Fostering Emotional Intelligence and Resilience for a New Era in South African Higher Education Institutions

Worldwide higher education institutions are facing challenges, particularly in developing countries. Herein lies an opportunity for higher education institutions to place emphasis on developing academics’ emotional intelligence which will invariably create an emotionally intelligent organisation especially during adversity, like the Covid-19. A quantitative approach was utilised and a sample size of 360 academics from a population of 11325 was drawn from five campus sites from the University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa using Stratified Random Sampling. The first objective of the study is to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence and resilience in academics. Pearson's Correlation Coefficient was performed with results confirming that there is a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and resilience in academics. The second objective of the study is to understand how anxiety and stress influence academics emotional well-being during adversity. A section analysis was conducted whereby chi-square results of p < 0.05 values imply that the differences between how respondents scored were significant. Recommendations proposed in the higher education landscape for fuelling academic emotional intelligence and resilience consists of creating a learning culture through the 360-degree survey, diary writing and utilising emotional intelligence mobile applications.