselors.
2012 The
© 2013 Published by Elsevier
Authors. PublishedLtd.
by Selection and Open
Elsevier Ltd. peer review underCC
access under theBY-NC-ND
responsibility of Prof. Dr. Ferhan Odabaşı
license.
Selection and peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Ferhan Odabaşı
Key words: Emotional intelligence; counselors; personal development.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

1. Introduction

In recent years, low-test scores, drop-out rates, abuses and cases of school violence are among the major issues in education
and students’ lives (Low, 2004). According to Vela (2003) and Khata et al., (2011), although there are progressive efforts carried
out to improve students’ performance in schools, students’ success rates continue to decline. Thus schools require counselors who
are able to master a variety of counseling skills to allow them to remain productive and effective in a challenging environment.
School counselors need to build resilience in order to cope with the challenges in realizing the aspiration of the country. One
aspect that needs to be emphasized is the ability to share high levels of emotional intelligence (Mohd Najib et al., 2002).
A study by Goleman (1995) shows that intellectual intelligence contributes only 20 percent to one’s success while the
remaining 80 percent of a person’s success in life is contributed by emotional intelligence. According to Goleman (1998), people
with accurate self-assessment are aware of their strengths and weaknesses; reflective, learn from experience; open to candid
feedback, have new perspectives, continuously learning, and practise self-development. He also posits that people with a high

1877-0428 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Ferhan Odabaşı
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.191
2220 Sharif Mustaffa et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 93 (2013) 2219 – 2223

level of adaptability can smoothly handle multiple demands, shift priorities and change rapidly; adapt their responses and tactics
to fit fluid circumstances and are flexible in how they see events (Panah et al., 2011). In fact, findings from western studies
demonstrate that emotional intelligence plays an important role in the working environment (Bar-On, 1997; Goleman, 1996;
Mayer & Salovey, 1997; Weisenger, 1998) and is related to self-esteem (Constantine, 2001; Williams, 2001; McManus, 2001;
Easton 2004). According to them, elements of emotional intelligence and confidence in the process of counseling can be
regarded as a core built-quality counseling services. Sabariah (2004) states that an effective counselor has a combination of
personal exploration and growth through competency of knowledge and skills training. Hence, emotional intelligence and skills
competency as well as personal development are the variables that have been focused a lot and are important elements in
enhancing counseling services.
Emotional intelligence, skills competency and personal development are the professional indicators that show the true picture
of the counseling services that are allied to professional identity. However, the issue detected is a perception that the deficiencies
in the counseling services are due to poor command of emotional intelligence, lack of counseling skills and personal qualities
among counselors including the secondary school counselors (Mohammad Hashim & Sharifah Amnah, 2005). This is consistent
with the view of Abd. Rahman (2000) which suggested that counseling services in schools must go through the process of
enhancement and transformation involving the three elements: emotional intelligence, skills competency and personal quality
improvement of the counselors. Therefore, an effort should be made to identify the level of emotional intelligence because it
provides valuable information for school counselors in assessing self-effectiveness to increase the efficiency of counseling skills
and personal development.

2. Purposes and research questions

The purposes of this study are:
1) To identify the level of emotional intelligence of secondary school counselors.
2) To identify the difference between levels of emotional intelligence in accordance with demographic factors of secondary
school counselors.
3) To study the level of leadership competencies of secondary school counselors.
4) To identify the relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership competencies of secondary school counselors.
The research objectives of this study are:
1) What is the level of emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-control, self-motivation, empathy and social skills) of
secondary school counselors?
2) Are there different levels of emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self- control, self- motivation, empathy and social skills)
in accordance with demographic factors (gender, school location, designation grade and duration of service) of secondary
school counselors?
3) What are the levels of counseling leadership competencies (competency skills and personal development) of secondary
school counselors?
4) Is there a relationship between emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-control, self-motivation, empathy and social
skills) and counseling leadership competencies (competency skills and personal development) of secondary school
counselors?

3. Methodology

This is a case study which examined a population consisting of 60 secondary school counselors in Johor. Data analysis is
based on the frequency calculations, percentages and the mean score obtained through the respondents. Analysis using t-test and
one way ANOVA were used to determine whether there are significant differences in emotional intelligence levels of respondents
according to demographic factors(sex, school location, position grade and duration of service). Moreover, inferential analysis
(Pearson r correlation) was used to observe the relationship between emotional intelligence and skills competency and personal
development of the secondary school counselors.

4. Results and discussion

4.1. Level of emotional intelligence

The results of the analysis show that the respondents, who are secondary school counselors, have moderate level of emotional
intelligence with a mean value of 3.41. The mean of the four categories of emotional intelligent which are: emotional self-
recognition capabilities, the ability of emotional self-control, self- motivation and empathy, is at medium level with mean values
of 2.75, 2.92, 3.60 and 3.60 respectively.
 Sharif Mustaffa et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 93 (2013) 2219 – 2223 2221

Only one category of emotional intelligence among the respondents, which is social skills, is at the highest level with a mean
value of 4.19.

4.2. Emotional intelligence level differences according to demographic factors

Table 1. Differences of emotional intelligence according to demographic factors

Level of Emotional Intelligence P Results

Gender 0.959 No Difference
School Location 0.171 No Difference
Designation Grade 0.001 Has Difference
Years of Service 0.000 Has Difference

Table 1 shows the results of analysis of different levels of emotional intelligence according to demographics of the
respondents. The overall findings of the analysis show that there is no significant difference in the level of emotional intelligence
based on respondents’ genders and school location. However, there is significant difference based on designation grade and years
of services of the respondents.

4.3. Levels of skills competency and personal development

The findings of the overall analysis show that the levels of skills competency (M = 4.89) and personal development (M =
4.93) of the respondents are high. This proves that the respondents acquire a high level of skills competency and personal
development.

4.4. The relationship between emotional intelligence and counseling leadership competencies

Table 2. Pearson correlation between emotional intelligence and skills competency

Emotional Intelligence Skills Competency

Variables r P
Self-Awareness 0.124 0.382
Self-Control 0.118 0.406
Self-Motivation 0.412** 0.002
Empathy 0.581** 0.000
Social Skill 0.626** 0.000
Overall Emotional 0.645** 0.000
Intelligence
* Significant at 0.05
** Significant at 0.01

Table 2 above shows that the relationship between emotional intelligence and skills competency is medium- strong and
positive based on the value of correlation coefficient of each emotional intelligence domain. Coefficient value for the whole
emotional intelligence domain is r = .645, p ˂ .01). These findings show that the increase in emotional intelligence leads to the
enhancement of counseling leadership competency (skill competency).

Table 3. Analysis of Pearson correlation between emotional intelligence and personal development

Emotional Intelligence Skills Competency

Varibales r P
Self-Awareness 0.207 0.141
Self-Control 0.149 0.293
Self-Motivation 0.297* 0.033
Empathy 0.670** 0.000
Social Skill 0.608** 0.000
Overall Emotional 0.666** 0.000
Intelligence
* Significant at 0.05
** Significant at 0.01
2222 Sharif Mustaffa et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 93 (2013) 2219 – 2223

Overall, the findings of the study show that the relationship between emotional intelligence and personal development is
medium-strong and positive based on the value of correlation coefficient of each emotional intelligence domain. Coefficient
values for the whole emotional intelligence domain is r = .666, p ˂ .01. These findings show that the increase in emotional
intelligence leads to the enhancement of personal development.
The study shows that the counselors possess moderate level of emotional intelligence. Competency of the highest level of
emotional intelligence for social skills domain shows the conformity of the importance of this domain in secondary school
counselors’ profession. Meanwhile, the lowest competency level in the domain of self-consciousness gives an overview that they
need to enhance their knowledge and skills by attending training courses, professional training and other forms of appropriate
training. The level of emotional intelligence does not show differences based on genders and school location. Regardless of
genders and school location, each of the counselors has the opportunity to have a high level of emotional intelligence and vice
versa. Subsequently, there is some difference on levels of emotional intelligence based on designation grade and years of services
of the counselors. This shows that the secondary school counselors with high-grade designation have a tendency to have higher
levels of emotional intelligence. The findings of the study also confirm that skills competency and personal development among
school counselors are at a high level. This indicates that counselors involved in this study have good skills competency and
personal development that contribute to their professionalism. On the whole, the results show that the level of emotional
intelligence has a strong and positive significant relationship with skills competency and personal development. In this context,
the level of emotional intelligence identified tends to influence the level of skills competency and personal development. In
addition, the components of personal development show a stronger relationship compared with the skills competency.

5. Conclusion

In the last few decades, Malaysia has been profoundly changed by the forces of globalization, modernization and
industrialization and by a strong educational transformation process. Indeed, Malaysia has come a long way in its educational
journey . Apparently, every country in the world believes in investing in education, as a means to achieve greater socio-economic
progress and human capital development such as emotional intelligence. This is because emotional intelligence will predict
success (Van der Zee, Thijs, & Schakel, 2002), can be taught (Tucker et al., 2000) and promotes well-being (Bar-On, 2005). The
study in understanding emotional components toward skills competency and personal development, shows low levels of emotional
intelligence and self-awareness among school counselors which need to be addressed in order to develop effective counseling
services in the educational system. It shows that the level of emotional intelligence among school counselors has an equivalent
relationship with skills competency and personal development. Meanwhile, this study proves to be significantly important for the
nation in order to prepare the teachers, not only with high capabilities in the intellectual intelligence, but also in enhancing the
aspect of emotional well-being as part of the crucial components in their lives.

6. Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) and Research Management Centre (RMC),
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) for their financial support for this research under the Institutional Grant VOT: 4J042.

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