In this paper we investigate the effect of occupational stress and emotional intelligence on the performance of health-care employees, working in the operating room department. We expect, our results to prove useful to corresponding human resource departments for improving their practices and methods. We conducted a qualitative study with self-reported questionnaires measuring both, occupational stress and emotional intelligence. The survey was administered to health-care and medical employees in the 401 General Army Hospital of Athens. We then conducted descriptive data analysis and performed regression analysis with job performance as the dependent variable. We found that the level of emotional intelligence and occupational stress are positively correlated and they both affect performance. At the same time, gender does not seem to affect the level of emotional intelligence or the perception of occupational stress. Our regression model explains 17.6% of performance variability using the following predictor variables: the number of operations, the occupational stress and the emotional intelligence levels. However, the number of operations an employee participates in, affects the occupational stress perception. Finally, the level of emotional intelligence and annual sick leave seem to have a strong negative correlation. Hospital managers can use the findings of our research to monitor a number of variables related to emotional intelligence and occupational stress that seem to affect performance significantly.
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