Emotional intelligence , moral reasoning and transformational leadership

Using university residence staff as our leaders of interest, we explored the associatio n of emotional intelligenc e and moral reasoning to leadership style and effectiveness . A total of 58 residence staff completed questionnaire s assessing their emotional intelligenc e and moral reasoning. Subordinate s (n = 232) rated the residence staff’s leadershi p behaviours and effectiveness . Residence staff’s supervisor s (n = 12) also provided similar effectiveness ratings. Analysis showed that leaders who reported higher levels of emotional intelligenc e were perceived by their followers as higher in transformationa l leadership and more effective. Interestingly , having high emotional intelligenc e was not related to supervisor’s ratings of effectiveness . Supervisor s associate d greater job effectiveness with higher moral reasoning. Theoretical implications and practical applications of these findings are discussed . Received: November 2001 Accepted: January 2001 This article could not have been completed without the support and guidance of Nick Turner. The authors also wish to extend their appreciation to Julian Barling for his helpful comments. They would also like to thank Nancy Tatham, Tom Sharp and Richard Young for their help with data collection. leadership have been demonstrated in recent studies (Barling et al., 2000; Palmer et al., 2001). One study found managers in a plant to show greater idealized influence, inspirational motivation and individualized consideration with increased levels of emotional intelligence (Barling et al., 2000). Another study found management students with greater emotional intelligence to report greater scores in inspirational motivation and individualized consideration components of transformational leadership (Palmer et al., 2000). Moral reasoning is thought to be one’s conceptual and analytical ability to frame socio-moral problems using one’s standards and values in order to judge the proper course of action (Rest, 1979). Recently, moral reasoning has garnered interest among organizational researchers because of renewed emphasis on ethical leadership (Howell and Avolio, 1992; Kanungo and Mendonca, 1996). The data do indeed support the argument that transformational leadership should be empirically related to moral reasoning because of shared emphases on making good judgments about moral or value related issues. In a study using managers in one Canadian and two British organizations, Turner et al. (in press) showed that transformational leadership behaviours were positively associated with levels of moral reasoning. Another study found that moral reasoning moderated leaders’ style of punishment (contingent versus non-contingent) and leader effectiveness (Atwater et al., 1998). A related study found that cadets displaying higher moral reasoning were judged as being more effective as leaders (Atwater et al., 1999). Thus, emotional intelligence and moral reasoning are conceptually and empirically linked to transformational leadership behaviours. Examination of both simultaneously is timely and allows assessment of the relative contributions of each to leadership style. In the present study, we examine this research question using residence dons as leaders. Residence dons are student leaders appointed by universities to serve as a resource for academic and personal matters that are of concern to students living in residences. In addition to their main effects, we test the hypothesis that emotional intelligence and moral reasoning will interact in their effect on transformational leadership. Perhaps leaders who are high in emotional intelligence are especially able to determine which social variables are relevant to socio-moral dilemmas. Finally, consistent with existing literature, we hypothesize that transformational leadership will be positively related to leader effectiveness.