Emotional intelligence and leadership styles

Abstract

A few decades ago, the concept of emotional intelligence was neither known nor considered particularly important. The importance of IQ and its role in business success has always been emphasized. However, over the years, that perception has changed considerably. Today, more importance is placed on emotional intelligence than IQ, more than ever before. A person can have a high IQ, but this does not guarantee long-term success in business if he does not have developed emotional intelligence. It is important to note that emotional intelligence can be developed throughout life and experiences. Leading, or managing a team of people in a small business is certainly one of the most significant challenges of every entrepreneur. It can be manifested through different styles depending on the circumstances of the situation but also the characteristics of the individual leader, which is certainly influenced by the level of emotional intelligence. The aim of the subject paper is to investigate the connection between the emotional intelligence of entrepreneurs and their leadership styles. The conducted research directly proved that there is no statistically significant connection between the level of emotional intelligence and the management styles of a small business. The respondents who participated in the research are small entrepreneurs from the area of the town of Grubišno polje and its surroundings. The work was created through empirical research in order to prove hypotheses for the needs of the thesis. In the empirical part of the work, an anonymous survey method was used, while statistical methods were used to process the research results, from which the Pearson correlation coefficient can be extracted.Prije nekoliko desetljeća, koncept emocionalne inteligencije nije bio poznat niti se smatrao posebno važnim. Uvijek se naglašavala važnost kvocijenta inteligencije i njegove uloge u poslovnom uspjehu. Međutim tijekom godina, ta percepcija se znatno promijenila. Danas se veća važnost pridaje emocionalnoj inteligenciji nego kvocijentu inteligencije, više nego ikad prije. Osoba može imati visok kvocijent inteligencije, ali to ne garantira dugoročni uspjeh u poslu ako nema razvijenu emocionalnu inteligenciju. Važno je napomenuti da se emocionalna inteligencija može razvijati tijekom života i iskustava. Vođenje, odnosno upravljanje timom ljudi u malom poduzeću zasigurno je jedan od značajnijih izazova svakog poduzetnika. Može se manifestirati kroz različite stilove ovisno o okolnostima situacije ali i karakteristikama pojedinog vođe, koja je zasigurno pod utjecajem razine emocionalne inteligencije. Cilj predmetnog rada je istražiti povezanost između emocionalne inteligencije poduzetnika i njihovih stilova vođenja. Provedenim istraživanjem izravno je dokazano da ne postoji statistički značajna povezanost između razine emocionalne inteligencije i stilova vođenja malog poduzeća. Ispitanici koji su sudjelovali u istraživanju su mali poduzetnici sa područja grada Grubišnog polja i okolice. Rad je nastao empirijskim istraživanjem radi dokazivanja hipoteza za potrebe diplomskog rada. U empirijskom dijelu rada korištena je metoda ispitivanja anonimnim anketnim upitnikom, dok su za obradu rezultata istraživanja korištene statističke metode, od kojih se mogu izdvojiti Pearsonov koeficijent korelacije.