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The present study explored gender differences in emotional intelligence; its components (intrapersonal intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, adaptability, stress management, and general mood); and managerial effectiveness. 140 managers out of which 70 were males and 70 females; working in different types of organizations such as manufacturing, banking and finance, and information technology; at different managerial positions; in the city of Mumbai participated in the study. Findings of the study indicate that women managers had significantly higher mean emotional intelligence scores as compared to males. Similarly, they also scored significantly higher than male managers in the different components of emotional intelligence. Additionally the managerial effectiveness scores of female managers were significantly higher than male managers. Results were discussed in the light of other studies.
Keywords: emotional intelligence, gender differences, and managerial effectiveness
Industrialization, urbanization, democratic principles, liberalization, and globalization are some of the factors that have brought about major changes in the Indian economy. The urban, middle class has experienced maximum changes. Women from urban areas have benefited to a great extent from these changes; with many of them getting access to education and paid employment outside their homes. Although many women enter into professions that are considered to be more "feminine", there are others who are going into professions once considered to be the prerogative of men. Studies conducted in various settings such as small firms (Litz, & Folker, 2002); Intellectual property office firms (Welbourne, Cycyota, & Ferrante, 2007); coiporate boards (Konrad, Kramer, & Erkut, 2008) and military settings (Hirschfeld, Jordan, Feild, Giles, & Armenakis, 2005) have shown that adding women managers increases the effectiveness of the work teams. Collaboration, conflict resolution, solidarity,and self-sustaining action are found to increase as more and more women managers are employed in an organization (Westermann, Ashby, & Pretty, 2005). Bycio, Hackett, and Allen, ( 1995); Bass and Avolio, ( 1994); and Yammarino, Dubinsky, Comer, and Jolson, ( 1997) posit that female managers are more likely to use a transformational approach of leadership. They are also more democratic than male managers (Yammarino, Dubinsky, Comer, & Jolson, 1997; Buttner, 2001; Eagly & Carli, 2003) and have higher emotional intelligence than men (Salovey, 1997; Joseph & Newman, 2010). Emotional Intelligence which refers to the ability to monitor one's own and other's feelings and...