Emotional intelligence and affective commitment: the mediating role of job engagement [Kecerdasan emosi dan komitmen afektif: Peranan keterikatan kerja sebagai pengantara]

The aim of this study was to investigate the direct relationship between emotional intelligence and job engagement,and the relationship between job engagement and affective commitment. in addition,this study also aims to examine the role of job engagement as a mediator on the relationship between emotional intelligence and affective commitment. as there is scarce empirical studies conducted with regard to the role of job engagement as a mediator,particularly between emotional intelligence and affective commitment,this study contributes towards enriching in this field of study. the study was conducted using a sample of 372 police officers in five states,namely kuala lumpur,selangor,johor,sarawak and sabah. hypothesis testing was analysed using pls-sem analysis. results indicated that: (1) four dimensions of emotional intelligence consisting of self-emotional appraisal (sea),other's emotional appraisal (oea),use of emotion (uoe) and regulation of emotion (roe) have positive direct and significant relationship with job engagement; (2) job engagement has a positive and significant direct relationship with affective commitment; and (3) job engagement has a significant role as a mediator between the relationship of the four dimensions of emotional intelligence (sea,oea,uoe and roe) with affective commitment. the results of this study have proven that job engagement was significant in the role of mediator to influence emotional intelligence in the relationship with affective commitment. these findings also indicate the importance of emotional intelligence in influencing loyalty and commitment of the police officers.