The Moderating Role of Emotional Intelligence on the Relationship between Organizational Leadership and Employee Commitment

摘要

Equipped with theories of transformational leadership, transactional leadership and organizational commitment, the paper introduced emotional intelligence (EI) into the investigation of leadership effectiveness. Leaders’ and subordinates’ emotional intelligence were argued to moderate the relationship between transformational/transactional leadership and organizational commitment. Analyzing data collected from 241 leader-follower dyads (95 managers and their 241 direct subordinates) in 6 enterprises, we found that high EI of leaders enhanced the impacts of both transactional and transformational leadership styles on subordinates’ organizational commitment. Furthermore, subordinates’ high EI was useful for them to understand the nature of transactional leadership and to respond with a certain level of affective commitment accordingly.