Development of emotional competencies in public sector personnel of the municipality of Cuenca

Abstract

The study was designed to evaluate and improve the emotional competencies of public service personnel in the Municipality of Cuenca, with the objective of identifying deficiencies in the interpersonal skills of personnel and developing effective strategies to address these weaknesses. To this end, an initial validated emotional intelligence questionnaire was administered to 200 employees in the public transportation sector. The results showed the existence of significant deficiencies in the ability to manage interpersonal relationships in the sampled employees. The use of semi-structured interviews revealed the underlying causes of the deficiencies detected, from which improvement strategies were implemented that included emotional development workshops, coaching sessions, training programs in interpersonal skills, etc. A quasi-experimental study with a pretest and posttest design was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions. The results indicated a significant improvement in emotional competencies, especially in the ability to manage interpersonal relationships. The results obtained suggested that the implemented strategies were effective in improving performance and the work environment. The study highlighted the importance of targeted interpersonal skills interventions and provided a model applicable to other organizations with similar challenges. Future research is recommended to explore the sustainability of improvements and the effectiveness of additional interventions.

Keywords:

Interpersonal skills, Communication, Conflict resolution, Training, Organizational development.