Emotional Intelligence, Women, and Leadership - Essay Example

? Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Style in Female-Owned Small Businesses and Women-Senior Managers [University] Abstract Emotional intelligence (EI) is one of the most popular concepts in today’s leadership and organizational studies. The relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership has been discussed in detail. However, the relationship between emotional intelligence, leadership styles and gender remains unclear. This paper discusses the role which EI could play in the development of women’s leadership styles. The concepts of leadership and EI are discussed. The paper describes possible connections between EI and gender and between EI and leadership. Possible effects of EI on leadership in women-business owners and women-senior managers are described. Limitations and recommendations for future research are provided. Keywords: emotional intelligence (EI), leadership, transformational, women, female, business, managers. Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Style in Female-Owned Small Businesses and Women-Senior Managers That leadership is one of the most widely researched topics in contemporary organization studies cannot be denied. Much has been written and said about the various factors affecting leadership, as well as the way leadership styles develop and impact organizational performance. A wide array of leadership models and approaches were proposed, with the goal of enhancing the quality and profitability of performance within organizations. The body of research into leadership and effectiveness in organizations constantly increases. Less researched is the relationship between leadership, emotional intelligence (EI), and gender. Today’s workplace differs radically from the way organizations operated several decades ago: women-leaders are becoming an essential ingredient of organizations’ everyday routines. In light of these changes, the way EI impacts leadership styles in women-business owners and women-senior managers should be better understood. This paper hypothesizes that EI is a strong predictor of all leadership styles in women. Emotional Intelligence and Leadership: Defining the Concepts In order to understand whether and how EI is related to leadership in female business owners and senior managers, the concepts of EI and leadership should be defined. The meaning of EI and its place in leadership studies are surrounded by a lot of controversy. The fact is that EI does not have a single, uniform definition. While Bar-On (1997) describes EI as a wide range of non-cognitive abilities, skills, and competencies that affect individual ability to cope with environmental demands and external pressures, Mayer et al. (1999) suggest that EI is essentially about an individual’s ability to recognize the meaning and place of emotions, their potential influences on reason and their utility in rational decision making. These are not the only definitions of EI developed by researchers, but it is clear that the debate regarding the nature and implications of EI for organizations’ development will continue. For the purpose of this paper, EI will be defined as women’s ability to recognize the crucial importance of emotions in organizational decision making and their ability to use emotions for the benefit of organizational decisions. The situation with leadership is quite different. In the past decades, leadership has been one of the most widely researched topics in literature. “Leadership is an attribute that is highly prized in most organizations and this has resulted in the topic becoming one of the most extensively researched and debated in organizational behavior” (Metcalfe & Altman, 2010, p.104). Winston and Patterson (2006) tried to address the existing variations in the way leadership is defined and proposed that a leader is one or more people who influence and educate one or more followers, have diverse abilities, skills and talents, and focus his (her) followers on working towards a predetermined mission/ objective in ways that make the followers enthusiastic about these objectives. Unfortunately, the relationship between gender and leadership is totally ignored: more often than not, leadership is assumed to be a gender-neutral construct. Meanwhile, the number of women in leadership positions continues to increase (Claes, 1999; Metcalfe & Altman, 2010). Therefore, the gender aspects of EI and leadership need further attention. EI, Leadership, and Women Despite the growing awareness of who leaders are and what place they occupy in organizations, the role which emotions and feelings play in the development of leadership styles remains unclear (George, 2000). However, it is clear that EI contributes to five most important areas of leadership: goal setting, development of vision and mission, development and maintenance of inspiration and enthusiasm in followers, flexibility in decision making, and creation of a meaningful identity for an organization (George, 2000). The relationship between EI and leadership in female managers and business owners is even more complicated, because the prevailing majority of organizational variables, including leadership, are gender-variant (Petrides & Furnham, 2006). In other words, apart from the fact the leadership and gender are closely related (Mandell & Pherwani, 2003), EI adds complexity to the development of women’s leadership styles. Women are commonly believed to be more emotional than men which, in turn, greatly impacts their ability to lead organizations and organizational members (Packard, 2008). At times, researchers suggest that women and men live in different emotional worlds (Fischer & Gleijm, 1992; Helgesen, 1990). Consequentially, women who have a better control of their emotions have greater chances to meet the strict standards of leadership effectiveness. However, it appears that EI is not simply an important predictor of leadership effectiveness in women, but leadership styles chosen by women-owners or women-managers can create the foundation for the development of better or worse EI capabilities. Of particular importance is transformational leadership, and women choosing this leadership style are more likely to display higher EI scores (Downey, Papageorgiou & Stough, 2006; Gardner & Stough, 2001). Women-transformational leaders are more likely to have a good control of their emotions, understand their emotions, whereas women who possess excellent emotional regulation characteristics and skills are more likely to choose transformational leadership styles (Gardner & Stough, 2001; Mandell & Pherwani, 2003). Because of their overall propensity to be emotional, the style women adopt in business relations and decisions is often called “social-expressive” (Claes, 1999). They are more relationship-oriented than men (Belenky, Clinchy & Tarule, 1986; Eagly & Johnson, 1990). Unfortunately, not everything is clear in the way women-managers, their gender, emotional intelligence, and leadership styles are related. First, a great number of personal and environmental factors influence women’s management success (Wankel, 2008). For example, self-confidence and personality are claimed to be at the heart of women’s management successes, but their mediating/moderating role in the relationship between EI, gender, and leadership styles is yet to be clarified. Second, the current state of research is focused mainly on the analysis of EI and its relation to transformational leadership. As a result, an impression persists that women do not adopt any leadership style other than transformational (Fambrough & Hart, 2008; Wong & Law, 2002). Third, new models of leadership emphasize the importance of collaboration rather than personality in the development of leadership style, for both genders (Fletcher, 2002). Finally, women and men influence each other and have something to gain from cooperating in organizations (Powell, 1988). Therefore, it is too early to say that the relationship between EI and leadership styles in female business owners and senior managers has been explored in detail. Future researchers will need to focus on the analysis of EI and its place in other leadership styles used by female business owners and senior managers in contemporary organizations. In this way, researchers will be able to create a complete picture of the EI-leadership-gender relationship. Conclusion The study of EI, leadership styles and gender is surrounded by a lot of controversy. On the one hand, researchers lack any single definition of either emotional intelligence or leadership. On the other hand, the role which EI plays in the development of leadership styles in female business owners and senior managers is far from being clear. EI has proved to be a strong predictor of transformational leadership in women, whereas women adopting this leadership style have been found to have a good command of their emotions. Simultaneously, transformational style is not the only leadership style adopted by women. Moreover, the way different factors mediate the relationship between EI and leadership requires further analysis. Future researchers will need to focus on the analysis of EI and its place in other leadership styles used by female business owners and senior managers in contemporary organizations. In this way, researchers will be able to create a complete picture of the EI-leadership-gender relationship. References Bar-On, R. (1997). Bar-On emotional quotient inventory: Technical manual. Toronto: Multi- Health Systems. Belenky, M.F., Clinchy, B.M. & Tarule, J.M. (1986). Women’s way of knowing. NY: Basic Books. Claes, M.T. (1999). Women, men and management styles. International Labor Review, 138(4), 385-403. Downey, L.A., Papageorgiou, V. & Stough, C. (2006). Examining the relationship between leadership, emotional intelligence and intuition in senior female managers. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 27(4), 250-264. Eagly, A. & Johnson, B. (1990). 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