The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence of Librarians and Satisfaction of Library Users in the librariesof the University of Guilan, Iran

Background: Despite large body of evidence regarding the association of emotional intelligence(EI) of employees and their communication skills, no previous study examined the relationshipbetween employees’ EI and client satisfaction. The present study aimed to examine the relationshipbetween librarians’ EI and satisfaction of library users in the libraries of the University of Guilan,Iran.Methods: This was a descriptive-correlational study. The study population comprised the librariansand members of the libraries of the University of Guilan. Librarians’ EI components and library usersatisfaction were measured using psychometric and reliable questionnaires. One-sample t-test,multivariate linear regression, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient were used to test the researchhypotheses.Results: The findings showed that librarians’ EI components of self-management (mean=3.86), selfawareness(mean=3.72) social-awareness (mean = 3.42) and relationship-management (mean = 3.82)were significantly higher than the average. User satisfaction had moderate to low positive correlationwith EI components of self-management (r=0.65), self-awareness (r=0.47), and relationshipmanagement(r=0.41). Self-management component was the strongest predictor of user satisfaction(standardized β coefficient = 0.556) followed by relationship-management, social-awareness, and selfawareness.Conclusion: Our results showed that the higher EI of librarians is associated with the highersatisfaction of library users in the libraries of the University of Guilan.

Keywords:

Emotional intelligence , Librarians , Satisfaction , University