معیار فرم کوتاه برای ارزیابی هوش هیجانی راهنماهای گردشگری : توسعه و ارزیابی

Emotional intelligence (EI) is being recognized as a correlate of success in various domains of personal and professional life. The aim of this study is to generate and evaluate a shortened Chinese version of the Emotional Skills Assessment Process-Condensed Version (ESAP-CV) instrument for tour guides. Two stages with a total sample of 660 tour guides were conducted. The first sample (N = 260) was to develop the brief version through various deletion criteria, and the second sample (N = 400) was to examine factor structure, reliability, and validity of the short form through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The results indicate that the reliable and valid 35-item version (ESAP-CV-35), reduced from 104 items, captures the multidimensional nature of EI in six subscales. It offers tourism researchers a promising tool for conducting further EI-related research in a timely, effective and easily-administered manner.

Ever since the term “emotional intelligence” (EI) was first introduced by Peter Salovey and John Mayer in 1990, it has been developed, adapted, modified, and embraced by both practitioners and scholars. Shortly thereafter, EI was the cover topic of an issue of Time magazine (Gibbs, 1995), where it was claimed that “Emotional Intelligence may be the best predictor of success in life, redefining what it means to be smart.” The publication of Goleman’s influential books, Emotional Intelligence (1995) and Working with Emotional Intelligence (1998), has extended the EI concept to the business world and made it widely popular. This popularity has led researchers to examine its applicability to various aspects of human functioning, particularly in the fields of psychology, education, sociology, and management. Numerous studies have identified emotional abilities as being strongly associated with success in academic achievement, general life experiences, and a wide range of factors related to people’s jobs. These factors include physical and mental health ( Dulewicz et al., 2003 and Tsaousis and Nikolaou, 2005), work attitude (Carmeli, 2003), resistance to stress ( Bar-On et al., 2000, Cha et al., 2009, Ciarrochi et al., 2002, Mikolajczak et al., 2006 and Salovey et al., 2002), interpersonal relations (Schutte et al., 2001), employees’ creativity (Zhou & George, 2003), leadership ( Gardner and Stough, 2002, Kerr et al., 2006, Scott-Halsell et al., 2008, Wolff et al., 2002 and Wong and Law, 2002), team effectiveness ( Jordan et al., 2002, Jordan and Troth, 2002, Koman and Wolff, 2008 and Turner and Lloyd-Walker, 2008), job satisfaction and performance ( Kafetsios and Zampetakis, 2008, Law et al., 2008, Prati et al., 2003 and Sy et al., 2006), and career achievements ( Dulewitz and Higgs, 1999 and Weisinger, 1998). EI is an active and essential ingredient of organizational success and provides for a more well-balanced work life ( Fernandez, 2007 and O’Connor and Little, 2003). What is EI? Salovey and Mayer (1990) defined it as “the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions” (p. 189). The concept of EI emerged to describe people’s ability to deal with emotion-related issues such as problem solving (Mayer, Caruso, & Salovey, 1999). Individuals who are emotionally intelligent may be more aware of their own feelings as well as the feelings of others, and such people are more capable of identifying and communicating them than less emotionally intelligent individuals (Mayer & Salovey, 1993). EI can be considered as a predictor of success because it reflects how individuals apply knowledge to immediate situations. In a way, to measure EI is to measure one’s ability to get along in the world (Bar-On, 1997). Despite proven hypotheses confirming the importance of EI in the work environment, there is not, as yet, enough interest in the topic of EI among tourism scholars (Carvelzani et al., 2003 and Langhorn, 2004). Because the tourism industry is characterized by high-contact encounters and considerable interaction with customers, it is especially crucial for professionals in this industry to have the ability to manage, regulate, and control their emotions in order to interact with others constructively and effectively (Carvelzani et al., 2003). Goleman (1998) argues that customer service providers with good EI skills are more capable of getting positive responses from the people with whom they interact. Understanding individuals’ current EI levels is a significant first step for EI-related studies, because it provides a greater awareness of how individuals think, feel, and behave (Nelson & Low, 2003). Tour guides act as intermediaries between tourists and an unfamiliar environment, thus playing an important role in the success or failure of a tour experience and influencing tourists’ perceptions of the host destination (Hughes, 1991, Jiang and Tribe, 2009, Leclerc and Martin, 2004 and Zhang and Chow, 2004). Because tour guides have such responsibility, special attention should be given to the EI levels of tour guides. In practice, tour guides can use EI skills to both manage their own performance and also to regulate tourists’ moods in order to most appropriately and effectively interact with them.

Evidence for EI as a correlate of success in various domains of personal and professional life is becoming abundant, yet a scarcity of tourism literature exists exploring EI-related issues. Importantly, there has been a lack of an appropriate assessment of the EI skills of tour guides, who significantly influence tourists’ impressions of a destination. The objective of this study was therefore to generate and evaluate a Chinese shortened version of the ESAP-CV which, despite its brevity, would reflect the different dimensional EI skills with both acceptable validity and reliability. In the process of streamlining from 104 items to the present 35 items, various item deletion criteria were used, including examination of missing values, evaluation of descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, item-to-total correlation, and EFA. Items eliminated were proportional to each factor, with the shortened version including 5–7 items for each factor. Gorsuch (1997) argues that five or more measuring items for each factor would be ideal, indicating that each factor of the ESAP-CV-35 is appropriate for measurement. The results of CFA provided support for a 6-factor structure of the EI profile. These findings are in agreement with the conceptual framework of EI as a multidimensional construct delineated by Nelson and Low. Additionally, the ESAP-CV-35 yields highly positive correlation with the overall 104-item scale (r = 0.961, p < 0.01), while the number of items was reduced from 104 to 35. The correlations among each of the 6 dimensions for both versions are strongly correlated, indicating they have a highly similar pattern. It also offers support for the ESAP-CV-35 as a satisfactory substitute for the ESAP-CV. Overall, the analyses provide preliminary evidence for the content, construct, convergent and discriminant validity, as well as the construct and Cronbach alpha reliabilities of the brief version, suggesting that it is a comprehensive, multidimensional self-report instrument for assessing tour guides’ EI. The strengths of the present study are that it is the first attempt to focus on the significance of EI concepts for tour guides and perform different analyses to develop a shortened version of the EI measure which is practical and psychometrically sound. As noted previously, the original 104-item version requires approximately 30–40 min to complete; in contrast, the ESAP-CV-35 reduces the required time for completion by more than half, which enhances its participants’ willingness and adds to its utility as a research apparatus. Given preliminary evidence supporting its validity and reliability, the brief questionnaire can be further recommended. It offers researchers and practitioners a considerably promising tool for evaluating tour guides’ EI in a timely and easily-administered manner in Chinese speaking regions. The results of the present study should be interpreted with caution because of its limitations. First, it deserves criticism for using self-report as an EI measure; because it requires individuals to make judgments about their own competencies, the social desirability bias cannot be avoided. Another criticism can be made that the majority of the participants were junior tour guides, with less than 10 years’ experience. Although there has been an increase in the number of junior tour guides since the government extended its annual examination of tour guides to graduates of high schools and vocational schools in 2004, it is worthwhile to conduct further investigation including guides with different levels of experience in order to validate the findings of this research and yield more objective evaluations. Lastly, the current study failed to examine whether the ESAP-CV can be used in other cultures. The ESAP-CV was originally developed by Nelson and Low with employees in the USA; its cross-cultural or linguistic validity thus needs to be systematically investigated in additional studies, and adding items relevant to Chinese culture provides another avenue for further research. A number of issues require attention from future researchers. The ESAP-CV relies on a 3-point Likert scale, ranging from “most often” to “least often”. Comrey (1988) argues that it is possible to avoid the kinds of distortions using at least a 5-point scale in the instruments that may occur with a smaller number of response options. Hinkin (1995) further indicated that reliability of a scale increases as Likert-type scales increase up to the use of five points. Future researchers may consider replacing the 3-point scale with a 5-point scale in the short version of the instrument to see if reliabilities can be increased. In the findings, the factor loading of Change Orientation shows relatively lower than other factors. An additional multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) approach would help identify the nature and strength of the CO dimension measured by the various EI measures. Although there is evidence to support the discriminant validity of the brief version obtained in this investigation, a relatively higher correlation between DS/CE exists. Adding distinguishing items in the above subscales to discriminate between these factors may leave more space for further exploration. Both EFA and CFA are good statistical techniques that have been used to develop short-form measures, for example, in surveys of EI (Schutte et al., 1998), attitudes toward health (Rivas-Vazquez et al., 2001), nurse attitude (Katsuki et al., 2008), pain attitude (Blozik et al., 2007 and Tait and Chibnall, 1997), clinical instruments (Jones et al., 2008), physical self-inventory (Maiano et al., 2008), prenatal evaluations (Lin, Cheng, Kuo, & Chou, 2009), children’s roles (Wampler, Downs, & Fischer, 2009), environmental ratings (Hubel, Hagell, & Sivberg, 2008), and religious faith (Plante, Vallaeys, Sherman, & Wallston, 2002). The current study goes beyond previous research by conducting more examinations to develop the brief scale in the first stage and exploring more assessments of the reliability and validity of the ESAP-CV-35. Particularly, content validity was conducted to collect the opinions from a panel of experts who reviewed each item to ensure that they were relevant to tour guides. This lends further support to the applicability of the briefer form as a research instrument for the tour guide population (Gregory, 2000, p. 99; Hinkin, 1995, p. 969).We should nevertheless keep in mind that a comprehensive, thorough evaluation of the validity and reliability as part of an ongoing evaluation of a short form is essential (Marsh, Ellis, Parada, Richards, & Heubeck, 2005). Further evaluations regarding validity and reliability are thus needed to gain more firm support for the usefulness and measurement properties of the ESAP-CV-35. For instance, further examinations of the shortened form should involve collecting longitudinal data so that the test–retest reliability can be calculated. The criterion-related validity can also be established by examining the ESAP-CV-35’s relationship with other independent validating assessments among tour guide populations to increase the utility of this scale. Given the complex nature of human behavior, it is important to note the difficulty in accurately applying quantitative measurements to make definite judgments of scale in the social sciences. It is therefore recommended that future research can adopt a qualitative approach; for example, feedback from both researchers and reviewers of the ESAP-CV-35 could help to improve the generalizability of the results (Hinkin, 1995). The results of the present study have a number of implications for both future research and managerial application. With a total of 35 items and 6 subscales, it provides researchers with a brief and easy scale to administer and interpret, and it can be used to link different variables, including the determinants of EI and the effects of EI on important job outcomes, such as tourist satisfaction or job satisfaction to aid future management research. Because EI is being recognized as a significant factor in work and general life experiences, the development of EI skills is essential (Nelson & Low, 2003). In this regard, immediate information gained from the shortened version could help individuals as well as tourism scholars and practitioners provide appropriate interventions to assist and enhance tour guides’ EI skill development. For example, tour guides who have difficulties dealing with the stresses of interacting with tourists can have their EI assessed by this scale in order to gain a better understanding of which EI skills are lacking. Once identified, these individuals can benefit from special guidance, training, or support to improve their ability to perform productively and constructively when confronted by a stressor (Nelson & Low, 2003). In addition, the Taiwan Tourist Guide Association can incorporate the EI learning programs into its current on-the-job training programs; through instruction, counseling, positive thinking exercises, coaching sessions, or practicing of new behaviors, tour guides can improve their EI skills and thus receive benefits in both the personal and interpersonal realms.