Optimizing managerial effectiveness through emotional intelligence

The idea that emotional competence is crucial for adaptation in various realms of life has fuelled numerous studies and social learning programs. Nonetheless, leadership research on emotional intelligence contexts is still limited and the construct is controversial on several grounds and includes a lack of rigor in terms of the employed research designs. Focusing on emotional intelligence in leadership processes, the dissertation substantiates effects of managerial emotional intelligence at the unit level. This dissertation offers theory and empirical findings on emotional intelligence in an attempt to gain a better understanding of whether the emotional intelligence of a manager predicts various work unit-level outcome variables. Based on a quantitative type research design, a number of hypotheses about emotional intelligence are examined in three large organizations, in different industries (i.e., public-sector, banking, and retail sector). In an effort to optimize the value of the results, data collection and research method are implemented with rigor: large sample sizes; high response rates; use of various dependent variables; controlling for same-source bias. The findings of the empirical studies show that highly emotionally intelligent managers lead work units more effectively than those who score low on emotional intelligence. The obtained evidence draws attention to individual differences a person’s capability to recognize, assimilate, understand, and manage own emotions and those of others and how they may related to various desired outcomes. From an applied perspective, this dissertation sheds light on the effects of emotional intelligence of team leadership within the field of Organizational Behavior. Moreover, in a cultural context, the work in the dissertation extends the external validity of emotional intelligence theory to East Asia, and specifically to South Korea.