Employees’ emotional intelligence and service delivery to customers: A comparative study of selected deposit money banks in Nigeria and Liberia

Abstract

For decades, service delivery challenges have remained contentious in both Nigerian and Liberian banking sector with studies pointing towards different reasons. This study examined one of the reasons which is employees’ emotional intelligence as it determines service delivery to customers in selected deposit money banks of Nigeria and Liberia. Literature review captured employee emotional intelligence and customers service delivery to evolve gaps which set pace for this study. This provided the springboard with which the methodology adopted was built on. Specifically, survey design was adopted with both bank customers and employees in the main branches of the commercial centers of the countries as the population of the study. Bank customers and their employees were sampled with both purposive and convenience techniques. Two sets of questionnaires were adopted for the study: one for the customers and the other for bank employees. Data collected was analysed with appropriate statistical methods. Results revealed no significant difference in the deposit money banks customers’ complaint rate in Nigeria and Liberia Banks; no significant difference between the employees’ Emotional Intelligence level of Nigeria bank employees and Liberia bank employees; self-management is the only significant contributor to the quality of service delivery in Nigeria; while social skill, social awareness as well as self-management were the predictors that significantly contribute to the quality of banks service delivery in Liberia; and there is a significant combined influence of the predictors of employees’ emotional intelligence on bank service delivery to customers in both countries. The study conclude that emotional intelligence is fundamental to service delivery to customers in both countries. It was recommended that bank management in both countries need to come up with purposeful employees’ emotional training programs to improve employees’ emotional intelligence competencies while individual employees should also seek knowledge on how to continuously enrich their emotional intelligence level. 1.0 Introduction Service sector of any economy is consistently challenged by factors such as customers’ taste preferences, government policies, competitors’ strength, multiple choices of service providers, globalisation, to mention a few (Kalpana & Noopur, 2013; Shahram, Mohmmad & Mohammad, 2013). These have kept the sector on her toes, searching for the best ways through which the aforementioned factors can be addressed. According to Grönroos and Ravald (2011), the delivery of high-quality service is the fundamental interest of service providers in which employees’ play critical roles in service delivery to customers. Jain, Jain and Das (2018) remarked that intelligent quotient of employee is not enough to deliver service efficiently, their emotional intelligence has become important to bring about efficient service delivery (Jain, Jain, & Das, 2018). Emotional intelligence is the capacity of an individual to manage emotions and is being noted as one of the leading determinants of harmonious relationship of members in a group (Nyerere & Barasa, 2015). According to Graham and Roger (1998), it is the capacity to deplore intellect effectively that is mental functions of thinking, understanding, observing, learning, perceptional relationships and problem The Business and Management Review, Volume 11 Number 1 August 2020 Conference proceedings of the Centre for Business & Economic Research (CBER), ICBED-2020 270 solving. It therefore entails the possession of self-management skills, self-awareness skills, and social skills. In an organisation like the bank, employees’ EI is required to ensure efficient service delivery (Jain, Jain, & Das, 2018). With the challenge of lack of efficient banking services delivery in Nigeria (Adeniji & Akinbode, 2018; Farayibi, 2016; Odusina, 2014; Sanusi, 2012), suggest emotional intelligence gap among bank employees. This issue is also what is happening in many other developing countries like Liberia as evident in International Monetary Fund (2016) and Fitch ratings (2017) reports. Details of the reports revealed unimpressive performance of banking sector in both Nigeria and Liberia. According to personality theory, individual traits such as self-awareness, empathy and adeptness which are significant to emotional intelligence are fundamental to efficient bank service delivery. Similarly, demand control theory which explored the extent to which individual is involved in job in terms of the ability to acquire new knowledge, evolve new skills, multi-task through skillsets, and display creativity that could address customers’ needs contribute to the judgement of efficient service delivery. It is within this context that the study examined employees’ EI and delivery of bank services among these banks in both Nigeria and Liberia. 2.0 Literature Review 2.1 Emotional Intelligence Two basic words from this sub-title namely emotion and intelligence made up the concept ‘emotional intelligence’. According to Consoli (2010), emotion is an organised mental reaction to occurrences based on cognitive disposition. The author further says that such reaction can manifest in facial, verbal, or textual expressions. On the secondhand intelligence’, this is associated with individual ability or capacity. In the opinion of Wechsler (1958), it is the cumulative or total capacity of a person to performance deliberately, reason logically and transact successfully within a context. In summary, emotional intelligence can be said to be individual’s ability to correctly recognise, perceive, purpose concerning and manage emotions, put in the facts to ease notion and reach aim (Killgore, Smith, Olson, Weber, Rauch & Nickerson, 2017). 2.2 Models of Employee Emotional Intelligence Three prototypes of emotional intelligence were reviewed under this sub-heading namely, Capacity, bar-on and Goleman mix models. Capacity model: This prototype originated from the piece of Mayer and Salovey (1990) to explain key ideas that integrate emotion and intelligence which gave rise to EI. According to the model, reactions remain valuable foundations of facts and know how to support in making logic to traverse human environment. Bar–On mixed Model: This prototype communicates to the prospective intended for performance, rather than performance itself in explaining EI as it was process-oriented against the outcome. The emphasis was on an array of emotional and social abilities such as ability to be aware of, understand and express oneself, ability to deal with strong emotions, and adapt to change and solving social or personal problems. Goleman mix model: This model concentrated on emotional intelligence as a comprehensive collection of proficiencies and skills. Goleman (1995) identified construct of EI such as social awareness, self-awareness and self-management. The author suggests that individuals are born with general EI that determines their potentials for learning emotional competencies. 2.3 Determinants of Employee EI Studies (Danquah, 2015; Georgiana, 2014; Pahuja, 2012) have identified basic determinants of employees’ EI among which are social-talents, self-control, social-mindfulness, self-awareness, relationship-supervision, among others. Four of these determinants are of interest in this review. Which are. Self-management: It entails the capacity of a person to regulate his or her conduct with a tendency to pursue aims with purposeful energy and perseverance. Georgina (2014) described it as one’s ability to control emotional response to others by choosing correct emotional response and the concentration of that reaction. The Business and Management Review, Volume 11 Number 1 August 2020 Conference proceedings of the Centre for Business & Economic Research (CBER), ICBED-2020 271 Selfawareness: This entails the capacity of a person to identify and his or her emotions, drives and those of others (Georgiana, 2014; Goleman, 1998). Chapman (2011) defined it as the capacity of a person to be conscious of one-self while Armstrong (2009) identified three competencies of self-awareness as selfassurance, truthful self-valuation, also emotional self–mindfulness. Social awareness: This arises when a person knows present feeling using those preferences to direct policymaking, with self-valuation of capabilities and a knowledgeable sense of self-assurance. Social skills: It is the ability in handling relationships as well as sustaining network to achieve desired outcomes through other and extent individual goal as well as find mutual ground and build support. 2.4 EI in the Banking Industry Karthikeyan & Lalwani (2017) and Swarnalatha & Sekar (2016) gave their own account of EI in the banking industry in their respective studies. Both studies acknowledged the growing importance of EI in the industry. Other studies Naeem, Saif, and Khalil (2008), have also shown some evidences of its relevance. Kappagoda’s (2013) study established that the level of EI changes with some demographic variables such as sexual characteristics, oldness and informative level in the Sri Lanka banking sector. Additionally, Pahuja’s (2012) study established the knowledge of EI among employees. The study highlighted self-awareness, self-management and empathy as the major EI traits of bank employees. Similarly, Thavaraj (2012) study revealed self-mindfulness, selfinstruction, self–enthusiasm, socialmindfulness and social-talents, as determinants of EI in the industry. In Nigeria, Okon, Anietie and Abosede (2015) acknowledged that EI can be established at any period of life through an organized and consistent method and can help to improve job performance. The study of Danquah (2015) in Ghana also suggests the relevance of emotional intelligence in the banking industry owing to significance of this to financial performance of some selected banks in the areas of relationship marketing, customer ha