Emotional Intelligence and Its Relationship with Leadership Practices

In recent years leadership and emotional intelligence have become hot topic in management and organization researches. We made an attempt to study the relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership. Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive and express emotion to stimulate thought, understand and reason. It also regulates emotion in oneself and others. Leadership refers to the ability to influence, motivate and enable others to contribute to the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members.


Introduction
The new world of order reflects an accelerated rate of change, changes in work force, impact of technology, industrialization and globalization.People currently need to function in a world vastly different from that of previous generations.Researches have revealed that managers with high emotional intelligence obtain results from employees that are beyond expectations, developing and using talents crucial for organizational effectiveness (Barbuto & Burbach, 2006).Effective leaders manage and steer their own feelings, acknowledge subordinates feelings about their work situation, and intervene effectively to enhance morale (Cherniss, 2001).Moreover, Chen, Jacobs, and Spencer, (1998) reported that close to 90 percent of success in leadership positions is attributable to emotional intelligence.
Leadership has been regarded as a single, the most important factor in organizational success or failure (Bass, 1990) and much research has devoted to identify the determinants of effective leadership (Yukl, 1998).Many approaches exist to study leadership, but for the purposes of current investigation accent falls on the Transformational leadership theories which focuses on the importance of leadership behavior within the framework of organizational change and development (Skogstadt & Einarsen, 1999).An important component of transformational theories of leadership is the emotionally appealing aspect of leader behavior (Robbins, 2001).Moreover, Cacioppe (1997), expressed that successful leaders have the ability to manage their own emotions while being responsive to others emotions.
Emotional intelligence is a new and growing area of behavioral research; it caught the attention of the general public, academicians, business world and the scientific community.Emotional intelligence is the capacity to effectively perceive, express, understand, and manage your emotions and the emotions of others in a positive and productive manner.Bar -On (2000) defined emotional intelligence as "Emotional intelligence is an array of non-cognitive capabilities, competencies, and skills that influence one's ability to succeed in coping with environmental demands and pressures".The popularity of the emotional intelligence in the research literature makes the researchers to show more interest in this area.
Emotional intelligence of the executives shared the relationship with their leadership practices.Emotional intelligence empowers the manager with the ability to grasp intuitively what others need and want and develop strategies to fulfilling those needs and wants.The relationship between the emotional intelligence and leadership were explored by many researchers (Barbuto & Burbach., 2006;Barling., Slater., & Kelloway., 2000;Dulewicz., Young., & Dulewicz, V., 2005;Gardner & Stough., 2002;Sivanathan & Fekken., 2002) and they emphazise the significance of emotional intelligence in the organizational context.Mayer & Salovey (1997) conceptualized emotional intelligence as an aptitude.But, most scholars have conceptualized emotional intelligence as a mix of skills and traits (scholars like Bar -On, 1996;Goleman, 1995;Petrides, 2004;Schutte, et al., 1998) and aimed to measure emotional intelligence through self-report protocols.

Leadership
Today's business climate demand high flexible and quick responsiveness.It is inevitable for organizations to have effective leaders' at all hierarchical level.There has been major shift in leadership skills required for today's business managers.Leadership is the ability to influence, motivate and enable others to contribute to the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members.
Leadership competencies depend on many factors such as emotional intelligence, integrity, drive, self-confidence, intelligence, and knowledge of the selective discipline.Geothals., Sorenson., and Burns., (2004), summarize the evolution of leadership theories in four phases: trait, behavioral, situational / contingency, and transformational leadership.Burns (1978) was credited with developing the first transformational leadership model, envisioning the transformational and transactional leadership at opposite ends of the continuum.Bass (1985) expanded on Burns' idea by depicting transformational and transactional leadership as complementary, thus augmenting active transactional leadership behavior.Kouzes & Posner (1987;1997;2002), popularized the notion of transformational leadership with a best selling book and a survey instrument.Transactional leadership style was found to be the most frequently used leadership style (Hasan & Grace, 2006).The focus of the leader's ability to manage complex social and personal dynamics, centered in the concept of emotional intelligence has made the role of emotions in organizations prominent in the leadership literature (Cann, 2004;Mayer., DiPaolo., & Salovey., 1990;Weisinger, 1998).The transformational leadership model is particularly appealing in this changing business environment because it focuses leaders concerns about transforming the present conditions of the organization and followers requirements.

Rationale for the Study
In most of the organizations, executives occupy the top management levels, their day-to-day operations at various departments, units or divisions are highly a complex one, they have to communicate, plan, organize, and execute various activities within the organization.Sealing effectively with others require more effective utilization of emotional resources.Hence the level of emotional intelligence makes them to communicate effectively and at the same time they should possess leadership capabilities.
Hence the relationship between the emotional intelligence of executives and their leadership practices needs more introspective look and an attempt is made here.Which was proposed by George (2000) that emotional intelligence play a particularly important role in leadership effectives.The current article provides a critical analysis of the claimed role of emotional intelligence in the leadership practices.This approach should help organizations look and prepare for the future more effectively; including better specifying the future requirements they will have for their leaders.The executives gave the most emphasis to emotionally intelligent communication, a prominent feature to facilitative leadership.By studying the relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership behavior, we aimed to contribute to the leadership practices literature and to test emotional intelligence applications for leadership.

Hypotheses
The following hypotheses are framed to study the relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership practices of the executives 1.Emotional intelligence (and each of its eight components such as interpersonal relationship, problem solving, stress management, self regard, reality testing, flexibility, assertiveness, and empathy) will positively relate to leadership practices (modeling the way, enabling others to act, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, and encouraging the heart) of the executives.
2. Executives differ in their emotional intelligence with regard to their age and educational qualification.3.There are significant difference in the leadership practices of executives on the basis of their age and educational qualification.4. Executives differ significantly in their emotional intelligence and leadership practices based on their length of service.

Research Method
This study adopted survey method, which is descriptive and associational in nature.A public sector organization in South India has been identified for the present study.300 executives were selected through stratified random sampling.The investigator met the executives and established rapport.Both the Emotional intelligence inventory (Bar -On, 1997, 2000) and Leadership practices inventory (Kouzes & Posner, 1997) were administered to the executives.The data was collected under the personal supervision of the investigator.Out of 300 questionnaires distributed, the investigator considered only 256 for final analysis 't' test, 'f' test and Pearsons Product -moment correlations were used to test the hypothesis.

Emotional Intelligence Inventory
Emotional intelligence inventory by Bar-On (1997) scale consists of 66 items with five points scale from 'Not true' to 'True'.In this study we have considered only eight dimensions Viz., Empathy, Assertiveness, Flexibility, Reality testing, Stress management, Problem solving, Interpersonal relationship, and self-regard.Respondents were asked to mark on the continuum that most closely describes them.The co-efficient of reliability from the test-retest method ranges from 0.69 to 0.86 (Bar-On, 1997).The validity was also established by the author through an extensive review of the literature.This tool possesses content, face, convergent and discriminated validity.

Leadership Practices Inventory
Leadership practices inventory by (Kouzes & Posner, 1997) consists of 30 items with five point responses ranging from 'rarely' to 'frequently'.Five different leadership practices are measured by this scale.We have considered 20 items to measure the five different leadership practices viz.modeling the way, challenging the process, inspiring a shared vision, encouraging the heart and enabling others to act.The co-efficient of reliability from the test-retest method ranges from 0.75 to 0.87 (Kouzes & Posner, 1997).The scale possesses concurrent, face and criterion group validity.

Results & Discussion
From the table -1, it is observed that the correlation coefficients are significant for more than half of the dimensions of emotional intelligence and its total.Hence, the hypothesis is accepted.It is concluded that most of the components of emotional intelligence along its total have a significant relationship with the leadership practices of executives.

<Table -1, to be inserted here>
It is noticed that the many components of emotional intelligence are correlated with the leadership practices.Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive and express emotion to stimulate thought, understand and reason.It also regulates emotion in oneself and others.Leadership refers to the ability to influence, motivate and enable others to contribute to the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members.Emotional intelligence is not just able to manage one's feelings, but also being able to manage the moods and emotions of others (George, 2000).Hence, the influence of emotional intelligence on the leadership practices is understandable.
It is noticed from the table that the "interpersonal relationship" component of emotional intelligence has a positive relationship with "modeling the way" and "enabling others to act" where as negative relationship with "challenging the process" dimensions of leadership practices.The ability of the executives makes them to feel at ease and comfortable in their relationship with others in the organization made positive relationship with "modeling the way" and "enabling others to act."This finding is supported by Wasielewski, (1985) individuals being able to excite and enthuse other people or make them feel cautious and wary is an important interpersonal skill and vehicle of social influence.Whereas negative relationship with "challenging the process" is quite natural because when an individual's status is questioned people do not give emphasis for their interpersonal relationship and try to establish themselves to the challenges placed before them.
Interpersonal relationship is one of the good components of emotional intelligence which is related to leadership practices behavior of the executives.The same supported by the many scholars (Barbuto., & Burbach., 2006;Barling et al., 2000;Forgas & Geroge., 2001;Redmond et al., 1993) as interpersonal skills of the individuals relates to their leadership behavior.
Problem solving ability of executives has a positive relationship with all the dimensions of leadership practices except "inspiring a shared vision."The conscientious & disciplined nature of executives makes them to learn the capacity to generate alternatives and selection of choices while handling the issues and problems in the different situations.These characterizes the executives are focused on the organizational changes rather than the stability.This may lead to the effective utilization of leadership practices and emotional intelligence of executives.Constructive thinking can lead to the generation of creative ideas to settle disagreements, arriving win-win solutions to problems, and ensure cooperation and trust throughout an organization (George, 2000).
Stress management has a positive relationship with "modeling the way" and "enabling others to act."It may be due to the individual's constructive thinking makes them to deal with their emotions and positively coping up with the stress levels leads to the new ways of thinking and questions their values, beliefs and expectations.It may be the reason for positive relationship.Emotional intelligence contributes to the constructive thinking or the ability to solve the problems with a minimum of stress (Epstein, 1990;Katz & Epstein, 1991).
Self-regard has a positive relationship with all the dimensions of leadership practices except "inspiring a shared vision."It may be due to the self -awareness and self -realization of executives, which makes them strong, capable, and committed to be a leader in the organization focusing on the organizational development.
Reality testing has a positive relationship with "enabling others to act" and "encouraging the heart."It may be due to the nature of present business environment that makes the executives to update their knowledge and pass it on to others, in order to make the people around themselves to compete with other players in the industry.
Flexibility has a positive relationship with "enabling others to act" dimension of leadership practices.The abilities of the executives to adapt unfamiliar, unpredictable and dynamic circumstances make them to encourage other people also.When executives know and manage their emotions, they may be better able to flexibly approach problems, consider possible alternatives and avoid rigidity effects in decision making.Increased flexibility deriving from emotional intelligence may also contribute to effective leadership (George, 2000).Further, flexible thinking arising out of emotional intelligence facilities seeing connections among divergent information, and thus may help leaders see how issues are interested.
Assertiveness has a negative relationship with all the dimensions of leadership practices except "enabling others to act."The leader who wants to foster collaboration and teamwork involving others to work is not related with their ability to clearly express his/her thoughts and feelings, stand on his/her own and defend a position.The over control or unable to express their feelings may lead them to act like this.
Empathy component of emotional intelligence has a positive relationship with "enabling others to act" dimension of leadership.The nature of executives considering the welfare of others and showing sensitivity to followers' needs and fears makes them to act.The individuals who are high in empathy are able to control the emotions on others, which creates the positive relationship with the enabling others to act dimension of leadership.This is supported by George (2000), as empathy may contribute to being able to manage emotions on others.Further, empathy enables one to incorporate a greater range of information into his or her attempt to accurately and as objectively as possible assess and understand another person's perspective (Wolff, Pescosolido, & Druskat, 2002) Finally, the emotional intelligence total has a positive relationship with "modeling the way" and "enabling others to act" dimensions of leadership practices.Due to the emotional and social competencies executives feel better and comfortable with in their work relationships.The emotional intelligence level helps them to think positive in their attitude which in turn makes them to feel comfortable with their work relationships.It is concluded that the emotional intelligence of executives has a significant relationship with their leadership practices.
Table -2, shows the emotional intelligence and leadership practices of the executives with respect to their age.Among the analyzed data, only significant values are reported in the tables.Since the 't' values are significant for emotional intelligence dimensions the hypothesis is accepted for the emotional intelligence and not accepted for the leadership practices.

<Table-2, to be inserted here>
The 't' values are significant for the emotional intelligence dimensions viz.interpersonal relationship, problem solving, reality testing, assertiveness and emotional intelligence total.It is noticed that in all of these dimensions, executives with more than 45 years of age have shown significantly higher emotional resources than their counter parts.With the growing age the executives have faced a variety of life situations which in turn made them to be emotionally more intelligent.Hence it is quite natural that the executives with more than 45 years of age have better interpersonal relationship, problem solving and assertiveness than the younger ones.It is also supported by the Kafetsios (2004) based on his finding reported that middle-aged persons scored higher emotional intelligence than the younger persons.Moreover, Carstensen, Pasupathi, Mayr, and Nesseloade (2000), reported that there is correlation between the age and emotional intelligence.
The good relationship with more experience makes the executives to express their thoughts and ideas clearly.Further, Isaacowtiz (2005) results indicate that optimum emotional intelligence tends to increase with age.It is observed from the table that the aged executives have higher score in reality testing.In general the youth will be attracted more by reality testing, due to the urge to prove them as an asset to the organization.But it is contradictory here that the executives with higher age possess higher reality testing which may be due to the sound knowledge about the activities within the organization and ability to manage the emotional complexity which arise in the individuals.Charles (2005) suggests that that greater emotional heterogeneity in older versus young adults.
With regard to leadership practices executives up to 45 years of age have significantly higher score in encouraging the heart.It is a good note that the youth prefer encouraging behaviors within the organization.The younger executives always have a compulsion of establishing and proving themselves in the organization which make them to encourage people and passionate them about their work.It is concluded that executives do not differ in their leadership practices based on their age however they differ significantly in the dimension of "encouraging the heart."In addition to that executives with more than 45 years of age have better emotional intelligence than their counter parts.
From the table -3, it is observed that the educational qualification of the executives have a significant relationship with the emotional intelligence.Hence the hypothesis is accepted.And there is no significant relationship with their leadership practices; hence the hypothesis do not accepted for leadership practices.It is concluded that the education qualification of the executives has a significant influence on their emotional intelligence and not their leadership practices.
<Table -3, to be inserted here> It is noticed that the 'F' values are significant for most of the emotional intelligence components and emotional intelligence total.It is noticed from the table that executives with non -professional degree have higher Mean score in problem solving, self regard, reality testing and assertiveness along with emotional intelligence total.Basically in the manufacturing organizations, technical jobs are occupied by the persons who have technical qualification.The executives with non -professional degree are might not deal with the technical aspects in the organization.
As self regard is one of the most powerful predictors of competent behavior, executives with higher self regard are better able to assert their intelligence and authority effectively in the organization without self-importance.It is quite natural that the executives have ability to express themselves when they are sound in their self regard.
The educational qualification and variety of opportunities faced by them in the organization made them familiar and learn to know about them.This makes them to feel better in self regard and able to express their feelings, beliefs and thoughts in a constructive manner.Once the individuals have understood their self-regard then it is easy to read the individuals which make them to adopt according to the situation.
Executives with professional degree have higher stress management, flexibility and empathy.The exposure and familiarity what the executives got in their studies of professional degree which helps them how to their thoughts and clearly.Those skills make them to control their stress and impulses this may be reason to better in stress management.Higher in flexibility and empathy may be due to the control of their stress and impulses, which leads to understand the things from the receivers point of view and adopt themselves as according to the situation.In turn this helps the executives to maintain work life balance and emotional intelligence at optimum level.
Whereas for the leadership practices it is noticed that the 'F' values are significant for three leadership practices dimensions.The executives with technical diploma have higher Mean score in "inspiring a shared vision."Technical diploma degree executives came from low levels to executives; these develop ambitions for inspiration and have preference for sharing the trust and responsibility.This would make the executives with technical diploma to have higher preference for inspiring a shared vision.
Executives with non-professional degree have higher score in "encouraging the heart" and "modeling the way."It may be due to the nature of non-technical job performed by the executives, able to experiment or risk taking and learn the things by exploring the opportunities.Whereas in the technical aspects executives are not ready to do mistakes or accept failures.This is evident from the higher score of executives with non-professional degree in "encouraging the heart" and "modeling the way."It is concluded that executives with non-professional degree have higher emotional intelligence than the other educational groups.In addition to that executives differ in their leadership practices based on their qualification.
Table -4, shows the emotional intelligence and leadership practices of executives based on their length of service in the organization.The 'F' values are significant are significant for emotional intelligence components and overall emotional intelligence.Hence, the hypothesis is accepted.It is concluded that the executives are differ significantly in their emotional intelligence based on their length of service in the organization.<Table -4, to be inserted here> It is observed from the table that the 'F' values are significant for the emotional intelligence dimensions viz.interpersonal relationship, problem solving, stress management, reality testing, empathy and emotional intelligence total.The executives with above 20 years of service in the organization have higher score in interpersonal relationship, problem solving, stress management and reality testing along with overall emotional intelligence.It is quite nature that the older age groups empathy skill is better than the younger groups, because of their age, commitment and responsibility in the family and workplace which makes them better in emotional intelligence.It may be due to growing age and experience which increases the ability of the executives regulates their emotions which lead to control their impulses.
Executives with 11 to 20 years of service in the organization have higher score in empathy.It may be due to the reason that day to day process by 11 to 20 years of service executives' group deal with various issues and communicate to all level executives and employees in the organization, which gives them lot of exposure to the systems & operations that makes them comfortable with the activities and good them others.
Whereas for leadership practices executives above 20 years of experience have higher mean score in "modeling the way." The growing age and ample experience of the executives makes them to exhibit their behavior in the form of attitudes, perception towards quality of work life and satisfaction about their work to be a model for others.Whereas the organization makes them by being clear about their beliefs and putting into practice.Moreover, they get supports from the organization and family that makes them to be a model.It is concluded that executives with above 20 years of service in the organization have better emotional intelligence than the other experience groups.In addition to that executives differ significantly in modeling the way dimension of leadership practices based on their length of service in the organization.

Findings
The emotional intelligence is high for above 45 years of age, non-professional degree holders and above 20 years of service in the organization.The executives above 20 years of service, professional and non-professional degree holders have preference of modeling the way dimension of leadership practices, whereas diploma holders have preference of inspiring a shared vision.Encouraging the heart dimension of leadership practices is preferred by up to 45 years of age and non-professional degree holders.Emotional intelligence has a significant relationship with the leadership practices of executives.The interpersonal relationship has significant positive relationship with enabling others to act, whereas negative relationship with modeling the way and challenging the process.
The problem solving and self-regard has a significant positive relationship with all dimensions of leadership practices except inspiring a shared vision.
The stress management has a significant positive relationship with modeling the way and enabling others to act.
The reality testing has a significant positive relationship with the enabling others to act and encouraging the heart.
The flexibility and empathy has a significant positive relationship with enabling others to act.
The assertiveness has a significant negative relationship with all the dimensions of leadership practices other than the enabling others to act.
The emotional intelligence total has a positive relationship with modeling the way and enabling others to act.

Implications
From the findings of this study, it is observed that the emotional intelligence of the executives has a significant association with leadership practices.Most of the researches reveal that emotional intelligence predicts success at all works of life.Hence, the executives working in the organizations need the emotional intelligence skills to work more effectively to impart knowledge to their sub-ordinates as well as to maintain a cordial relationship with others in the organization.
Emotional intelligence & leadership are two important correlates of which leadership provides the context in which emotional intelligence operates and hence it is imperative to promote both qualities among the executives.From the findings it is suggested that emotional intelligence and leadership training programmes to be organized for the executives at all levels.Moreover, the emotional intelligence should be considered as an important criterion in the selection of executives.

Conclusion
It if found in this study that the emotional intelligence significantly related to the leadership practices of executives.Leaders high on emotional intelligence also are likely to have knowledge about the fact that their positive moods may cause them to be overly optimistic (Geroge, 2000).Further, he stated that emotional intelligence may contribute to leaders developing a compelling vision for their groups or organization in a number of ways.
This gives an idea about the relevance of emotional intelligence and leadership practices in the organizations.Training unit in the human resource department of the organizations should think about the different training methods to enhance emotional intelligence levels whereby they can improve leadership qualities.Training should be provided at right time to ensure its effectiveness.

Table 1 .
Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Practices of the Executives: Correlation Analysis

Table 2 .
Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Practices of Executives on the Basis of Their Age

Table 3 .
Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Practices of Executives on the Basis of Their Educational Qualification

Table 4 .
Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Practices of Executives in Accordance With Their Length of Service