Leadership in Academia : Analyzing the Impact of Leaders' Emotional Intelligence on Organizational Citizenship Behaviours of Eployees

Abstract

Although mostly explored in psychology studies, the concept of Emotional Intelligence is

also being increasingly researched in organizational studies, due to its emerging significanc^ as a strategic asset in facilitating enhanced individual and group performance, ultimately leading to organizational effectiveness. This study aims to explore the associative as well as predictive relationships between emotional intelligence of heads of department and organiza^ional citizenship behaviors of faculty members of private sector universities in the developing coiuntry context of Pakistan. The relationships between the dimensions of emotional intelligenc^ and overall organizational citizenship behavior are also being explored.

Emotional intelligence of heads of department was assessed using the 68 item ESCI (3.0l tool and organizational citizenship behaviors of teaching faculty were self-assessed by them usiijg the 24 item OCB tool by Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Moorman, and Fetter (1990). The reliability ^f the citizenship behavior scale was .746 and that of the emotional intelligence scale was |.942. Analysis of data from 322 questionnaires was done using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation technique and regression analysis. Correlation analysis results showed a positive and significant relationship between organizational citizenship behaviors and emotional intelligjence, and also between overall organizational citizenship behaviors and the dimensions of emo^ional intelligence. The quantitative evidence of regression analysis indicates that emofional intelligence is a significant predictor of organizational citizenship behaviors. Overall findings establish the existence of significant associative as well as predictive linkages between leaders' emotional intelligence and organizational citizenship behaviors of employees, thereby substantiating the organizational prominence of emotional intelligence. Limitations and recommendations of the study are also discussed.

Key words: Organizational citizenship behavior, emotional intelligence, universities, heads of department, faculty members.