On the Association between Emotional Intelligence and Burnout Syndrome: The Case of Iranian EFL Teachers

The present study investigated Iranian institute EFL teachers’ feeling of burnout and itsrelationship with emotional intelligence. To this end, two questionnaires, namely MaslachBurnout Inventory-Educator Survey (MBI-ES) (Maslach, Jackson and Schwab, ۱۹۹۶), andEmotional Intelligence (EI) (Bar-On, ۱۹۹۷), were administered to ۱۶۰ Iranian institute EFLteachers. The analysis of the findings through Pearson correlation revealed that all of theemotional intelligence sub-scales had a significantly negative correlation with the emotionalexhaustion, however, only interpersonal subscale had a significant positive correlation with thepersonal accomplishment (r= .۲۱۴, p= .۰۰۶) and only adaptability subscale had a significantlynegative correlation with depersonalization (r= -.۳۶۰, p= .۰۰۰). The findings showed that EI wasreversely correlated with burnout (r= -.۲۹۶, p= .۰۰۰). It was also concluded that Iranian EFLteachers suffer from the moderate levels of burnout. Finally, statistically significant differencesamong teachers' burnout (but not their EI) were found with respect to gender. The findingsrevealed that female teachers’ burnout level was significantly higher than that of males. Theresults offer strategies for teachers and authorities to combat burnout for better teacherproductivity.