Emotional intelligence, job insecurity, and psychological strain among real estate agents: a test of mediation and moderation models

Abstract

We develop two models of the relationships between emotional intelligence (EI), job insecurity, and psychological strain. The moderation model suggests that EI reduces psychological strain by helping individuals cope with job insecurity when it arises. The mediation model suggests that EI reduces psychological strain by enabling individuals to conserve resources, thereby reducing their experience of job insecurity. Our results, based on a sample of 232 real estate agents, show that job insecurity mediates the relationship between EI and psychological strain. Contrary to what the moderation model suggested, the positive relationship between job insecurity and psychological strain was found to be stronger when EI was higher. Overall, the results provide more nuanced insights into the role of EI in psychological strain.

Keywords:

• emotional intelligence
• job insecurity
• psychological strain

Acknowledgement

Special thanks to Editor-in-Chief David Lepak and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and thoughtful suggestions. We acknowledge the financial support from the Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee of Hong Kong awarded to Dr. Cheung [project number 242012].

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee of Hong Kong [project number 242012].