Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Knowledge ...

3. Method <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> study
Fattah Nazem
The research methods which were used in this study are: library research to access <strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>oretical
framework and <strong>the</strong> related literature; Survey method to collect, classify, describe, and analyze <strong>the</strong>
data. The population under investigation in this study consists <strong>of</strong> <strong>of</strong>ficial staff working in 420 branches
and educational centers in 14 zones <strong>of</strong> Islamic Azad University in Iran. In order to estimate <strong>the</strong> least
2 2
z σ
volume <strong>of</strong> sample, n = 2 formula was used. Regarding <strong>the</strong> minimum sample required for
d
<strong>the</strong> managers’ group which was estimated as 554 and staff group as 1662 (three staffs for each
manager), emotional intelligence questionnaire was administered to <strong>the</strong> managers and organizational
learning questionnaire was administered to <strong>the</strong> staffs in 96 branches and educational centers. In order
to select <strong>the</strong> research sample, two methods <strong>of</strong> stratified and cluster random sampling were used.
The research instruments were as follows: Watkins and Marsick’s (1997) organizational learning
Questionnaire which consisted <strong>of</strong> 43 items with three underlying constructs <strong>of</strong> individual level , group
level, and organizational level and Cronbach Alpha <strong>of</strong> 0.90; and <strong>the</strong> Questionnaire <strong>of</strong> emotional
intelligence (Cyberia-Shrink, 1998) with 33 items and consisted <strong>of</strong> self-awareness , self-regulation ,
motivation , empathy , and social skills (α = 0.77). The results <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> study were calculated through
path analysis using LISREL s<strong>of</strong>tware.
4. Findings <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> study
The data collected from <strong>the</strong> administration <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> instruments were analyzed. These data included <strong>the</strong>
different indexes <strong>of</strong> central tendency, variability and <strong>the</strong> distribution <strong>of</strong> both groups, <strong>the</strong> managers’
scores obtained from <strong>the</strong> questionnaire <strong>of</strong> emotional intelligence and its 5 components and <strong>the</strong> staffs’
scores obtained from organizational learning questionnaire and <strong>the</strong>ir related components. The
distribution <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> managers’ and <strong>the</strong> staffs’ scores in <strong>the</strong> given variables had tendency toward
normality.
Self
awareness
Self‐
regulation
Motivation
Empathy
Social skills
0.78
0.58
0.43
0.27
0.41
Emotional
Intelligence
0.17 Organizational
Learning
4.96
3.17
6.86
Individual level
Group level
Organizational
level
Figure 1: Path analysis model for components <strong>of</strong> managers’ emotional intelligence and organizational
learning
As shown in Figure 1, Chi-square index is 353.92 which is significant at 0.000. In o<strong>the</strong>r words, <strong>the</strong>
model <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> relationship between emotional intelligence components which are self-awareness
measured by 8 items, self-regulation measured by 7 items, motivation measured by 7 items, empathy
measured by 6 items and social skills measured by 5 items as independent variable with components
<strong>of</strong> organizational learning which are individual level measured by 14 items, group level measured by 6
items, organizational level measured by 14 items as dependent variable.
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