Trait Emotional Intelligence as a Predictor of Burnout among Business Process Outsourcing Personnel in IT Companies in Chennai

Burnout among employees leads to more labour turnover, decrease in work productivity, strain in relationships and poor work culture. This study investigated the relationship between burnout and trait emotional intelligence among business process outsourcing (BPO) personnel in three IT companies in Chennai. Thirty-five female and sixty-five male personnel were administered trait emotional short-form questionnaire to determine trait emotions score. The Maslach burnout inventory scale questionnaire was used to determine the three subscales of burnout - Emotional Exhaustion (EE), Depersonalisation (DP) and Personal Accomplishment (PA). Using AMOS, a regression model was created and the result showed that there is a significant relationship between Total Trait Emotional Intelligence (TTEI) and EE. Every 1-point increase in TTEI leads to a 3.465 decrease in EE. However, the relationship between TTEI and DP and PA was not significant.

The trait emotional score can thus be used to predict the EE subscale of burnout. This can form an effective tool during recruitment in the high burnout industry and can also be used to reasonably predict employee burnout and to take correctiveaction.