| Since the introduction of the concept of emotional intelligence in the 1990s, there has been a growing interest in researching the effect of emotional intelligence in developing effective leaders and organizations. Leaders who can identify and understand emotional interactions within an organization may be better equipped to comprehend and utilize emotional information about the social relationships that occur in the organization; thereby allowing them to be more effective leaders. While previous research focused on the relationship between emotional intelligence and leader performance (George, 2000, "Emotions and leadership"; Goleman, 1998, Working with emotional intelligence; Lewis, 2000, "When leaders display emotion: How followers respond to negative emotional expression of male and female leaders"), this research examined the effect of a leader's level of emotional intelligence on follower job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The purpose of the study was to determine whether the leader's level of emotional intelligence influences the job satisfaction and organizational commitment of followers in public human service organizations. Specifically, do the followers of leaders with higher emotional intelligence have higher levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment? In addition to examining this premise, the research focused on leadership and emotional intelligence in a state government human services organization. The results of the study demonstrated that there is a statistically significant relationship between a leader's level of emotional intelligence and his or her followers' levels of job satisfaction. This significant finding demonstrates the importance of how a leader's emotional intelligence influences aspects of follower behavior, an exciting area for future research in the emotional intelligence field. |
