The relationship between emotional intelligence and managers' use of specific directive and supportive behaviors

Abstract

Organizations spend over 50 billion dollars annually on leadership development, efforts that often fail to create sustainable change for organizational managers. Understanding the relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership behaviors of organizational managers may provide a pathway for more effective leadership development, and a pathway for better organizational alignment of leadership ideals and desired manager behavior. The purpose of the quantitative correlational research study was to determine to what degree a relationship exists between a manager’s emotional intelligence and use of transactional directive and supportive leadership behaviors, and between a manager’s emotional intelligence and direct-report employee satisfaction, based on Situational II leadership theory, in a large public utility company located in New England. A total of 109 managers completed the MSCEIT emotional intelligence assessment and their direct-report employees completed the LAP Leader Action Profile assessment. Correlational statistical analysis of the data revealed positive relationships between emotional intelligence and specific supportive leadership behaviors, and between emotional intelligence and employee satisfaction with the manager and the organization. The conclusion was that a manager’s emotional intelligence is related to the use of supportive leadership behaviors and employee satisfaction, and that leadership development practitioners might consider the results when developing leadership development programs, such as development using Situational Leadership II theory.