An empirical study of emotional intelligence and its relationship to transformational leadership

This empirical study examines the effects of emotional intelligence on transformational leadership and its importance in higher education institutions. Multivariate analysis in partial least square modelling was used to test the hypotheses and examine the relationship between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership in academic leaders. Data was collected from 333 academic leaders from all faculties of 18 public universities in Peninsular Malaysia. Findings suggest that three out of the four emotional intelligence dimensions are statistically related to transformational leadership. Numerous studies reported a positive relationship between these constructs but methodology concerns could have possibly compromised findings, such as common method variance, and smaller sample sizes, relatively lower variable reliability, single organizational research, and lack of control for related factors. This study adds to the growing literature examining emotional intelligence and transformational leadership but in a non-western setting and by using a larger sample among other steps to avoid methodological issues.