An assessment of the emotional intelligence of health workers: A scale validation approach

Purpose This study aims to assess health workers' level of emotional intelligence (EI) in Accra North and recommend a simple but robust statistical technique for compulsorily validating EI measurement scales. Design/methodology/approach The researchers used a self-reported questionnaire to collect data from 1,049 randomly selected health workers. Two non-nested models, BNK MODEL and CMODEL, were compared to see which of them better fits the study population and yields a better level of EI. The one-sample and independent-samples t-tests, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to present results. Findings The study found that health workers were appreciably emotionally intelligent for both models at the 5 per cent significance level. However, EI was higher for the CMODEL. The CMODEL also better fits the study population ((2) = 132.2, p = 0.487, Akaike information criterion = 124.932) and thus better underlies EI in it. This study recommends proper validation of the two EI scales evaluated in this study, and possibly other scales, before the use of their data in research, as failure to do so could lead to unrealistic results. Originality/value Apart from its contribution to the literature, this study provides a robust statistical approach for assessing health workers' EI and validating EI scales. By comparing two models of EI in the validation process, this paper suggests that the researcher's choice of a measurement scale can influence his/her results.