Emotional Intelligence of Leaders and Followers' Trust in a Not-for-Profit Organization

Emotional intelligence (EI) and trust have made a significant difference for leaders in the workplace. Research has shown that making leaders aware of their levels of EI and confidence is imperative to being effective leaders. There was little research on the correlation between EI and trust in the workplace. This quantitative, correlational study investigated whether there was an association between 20 leaders' levels of EI and all their followers' (non-management employees) perceptions of trust in their leaders. The setting for this study was a not-for-profit organization in New York State. This study investigated managers' levels of EI using the EQ-i 2.0 assessment, and the adapted TORI Self-Diagnosis Scale on trust for followers' perceptions of trust. An analysis of the results explored whether there was an association between the leaders' levels of EI and the followers' trust in their leaders. Managers recognized and were more aware of their levels of EI after they received the analysis of the results. The limited literature addressed the relationship between leaders' levels of EI and their followers' perceptions of trust in the workplace, and it revealed a research gap on EI and trust knowledge in the workplace. The results indicated that there was no significant statistically relationship between the leaders' level of EI and the followers' perceptions of trust in their leaders. There was no significant difference in the level of trust between the followers whose leaders participated and the followers whose leaders did not participate. This has implications for future research.