Interpersonal Factors that Foster Emotional Intelligence among Consecrated Women Religious: A Case Study of Morogoro Diocese, Tanzania

Women religious are consecrated to witness the Gospel through a life of sustained communal commitment, yet the interpersonal dimensions of that life remain underexplored as sources of emotional growth. While emotional intelligence (EI) research in Africa is growing, studies in Tanzania remain largely secular in focus, leaving women religious, who navigate uniquely demanding relational environments within community and ministry, as a population that has not yet been studied in this context, creating a clear contextual knowledge gap. This article, which could be the first of its kind in Tanzania, examines how interpersonal relationships within religious community life foster emotional intelligence among women religious in the Morogoro Diocese, drawing on the empathy and social-skills dimensions of Goleman's Emotional Intelligence Theory. Using a qualitative case study design, data were gathered through fifteen semi-structured interviews and two focus group discussions involving 25 participants across seven congregations. Thematic analysis produced three themes: mutual support and empathy, dialogue and conflict resolution, and fraternal charity and emotional integration. Findings show that empathy, respectful dialogue, and fraternal care function as the very relationships through which emotional intelligence is built and sustained, while relational fractures, such as, favouritism, authoritarian communication, and tribalism, actively undermine it. The study repositions interpersonal relationship as a developmental source of emotional competence rather than solely its consequence, with direct implications for religious formation, communal leadership, and the broader literature on relational and servant leadership.

emotional intelligence, interpersonal relationships, empathy, dialogue

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