Extension professionals dealing with one of the most underprivileged clientele (farmers) in India, undergoes a lot of stress. Emotional intelligence (EI) is among the variables that appear to be associated with stress. Thus, this study aims to investigate the relationship between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and organizational role stress (ORS) among the Extensionists working in Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK’s) in India. A total sample size of 240 Extension professionals were selected by simple random sampling technique from the four zones viz., Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute (ATARI) Zone I, Zone II, Zone IV and Zone VII. The result of the study revealed that the respondents were having average level of emotional intelligence and high level of organizational role stress. Regression analysis showed that the EI factors explained approximately 34 per cent of the variance of ORS levels of the extension professionals. Individuals with high EI have less ORS. Therefore, it is recommended that short-term training courses be scheduled and designed for enhancing the EI and thus reducing the role stress of the Extensionists.

Keyword: Emotional Intelligence; Extension professional; Krishi Vigyan Kendra; Organizational Role Stress;