Impact of Leader’s Emotional Intelligence and Transformational Behavior on Perceived Leadership Effectiveness: A Multiple Source View

Abstract

Emotional intelligence (EI) plays a pivotal role in leadership effectiveness. The present research studied the relationship between performance-based EI and transformational leadership as exhibited by participants in the work role with leadership effectiveness as perceived by their superiors and subordinates. The sample comprised 200 managers who were administered the Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso EI Test and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) 5X scale. Superior’s perception of leadership effectiveness was measured via the MLQ 5X scale as well as effectiveness scale developed by Shanock and Eisenberger (2006). Supervisory leadership survey developed by Kerr, Garvin, Heaton, and Boyle (2006) was administered to subordinates to assess their perception of leadership effectiveness. A Pearson’s correlation coefficient revealed that there was a significant positive correlation between subordinates’ perception of leadership effectiveness and overall EQ (r = 0.27, p < 0.01, n = 200), strategic EQ (r = 0.24, p < 0.01, n = 200), and experiential EQ (r = 0.20, p < 0.01, n = 200). All transformational behaviors showed a significant positive correlation with perceived leadership effectiveness (r ranging from 0.42 to 0.22, p < 0.01). In case of superiors’ rating, a significant positive correlation was seen between perceived leadership effectiveness and strategic EQ (r = 0.18, p < 0.01) as well as all transformational behaviors (r ranging from 0.61 to 0.49, p < 0.01). Multiple regressions analysis results led to the emergence of transformational leadership behaviors (β = 0.15, ΔR2 = 0.19, p < 0.01) as a positive predictors of subordinate’s leadership effectiveness explaining a variance of 23 percent. In case of superior’s perception of leadership effectiveness, transformational behaviors explained a variance of 48 percent (β = 0.27, ΔR2 = 0.19, p < 0.01). In both the cases, EI of the leader failed to emerge as a predictor of perceived effectiveness.