Leaders’ Emotional Intelligence as a Predictor of Leadership Effectiveness in Ethiopia First-Generation Universities
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to examine university leaders’ emotional intelligence as a predictor of their leadership effectiveness. To this end, a quantitative method with correlation design was employed. Five out of the total nine first-generation universities that are found in the five regions of the country were taken through stratified random sampling. Management committee members, academic commission and department council members were participants in the study as they are immediate subordinates of university presidents, deans, and department heads respectively. As a result, a total of 770 five-point Likert scale-type questionnaires were distributed, out of which 84.2% were successfully completed and returned. To analyze the data, cross-tabulation, frequency counts, Mean, standard deviation, Pearson’s correlation, linear and multiple regressions were employed. The findings revealed that university leaders’ emotional intelligence doesn’t only show a strong positive relationship) with their leadership effectiveness, but it also significantly predicts their leadership effectiveness. Besides, the partial correlation results inform the existence of weak but negative correlation between leaders’ leadership experience and emotional intelligence and between experience and leadership effectiveness. Moreover, from the results of multiple regression analysis, it is found that, except for social awareness, all the emotional intelligence dimensions were significant predictors of university leaders’ effectiveness. Finally, it can be concluded that leaders’ perceived emotional intelligent can be considered as one significant factor for the ineffective leadership practice. Thus, it is recommended that standardized emotional intelligence test need to be used when recruiting university leaders while series and tailor-made emotional intelligence trainings should be provided for those who are in the position
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