Emotional Aspects of Leadership Effectiveness: Lessons for Human Service Agencies

Leadership Research Literature

Key words: Leadership, emotional intelligence, emotional leadership, mission statements and corporate philosophies.

Bono, J.E. & Ilies, R. (2002) Exploring the role of Positive emotions in Responses to transformational leaders. Unpublished manuscript.

Boyatzis, R.E., Goleman, D., & Rhee, K. (1999). Clustering competence in emotional intelligence: Insights from the emotional competence inventory (ECI). In R. Barron & J. Parker (Eds.), The Handbook of Emotional Intelligence. (pp.363-388). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Callahan, J.L. (2000). Emotion management and organizational functions: A case study of patterns in a not-for-profit organization. Human Resource Management, 11, 245-267.

Cavallo, K. & Brienza, D. (2000). Emotional competence and leadership excellence at Johnson and Johnson: The emotional intelligence and leadership study. A technical report issued by the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations. Available on-line at

Collins, J.C. & Porras, J. I. (1996). Building your company’s vision. Harvard Business Review, Reprint # 96501.

DeTienne, K.B. & Jackson, L.A. (2001). Knowledge management: Understanding theory and developing strategy. Competitiveness Review, 11, 1-11.

Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence. Why it can matter more than IQ. Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group.

Kabanoff, B. & Holt, J. (1996). Changes in the Espoused Values of Australian Organizations 1986-1990. Journal of Organizational Behavior,17 (3), 201-219

Levin, I. M. (2000). Vision revisited. TheJournal of Applied Behavioral Science, 36(1), 91-107.

Mossholder, K. W., Settoon, R.P., Armenakis, A.A., & Harris, S.G. (2000). Emotion during organizational transformations: An interactive model of survivor reactions. Group and Organization Management, 25, 220-243.

Neufeld, G.A., Simeoni, P.A., & Taylor, M.A. (2001). High-Performance research organization. Research Technology Management, 44, 42-52.

Palmer, B., Donaldson, C., & Stough, C. (2002).Emotional intelligence and life satisfaction. Personality and Individual Differences, 33, 1091–1100

Perry, P. (2001). Get emotional about it. Research Technology Management, 44, 56-58.

Sala, F. (2002). Do Programs Designed to Increase Emotional Intelligence at Work-Work? A technical report issued by the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations. Available on-line at

Sala, F. (2002). It's Lonely at the Top: Executives' Emotional Intelligence Self (Mis) Perception. A technical report issued by the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations. Available on-line at

Spencer, L. (2001). The Economic Value of Emotional Intelligence Competencies and EIC-Based HR Programs. InC. Cherniss and D. Goleman (Eds). The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace. CA: Jossey-Bass.

Urquhart, J. (2002). Creating meaningful corporate philosophy. Journal of Property Management, 67, 68-70.

Articles Summaries

Citation:Bono, J.E. & Ilies, R. (2002). Exploring the role of Positive emotions in Responses to transformational leaders. Unpublished manuscript.

The authors conducted two studies (a field study and a laboratory study) to examine the role of positive emotions and leadership effectiveness. The field study reveled that transformational leaders express more positive affectivity in communication compared to less transformed leaders. The laboratory study reveled that there is a significant association between leader positive affect and follower task performance, but this association is not do to transference of positive emotion.

Citation: Cavallo, K. & Brienza, D. (2000). Emotional competence and leadership excellence at Johnson and Johnson: The emotional intelligence and leadership study. A technical report issued by the consortium for research on Emotional intelligence in organizations. Available on-line at

A study was conducted on three hundred and fifty-eight Managers across the Johnson & Johnson Consumer & Personal Care Group (JJC&PC Group) globally to assess if there are specific leadership competencies that distinguish high performers from average performers. Participants were randomly selected, then coded for performance rating, potential code, gender, functional group and regional area. More than fourteen hundred employees took part in a one hundred and eighty three question multi-rater survey that measured a variety of competencies associated with leadership performance including those commonly referred to as Emotional Intelligence. Results showed that the highest performing managers have significantly more "emotional competence" than other managers.

Citation: Collins, J.C. & Porras, J. I. (1996). Building your company’s vision. Harvard Business Review, Reprint # 96501.

This article says that companies that enjoy enduring success havecore values and a core purpose that remain fixedwhile their business strategies and practices endlessly adapt to a changing world. According to the authors a well thought of vision consists of two majorcomponents: core ideology and envisioned future. Core ideology defines what we stand for and why we exist. It is unchanging and complementsthe envisioned future.

In order for an organization to have an effective vision they need to represent the core ideology of the organization,which in turn consists of two distinct parts:core values, a system of guiding principles and tenets; and core purpose, the organization’s mostfundamental reason for existence. The envisionedfuture is defined as what we aspire to become, to achieve, to create and something that will require significant change and progress. It consists of two parts: a 10-to-30-year audacious goal plus vivid descriptions of what it will be like to achieve the goal. The authors have found in their research that visionary companies often use bold missions or what they callBHAGs (shorthand for Big, Hairy, Audacious, Goals) as a powerful way to stimulate progress. In addition to vision-levelBHAGs, an envisioned future needs what the authors call a vivid descriptionwhich is a vibrant, engaging,and specific description of what it will be like toachieve the BHAG.

Citation: Levin, I. M. (2000). Vision revisited. TheJournal of Applied Behavioral Science, 36(1), 91-107.

This article talks about the confusion that still exists regarding what vision is and how it is most effectively expressed. It seems that vision is often confused with the similar constructs of organization mission, philosophy, values, strategy, and goals. This article examines the key differencesamong these frequently confused constructs and the inherent weaknessesof traditional vision statements to provide the sense of meaning and motivationfor organization members. This article also presents a different concept of organization vision in which vision is as a descriptive story of the desired futurein action.

Citation: Kabanoff, B. & Holt, J. (1996). Changes in the Espoused Values of Australian Organizations 1986-1990. Journal of Organizational Behavior,17 (3), 201-219.

This article looks the frequency with which 85 Australian organizations use nine values (authority, leadership, teamwork, commitment, rewards, normative, participation, performance and affiliation) in 1986-1988 and 1989-1990 through a content analysis of annual report, internal magazines, and mission statements. The authors studied value changes both by comparing the frequency of references to single causes in the two periods and the frequency with which four, distinctly different value structures (Elite, Leadership, Meritocratic, and Collegial) that occurred among organizations in each period. Results reveled that only one significant difference in the increase in commitment references over time was found. The comparisons were based on groups of organizations with different value structures which indicated both a prevalence of organizations with Elite values at time one, and that initial Elite organizations showed most the evidence of value change.

Citation:Mossholder, K. W., Settoon, R.P., Armenakis, A.A., & Harris, S.G. (2000). Emotion during organizational transformations: An interactive model of survivor reactions. Group and Organization Management, 25,220-243.

The authors conducted a study to determine how the expressed emotion of top-level managers in an organization undergoing a major transformation effort was associated with their assessments of change activities and job attitudes. The results indicated that there was an interaction between the 2 dimensions of emotions (pleasantness and arousal) explained significant variance in attitudes dealing directly with the manager’s jobs.

Citation: Neufeld, G.A., Simeoni, P.A., & Taylor, M.A. (2001). High-Performance research organization. Research Technology Management, 44, 42-52.

This article asks the question how you can tell if an organization is well managed. The study presented identifies ten attributes that embody what senior managers of 8 leading research organizations consider to be important, observable and measurable. These attributes are organized into three different categories people, research management and organizational performance.

The attributes for people are:

  1. Management knows what research and other talent it needs to accomplish the mission, and recruits, develops and retains the right mix of people
  2. Employees are passionate about their work, have confidence in management, and are proud of their organization
  3. The current and anticipated needs of dependent constituencies drive the organization and its research programs.
  4. Employees and dependent constituencies share management’s vision, values and goals.
  5. The portfolio of programs represents the right research, at the right time and at the right investment

The attributes for research management are:

  1. Research projects embody excellent science, involve the right people, and are on track and within budget.
  2. Research projects leverage external resources
  3. Organizational knowledge is systematically captured and turned into needed work tools.

The attributes for organizational performance are:

  1. The organization is widely known and respected
  2. The organization meets the needs of its dependent constituencies.

Citation: Sala, Fabio (2002). It's Lonely at the Top: Executives' Emotional Intelligence Self (Mis) Perception. A technical report issued by the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations. Available on-line at

The recent and widespread interest in the importance of emotional intelligence (EI) at work (Goleman, 1998) has led to the development of multi-rater or 360-degree survey instruments that are designed to measure emotional intelligence in the workplace (Boyatzis, Goleman, Rhee, 1999). These measures are thought to be useful to individuals because they (1) provide feedback on a person’s relative strengths and weaknesses compared to others in the same organization or within a similar role in general, and (2) they provide feedback on the gap or discrepancy between a person’s self-perceptions and how they are perceived or rated by others. The results of this study demonstrate that higher-level employees are more likely to have an inflated view of their emotional intelligence competencies and lesscongruence with the perceptions of others who work with them often and know them well than lower-level employees.

Citation: Sala, F. (2002). Do Programs Designed to Increase Emotional Intelligence at Work-Work? A technical report issued by the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations. Available on-line at

The recent and widespread interest in the importance of emotional intelligence (EI) at work has led to the development of programs that are designed to (1) educate people about the relevance of emotional intelligence in the workplace, (2) assess their relative strengths and weaknesses, and (3) provide a framework to develop and enhance their ability to interact with others with greater emotional intelligence. This research attempted to provide some evidence for the effectiveness of an emotional intelligence training program, specifically, whether participants' scores on a measure of EI improve after exposure to a program designed to increase emotional intelligence at work. Results showed preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of an emotional intelligence training program. For one sample, participants showed significant improvement on time 2 ratings on 8 out of 20 EI competencies. For the second sample, scores were significantly higher at time 2 on 19 of 20 competencies.

Citation: Spencer, L. (2001). The Economic Value of Emotional Intelligence Competencies and EIC-Based HR Programs. InC. Cherniss and D. Goleman (Eds). The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace. CA: Jossey-Bass.

This chapter provides professional, ethical and legal reasons for establishing the reliability and validity of any Emotional Intelligence Competency (ECI) measure or human resource practices based on emotional intelligence. Also included are meta-analytic findings for the effect size changes and EIC-based selection, training and performance management can provide, as well as protocols for developing business cases for emotional intelligence research and applications. For example, value analysis, expected value added, sensitivity analysis, cost, benefit and return on investment calculation. This chapter also provides data collection instruments and spreadsheet templates for all analyses discussed.

Citation: Urquhart, J. (2002). Creating meaningful corporate philosophy. Journal of Property Management, 67, 68-70.

This article explains that most corporate philosophies don’t fit their employees, and are often too vague to have anyone following them appropriately. The best sorts of philosophies are ones that are implemented after employees have a sense of their responsibilities then they can get the bigger picture of the corporation.

Internet Web Sites

  • This website serves as a resource for information on topics such as leadership, development and management.
  • Website with information on Emotional Intelligence
  • This website provides a variety of human resources such as books, videos, magazines/newsletters, audiotapes, and links to other websites with similar information.
  • This is the website to the American Library Association. It provides professional services to members and nonmembers, and includes online news stories from American Libraries.

com/rdoh/4steps.html

  • The Management First website contains support resources for subscribers to Emerald, the world’s leading publisher of management resources.
  • This site is the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations and the goal of the site is to promote high quality research on the application of emotional intelligence in organizations.
  • This page is an on-line bibliography in the area of emotions and emotional intelligence, describing current research findings and notes of interest. The main areas covered are: emotional intelligence, emotions, and methods for researching emotions.
  • Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Network is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving relationships by teaching EQ in schools, organizations, and communities around the globe.