Emotional Intelligence 1

Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Effectiveness

Course Paper

Leadership in Organizations
 Emotional Intelligence 2

Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Effectiveness

This paper intends to review the concept of emotional intelligence (EI) and its application

in leadership. Emotional intelligence had been an overlooked part of human nature before 1990s,

however, when the idea of EI and social relationship was launched and expanded to leadership

context it created a management fad and entailed a wide variety of approaches and concepts

(Mayer & Caruso, 2002). Emotional intelligence is the capacity and set of abilities to carry out

sophisticated information processing about emotions and emotion-relevant stimuli and to use this

information as a guide to thinking and behavior (Mayer, Salovey & Caruso, 2008).

When the theory of emotional intelligence began to receive widespread attention many

researchers and executives cast doubt on relevance of EI with leadership performance, however,

researches show an incontrovertible link between a leader’s EI and performance (Goleman,

Boyatzis & McKee, 2002). According to Goleman et al. there are two broad emotional

leadership styles, resonant styles and dissonant styles; the resonant styles manage relationships in

such a way as to boost company performance through use of positive emotional experiences;

dissonant styles on the other hand, are when the leaders drive emotions negatively; dissonant

styles can be useful as they are pace-setting and commanding, but must be used with caution. As

Goleman et al. suggested emotionally intelligence leaders who use resonance-building leadership

styles and create norms of healthy and effective working relationships will release a powerful

force of the collective energy of the organization to pursue any group strategy; these kinds of

leaders build with positives, they craft a vision with heartfelt passion, they foster an inspiring

mission that is deeply woven into the organizational fabric and they know how to give people a

sense that their work is meaningful.

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Emotional intelligence describes the various competencies that are essential for

leadership. Goleman et al. (2002) suggested that the reason that a leader’s manner, not just what

he does, but how he does it matters so much lies in the design of the human brain that scientist

have begun to call the open-loop nature of the limbic system which means that other people

change our very physiology and so our emotions. Goleman et al. identified the following key

emotional domains for resonant leadership: personal competence, self-awareness, self-

management, social competence, social awareness and relationship management.

Counter-argument on Relevance of Emotional Intelligence and Leadership

The concept of EI and its relevance to leadership has undergone much scrutiny and many

believe that EI cannot predict leadership effectiveness beyond other factors such as IQ. Some

researches even cast doubt on the necessity of EI for leadership performance. Antonakis (2004)

challenged the relevance of EI and leadership effectiveness and suggested that contrary to

hyperbolic claims of EI proponents, current scientific evidence suggests that El does not yet offer

anything new beyond what we know about "g" (general intelligence or IQ) or personality (the

"big five" personality factors), and also, El does not predict work performance very well, and

certainly much less than does "g" or other personality factors. Antonakis also stated that none of

the studies which have shown that EI matters for leadership effectiveness have followed the

generally accepted psychometric testing guidelines and have exclusively used a qualitative mode

of inquiry which must be interpreted with extreme caution.

Feyerherm and Rice (2002) in their research on EI and team performance on twenty six

customer service teams and their leaders studied three components of emotional intelligence:

understanding emotion, managing emotions and identifying emotions. Feyerherm and Rice

hypothesized that increasing EI in team leaders and members would be positively associated
 Emotional Intelligence 4

with team performance, however, they surprisingly found that in some cases EI may actually

impair team performance; to be more specific, team leaders’ EI showed a neutral to negative

relationship with team performance as rated by individuals.

However, while Antonakis (2004) and some other researchers claim that leadership can

be improved by general cognitive process such as learning and acting on scripts which require

general intelligence rather than inordinate high emotional intelligence, myriads of studies

demonstrate relevance between EI and leadership effectiveness in various contexts and styles.

The next section will review some studies on how EI can assist leaders to create vision,

communicate this vision and build commitment among team members.

Studies on Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Effectiveness

The link between EI and leadership performance and effectiveness has become a hot

topic in recent years and has been studied by many researchers. It has been claimed that,

astonishingly, most of success in leadership positions is attributable to emotional intelligence.

Emotionally intelligent leaders serve as a benefit to teams in two ways; they motivate team

members to work together toward team goals, and they serve as a transformational influence

over team members; emotionally intelligent leaders challenge the members of the team to work

toward increasing team effectiveness and performance, facilitate team member interaction

dynamics, build interpersonal trust and inspire team members to implement the articulated vision

(Prati, Douglas, Ferris, Ammeter & Buckley, 2003).

Many studies have shown positive relation between EI and transformational leadership

style which is known to be the most widely accepted leadership behavior. Leban and Zulauf,

(2004) in their study on 24 project managers and their associated projects in six organizations

from varied industries found that a project manager’s transformational leadership style has a
 Emotional Intelligence 5

positive impact on actual project performance, and that emotional intelligence ability contributes

to a project manager’s transformational leadership style and subsequent actual project

performance. Another study by Rubin, Munz and Bommer (2005) on 145 managers of a large

biotechnology/agricultural company showed that leaders’ emotion recognition ability and

personality characteristics, more specifically extraversion, positively influenced performance of

transformational leadership behavior. In addition, a study by Rosete and Ciarrochi (2005)

examined the relationship between emotional intelligence, personality, cognitive intelligence and

leadership effectiveness and by analyzing a sample of 41 executives concluded that executives

with higher EI are more likely to achieve business outcomes and be considered as effective

leaders by their subordinates and direct managers.

Many studies addressed the relevance of EI with performance measures and outputs in

various contexts. For instance, the result of a study by Dulewicz, C., Young and Dulewicz, V.

(2005) showed that IQ, EI and managerial competencies were all related to overall performance

of officers in Royal Navy, however, EI made a greater contribution to overall performance,

leadership appraisal and all three leadership styles: goal-oriented, engaging and involving styles.

Another study by Hawkins and Dulewicz (2007) showed that there is a positive relationship

between EI and performance as leader in policing, and that EI explains more variance in

performance than IQ and managerial competencies do.

Some studies have also shown that EI addresses the needs of organizational changes

when more flexibility is required to deal with the dynamic environment. Using matrix

organizational form has become more common as it enables organizations to use human

resources more flexibly, produce innovative solutions to complex problems in unstable

environments, increase information flow through the use of lateral communication channels, and
 Emotional Intelligence 6

leverage economies of scale while remaining small and task oriented, however, despite its

strengths, the matrix has inherent problems and challenges (Sy & Cote, 2004). Sy and Cote

suggested that emotionally intelligent leaders and team members can function better in matrix

organizations and by managing, understanding, using and perceiving emotions they can cope

with various interpersonal challenges stemmed from matrix arrangement such as misaligned

goals, competition, ambiguity in roles and responsibilities, and so on.

Gabel, Dolan and Cerdin (2005) addressed yet another important dimension of today’s

organizational change, globalization, and showed that EI could be used as a predictor for success

in international assignments. Gabel et al. found significant correlation between the interpersonal

emotional component and specific performance as well as relation between the capacities of

empathy, social responsibility and social relations which result in better performance in the

specific characters of international assignments. On the whole, findings about EI and its

relevance to leadership effectiveness explain the value of developing emotional intelligence

among leaders.

Developing Emotionally Intelligent Leadership

Developing effective leaders factors into achieving success, hence if organizations

believe that EI is an essential competency for leadership effectiveness, the next step would be

developing emotionally intelligent leaders. In recent years some organizations have started to

include EI in their development and training programs. United Nations System Staff College has

arranged a series of presentations on realizing the power of EI. Some studies have been done on

incorporating emotions and emotional relationships in information system work. Kaluzniacky

(2004) encouraged IT workers, higher IT management and HR persons involved with IT

workers, and information system researchers to consider EI more seriously and centrally, and
 Emotional Intelligence 7

showed how EI can assist IT workers who assimilate and integrate emotions to work more

efficiently. Kaluzniacky suggested that EI acts as a catalyst in providing greater psychological

awareness among IT workers and provided guidelines that can be applied systematically in IT on

an individual and organizational basis.

Changes in the field of marketing and sales also call for further development on human

element in relationship with customers. While sales tools are becoming more technologically

advanced, the customer expectations over time are dramatically changing and the customers are

becoming more empowered and expecting more in terms of service, therefore, corporations need

to understand that the training programs that were developed years ago simply may not apply in

the modern and highly competitive marketplace therefore successful CEO’s and managers need

to adapt to the behaviors of emotional intelligence (Manna & Smith, 2004). Through their survey

on 515 professional sales representatives, Manna and Smith showed that communication skills,

negotiating skills, emotional intelligence, and presentation skills, and the need to differentiate

personality types are very important to the sales practitioners.

L’Oreal also started hiring salespeople based on certain aspects of emotional intelligence

and compared how they performed relative to people selected the old way; interestingly,

individuals chosen for emotional intelligence generated $91,370 more than those chosen the old

way and this resulted in a net revenue increase of $2,558,360! The new group of salespeople also

yielded 63 percent less turnover in the first year as compared to the salespeople chosen the

traditional way (Wall, 2006). Wall also provided another example on United States Air Force

who experimented EI with selecting recruiters based on certain competencies of emotional

intelligence, and as a result, nearly three times more people were recruited, producing a savings

in the cost of recruitment of $3 million annually.

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In addition, some models have been developed to assist managers to incorporate

emotions and emotional relationships in the workplace. The Four Branch model of EI and the

MSCEIT test based on it provide a model of leadership and its development which offers a way

to conceptualize and carry out strategic plans that incorporate emotions and emotional

relationships in the workplace, for example, an overall plan might be to encourage existing

customers to adopt a new product, which may demand a strategic plan that addresses both

technical aspects - such as product quality, cost, and distribution - and emotional aspects, such as

customer feelings toward the company, therefore carrying out the emotional aspects of such a

plan can be organized according to the four-branch model of perceiving, using, understanding,

and managing emotions (Mayer & Caruso 2002).

In summary, poor leadership impacts an organizations’ ability in all its endeavors and

developing effective leaders who motivate, engage and inspire employees is a key requirement.

In view of the above examples and myriads of researches and studies on EI, corporate must

consider training and couching programs to develop EI among employees, in particular, those

with leadership positions.

 Emotional Intelligence 9

Reference

Antonakis, J. (2004). On why "emotional intelligence" will not predict leadership effectiveness

beyond IQ or the "big five": an extension and rejoinder. Organizational Analysis, 12(2),

171-182. Retrieved February 15, 2009, from EBSCOhost database.

Dulewicz, C., Young, M. & Dulewicz, V. (2005). The relevance of emotional intelligence for

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Feyerherm, A. E. & Rice, C. L. (2002). Emotional intelligence and team performance; The good,

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Gabel, R. S., Dolan, S. L. & Cerdin, J. L. (2005). Emotional intelligence as predictor of cultural

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