The contribution of emotional and spiritual intelligences to effective business leadership

Abstract

Studies of leadership have widened to include different forms of intelligences. This research investigated contributions of emotional and spiritual intelligences to effective leadership. Participants were 42 company CEOs and 210 staff members. Each CEO was administered instruments providing self-reported and 360-degree observer ratings of 5 dimensions of personality, emotional intelligence (EI), and spiritual intelligence (SI). Leadership effectiveness was defined as the composite score of CEO's staff's assessment of their leadership ability, and staff.s reported organizational commitment, sense of community, productivity, job satisfaction, morale, and low intention to quit. CEO's self-reported SI significantly correlated with leadership effectiveness, as assessed by their staff, was significant after controlling for company variables (company size and growth) and self-reported personality, and marginally significant after controlling for company variables, and self-reported personality and EI. Self-reported EI by the CEO did not correlate significantly with their staff's assessment of leadership effectiveness, but was marginally significant after controlling for company variables and self-reported personality. Staff's observer ratings of CEO's SI significantly correlated with their assessment of CEO's leadership effectiveness, and remained significant after controlling for company variables, and observer ratings of personality and EI. Similarly, staff's observer ratings of CEO's EI significantly correlated with their assessment of CEO's leadership effectiveness, and remained significant after controlling for company variables, and observer ratings of personality and SI. Further, out-of-sample observer ratings of both the CEO's EI and SI by a staff subset predict leadership effectiveness as rated by excluded staff. Combined EI score averaging self-report and out-of-sample observers correlated significantly with leadership effectiveness, as did combined self-report and out-of-sample observers' score on SI. These results suggest that EI and SI are distinct constructs, and each contributes to leadership effectiveness. However, relying solely on self-report may not be as robust as a combination of self-report and/or observer ratings of these constructs.