International Journal of Management Science and Business Administration
Volume 6, Issue 5, July 2020, Pages 38-43
The Influence of Leadership Based on Emotional Intelligence Concerning the Climate of an Organisation
DOI: 10.18775/ijmsba.1849-5664-5419.2014.65.1005
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.18775/ijmsba.1849-5664-5419.2014.65.1005
Ionela Gabriela Solomon
Doctoral School of Business Administration, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania
Abstract: The article aims to define a behavioral matrix regarding the style of leadership applied to the management in a public company. The dimensions include communication and persuasion, ethics, empathy, knowledge and information management, the desire to learn, the objective’s achievement, adaptability, innovation, and decision making. The behavioural competencies correlate with the four dimensions of emotional intelligence related to personal abilities such as self-knowledge and self-management, but also social competences, such as awareness and the management of relationships with others. The article analyses the extent to which the emotional intelligence among the personnel that makes up the middle management influences organizational climate at the company level.
Keywords: Emotional intelligence, Organisational climate, Management, Business administration
1. Introduction
From human resources perspective, the most significant relationship in the company is the one represented by the manager and his subordinates (Nuttall, 2004). Management leadership styles influence the quality of work relationships (Story et al. 2013). As the strategies they apply are considerable, specialty literature shows that both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards can induce performance at work (Westover and Taylor, 2010; Vlachos et al., 2013; Riasat et al., 2016; Soto-Pérez et al., 2020). Work becomes a dynamic activity when the management organisational behaviour is based on mutual respect and professional development opportunities. Nowadays, it became a sinequanon condition to prove emotional intelligence as a leader (Njotoprajitno et al., 2020).
2. Methodology
The purpose of this article is to analyze leadership skills (Mumford et al., 2007) suing Goleman model of emotional intelligence, structured in the four areas: consciousness drawing, self-management, social awareness and relationship management. This paper consists of five sections. The introduction–section 1- presents the context of working relationships within an organization. The second section presents the research methodology. The third part of the paper explores a matrix to define the characteristics of a participatory leadership style. Findings are discussed in section 4 and conclusions in section 5.
3. Leadership Dimensions
Research studies have shown the relationship between leaders’ mood and optimism and employee effectiveness in the workplace (Dugan, 2016; Zhou and George, 2003; Jordan and Troth, 2011; Grossmeier and Johnson, 2020). Thus, a leader with a positive attitude will keep people more facile than it will keep bosses who tend to be negative (Goleman, 2018; Sullivan and Page, 2020). Humphrey (2002) argued that leadership is an inherently emotional process through which leaders recognise the emotional states of employees, try to instil emotions, and then manage employees’ emotional states (Goleman and Boyatzis,2008). In previous research, mindfulness was found to affect leader effectiveness by enabling trusted relationships among leader and followers (Stedham and Skaar, 2019).
Cooper and Sawaf (1998) provided a holistic definition of emotional intelligence, wherein it respresents “the ability to feel, understand and apply the power and depth of emotions as a source of human energy, information and influence.”
Table 1: Leadership characteristics and competencies
| Leadership feature | Competence developed through emotional intelligence |
| communication and persuasion | relationship management |
| Ethics | Transparency |
| Empathy | organisational consciousness |
| knowledge and information management | ability to influence |
| desire to learn | continuous learning |
| achieving goals | team spirit and collaboration |
| adaptability and innovation | flexibility, facilitating change |
| decision-making | Initiative |
Leadership characteristics applied for this research paper follow eight factors: communication and persuasion, ethics, empathy, knowledge and information management, desire to learn, achieving goals, adaptability and innovation, decision-making. The communication and persuasion dimension (Hackman and Johnson, 2013) from the questionnaire applied in this research consider variables as active listening, using of the appropriate style of communication, providing and receiving feedback, sharing updated information with the team. A difference in leadership styles in terms of guiding, motivation and task allocation has a key impact on teamwork efficiency (Al-Malki, 2016). Regarding ethics, the statements provide information about principles of integrity and fairness in decision-making, respect for the legal requirements, organisational policy and professional codes, defending the rights of subordinates, dealing with conflict situations.
Showing empathy (Kellett, 2002; Holt and Marques, 2012) is fundamental in communication and human relations so the inventory asseses how much the leader encourages colleagues to make decisions independently, motivate others, encourage and acknowledge the achievements and success of others, support the team. A good leader manages the knowledge and information and demonstrates the willingness to learn but also takes care of the personal and professional training and development of his subordinates (Scaduto et al., 2008). He can often offer mentorship programs for his mentees. (Gibson et al., 2000; Skurzewski‐Servant, 2016). Study by Mullen et a. (2019) found that greater emotional intelligence correlates with greater leadership self-efficacy. Managers who stimulate effectiveness are the ones able to motivate and provide vision to their team (Al-Malki and Juan, 2018). In this respect, Cheong et al. (2019) examined empowering leadership as a driver of employee effectiveness. Regarding adaptability and innovation, study examined how much a leader can keep concentration or energy, introduce new working processes, transform threats into opportunities, and provide a prompt reaction when a problem or crisis arises. Cultivating and improving the development of intelligence through education and experience leads to appropriate behaviours that can ultimately provide a leadership model within an organisation (Ofori, 2009; Smith et al., 2012; Bottomley et al., 2014).
4. Case Study
The research hypotheses are:
- Organisational climate is dependent on the actions and leadership features of people who hold a leadership position in the company.
- People with a high level of emotional intelligence are positively influencing the environment at work and the organisational climate.
The methodology applied in identifying leadership style for a group of 34 people leading teams in diverse domains as human resources, IT, engineering, teaching, public administration, health care, use the questionnaire as a method of social investigation.
There are 48 affirmations grouped in eight dimensions designed to identify and evaluate the personal leadership style. For this assessment, a Likert scale with five items was applied (ranging from 0 – strongly disagree, to 5 – strongly agree). Individuals to whom the questionnaire was applied, work as manager/team-leader/head of a department.
People who completed the questionnaire are between 28 and 57 years old, as presented in the figure below.
Figure 1: Age
Regarding gender, 18 of the respondents were male, and 16 were women.
Figure 2: Gender
Educational background was also taken into consideration, and 67.6% of the respondents graduated with a master diploma, and 17.6% obtained a PhD diploma.
Figure 3: Level of education
The results of the inventory show that active listening is a trait developed by 52.9% off the respondents, as in the figure below.
Figure 4: Communication and persuasion –active listening
However, for the statement “I keep people informed of plans in due time” only 29.4% fully displayed this ability.
In what concern ethics, the majority tend to say about themselves that they use as guide the principles of integrity and fairness in decision-making. It is interesting to observe how being in a position of managing, empower them to states their status and opinions in conflict situations, as in the figure below.
Figure 5: Ethics and attitude towards conflicts
The respondents of this research show characteristics of emotional intelligence and empathy towards needs, motivations and feelings of their subordinates in a vast majority.
Figure 6: Empathy at work
Depending on the degree of manifestation of all eight dimension of leadership’s style for people with a leading position in their company, we observe that the influence of the emotional intelligence of the leader reflects strongly in their behaviour at work.
5. Conclusion
Leadership is a complex concept influenced by various factors. Regarding the type of intelligence, specifically emotional intelligence as one of the elements during managing relationships at work it provides a way of leading by inspiring and example. It is relevant to capture the moments when the employees are no longer motivated but for this, it takes to be a shrewd observer of human behaviour. Nowadays, leadership barely relies on the relationship between superior and subordinates, since the organization became a dynamic and adaptive organism. Therefore, effective leadership is not imposed from top-down hierarchically, rather employees want to follow the leader’s vision because of the collective values they share.
Leaders with developed emotional intelligence [EI] treat their employees with respect and possess moral values. Their leadership style focuses on a person, as a valuable resource of the company. EI is what motivates the individual’s personal and professional development and achieving its full capacity. For this reason, emotions are a fundamental topic in research on organisational behaviour. An above-average degree of emotional intelligence among both employees and leaders, contribute to achieving a successful combination of personal goals with organisational ones. The implications of emotional intelligence reflect both within the company and externally by the impact that the achievements of the organisation, public or private, have on the economic, business, social or even political environment.
References
- Al-Malki, M. (2016). Towards Optimal Cooperation and Job Performance: The Impact of Leadership on Role Ambiguity and Role Conflict. International Journal of Management Science and Business Administration, 2(11),40-47.
- Al-Malki, M. and Juan, W. (2018). Leadership Styles and Job Performance: a Literature Review. Journal of International Business Research and Marketing, 3(3),40-49.
- Bottomley, K.; Burgess, S.; Fox, M. (2014). Are the behaviours of transformational leaders impacting organisations? A study of transformational leadership. International Management Review, 10(1), pp. 5-9.
- Cheong, M., Yammarino, F. J., Dionne, S. D., Spain, S. M., and Tsai, C. Y. (2019). A review of the effectiveness of empowering leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 30(1), 34-58.
- Cooper, R. K.; Sawaf, A. (1998). Executive EQ: Emotional intelligence in leadership and organisations. Penguin;
- Dugan, C. (2016). Efficient leadership and management in national security institutions. Journal of Criminal investigation, 9(1); p. 429;
- Gibson, J. W.; Tesone, D. V.; and Buchalski, R. M. (2000.) The leader as a mentor. Journal of Leadership Studies, 7(3), pp.56-67. Crossref
- Goleman, D.; Boyatzis, R. (2008). Social intelligence and the biology of leadership. Harvard business review, 86(9), pp. 74-81.
- Goleman, D.; Boyatzis, R.; McKee, A. (2018). Primal leadership.3rd edition, Curtea Veche Publishing, Bucharest.
- Grossmeier, J.; Johnson, S. S. (2020). Factors Driving Exemplary Workplace Health and Well-Being Initiatives. Crossref
- Hackman, M. Z.: Johnson, C. E. (2013). Leadership: A communication perspective. Waveland Press.
- Holt, S.; Marques, J. (2012). Empathy in leadership: Appropriate or misplaced? An empirical study on a topic that is asking for attention. Journal of business ethics, 105(1): 95-105. Crossref
- Humphrey, R. H. (2002). Special issue on emotions and leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 13(5): 493-504; Crossref
- Jordan, P. J; Troth, A. (2011). Emotional intelligence and leader-member exchange: The relationship with employee turnover intentions and job satisfaction. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 32(3), pp. 260-280; Crossref
- Kellett, J. B., Humphrey, R. H., and Sleeth, R. G. (2002). Empathy and complex task performance: Two routes to leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 13(5), pp. 523-544. Crossref
- Mullen, P. R., Limberg, D., Tuazon, V., and Romagnolo, S. M. (2019). Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Attributes of School Counselor Trainees. Counselor Education and Supervision, 58(2), 112-126.
- Mumford, T. V., Campion, M. A., and Morgeson, F. P. (2007). The leadership skills: Leadership skill requirements across organisational levels. The Leadership Quarterly, 18(2), pp. 154-166. Crossref
- Njotoprajitno, R.S., Tjahjadi, R.A., Nur, Hadianto, B. and Sunjaya, A. (2020). The Effect of Motivation, Emotional and Spiritual Intelligence on Lecturer Performance. International Journal of Management Science and Business Administration, 6(4),42-54.
- Nuttall, J. (2004). Modes of interpersonal relationship in management organisations. Journal of Change Management, 4(1), pp. 15-29. Crossref
- Ofori, G. (2009). Ethical leadership: Examining the relationships with the full range leadership model, employee outcomes, and organisational culture. Journal of Business Ethics, 90(4), p. 533. Crossref
- Riasat, F., Aslam, S., and Nisar, Q. A. (2016). Do intrinsic and extrinsic rewards influence job satisfaction and job performance? Mediating role of the reward system. Journal of Management Info, 11(1), pp. 16-34.
- Scaduto, A.; Lindsay, D.; Chiaburu, D. S. (2008). Leader influences on training effectiveness: motivation and outcome expectation processes. International Journal of Training and Development, 12(3), pp. 158-170. Crossref
- Skurzewski‐Servant, M. (2016). Developing the modern leader: Integrating creativity and innovation in the mentor–protégé relationship. Journal of Leadership Studies, 10(1), pp. 89-90. Crossref
- Smith, W. K.; Besharov, M. L.; Wessels, A. K.; Chertok, M. (2012). A paradoxical leadership model for social entrepreneurs: Challenges, leadership skills, and pedagogical tools for managing social and commercial demands. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 11(3), pp. 463-478. Crossref
- Soto-Pérez, M.; Sánchez-García, J. Y.; Núñez-Ríos, J. E. (2020). Factors to improve job performance and school effectiveness. International Journal of Educational Management. Crossref
- Stedham, Y., and Skaar, T. B. (2019). Mindfulness, trust, and leader effectiveness: a conceptual framework. Frontiers in psychology, 10.
- Story, J. S.; Youssef, C. M.; Luthans, F.; Barbuto, J. E.; Bovaird, J. (2013). The contagion effect of global leaders’ positive psychological capital on followers: Does distance and quality of relationship matter? The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(13), pp. 534-2553. Crossref
- Sullivan, T.; Page, N. (2020). A Competency-Based Approach to Leadership Development: Growth Mindset in the Workplace. In New Leadership in Strategy and Communication (pp. 179-189). Springer, Cham. Crossref
- Vlachos, P. A.; Panagopoulos, N. G.; Rapp, A. A. (2013). Feeling good by doing good: Employee CSR-induced attributions, job satisfaction, and the role of charismatic leadership. Journal of business ethics, 118(3), pp. 577-588. Crossref
- Westover, J. H.; Taylor, J. (2010). International differences in job satisfaction. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management. Crossref
- Zhou, J.; George, J. M. (2003). Awakening employee creativity: The role of leader emotional intelligence, The leadership quarterly, 14(4), pp. 545-568; Crossref
