The effect of highly emotionally intelligent teachers on their students’ satisfaction

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to answer the basic research question “Do highly emotional intelligent teachers increase student’s satisfaction in the universities?” Design/methodology/approach The paper is a quantitative study using self-reporting questionnaires applied on 283 students and 10 faculty members. Findings The paper shows the importance of having high emotional intelligent teachers in the universities to increase students’ emotional intelligence (EI) and, therefore, their satisfaction. The results show that the primary factor that will increase the EI of students is not what most of the scholars mentioned, the EI of teacher, but the class interactions. Practical implications The paper makes a recommendation to universities to hire emotionally intelligent teachers who stress on increasing the EI of students. Universities, by increasing the EI of their students, will improve their business situation, since if students are happy they will remain in the universities, spending, therefore, more money and encouraging other students to do so. Originality/value No such research was previously conducted in Lebanon where still few people understand the meaning or the importance of EI. This study, therefore, is fulfilling a gap, a brick in the wall of knowledge on class interaction in bridging the link between teachers and students.