Testing a leadership model among managers in a corporate environment

Abstract

The effect of emotional intelligence on leadership has attracted substantial interest in research in the last decade. Most of the research pertaining to emotional intelligence and leadership is based on the assumption that leaders in the corporate environment have high levels of emotional intelligence, which has, in turn, been known to increase the psychological well-being of managers. This study focuses on the relationship between three concepts: emotional intelligence, authentic leadership and the effect on the manager's psychological well-being. Purposive sampling was used in the study, indicating that members of a sample are chosen with a 'purpose' to represent a location or type in relation to a key criterion (Ritchie, Lewis, Nicholls, & Ormston, 2013). Measuring instruments included a biographical questionnaire, Greek Emotional Intelligence Scale (GEIS), Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ), and Mental Health Continuum Scale (MHCS). With the assistance of the SPSS and MPLUS program, Cronbach's alpha coefficients, product-moment correlations and Structural Equation Modelling were utilised. In the model proposed, authentic leadership as a mediator was tested, between emotional intelligence and psychological well-being. Positive statistical significant relationships between emotional intelligence and psychological well-being were found, although this result was small. Furthermore, there was a small statistically significant relationship between emotional intelligence, psychological well-being and authentic leadership. Authentic leadership also mediated the relationship, with a small effect, between managers' emotional intelligence, with psychological well-being as an outcome. Finally, recommendations were made for the organisation, as well as recommendations for future research in the field of authentic leadership, emotional intelligence and psychological well-being.