Emotional intelligence, job satisfaction, and turnover intention of frontline employees in the insurance service industry

Abstract

The retention of skilled frontline employees plays a crucial part in the insurance service industry of South Africa. An understanding of the influence of the relationship between emotional intelligence, job satisfaction, and turnover intention as manifested in a sample among frontline employees is necessary. There is an importance placed on assessing whether emotional intelligence and job satisfaction significantly and negatively predict the turnover intention construct; and whether individuals from different age, gender, and work experience groups differ significantly regarding their levels of emotional intelligence, job satisfaction, and turnover intention. The data was collected using the Assessing Emotions Scale (AES), the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ20), and the Turnover Intention Scale (TI-6). A quantitative study was conducted on a non-probability convenience sample (n = 107) of frontline employees within an insurance company. Correlational analysis revealed a positive relationship between emotional intelligence, job satisfaction, and turnover intention. Multiple regression analysis revealed that emotional intelligence had no significant effect in predicting and explaining the variance in turnover intention. However, job satisfaction significantly predicted and explained turnover intention. No significant differences were revealed between age, gender, and work experience groups concerning emotional intelligence and job satisfaction. However, results indicated that differences do exist between age and work experience groups concerning turnover intention, but no difference in gender and turnover intention was observed. The findings of this study provides valuable knowledge that may be used to inform the retention practices of frontline employees. The study concluded with suggested recommendations for use by human resource practitioners, specifically within the insurance industry.