The Influence of Emotional Intelligence on Effective Leadership Among Managers in Malaysian Business Organizations Sarminah Samad.

The Business Review, Cambridge. Hollywood: Summer 2009. Vol. 13, Iss. 1; pg. 164, 7 pgs Abstract (Summary) The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and effective leadership. Consequently the study determined the influence of EIon effective leadership. Further the study is aimed at identifying which of the EI dimension most explain effective leadership. Finally the study examined the different level of EI between senior and middle level management staff. Sample of the study consisted of 500 senior and middle level management staff of the selected telecommunication companies inMalaysia. The study used selfadministered questionnaires and the data obtained was then analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics analysis. The results hypothesized that all of the EI dimensions were significantly related to effective leadership. Consequently the study found that the EI dimensions were able to influence effective leadership where 59 percent of variance in effective leadership was explained by EI. Further the results revealed that social skills appeared as the most influential factor for effective leadership. The findings of the study also revealed that there was a significant difference of EI at management level staff with the senior level of management indicating the higher score compared to the middle level management staff. Several suggestions are discussed based on the implications of the research finding. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Full Text (5155 words) Copyright Journal of American Academy of Business Summer 2009 [Headnote] ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and effective leadership. Consequently the study determined the influence of EI on effective leadership. Further the study is aimed at identifying which of the EI dimension most explain effective leadership. Finally the study examined the different level of EI between senior and middle level management staff. Sample of the study consisted of 500 senior and middle level management staff of the selected telecommunication companies in Malaysia. The study used self-administered questionnaires and the data obtained was then analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics analysis. The results hypothesized that all of the EI dimensions were significantly related to effective leadership. Consequently the study found that the EI dimensions were able to influence effective leadership where 59 percent of variance in effective leadership was explained by EI. Further the results revealed that social skills appeared as the most influential factor for effective leadership. The findings of the study also revealed that there was a significant difference of EI at management level staff with the senior level of management indicating the higher score compared to the middle level management staff. Several suggestions are discussed based on the implications of the research finding.

INTRODUCTION Globalization, rapid change in technology and the intense business competition require organizations to secure a sustainable competitive advantage over their competitors. The rapid change of technological age has created the new millennium with a competitive landscape which demands leaders to have more than just the required skills and intelligence quotient (IQ). Leaders should also have the right values, behaviors, personalities and emotions to face these challenges. According to Hay (2000), emotionally intelligent leaders help organizations realize the competitive advantage through improved motivation, enhanced innovation, increased performance, effective use of time and resources, restored trust and improved teamwork. EI has contributed to a more significant impact on leadership performance than cognitive and technical expertise combined (Buford, 2001). The traditional belief of performance evaluation has always been on individual's intellectual and skills abilities. However, research has revealed that EI is perceived to be more important than IQ and technical skills for leadership effectiveness and performance (Sosik & Megerian, 1999). Effective and successful leaders do not only depend on

technical expertise and experience but also on how well they handle themselves and the situations (Cooper & Sawaf, 1997). A considerable interest has been shown by scholars and practitioners on the concept of effective leadership (Bennis, 1994, Luthan, 1998). The reason why this topic is so popular across the fields of business and management is due to its critical role on organizational performance and effectiveness (Goleman, 1988). In addition, it provides some positive impacts for leaders and employees to interact within various organizational contexts and environments. Enhancing organizational competitive ability is increasingly crucial. Therefore the combination of technical skills, IQ and EI are valuable to improve leadership and organizational efficiency. Despite the voluminous studies on leadership in organization, no known studies have examined the link between EI and effective leadership among managers in Malaysian organizations. Due to inadequate information on the relationship between effective leadership and EI in Malaysian business organizations, this study attempts to answer four important questions. Firstly, is there any relationship between EI and effective leadership? Secondly, which of the EI dimension most explain effective leadership? Thirdly, to what extent do EI dimensions influence effective leadership? Finally, is there a significant difference of EI at management level? The objectives of the study were based on these four questions. LITERATURE REVIEW Since the topic of effective leadership has received a great deal of interest in the past decades, many studies have been directed at determining its casual antecedents (Mandell and Pherwani, 2003). Effective leadership plays an important role in an organization's success. Therefore, effective leaders should have multiple skills and abilities. However, extremely intelligent leaders who have strong managerial skills do not guarantee them to be an effective leader as they lack or do not have EI which is required to deal with subordinates effectively (Cooper & Sawaf, 1997). In fact highly successful and less successful leaders according to (Goleman (1998) was discriminated significantly by emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) which was later popularly discussed as emotional intelligence (EI). As a theorist, Goleman (1998) postulated a theory of performance that was built on the EI model, adapting it to predict personal effectiveness at work and in leadership.

Emotional Intelligence EI is the ability to work well with people and people's emotion both on and off the job. Consequently it would affect human relations at work (Lussier & Achua, 2007). Studies have recognized EI as one of the core components of organization along with intelligence and technical skills (Goleman, 1998) and it is a hot management topic because emotions affect organizational behaviors (Seo et al., 2004). EI also has received a great attention by researchers as it was theorized to have positive and significant impact on behavioral outcomes such as employee's performance, organizational citizenship, commitment and organizational effectiveness (Sosik & Megerian, 1999) and effective leadership (Buford, 2001). Emotional Intelligence (EI) was formally conceptualized by Salovey & Meyer (1990). Salvovey & Meyer (1990) and Pfeiffer (2001) stated that EI is a subset of social intelligence which involves the ability to monitor one's own and other's feelings; emotions to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's thinking and ability. Salovey and Meyer (1990) later examined a variety of skills including management skills that relate to EL This model consisted of four components of abilities mainly, a) to perceive accurately, appraise and express emotion; b) to access and or generate feeling when they facilitate thought; c) to understand emotion and apply emotional knowledge; and d) to regulate emotions, to promote emotions and intellectual growth. Contrary to Salovey & Meyer's (1990) model, Goleman (1995) proposes EFs model which consists of two components mainly personal competence and social competence. Personal competence includes self-awareness (the keystone of EI), self- regulation and motivation while social competence consists of empathy and social skills. Self-awareness is the ability to recognize and understand one's own moods, emotions, drives and their effects on others. Self-confidence, realistic self-assessment and often a self-deprecating sense of humor are among characteristics of self-awareness. In self-awareness leaders are supposed to be able to recognize a feeling as it happens, to accurately perform self-assessment and have self-confidence. Goleman's study (1995) found that effective leaders are those who demonstrate self -awareness, have high self-confidence as well as able to assess their strengths and weaknesses. It can be concluded that a high level of self-awareness that is associated with EI tend to encourage leaders to demonstrate self-confidence, earn respect and trust from followers.

Meisel (2004) found that self -awareness is the greatest predictor of success in everything people do. Self -regulation or self-mastery is the ability to control emotions, to remain calm, encounter problem and resistance, manage stress skillfully, finding ways to handle fears, anxieties, anger and sadness and to stay focused on the tasks performed. Individuals with self-regulation are able to handle change and being comfortable with ambiguity. Through self -regulation, leaders can objectively consider the needs of others despite their own immediate feelings. Goleman (1998) highlighted that qualities of self-regulations are like trustworthiness, integrity, conscientiousness, self-control, adaptability, innovativeness and taking responsibility for one's own actions. A leader with EI is expected to be able to keep disruptive emotions and impulses (self-control); maintain standards of honesty and integrity (trustworthiness); take responsibility for one's performance (conscientiousness); handle change (adaptability) and be comfortable with novel ideas and approaches (innovation). A leader with EI would be optimistic and show happiness despite obstacles, setbacks and failure. According to Sheperd (2004) effective leaders don't let negative emotions (example; worry, anxiety, fear and anger) interfere with getting things done effectively. Motivation relates to expanding energy in a specific direction for a specific purpose. It refers to the emotional tendency guiding or facilitating the attainment of goals. It encompasses achievement drive (meeting a standard excellence); commitment (alignment of goals with the group and organization); initiative (acting on opportunities) and optimism (persistence reaching goals despite set backs). Good emotion will encourage leaders to be more motivated in the tasks performed. Motivation also involves passion, confidence, enthusiasm and normally zeal to work not because of money or status but to pursue goals with energy and persistence. Maxwell (1999) contended that passion is the first step towards achievement that increases willpower; passion changes individual and allow individual to become a more dedicated and productive person. Further, Maxwell (1999) suggested that a leader with great passion and few skills always outperforms a leader with great skills and no passion. Meanwhile, motivated leaders will have a high desire to achieve and are constantly optimistic in any situations while unmotivated leaders tend to be pessimistic and may give up earlier. Highly self-motivated individuals and leaders are result oriented who have a high drive to meet their objectives and standards (Goleman et al.,

2002). Leaders who have the ability to maintain balance will always keep themselves motivated, optimistic and hopeful to be a role model and inspire others. Social skills or interpersonal skills refer to a person's proficiency in managing relationship with others and building networks. It involves the ability of meeting each other's needs; relating to each other over time and exchanging information about one's feelings, thoughts and ideas. Other qualities of social skills are effectiveness in leading change, persuading others, building and leading teams (Goleman 1995). As a fundamental to EI, social skills relate to leaders who have the ability to influence (induce desirable responses in others through effective diplomacy to persuade); to communicate (listen openly and send convincing messages); to lead (inspire and guide groups and individuals); to build bonds (nurture instrumental relationships, to collaborate work with others towards a shared goal) and to cooperate (create group synergy in achieving goals). The ability of leaders to manage interpersonal skills tends to motivate and inspire the followers or subordinates. Effective leaders can deal with a diversity of people including personalities that are not emotionally stable, able to develop networks and play organizational politics (Zaslow, 2004). Empathy is a person's ability in sensing the emotional makeup of other's feeling and perspective and taking active interest in their concerns and problem (Goleman, 1998). Accordingly, empathie people will treat others according to their emotional needs. Empathie leaders are those who are expert in building and retaining talent; sensitive with diversities; appreciative of various perspectives and avoid unnecessary conflicts. Leaders who are highly empathie are also skilled in managing other's problem. They are able to understand others by being aware of their needs, perspectives, feelings, concern and sensing the developmental needs of others. EI helps leaders to recognize and respect subordinates with feelings, opinion, ideas, unique needs and abilities. Accordingly, empathie leaders help followers to grow and develop; to enhance their self-images and sense of self worth; and to achieve their needs and goals through social skills. Effective Leadership Effective leadership is one of the most important factors to organizational performance. Zahra (2003) emphasized that the performance of the managerial leadership determines the success or

failure of the organization. Poor leadership according to Zhang (2004) leads to failure and good leadership to success. White (2005) stressed that the success of each store of the Domino's Pizza Chain is based on the leadership provided by managers. In the United States, 60 percent of employees believe that their organizations are not well managed (Williams, 2002) and the main reason that employees stay or leave the organization is how they are treated by their leaders (Koerner, 2004). Thus, it is difficult to overstate the importance of effective leadership (Ashkanasy, 2004). There is no universal definition of leadership because leadership is complex and it is studied in different ways that require different definitions (Lussier & Achua, 2007). Consequently, it is still being debated on what makes a person a leader. However, Bennis (1994) contends that leaders appear to share common traits in terms of 1) guiding vision or purpose; 2) passion and ability to communicate the passion to others and 3) integrity. Effective leadership according to Luthans (1998) is defined as 1) getting the job done through quality and quantity standards of performance and 2) getting the job done through people, requiring their satisfaction and commitment which Bennis (1994) describes them as transformational leadership qualities. According to Maxwell (1999) components of emotional reactions, emotional well being and managing emotions play important role for leader's success and effective leadership. Asking employees how they feel; showing how the leader feels; asking for help; demonstrating empathy and talking to people are examples of emotional connectedness which are important in leadership effectiveness (Maxwell, 1999). Avolio et al. (1995) suggested that effective leaders are those who perceived themselves as having transformational rather than transactional style of leadership. This is because according to Yammarino & Dubinsky (1994) transformational leadership is more emotion based compared to transactional style of leadership. Rastogi & Dave (2004) defined effective leadership as the ability of a leader to manage situations appropriately, producing results or meeting the targets in every organization activities. Rastogi & Dave (2004) stated that the job of a leader is linked with three main dimensions mainly technical, conceptual and human. It can be measured by the extent to which the goals of organization and group are achieved through productive efforts of subordinates or followers. Effective leadership is manifested as the culmination of synergy of effectiveness of leaders in the organization (Herbert, 1976). Kouzes & Posner (1988a) defined effective leadership as the ability of a leader to obtain extraordinary achievements through people. This extraordinary

leadership can be achieved and implemented through five principles with two basic strategies mainly 1) challenging the process (by searching for opportunities, experimenting and taking risks); 2) inspiring a shared vision (by envisioning the future and enlisting the support of others); 3) enabling others to act (by fostering collaboration and strengthening others); 4) modeling the way (by setting the example and planning small wins) and 5) encouraging the heart (by recognizing contributors and celebrating accomplishments). Relationship between EI and Effective Leadership Several studies have been conducted to link the factors that may be associated with effective leadership. Most of the scholarly studies in Malaysian business organizations have been focusing on the link between effective leadership and intellectual related factors and no information on EI factors. The main issue in leadership studies according to Wechsler (1982) is that beside intellectual aspects there are also definite non intellectual factors such as EI that determine intelligent behavior which he suggested the need for further research. Therefore according to Cooper & Sawaf (1997) there would be more studies to focus on EI to be carried out. In addition, Cherniss (2000) found that the EI instrument has the ability to assess personal qualities of a leader to possess better emotional well being than others. Goleman's (1995) study revealed that technical skills, IQ and cognitive skills or EI are among the factors that are associated with outstanding leadership and performance. In terms of ratio, the study highlighted that EI indicated twice as important as technical skills and IQ components. This study also reported that IQ contributed only twenty percent of success factor in life. The rest of eighty percent are from EI or soft skills. In another study Goleman (1998) confirmed that EI factors could serve as the predictors to individual high performance such as effective leadership. This statement suggests that leaders who are perceived as intellectually the brightest are often not the most successful in organization, business and personal lives. Further, Cooper & Sawaf (1998) found that a person's fundamental values and character in life stem from underlying emotional capacities and not from IQ. Several studies have been done on the relationship between EI with organizational and individual performance as well as effectiveness. Buford's (2001) study for example was to examine the

relationship between EI and variables such as personality, leadership, managerial effectiveness as well the assessment of EI validity in predicting management performance. Mandell and Pherwani (2003) examined the predictive relationship between EI and transformational leadership style. Although studies have been carried out to address the relationship between EI and organizational behaviors the results have not been conclusive. Tjong's (2000) study for example found a significant relationship between nurses' levels of EI and their levels of hardiness. Goleman (1988) and Viriyavidhayavongs & Jiamsuchon (2001) found there was a significant relationship between EI and leadership effectiveness. However, no significant relationship between EI and leadership effectiveness was reported in Smith's (2005) research finding. The inconclusive and conflicting research findings in this area require further research. Moreover, not much research was done on the EI measures, which according to Cherniss (2000) is a serious lack. In addition, since most of the previous studies were carried out in different settings, no information is available about the generalizability of these findings to other countries particularly in Malaysian business environment. Therefore there is a paucity of empirical research on the relationship and influence of EI towards effective leadership in Malaysian business organization. Thus, this study aims at investigating whether there is a positive relationship between EI and effective leadership as well as to determine the influence of EI on effective leadership among managers in Malaysian business organization. Based on the above literature the following hypotheses were developed: H1: There is a positive and significant relationship between EI and effective leadership, H2: EI dimensions contribute significantly on effective leadership, H3: There would be a significant difference of EI score at different management levels. METHODOLOGY Sampling Procedure

Data for this study was collected randomly from 500 senior and middle level management staff of the selected telecommunication companies in Malaysia. The data from the self-administered questionnaire was then analyzed using SPSS, Version 16. The average age of the respondents in this study was 34.02 years old while the mean of their experience in the current job was 10.68 years and the mean of experience in the organization was 15.56 years. Regarding gender, 62.4% of the respondents were male and the remaining 37.6 % were female. Majority of the respondents (72%) were married while 38% were not married. In terms of position, 57% of the respondents were from the senior level management and 43% were among the middle level management staff MEASURES Instrumentation The independent variable of the study was EI which consisted of five dimensions namely self awareness, self -regulation, motivation, social skills and empathy. To capture the data regarding EI, the study used the 33 items scale adapted from the developed instrument by Schutte et al. (1998). The 5 dimensions of EI were measured based on the seven point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The reliability coefficient for these dimensions was within the acceptable and expected value ranging from .81 to .92. The dependent variable was effective leadership and was measured based on the summative score of 5 dimensions of effective leadership (challenging the process, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, modeling the way and encouraging the heart). The study used 30 items scale adapted from the developed instrument by Kouzes and Posner (1988b) and was measured on the seven point Likert scale ranges from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The reliability coefficient for effective leadership scale was .89. Data Analysis Data obtained in the study was analyzed using SPSS (Version 16). Pearson correlation coefficient, multiple regression and t test were employed to answer the objectives and hypotheses of the study. Pearson correlation was used to determine the relationship between EI dimensions and effective leadership. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine which of the EI

dimension most contributed or explained effective leadership and to examine the amount of variance explained in effective leadership by EI. Finally, t test was employed to test the difference in EI between the senior and the middle level management staff. RESULTS Relationship between EI and Effective Leadership (HAl) Table 1 shows the results of the overall means, standard deviations and correlations among variables of the study. The means ranges from a minimum value of 5.10 (self-awareness) to maximum value of 5.29 (effective leadership). As can be seen in Table 1, the correlation coefficients for the variables under investigation indicate a positive and significant relationship between EI dimensions (self-awareness, selfregulation, motivation, social skills and empathy) and effective leadership (p < 0.05). All of the correlations were in the expected directions indicating a positive and significant relationship between independent variables and dependent variable. This finding is consistent with expectations, that there were significant and positive relationship between EI dimensions and effective leadership. This data provided support for HAl and therefore HAl of the study was supported. Influence of EI on Effective Leadership (HA2) The second objective of the study was to examine which of the EI dimensions that most explain effective leadership. Meanwhile, the third objective was to determine the influence of EI dimensions on effective leadership. In other words it determined the amount of variance explained on effective leadership by EI. Table 2 presents results of the multiple regression analysis to answer the objective two and three as well as the HA3 of the study. As can be observed the beta values indicate that all of the EI dimensions had a positive and significant influence on effective leadership. Specifically, self-awareness ( = .35), self-regulation, motivation ( = .28), social skills ( = .55), and empathy ( = .53) were found to have a significant and positive impact on effective leadership (p< .05). Among all of the EI dimensions, social skills emerged as the most significant effect on effective leadership. This shows that social = .41),

skills appeared as the most important factor to enhance effective leadership and the aspect that most influenced effective leadership. When the five EI dimensions were regressed on effective leadership, the R^sup 2^ value was found to be .59. This indicates that 59 percent of the variance in effective leadership was explained by the EI dimensions. The data revealed that all of the EI dimensions were able to contribute or influence effective leadership. Therefore this data provided support for the H A3 of the study and the HA3 of the study was accepted. The Differences in EI at Management Level (HA3) The fourth objective and HA3 of the study was to determine whether the senior and the middle level management staff had distinct levels of EI. As presented in Table 3, a significant difference in EI between the senior and the middle level management staff was detected (p< .05). Data indicate that the senior level management staff scored the highest EI compared to the middle level management staff. The results revealed that there is a significant difference in EI between the senior level and the middle level management staff. This finding provided support for HA3 and therefore the HA3 of the study was accepted. CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION AND RECOMMENDATION The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between EI and effective leadership. Consequently this study examined the contribution of all of the EI dimensions on effective leadership and identified which of the EI dimension most influence effective leadership. In addition, the study identified the significant difference of EI between the senior and the middle level management staff. The correlation matrix indicated that all of the EI dimensions were positively and significantly related to effective leadership. This finding implied that all of the EI dimensions had significant relationships with effective leadership. The result was in the hypothesized direction that there was a positive and significant relationship between EI and effective leadership. The multiple regression analysis revealed that all of the EI dimensions had a positive and significant effect or influence on effective leadership. The analysis also revealed that social skills emerged as the dimension that most explained or influenced the effective leadership. The results of the study therefore supported the hypothesis that EI would be able to influence or contribute

effective leadership. Data from the analysis revealed that there was a significant difference between the senior and the middle level management staff in EI, where the senior level management staff demonstrated the highest score in EI. This finding confirmed the hypothesis three of the study. The results in this study are consistent with the previous studies (Viriyavidhayavongs & Jiamsuchon, 2001; Sosik & Megerian , 1999; Cooper & Sawaf, 1997), and therefore the finding of the study validates the result of previous research and generalizes it to other group of employees. The results mentioned above indicate that all dimensions of EI; mainly self-awareness, selfregulation, motivation, empathy and social skills as suggested by Goleman (1998) are related significantly to effective leadership. These factors are also found to be important in enhancing and influencing effective leadership. The study reveals an interesting finding where social skills emerged as the most important factor for effective leadership. This implies that social skills combined with other components of EI are important determinants for effective managers and the ability of managers to work well with others. This is because effective managers build effective relationships by communicating, responding to emotions, handling conflicts and influencing others. From these findings, the study suggests that all of the EI factors need to be recognized as a potential factor for effective leadership among managerial staff in Malaysian telecommunication companies. However, the results of the study indicated that the effective leadership and the senior level management staff were those who had higher levels of EI. Based on the findings, the study suggests that companies need to develop training programs that incorporate a new set of emotional based skills to these managerial staff in order to enhance leadership effectiveness. This will help in motivating managers both at the senior and the middle management level staff as well as subordinates to be more creative, innovative and enthusiastic in their work. The results of this study also provide evidence pertaining to effective leadership. Our understanding on the factors that associate and influence the effective leadership may give some implications to HRM system of the organizations such as in recruitment, selection, leadership development and leadership succession planning. The identified aspects of EI as underlying attributes of effective leadership could be used as one of the important criteria in the future selection of potential effective leader. The findings may help management in identifying

effective and powerful tools of selection, training, development and future leader succession planning to enhance organizational performance and effectiveness. It is suggested that a comparative research on the influence of EI towards effective leadership is carried out in other industries or organizations. Sample from a diverse range of industries and companies both from public and private sector may help in determining whether EI is more or less important to effective leadership at different leadership levels. This finding is useful for both practical and theoretical purposes. However, further research could be explored on other variety of approaches and setting to generalize the results.

Samad, S.. (2009). The Influence of Emotional Intelligence on Effective Leadership Among Managers in Malaysian Business Organizations. The Business Review, Cambridge, 13(1), 164-

170. Retrieved January 28, 2012, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 1778504801).