A quantitative study: The relationship between managers' emotional intelligence awareness and demographics and leadership styles

This quantitative correlational study was conducted to examine if a possible relationship existed between managers' emotional intelligence awareness and two leadership styles (transformational and transactional), and demographics (age, gender, and level of education). The study was completed using a population of 180 managers from a nonprofit company located in the state of Texas in the United States. The emotional intelligence construct and leadership theory were involved, representing the theoretical lens and framework in the research study. Participants' emotional intelligence awareness was assessed with the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQi 2.0) assessment. Participants' leadership styles were assessed with the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ 5X). Data collected were analyzed using multiple linear regression and Pearson correlational model to assess if a relationship existed between managers' two leadership styles and the demographics. The application of multiple regression served to assess if managers' emotional intelligence awareness predicted transformational and transactional leadership styles when controlled by the demographics from sub research questions one and two. No relationship was found between the leadership styles and the demographics. The results showed a positive relationship between emotional intelligence and the transformational leadership style; no relationship was found between the emotional intelligence construct and the transactional leadership style. The findings of this research study may be generalized to industries undergoing organizational change and may be of benefit to managers to identify and apply emotional intelligence awareness and transformational leadership style to engender organizational performance during the implementation of change initiatives.