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This chapter examines EI, presents a history of EI including the various models, and a discussion of the three streams approach to classifying EI literature. The author advocates for the efficacy of the Stream One Ability Model (SOAM) of EI citing previous authors and literature. The commonly used SOAM instruments are discussed in light of recent studies. The discussion turns to alternate tests of the SOAM of EI including Situational Judgment Tests (SJTs). Recommendations include an analysis of SOAM instruments, a new approach to measurement, and increased use of SJTs to capture the four-branch ability model of EI.

The emotional labor of headteachers and teachers is complex. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relevance of the use of the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence test (MSCEIT) (Mayer, Caruso & Salovey, 2000) when assessing the emotional intelligence of headteachers as part of an investigation which aimed to reveal the ways in which female secondary school leaders were emotionally intelligent and whether it was possible to test for emotional intelligence.

Seven female headteachers’ MSCEIT reports are investigated. Semi-structured interviews were held pre- and post-test to explore the headteachers’ emotional labor. In addition, teachers serving under the headteachers were interviewed.

The accuracy of the MSCEIT is questioned, rather than taking the results at face value, attention is given to its content, language and cultural differences. The MSCEIT originates from the USA and is used globally. The findings of this investigation suggest it is possible the MSCEIT represents a deficit model due to the test takers’ interpretation of nuanced language. The findings show a disparity in relation to MSCEIT scores and self-reported emotional responses.

Although the sample size is small and therefore cannot claim generalization from the findings, the use of emotional intelligence tests should be used with caution. Emotional responses are best understood through life experience as the headteachers attach retrospective meaning to their leadership actions.

Headteachers’ work is multifaceted because emotion is integral to the processes of teaching and learning. The emotional labor of headteachers and teachers impacts and has relevance to their roles as educational landscapes continue to shift.

This paper investigates the relationship between managerial emotional intelligence (EI) levels and a rating of leadership effectiveness (subordinate ratings).

The study involved administering the Mayer Salovey Caruso emotional intelligence test (MSCEIT) EI test to 38 supervisors within a large manufacturing organisation. Ratings of supervisory leadership effectiveness were assessed via subordinate ratings on an attitude survey detailing questions relating to supervisor performance. Altogether data were collated from a total of 1,258 survey responses.

The overall results of the data analysis suggest that half of the MSCEIT scores may act as a strong predictor of leadership effectiveness, particularly the branches within the experiential EI domain (r=0.50, p<0.001). Interestingly, the relationship between supervisor ratings and the reasoning EI domain (r=−0.12) was not as expected.

These findings endorse the validity of incorporating EI interventions alongside the recruitment and selection process and the training and development process of managerial personnel. However, they also question the conceptual validity of a key branch (managing emotions) of the MSCEIT.

Although EI is viewed as a key determinant of effective leadership within leadership literature there is a relative dearth of supporting research that has not used student sample populations or a conceptually suspect model of EI within their research methodology.

At this juncture, one needs to analyze the problem statement and the purpose of this article. It is an undeniable fact that the schools are no longer classroom-oriented teaching but demands a higher level of teaching that will help students enhance their maximum potential. Having instructional based knowledge, knowledge of policies both in national and regional level and implementing them on time is not adequate for their success. Research in this area has prompted academicians to delve further into factors that can convert a manager to an instructional leader with the ability to provide a synthesis of responsibilities, which might help in positively impacting the learning outcome of the students (Wendorf-Heldt, 2009). School principals have moved into a different paradigm, and no longer being a good manager is sufficient to run a school. Academicians have been engaged to study the subject from various dimensions, and yet there remains a certain amount of uncertainty about the qualities of being an effective leader in a school (Greenockle, 2010). Question arises that what are the most effective qualities that a school principal must possess – is it the ability to motivate, inspire or communicate the vision and mission of the school? Stakeholders have changed too, they are now more direct, more outspoken and more demanding than ever before and these critical elements have to be understood well by the principal who is connected to a larger community of people (Greenockle, 2010). It is therefore, becoming imperative that the importance of emotional intelligence (EI) is understood by the educational policymakers who need to advocate adequate training and understanding of school principals in directing the advancement of their EI. Increasing understanding and the importance of EI of school leaders and its relation to their years of experience and school impact thus become a significant area to study, mainly in the context of UAE.

Research design is described as the study framework, which helps researchers to follow procedures during the process of collecting, analyzing and reporting data (Creswell, 2012). Since the main objective of the study was to assess whether a correlation exists between the EI of school principals and the school environment as perceived by teachers, the study is categorized under a quantitative correlational design. This study design focuses mainly on collecting numerical data and determining the relationship between two quantifiable variables (McBurney and White, 2009). It is worth mentioning that there are two types of variables called “independent” and “dependent’ variables. Johnson and Christensen (2008) differentiated between these two types of variables by defining an “independent’ variable as “a variable that is presumed to cause a change in another variable”, while a “dependent” variable is “a variable that is presumed to be influenced by one or more independent variables” (p. 39). Based on these definitions, it can be said that the EI of school principals is the independent variable, while the dependent variable is the school environment.

The levels of emotional intelligence of school principals in UAE public schools. The first objective of the study is to identify the EI levels of school principals. The results show that the EI scores of principals range from 32.53 (consider development) to 100.15 (high average score) with a mean of 67.21 (consider development). As shown in Figure 1, 55 % of principals score in the “Consider Development” range, 40 % are in the “Consider Improvement” category, and only 5 % are in the “High Average Score” range. Interestingly, no principals score in the “Low Average Score”, “Competent”, “Strength” and “Significant Strength” range. The mean of EI (67.21) is categorized under the “Consider Development” range which means that the level of EI of principals is low. In other words, principals are unable to recognize and express emotions, use emotions to assist problem solving, understand the emotions of others, or manage and control their own emotions. As explained in the MSCEIT user manual, scoring low in the MSCEIT indicates that those principals have a shortfall in their EI abilities which indeed may have a negative impact on the workplace and hold principals back from performing their roles effectively (Mayer et al., 2002). This has been supported by the literature as West-Burnham (2002) stated that those with low levels of EI might not become effective leaders as they are unable to interact effectively with others, enhance effective collaboration, or create a positive school climate that promotes effective learning. This is a key finding which needs to be addressed by the MoE policymakers to improve principals’ low levels of EI.

In this study, the researcher applied the quantitative research method in which the MSCEIT framework was used to measure principals’ EI levels and the R-SLEQ to measure the SC as perceived by teachers. However, relying only on quantitative assessment tools may not be enough to describe the levels of EI of the principals. Therefore, it is recommended that future research endeavors to incorporate qualitative research methods such as interviews and observations to elaborate more on the EI levels of principals and get a broader picture of the principal state. Using both quantitative and qualitative assessment tools, according to Creswell (2012), would ensure the accuracy and credibility of the study, increase trustworthiness, enhance the verification process and get a deeper understanding of the topic. Another limitation in this research is related to the sample size. In this study, the sample included twenty school principals and ten teachers working with each principal from the RAK education zone. This was due to the restricted number of schools that were available to study in RAK and the difficulty of accessing schools outside RAK. For future research, it is recommended that researchers use a larger sample size from different emirates as this would increase the accuracy and reliability of the research, help to generalize the research findings on a large scale, lend support to the findings of this study and nurture the existing research on the relationship between EI and leadership effectiveness.

The practical implications include EI skills in the principals’ recruitment process. The recruitment system of school principals is a pivotal process that puts in place the most qualified and skilled principals who strongly fit the needs of the Ministry of Education (MoE). Currently, the recruitment system of school principals in the UAE relies on academic qualifications as candidates for school principalship are required to hold a bachelor’s degree in education, however, there is no test that measures their EI skills. According to Serrat (2017), qualifications alone cannot indicate principals’ effectiveness as some of them may have high academic ratings yet are lacking social and interpersonal skills. For this reason, it is recommended that MoE policymakers add the skills of EI to the recruit system of school principals and include these skills in the licensing project which has been recently launched to develop principals' abilities and skills. Such abilities and skills, as argued by Lunenburg and Ornstein (2004), can determine leaders’ effectiveness. This is evident as this study proves that highly emotionally intelligent principals do have a positive impact on the school environment, and with the current emphasis of the MoE on leading change, EI should become more critical.

Provision of professional development for school principals. Principals, as argued by Cook (2006) are change agents who hold the main accountability for creating and sustaining a positive school climate for stakeholders. Thus, they should be well-qualified and skilled to deal with different emotions of teachers and lead change effectively. Nevertheless, the results of this study indicate that 95 of principals scored low in the MSCEIT which indeed led to a negative impact on the school climate in their schools. To improve the levels of EI, principals need to be aware of emotional knowledge which is defined as ‘learning about emotions’ (Greenberg et al., 1995). This can be achieved by implementing professional development and training programs that would help to increase principals’ effectiveness as school leaders. As argued by Moore (2009), such professional development can promote empathy, self-awareness and flexibility as well as help principals acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and practices to restructure and redesign schools.

The overall aim of the study was to explore whether a correlation exists between the levels of EI of school principals and the SC as perceived by teachers. Other objectives were to identify the EI levels of school principals and investigate whether the number of years of experience as a school principal is correlated to the levels of EI. It was found that principals have low levels of EI as revealed by the MSCEIT scores. The findings also urge that continued research in this field will be beneficial for the schools and have a deeper and positive impact on the student’s achievements. The recruitment process of the principals can undergo alterations and adequate awareness and training can be built on decision making abilities, responding to the environmental stimuli, relationship building and the ability of the principal to motivate (Moore, 2009). The multi-faceted requirement of a school principal typically judged by student’s achievements seems to reckon with the theories of EI and therefore warrants further investigation in this neglected yet a vital area. Leading any institution is a stressful and emotionally laden activity. Hence school leaders need to be capacitated on issues related to emotions and school leadership. This paper concludes with the recommendation that leadership development programs for pre-service and in-service school principals should consider including sessions on EI.

This article provides a review and conceptual comparison between self‐report and performance‐based measures of emotional intelligence. Analyses of reliability, psychometric properties, and various forms of validity lead to the conclusion that self‐report techniques measure a dispositional construct, that may have some predictive validity, but which is highly correlated with personality and independent of intelligence. Although seemingly more valid, performance‐based measures have certain limitations, especially when scored with reference to consensual norms, which leads to problems of skew and restriction of range. Scaling procedures may partially ameliorate these scoring weaknesses. Alternative approaches to scoring, such as expert judgement, also suffer problems since the nature of the requisite expertise is unclear. Use of experimental paradigms for studying individual differences in information‐processing may, however, inform expertise. Other difficulties for performance‐based measures include limited predictive and operational validity, restricting practical utility in organizational settings. Further research appears necessary before tests of E1 are suitable for making real‐life decisions about individuals.

This study seeks to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI), personality, cognitive intelligence and leadership effectiveness.

Senior executives (n=41) completed an ability measure of EI (MSCEIT), a measure of personality (16PF5) and a measure of cognitive ability (the Wechsler abbreviated scale of intelligence (WASI)). Leadership effectiveness was assessed using an objective measure of performance and a 360° assessment involving each leader's subordinates and direct manager (n=149).

Correlational and regression analyses revealed that higher EI was associated with higher leadership effectiveness, and that EI explained variance not explained by either personality or IQ.

This paper establishes a link between EI and workplace measures of leadership effectiveness.

This chapter examines how emotional intelligence may influence the performance of groups. I first address relevant issues concerning emotional intelligence at the individual level of analysis. I then describe the range of composition models by which group emotional intelligence constructs can be created, from the emotional intelligence of the members of the group, articulate mechanisms by which each construct may be related to performance, and use Steiner's (1972) typology of group tasks to identify when each construct may best predict performance. I also use the mechanisms of multiplication and compensation to consider how group emotional intelligence may combine with other group constructs to predict performance. I end this chapter with a discussion of research implications.

The primary purpose this paper is to empirically assess the efficacy of using an ability‐based measurement of emotional intelligence (EI) as a predictor of self‐managed work team satisfaction of undergraduate business students.

The study explored EI as a predictor of group satisfaction using a sample of 74 undergraduate business students from a mid‐western university. Regression analysis was used to analyze the data.

Contrary to much of the literature regarding EI, the results indicate that higher levels of managing emotions and understanding emotions may significantly decrease certain facets of group member satisfaction for highly emotionally intelligent individuals.

The study employed a student sample, which to some degree raises questions of sample representativeness and generalizability of the results. Future research needs to use employee samples representative of workplace organizations to determine if the results reported here can be replicated in other samples. Additionally, future research may employ the use of larger sample sizes and qualitative approaches in order to confirm these findings.

Organizations should be cautioned from using a blanket strategy of selecting those applicants with high EI. Based on the current study's findings, it is suggested that each team member's level of emotional intelligence on each dimension be considered.

The paper serves as an initial step toward filling the void in the literature regarding credible measurement of EI in team processes.

Many organizational problems are poorly defined, emotionally laden, and ambiguous. These types of problems rarely have one right answer and the criteria for evaluating the appropriateness of solutions is likely to be context dependent. Further, although cognitive skills are important to effective problem solving, the nature of these problems may also require emotional skills as well. This chapter presents a study which set out to determine whether emotional intelligence as an ability contributes above and beyond cognitive intelligence to the quantity, flexibility, and quality of solutions generated to ill-structured problems. Although support was not found for the notion that emotional intelligence explains the indices of solution generation beyond that of cognitive intelligence, the findings did show that emotional intelligence was a significant predictor of one of the solution metrics, namely the average resolving power of solutions across the two problems. The findings demonstrate that emotional intelligence and cognitive intelligence are separate constructs and suggest that caution be used in proposing the pervasive effects of emotional intelligence. In particular, the results of this study suggest that emotional intelligence may not equally influence all activities, highlighting the need to investigate which steps of the problem-solving process it does indeed impact.