Abstract

Emotional intelligence has been cited as one of the innovations in this century particularly valuable in testing the low-order personality trait, of which is the trait model of emotional intelligence. Another set of emotional intelligence test lies in the ability model, which is not assessed in this study. This study investigates the trait emotional intelligence and its association with working environmental factors, namely organisational culture, cultural competence and cultural awareness; and spiritual intelligence among 166 doctors working in five different state hospitals in Malaysia. The state hospitals chosen were from the 5 different regions in Malaysia, namely the Hospital Pulau Pinang, Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab 2, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Hospital Sultanah Aminah Johor Bahru, and Hospital Umum Sarawak. The results showed that the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT), Competing Value Framework (CVF), Cultural Competence Assessment (CCA), Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory (SISRI), Interpersonal Support Evaluation List-12 (ISEL-12), are significant, whereas Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) is mediocre in the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) test, and Bartlett’s test of sphericity shows that all are significant for Principal Component Analysis. The construct validity and reliability were tested for all these items and results were as shown. In conclusion, this pilot study has been successful in helping to form a desirable tool to measure emotional intelligence among doctors in government hospitals in Malaysia and its associated working environmental factors and spiritual intelligence.