International Journal of Organizational Analysis

Emotional intelligence, leadership style and organizational climate

Bassem E. Maamari, Joelle F. Majdalani,
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Bassem E. Maamari, Joelle F. Majdalani, (2017) "Emotional intelligence, leadership style and
organizational climate", International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 25 Issue: 2, pp.327-345,
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Emotional intelligence, leadership Emotional

intelligence
style and organizational climate
Bassem E. Maamari
Department of Management Studies, Lebanese American University,
Beirut, Lebanon, and 327
Joelle F. Majdalani Received 12 April 2016
Department of Management and Marketing, Grenoble Ecole de Management, Revised 22 July 2016
21 November 2016
Grenoble, France Accepted 24 December 2016

Abstract
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Purpose This paper aims to investigate the effect of emotional intelligence (EI) on the leaders applied
leadership style (mediator) and the effect of this style on the employees organizational citizenship
(responsibility, reward and warmth and support).
Design/methodology/approach The researchers are proposing a model that highlights the mediating
role of leadership style on the relationship between leaders EI and employees feeling of organizational
climate. The study follows the quantitative process. A survey is prepared for data collection and for
statistically testing the proposed model.
Findings The results show that the leaders EI does affect his/her leadership style. Moreover, the leaders
style affects directly the respective employees feeling of organizational climate to varying levels. The
variance between different styles is found to be small.
Research limitations/implications The limitations of this study include the minimal cross-check
interviews. The sample sizes limitation resulted in the researchers inability to compare the different
sub-sectors of the economy (labelled as the type of work of the firm) to derive deeper conclusions by economic/
business sector.
Practical implications The study reveals a number of practical implications affecting communication,
performance, stability and tenure, and thereby lower turnover.
Social implications The social implications of this study include the social relationships within the
work-setting, higher empathy and higher levels of norming as a direct result of improving the leaders EI level.
Originality/value The paper is based on a sample of respondents with a new model suggested and tested
scientifically, following a rigorous process. It assesses the impact of both EI and organizational climate with
leadership style.
Keywords Responsibility, Leadership style, Emotional intelligence, Organizational climate,
Reward, Warmth and support
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
The corporate world at present is full of challenges and competition, and most organizations
are facing a lot of threats and hurdles. These organizations are finding it difficult to maintain
their competitive edge and sustaining their well-being (Anand and Udaya-Suriyan, 2010).
Companies are striving to recruit and retain good quality leaders capable to create a positive
organizational climate (OC). These leaders are expected to have emotional intelligence (EI)
International Journal of
Organizational Analysis
Vol. 25 No. 2, 2017
The authors would like to thank all the colleagues who contributed through their reviews and opinions pp. 327-345
Emerald Publishing Limited
in making this research project successful. Moreover, the support of the many friends made it possible 1934-8835
to complete this field study with no external funding. DOI 10.1108/IJOA-04-2016-1010
 IJOA traits that allow them to better handle themselves and their team members. In a positive OC,
25,2 individuals are motivated, satisfied, have high expectations and are committed towards their
company and its mission. OC is about how employees perceive their work environment and
how the latter makes them feel (Randhawa and Kaur, 2015; Litwin and Stringer, 1968). A
good OC has a positive effect on financial results such as revenue growth, profits and return
on sales of the organization (Goleman, 2000).
328 As OC has such an important role in organizational success and effectiveness, it is
important that we explore the factors that influence it, with the aim of identifying those that
can create added value for managerial decision maker. Momeni (2009) reports that it is
mostly the leaders emotional behaviour and style that affects the OC. In Goleman et al. (2002)
postulated that the emotional state of the leader is a significant factor in creating a positive
OC. This is why it is important to study the effect of EI on leadership style and OC. The
concept of EI is becoming very important and popular, especially in the present corporate
world (Majdalani and Maamari, 2016; Goleman, 1995). EI is about how people understand,
express and manage their own and other peoples emotions (Cherniss, 2004). Moreover, many
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studies link EI to leadership effectiveness (Boyatzis et al., 2009; Kerr et al., 2006; Goleman,
2004), with differences reported among age-groups of respondents.
This research paper examines whether leadership style mediates the relationship
between EI and OC. It looks at whether OC in turn leads to better financial results for the
company due to the better performance of its employees. In this context, the demographic
variables of age and gender are used in this study due to their reported meaningfulness in
other studies as along with leadership variants.

2. Review of literature
2.1 Emotional intelligence
EIs historical roots go back to Binet and Charles Darwin who noticed a second type of
intelligence, Social Intelligence or Practical Intelligence (Sternberg, 1985). However,
Edward Thorndike was the first to define social intelligence in 1920 (McCleskey, 2014). Then,
in 1983, Gardner discussed the presence of multiple intelligences, two of which are the
intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences.
The term Emotional Intelligence, as introduced by Salovey and Mayer in 1990, revolves
around the capacity to reason about emotions and that emotions enhance thinking (Sadri,
2012). For them, EI is a cognitive ability which is the ability to understand, recognize and
evaluate the meaning of emotions in order to reason and solve problems (Mayer et al., 1999).
The concept of EI postulates that the two different mental processes, which are thinking and
feeling, actually work together (Kerr et al., 2006). Salovey and Mayers (1990) model is
considered as the ability model. It is well-accepted by the academic community. It includes
four different abilities, namely, the ability to perceive emotions, use emotions to facilitate
thoughts, understand emotions and manage emotions. EI however became popular when
Goleman (1995) published his book EI why it can matter more than IQ. Goleman (1998, p. 4)
defined emotional competence as a learned capability based on emotional intelligence that
results in outstanding performance at work. His model is a performance-based one, based on
five skills: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. The first
three skills relate to personal competences and the last two to social ones. Another model
very similar to Golemans is Bar-Ons model, known as the non-cognitive or emotionalsocial
intelligence model. It covers five broad areas of competencies: the intrapersonal skills, the
interpersonal skills, stress management, adaptability and general mood (Bar-On, 1997). Both
models (Golemans and Bar-Ons) are known as the mixed models, as they include a
combination of mental abilities, personality and character skills. Another important EI
 model is the trait approach by Petrides. It is an emotion-related disposition and Emotional
self-knowledge method that focuses on self-efficacy and self-perception (Petrides et al., 2007). intelligence
These different stages of our understanding of EI are known as its three streams. The first
defined EI as a set of interrelated abilities that are measured through ability-based tests
(Mayer and Salovey, 1997). The second a stream suggested measuring EI through
self-assessments and reports on abilities and EI behaviour (Mayer and Salovey, 1997). The
third stream defined EI as an array of predispositions, competencies and perceptions on
managing emotions (Bar-On, 2003; Goleman, 2000), and these are measured through the 329
Emotional Competence Inventory and the Emotional Quotient Inventory (Ashkanasy and
Daus, 2005). Despite the attention and criticisms it is receiving from scholarly sources, many
scholars are calling for the death of EI (Ashkanasy and Daus, 2005). However, according to
many scholars, we need to study EI because it improves the performance of individuals
(Berkovich and Eyal, 2016) and their commitment (Bhalerao and Kumar, 2016). People that
have high EI perform better in life than people with less EI (Bar-On, 1997). They can better
understand themselves and other people, socialize and communicate more and cope with any
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difficult changing situation (Bar-On and Parker, 2000). When EI is high, it improves the
physical and psychological health of people, leading to better academic and work
performance (Bar-On and Parker, 2000). Moreover, EI correlates negatively with work and
occupational stress (Nikolaou and Tsaousis, 2002). Therefore, many scholars argue that EI is
a key component of effective leadership (Sadri, 2012) as it represents a critically important
competency for effective leadership and team performance in organizations today (Melita
Prati et al., 2003, p. 21).

2.2 Leadership
The study of leadership has evolved over time. Zaccaro (2007) noted that the analysis of
leadership dates back to Galtons (1869) Hereditary Genius. He emphasized two basic
concepts that became very popular (McCleskey, 2014). The first is that leadership is a
characteristic ability of extraordinary individuals whose decisions, therefore, are capable of
altering the course of our history (Zaccaro, 2007, p. 7). The second concept, called the Great
Many theories, ties the special attributes of the individuals to their genetic make-up.
According to this concept, The qualities that define effective leadership were naturally
endowed and passed from generation to generation (Zaccaro, 2007, p. 7). Leadership is also
defined as a process of social interaction, where the leader has a high influence on the
behaviour of his/her followers, strongly influencing their performance (Humphrey, 2002;
Pirola-Merlo et al., 2002; McCleskey, 2014). Moreover, Humphrey (2002) describes leadership
as an emotional process where the leader recognizes, manages and evokes emotions in his/
her followers. Goleman defined leadership as the art of persuading people to work towards
a common goal (Goleman, 1998, p. 12). Thus, leadership refers to the ability to motivate,
influence and enable other people to contribute to the success and effectiveness of the
organization (Anand and Udaya-Suriyan, 2010).
In addition, Burns (1978) was the first scholar to distinguish between a transactional and
a transformational leadership style. According to him, transactional leaders motivate their
followers by appealing to their self-interest, whereas transformational leaders and followers
raise one another to higher levels of morality and motivation (Burns, 1978, p. 20). Moreover,
Bass (1985) described transactional leadership as an exchange of reward for compliances,
whereas the transformational leader lets followers feel admiration, trust and loyalty, and are
thus motivated to do more than what is expected from them (Vrba, 2007). The
transformational leadership style is based more on emotional than transactional leadership
(Palmer et al., 2001). This is why in most organizations, transformational leadership style is
 IJOA desirable because it leads to higher employee satisfaction, trust and commitments (Vrba,
25,2 2007; Cavazotte et al., 2012). Therefore, many scholars discuss the fact that transformational
leadership promotes better and greater organizational performance (Lowe et al., 1996;
Harms, 2010; Foster and Roche, 2014).

2.3 Organization climate

330 Several definitions are proposed for OC. It is viewed as:
[] a set of measurable properties of the work environment, perceived directly or indirectly by
people who live and work in this environment and assumed to influence their motivation and
behavior (Litwin and Stringer, 1968, p. 1).
It is how people perceive their surroundings and how it makes them feel and perform (Litwin
and Stringer, 1968). It is theorized as a psychological tool that focuses on individuals and that
tries to understand their cognitive development and behaviour. Therefore, it could be used as
a management technique that helps understand the way employees view their working
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environment (Maamari and Messarra, 2012). This could be done through various diffusion
and reception processes that rely on social cognitive frameworks (Chanlat, 2014). OC is a
perception of how things are in an organizational environment (Yoder, 2004). It is the
members of the organization who perceive and interpret the organizational characteristics
and therefore create the climate (Field and Abelson, 1982). It is also defined as a set of
characteristics that are enduring over time, describe an organization, distinguish it from
other organizations and influence the behaviour of people within it (Momeni, 2009). These
characteristics also include the notions of voice and freedom (Kulkarni, 2010). Therefore, OC
is how employees perceive their organization, and the kind of attitude they have towards
their organization. Researchers think that the attitude and behaviour of a manager and the
way the organization is managed have a major effect on employees attitudes and
perceptions that create OC (Momeni, 2009). OC is about feelings, perceptions and values
shared by employees in the workplace, including trust (Christie et al., 2015), sense of
belonging to the organization, as well as confidence and loyalty (Hamidianpour et al., 2015).
OC is positively linked to job satisfaction and commitment (Bhaesajsanguan, 2010; Castro
and Martins, 2010), employees behaviour and outcomes (Ferris et al., 1998), productivity, job
performance and leadership behaviour (Goleman, 2000) and managerial effectiveness
(Kumar-Bamel et al., 2013). A good OC improves the organizations efficiency, lowers the
costs of turnover and decreases problems with staff (Momeni, 2009). A positive OC has a
positive effect on financial results such as revenue growth, profits and return on sales
(Goleman, 2000). Studies have shown that OC significantly affects employees mood, attitude
and behaviour, regarding their work environment (Abdulkarim, 2013).
Lewin et al. (1939) suggested that certain leadership styles created certain social climates
that affect productivity (Abdulkarim, 2013). More than three decades of research by the Six
Second Consulting Group demonstrate that 70 per cent of employees perceptions of OC are
directly shaped by the style of leadership and behaviour of managers. More particularly,
they are shaped by how managers work to improve the performance of employees and
reward them (Momeni, 2009).
Seven main OCs are identified in the literature. These are namely structure (having
clearly defined responsibilities and roles and being well organized; responsibility (the degree
to which employees feel responsible for accomplishing their job, encouragement of discretion
and individual judgment whereby employees are made to feel that they are their own boss);
risk (willingness to take risk and chance on the ideas of employees); reward (employees
believe that rewards are given fairly and justly, depending on the quality of work and that
rewarding positive performance is more significant than punishment in the organization);
 warmth and support (a relaxed warming atmosphere with warm relationship between Emotional
employees); conflict (maintaining good interpersonal relations and avoiding conflicts and intelligence
disagreements); and expected approval (loyalty and pride towards the work group and
organization) (Litwin and Stringer, 1968; Stringer, 2002).

2.4 Emotional intelligence and leadership

Non-cognitive emotional intelligence could potentially contribute to a more holistic
understanding of interpersonal influence and leadership (Brown and Moshavi, 2005, p. 867). 331
Leadership plays an important role in the success or failure of organizations and around 90
per cent of successful leadership is due to EI (Chen et al., 1998). Moreover, successful leaders
can manage their own emotions and be responsive to others emotions. They can stimulate
and motivate employees, as they have good social skills, and feel with them due to their
empathy. Moreover, they regulate their emotions and the emotions of the employees, due to
their high self-regulation and self-awareness skills (Goleman, 2000).
On one hand, leadership is defined as an emotion laden process (George, 2000, p. 1046)
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and therefore for effective leadership, EI matters. Many scholars have studied the
relationship between EI and leadership effectiveness in different fields and report that there
is a positive correlation between leadership effectiveness and EI (Lopes et al., 2006; Rosete
and Ciarrochi, 2005; Gardner and Stough, 2003; Wolff et al., 2002; Wong and Law, 2002). On
the other hand, EI helps employees understand specific leadership behaviour and leadership
effectiveness (Walter et al., 2011).
Leban and Zulauf (2004) report that the transformational leadership style of the project
manager positively affects actual performance on the project. In addition, the managers EI
ability contributes to his/her personal transformational leadership style and subsequently to
his actual project performance. Scholars argue that EI is an important key component of
effective leadership (Sadri, 2012). Leaders with a high EI can recognize, assess, predict and
manage emotions in such a way that they are able to interact positively and motivate their
team members (George, 2000). Harrison and Clough (2006) analysed 15 state of art leaders
and concluded that they share the characteristic of EI level five leadership behaviours and
productive narcissism. Moreover, Barling et al. (2000) report in their studies that EI is
associated with many aspects of transformational leadership, while Higgs and Aitken (2003)
relate EI to many aspects of leadership and to its ability to predict leadership potential.
Furthermore, Rosete and Ciarrochi (2005) associate EI with leadership effectiveness. In
Goleman (1995) after sampling 500 organizations by the Hay Group, reported that the
outstanding performance of star top leaders is due to EI (Abdulkarim, 2013). However,
Zeidner et al. (2004) and Antonakis et al. (2009) criticized Golemans research saying that no
empirical research is cited to support Golemans assertion concerning the positive outcomes
of EI. This criticism comes despite the large amount of research done showing the positive
relationship between EI and effective leadership. According to Kerr et al. (2006, p. 268):
[] leadership is intrinsically an emotional process, whereby leaders recognize followers emotional
states, attempt to evoke emotions in followers, and then seek to manage followers emotional states
accordingly.
A leaders emotional state affects the performance of his/her employees, if he/she is in a
happy mood the people around him/her view things in a more positive way, they become
more optimistic, efficient and creative. The contrary is true when the emotional state of the
leader is negative, it will create a dysfunctional environment (Goleman et al., 2001).
Kerr et al. (2006)s research on 38 supervisors and their 1,258 subordinates using the
MSCEIT tool to study the relationship between EI and effective leadership, concludes to the
presence of a positive correlation between them. Furthermore, Palmer et al. (2001)s study on
 IJOA the EI of 43 managers also concludes to a significant correlation between EI and a number of
25,2 components. It links to transformational leadership and factors such as motivation,
inspiration, ability to manage and monitor emotions (Rosete and Ciarrochi, 2005). Moreover,
Gardner and Stough (2002)s study on 110 senior level managers, analysing whether EI
predicts leadership style, shows that EI levels correlate highly with all of the components of
transformational leadership. Weinbergers (2002) study on the relationship between EI and
332 transformational leadership reports that high EI leads to high leadership effectiveness,
which is also confirmed by Brown et al. (2006).
Finally, leadership effectiveness relates to how well a leader can treat his/her employees,
asking them how they are doing on a regular basis, treating them in a fair manner,
supporting and helping them, getting them involved, letting them work in a team (Kerr et al.,
2006), and thereby, create a good positive OC for them.

2.5 Emotional intelligence, leadership effectiveness and organizational climate

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Many studies suggest that emotionally intelligent leaders are the key to create a positive OC
that motivates employees to give their best (Yoder, 2004), mainly by placing OC as an
independent variable (Lawler et al., 1974). Many scholars show that the behaviour of
management and the leadership style is the most important factors affecting the OC
(Hamidianpour et al., 2015). Momeni (2009) reports that EI has a positive effect on OC. High
EI improves the performance of the leaders, which creates a better OC (Yoder, 2004). A high
EI leader will create in others high expectations and self-confidence. An important factor of
whether the organization is an attractive place to work in, which means that whether it has
a good or bad OC, is reflected through employees perception. These perceptions show how
employees feel about their workplace, which includes their feelings about their managers,
their job and other fellow employees (Momeni, 2009). Studies by Six Second Consulting
group demonstrate that employees perception of OC is related to the behaviour and style of
leadership in general, and particularly relates to how the manager works to improve
employees performance, and rewards them (Momeni, 2009). The leaders EI, mood and
behaviour drive the mood and behaviour of all the others in the organization (Giorgi, 2013).
Ciarrochi et al. (2000) suggest that leaders with high EI are better able to manage mood and
evaluate their actions and decisions. EI helps guide the mood of leaders which affects their
subordinates and the whole organization.
Therefore, leaders with high EI can create a positive climate with intelligent, loyal and
committed employees (Goleman et al., 2001). An emotionally intelligent leader can control
better through self-management, understand more his/her employees due to his/her empathy
and boost others mood using his/her sharp social skills (Momeni, 2009). Moreover, Momeni
(2009)s study results show that the higher the EI of the manager the better is the managers
OC, which is confirmed by Awwad and Kada-Ali (2012). They theorize that a high level of EI
creates a climate where trust, information sharing, healthy risk-taking and learning grow,
whereas low level of EI creates a climate full of fear and anxiety (Goleman et al., 2001).
Managers sometimes underestimate how strongly the OC can affect the financial results
of the company which is nearly the third of its financial performance (Goleman, 2000). When
employees are happy and satisfied in their job, appreciated, supported and valued, their
productivity and performance increase, and they become more committed towards the
organization (Ngo et al., 2009). Van De Voorde et al. (2010) examine the relationship between
OC and financial performance. They conclude that there is an important link between OC and
financial performance and the organizational development and success.
OC is affected by the leadership style, which means it is affected by the way the managers
make decisions, manage, handle crisis and motivate others (Goleman, 2000). Leaders with
 styles that positively affect the climate have better financial results than those who do not. Emotional
Research has shown that the most successful leaders are strong in the following EI intelligence
competencies: self-awareness, self-regulation, social skill, empathy and motivation. If
transformational leadership is associated with better performance and commitment of
employees towards their leader, then it is logical to predict that EI has a correlation with
positive organizational outcomes such as a positive OC (Abdulkarim, 2013).

3. Methodology
333
As a result of the above literature review, and with the various assessments and criticism it
received (Sims and LaFollette, 1975; Muchinsky, 1976; Rogers et al., 1980), the researchers
chose to use the Litwin and Stringer Organizational Climate Questionnaire and to focus their
field study on only three of the seven factors put forth by Litwin and Stringer (1968). Thus,
they selected:
[] responsibility (encouragement of individual judgement and discretion, whereby employees are
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made to feel that they are their own boss [] reward (rewarding positive performance in that it
outweighs punishment in the organization), warmth and support (warm relationships among
employees supported by a relaxed and people-oriented atmosphere) (Maamari and Messarra, 2012,
p. 167).
The researchers thus are suggesting the following hypotheses for testing (Figure 1 Model)
in an attempt to answer the following research question:
RQ1. Does leadership style mediate the relationship between EI and OC?
H1. EI of leaders is positively correlated to leadership style.
H2. Leaders leadership style is positively correlated with responsibility.
H3. Leaders leadership style is positively correlated with reward.
H4. Leaders leadership style is positively correlated with warmth and support.

3.1 Methods and scale

Following the positivist theory, the process of investigation of this study starts by observing
social behaviour. Based on the approach of the deductive research, it aims at putting forth a
model to test using a paper and pen questionnaire survey tool for collecting cross-sectional
data from a sample of the population (Saunders et al., 2009). The questionnaire prepared for
this study includes six sections. The first part includes seven demographic questions that
dwell on the respondents characteristics. These include the age, gender, educational level
attained, total work experience, length of work experience with current company, work
experience with current leader and the business sector of the company. The second section

Organizaonal
Climate

Leadership Style Responsibility

Emoonal
- Transaconal Reward
Intelligence
- Transformaonal

Warmth &
Figure 1.
Support
Suggested model to
test
 IJOA includes four short questions on each leadership style (transformational and transactional)
25,2 taken from Bass and Avolio (2000), on the style of leadership of the respondents supervisor.
As the researchers adopt the second stream of thought, the third section is composed of 16 EI
questions borrowed from Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale as published by Li et al.
(2012). This survey is chosen due to its conciseness, shortness, its simple language and
replicability. The fourth, fifth and sixth sections include questions on OC, six on
334 responsibility, nine on reward and seven on warmth and support, all adopted from Litwin
and Stringer (1968). The questions are simple and straight forward. They measure items that
do not need the researchers intervention in the data collection process. The answers to all the
parts except for the demographic part use a five-point Likert scale, where 1 strongly
disagree and 5 strongly agree.
The formulated questionnaire is controlled for language and ease of understanding by
two research colleagues and then pilot-tested on a sample group of 20 respondents to test for
scale coherence, language simplicity and scale items clarity and understanding ability.
For the purpose of sampling the population, the researchers relied on a network of
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research assistants and a targeted sampling process, with the aim of collecting a thousand
responses. The questionnaire copies were distributed through the network or research
assistants, targeting a sample with the age and gender distribution stratifies in parallel to the
demographic distribution of the population of Lebanon to minimize response bias. Every
member of the network was given a category of responses in gender and age to survey. The
ensuing collected data at the end of the process resulted in a response rate of 32.4 per cent
(that is 324 responses) of which a large number were incomplete or lacking responses to the
demographic characteristics. The end result is 258 usable responses entered to an Excel file
with a control process to minimize data entry errors.

3.2 Scale validation

The collected data were analysed for scale validation. This process allowed researchers to
ascertain the validity of the tool for this research, using both exploratory analysis and
principal components factor analysis. Using SPSS 22.0, the researchers run the required tests
to analyse the data at hand. Data reduction factorability through the KaiserMeyerOlkin
(KMO) index measure of sampling adequacy ranges from 0 to 1 is considered acceptable at
the level of 0.6 Tabachnick and Fidell (2013). The index of KMO for all the variables ranges
between 6.04 and 0.817, thus, are all considered acceptable (Table I). The second step for
validating the scale was through the Bartletts sphericity test, where the result should be
higher than 0.05 significance to be accepted. All the results of the Bartletts test of sphericity
were significance at p 0.000; thus, the researchers rejected the null hypothesis. The third
test in scale validation was the assessment of the Eigenvalues, where a component with a
factor above 1.0 shows that the item does explain the variance to a moderate or high extent.
The Eigenvalues results for the leadership factors showed a cumulative of 60.783 per cent
with for two items with a total of 4.862, whereas for EI, it showed a 59.974 per cent for five

Variable KMO Bartletts test of sphericity df Sig.

Transformational leadership 0.735 284.495 6 0.000

Transactional leadership 0.657 354.547 6 0.000
Emotional intelligence 0.817 1014.329 120 0.000
Table I. Organizational citizenship: responsibility 0.619 111.882 15 0.000
Measure of tool Organizational citizenship: reward 0.685 540.197 36 0.000
reliability Organizational citizenship: warmth and support 0.604 263.533 21 0.000
 scale items only, with a total of 9.596; the results for responsibility showed a total of 48.740 Emotional
per cent for the first two items with a total 2.925; for reward a total of 52.172 per cent for the intelligence
first two items with a total of 4.696, and finally warmth and support the first three variables
showed 66.060 per cent with a total of 4.625, and therefore they are all considered acceptable.
As a result of the above analysis, the researchers reject the null hypothesis that variables are
uncorrelated and conclude that the data are factorable. As a following measure, assessing the
estimation of Commonalities helps analyse how the creation of the variables is affected by
the presence of the other different factors, or: 335
[] how much of the variance in each item is explained. Low values (e.g. less than 0.3) could indicate
that the item does not fit well with the other items in its component (Pallant, 2007, p. 196).
Therefore, all the variables with a commonality rate exceeding 0.50 were kept. Using the
extraction method: principal component analysis through SPSS 22.0, the results showed that
two items were below 0.50 in the leadership part, and were removed from the data; one in EI;
three in responsibility; three in reward; and one in warmth and support. Moreover, analysing
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for the tool reliability using the Cronbachs alpha measure, the results showed a value 0.844
for leadership; 0.826 for EI; 0.508 for responsibility; 0.686 for reward; and 0.595 for warmth
and support, which are considered acceptable. Based on all of the above data analysis of the
tool used, the researchers conclude that the scale used in this field study is purified and
internally consistent. Furthermore, based on Churchill (1979) and Nunnally (1978)s
interpretations on construct and other types of validity, assessment such as content and
criterion validity is attempted to meet the requirements of a proper thorough process of
scientific research, and the researchers were satisfied that the objects of all construct, content
and criterion validity were met.

3.3 Basic sample description

The sample population includes all respondents whose complete responses are used in the
data analysis. This sample population consists of 258 properly filled and returned survey
tools out of the thousands sent. First, the respondents age distribution includes a large
portion of young adults (age group 18 to 25 years) reaching 111 (43.0 per cent); with 22.5 per
cent aged 26-35; 16.7 per cent aged 36-45; 12.8 per cent aged 46-55 and only 5.0 per cent aged
above 56 years. Second, the gender distribution is almost equal with 125 (48.4 per cent) male
respondents and 133 females (51.6 per cent). Both age and gender reflect the population
distribution of the economy in which the field study is unfolded. Third, the educational level
attained by respondents varies between high-school or lower (28 respondents or 10.9 per
cent), freshman education 30 (11.6 per cent), bachelors degree of 129 respondents (50.0 per
cent), masters or equivalent designation or professional certification (55 or 21.3 per cent) and
postgraduate studies of 16 (6.2 per cent). Fourth, the total work experience of the respondents
varies with their age group. Therefore, the majority of the respondents report a total work
experience of 0-5 years (n 126, 48.8 per cent); 55 report 6-10 years (21.3 per cent); 34 report
11-15 years (13.2 per cent); 22 report 16-20 years (8.5 per cent) and 21 report more than 21
years of experience (8.1 per cent). Similarly, on the tenure in the current organization, 157
(60.9 per cent) report 0-5 years, 53 (20.5 per cent) report 5-10 years, 18 (7.0 per cent) report
10-15 years, 17 (6.6 per cent) report 15-20 years and 13 (5.0 per cent) report more than 20 years.
Moreover, the experience from working with the same leader is reported by respondents to be
165 (64.0 per cent) report 0-5 years, 43 (16.7 per cent) report 5-10 years, 28 (10.9 per cent) report
10-15 years, 11 (4.3 per cent) report 15-20 years and 11 (4.3 per cent) report more than 20 years.
Finally, the respondents firms operate in different sectors of the economy. In total, 20.9 per
cent work in marketing/sales/retail, 13.2 per cent work in information technology (IT/IS)
field, 6.6 per cent work in research/development and training, 16.3 per cent work
 IJOA in education, 2.3 per cent in production/manufacturing, 15.1 per cent in finance/banking/
25,2 accounting or HR, 14.7 per cent in engineering and construction, 1.2 per cent in farming and
agriculture and 9.7 per cent in other sectors. These are reflective of the economy under
consideration.

4. Research results and hypotheses testing

336 4.1 Correlation analysis
To analyse the data, the researchers ran a number of tests, namely bi-variate correlations and
linear regressions, to test the model suggested. The results show that at two tailed, first, age
is weakly correlated with total EI of the respondent (r 0.225 and 0.129, respectively, with
Sig. 0.000, and p 0.05. Second, education is weakly positively correlated with leadership
style applied (r 0.181; Sig. 0.004, p 0.01) and with EI (r 0.153; Sig. 0.014, p 0.05).
Third, total work experience is positively highly correlated with work experience with
current leader (r 0.799; Sig. 0.000, p 0.01). Fourth, organizations type of work is
negatively weakly correlated with OC (r 0.167; Sig. 0.007, p 0.01) and with
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leadership style (r 0.125; Sig. 0.045, p 0.05). Fifth, employees EI is positively

moderately correlated to leadership style (r 0.523; Sig. 0.000, p 0.01). Finally, OC is
positively weakly correlated with leadership style (r 0.273; Sig. 0.007, p 0.01).
Moreover, the researchers analysed the correlations between the three sub-factors of OC
used, namely, responsibility, reward and warmth and support, with the other variables.
First, the results show that responsibility is only significantly correlated to EI (r 0.388;
Sig. 0.000, p 0.01). Second, the factor reward is weakly negatively correlated with total
work experience (r 0.164; Sig. 0.008, p 0.01), work experience with current leader
(r 0.124; Sig. 0.046, p 0.05), organizations type of work/sector (r 0.202; Sig.
0.001, p 0.01), and positively weakly correlated to EI (r 0.240; Sig. 0.000, p 0.01) and
highly positively correlated to responsibility (r 0.642; Sig. 0.000, p 0.01). Finally,
warmth and support is positively moderately correlated with EI (r 0.374; Sig. 0.000, p
0.01), responsibility (r 0.535 Sig. 0.000, p 0.01) and highly correlated with reward (r
0.640; Sig. 0.000, p 0.01).

4.2 Hypotheses testing

For testing the suggested hypotheses at hand, the researchers ran a number of linear
regressions. The results (summarized in Figure 2) indicate that the relationship between EI
as independent variable and leadership style as dependent, is significant (R2 0.274; Sig.
0.000) for leadership styles. And that the relationship between leadership style as
independent and OC as dependent is weakly significant (R2 0.075; Sig. 0.000). Moreover,
the relationship between leadership style and OC is significant (R2 0.372; Sig. 0.000),
whereas the mediation effect of leadership style to the relationship is R2 0.147 and Sig.
0.114, not reduced to zero, thus is somehow meaningful (Baron and Kenny, 1986) (Table II).
Therefore, the researchers tested for variance between leadership styles and found again
meaningful relations for both leadership styles, transactional (R2 0.240; Sig. 0.000) and
transformational (R2 0.374; Sig. 0.000) with EI. Moreover, the relationship of
transactional leadership to the OC was tested for variance with the sub-factors or
responsibility, reward and warmth and support (Figure 3).

5. Analysis
The aim of this study was to test whether leaders with high EI would create a positive OC
that would result in improving the performance of the companys employees. Therefore, the
researchers analysed first the relationship of the variables under study with the
demographic variables. The results show that age is correlated with work experience and EI,
 but weakly with type of work. This is due to employees staying in the same company due to Emotional
a good climate, a good pay package, limited job offerings in the market, fear of change and intelligence
to the personality of the employees who might not be willing to venture into a new firm or to
work with a new leader, where adaptability is of essence and where the learning curve is
restarted for the new position, leaving the employee at a point where EI needs to be high and
where the comfort zone is nil within the new OC.
However, education plays a positive but weak role with work experience in general, with
work experience with same leader, with the position in the company, with the leadership 337

R2 = 0.274 R2 = 0.075
Sig. = 0.000 Sig. = 0.000
Leadership Style
Emoonal Organizaonal
Intelligence Climate

Figure 2.
R2= 0.372
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Sig. = 0.000 Regression results

Variables b SE R2 t Sig.

Step 1
DV: Emotional
intelligence
P Leadership style 0.419 0.523 0.043 0.274 9.825 0.000
Step 2
DV: Organizational
climate
P Emotional intelligence 0.482 0.273 0.106 0.075 4.540 0.000 Table II.
Results of leadership
Step 3 style mediating the
DV: Organizational relationship between
climate emotional intelligence
P Emotional intelligence 0.447 0.316 0.096 0.139 4.658 0.000 and organizational
P Leadership style 0.190 0.108 0.120 0.147 1.585 0.114 climate

R2 = 0.299
R2 = 0.273
Sig. = 0.000
Sig. = 0.000
Responsibility
R2 = 0.240
Sig. = 0.000
Transaconal R2 = 0.118
Leadership Sig. = 0.059
Emoonal
Intelligence Reward

Transformaonal R2 = 0.205
R2 = 0.374 Leadership Sig. = 0.001
Sig. = 0.000
Warmth &
R2 = 0.194 Figure 3.
Sig. = 0.002
Support
R = 0.220
2 Regression with
Sig. = 0.000 sub-factors
 IJOA style and with EI. The more the employees are educated, the more they are able to work with
25,2 the same leader within the climate, as they can adapt much more easily to the working style
and attitude of the same person. The better the educational level attained, the better the job
position reached, as career advancement and job perform are highly positively correlated to
higher education. Higher education allows the person to lead better and communicate better
with his/her subordinates; thus, he/she may reach better understanding and
338 communications, which result in goal achievement efficiencies and improved understanding
and management of others and ones emotions. The higher the employees education and the
better he/she is realistic, adaptable, diplomatic, humble and accepting of self, the more one
knows him/herself, allowing one to better know how to interact with people and
communicate with them and understand them more, which are the basic skills of EI. This is
in line with Gardner (1983) and Kerr et al. (2006). Furthermore, the high correlation of total
work experience with the tenure in the current firm and with the same leader can be
attributed to the building of strong relationships in an environment where time heals and
bridges the gaps of behaviour, attitudes and opinions. OC plays the role of the glue that binds
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all these factors towards forming uniformity. This process takes to the group formation
process where efficiency is reached at the stages of norming and performing (Robbins and
Judge, 2013) as employees do more than they are required to (Vrba, 2007).
Second, the researchers analysed the relationship of the variables of the model.
Employees EI is positively correlated to leadership style in general. High EI leads to better
understanding of leaders, accepting their work behaviour as leaders who know how to plan,
organize, lead and control, delegate when it is needed, how to communicate, motivate, adapt,
understand and empathize with others, thus creating a positive OC around them, which
corroborates with the findings of Lopes et al. (2006), Rosete and Ciarrochi (2005), Gardner and
Stough (2003), Wolff et al. (2002), Wong and Law (2002) and Bar-On and Parker (2000). In
addition, the transformational leadership style is reported to be a better provider for
cooperation, team-building and performance than does transactional style as also reported
by Vrba (2007), Palmer et al. (2001) and Lowe et al. (1996). Moreover, higher EI allows these
leaders to be more understanding and compassionate, influencing the performance of their
subordinates (Humphrey, 2002; Pirola-Merlo et al., 2002), thus conveying a feeling to
employees and creating OC in which these employees can confide, trust, learn and prosper in
the direction of the goals set for them (Goleman, 1998). Furthermore, OC is positively
correlated with leadership style, as the more accepted the leadership style by the followers/
subordinates, the more the leader adapts and knows how to interact, communicate, and
motivate his/her subordinates. The latter creates a better OC in the organization leading to
higher effectiveness (Sadri, 2012; Walter et al., 2011; Anand and Udaya-Suriyan, 2010).
Moreover, the deeper analysis regarding the three sub-factors of OC, namely,
responsibility, reward and warmth and support, shows that responsibility and EI are
positively correlated. A high EI leader knows how to delegate responsibility and give enough
reward, recognition and motivation. In line with organizational behaviour studies on
employee commitment, the more the leader shows respect and consideration towards them,
the more the subordinates commit to the work nucleus. This applies on both a team or a
group, which in turn reflects in a superior behaviour of responsibility and ownership vis-a-vis
the work environment and work processes. The second sub-factor, reward, is negatively
correlated with total work experience, work experience with current leader and with the
organizations type of work. This is due to the fact that reward is not given based on work
experience but on behaviour, performance, goal achievement and accomplishments. The
tenure that an employee stays with the same leader will neither affect what reward he/she
will get nor change the type of work of the company, except for the employees feeling of
 comfort in the environment. However, reward is positively correlated to EI, as the higher the Emotional
EI of the leader, the more he/she will know when, how and what support and encouragement intelligence
he/she needs to give or reflect to his/her subordinates, show more sympathy towards them
and give them recognition. This is accomplished by using the available reward tools at hand,
and without exceeding the authority limits given, but resorting to a more effective
distribution of rewards at the right emotionally efficient point-in-time for every employee in
the team. Reward is however positively highly correlated to responsibility, as the more an
employee is responsible, the more he/she expects to be rewarded, as he/she is doing her/his 339
job properly. Furthermore, warmth and support is positively moderately correlated with EI
and responsibility, as the higher the EI of the leader, the more he/she will be able to create a
friendly atmosphere with a relaxed climate full of warmth and support. Moreover, the more
a person exerts a behaviour reflecting responsibility, the less there will be disagreements at
work, and the more the atmosphere will be welcoming and positive. As a result of this
warmth and support environment, social relations at work develop and thrive, moving the
employees from stage to stage in the process of team formation and team behaviour (Yoder,
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2004). This allows the team to reach the level of norming, which culminates into a performing
mood (Robbins and Judge, 2013). Finally, warmth and support is highly positively
correlated with reward, as the more the atmosphere is friendly and warm at work (Field and
Abelson, 1982), the more the employees will get rewarded and appreciated on their work and
performance (Abdulkarim, 2013; Momeni, 2009). However, warmth and support is
moderately positively correlated with EI and responsibility. EI is about creating a good
supportive warmth climate by the leader to the employees, by understanding them,
supporting them and knowing how to communicate with them. Warmth and support are also
linked to responsibility, as the more the leader delegates authority and responsibility, the
more a positive and warm climate will be nurtured where employees feel committed, trusted
and loyal, and thus perform better as also reported by Maamari and Messarra (2012).

6. Conclusions
The managerial implications of the above results can be summed up as follows. First, the
higher the EI of the employees and leaders, the better their respective communication,
performance, stability and tenure, and thereby the lower the turnover. Second, the higher the
EI of employees and leaders, the better the social relationships within the work-setting,
higher empathy and higher levels of norming. Third, the high levels of EI generate higher
levels of feelings of responsibility as well as warmth and support, affecting both employees
and leaders effectiveness in decision-making, commitment and efficiency. Finally, higher EI
allows leaders to find out-of-the-box reward incentives that actually work. Thus, human
resource managers need to provide for improving the EI of their teams. They can do so
through the different techniques of coaching, training and workshops. Managers who
attempt to build on the improvement of the EI of their employees and leaders will first
decrease their organizational turnover and decrease the costs of recruitment, training and
adaptation of the new human assets. Second, they will speed the team cohesiveness
processes moving their teams forward through the team-formation process rather than going
back to square one of team forming. Finally, they will reap the benefits of improved
decision-making process and effectiveness, allowing the organization sustained growth and
performance. Moreover, age is reported to be positively correlated to EI, and EI to leadership
style, therefore managers should take into consideration the fact that leaders need to score
well on EI, thus prepare them before taking charge.
The study has a number of limitations. First, the sample size, although reflective of the
population in its distribution, remains limited in the size of respondents. Second, the
 IJOA sampling technique, although it controls for certain biases, leaves the door open to
25,2 challenging the generalizability of the results. Moreover, the sample sizes limitation resulted
in the researchers inability to compare the different sub-sectors of the economy (labelled as
the type of work of the firm) to derive deeper conclusions relating to each specific economic
sector.
As a result, the researchers recommend that future research dwell deeper into the
340 different leadership styles applied and compare the various factors of OC and EI within these
environments, to derive conclusions by sector of the economy. The purpose of this deeper
analysis lies in the benefit towards managerial implications that might be applicable.
As a conclusion, the researchers strive to reach an answer towards explaining the role of
EI and leadership style in boosting or changing OC, has helped shed some light on these
relationships and concludes that all the suggested hypotheses are supported. The different
styles of leadership do affect the employees perception of the OC and are by themselves
affected by the EI level of the leader. Only three factors of OC analysed in this study, namely,
responsibility, reward and warmth and support. Among these, the relationship between the
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leaders EI and responsibility, passing by the transformational leadership style presents the
highest correlation and explanatory potential. Therefore, organizations should add to their
peoples development agendas the training for EI enhancement to all levels, age groups and
educational backgrounds.

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About the authors
Dr Bassem E. Maamari, after a long executive career, joined the academic world as a full-time faculty at
the Lebanese American Universitys School of Business. He brings a wealth of practical experience in
the areas of sales management, finance, MIS and human resources management. He has a number of
studies, and his research interests include job satisfaction of employees, emotional intelligence and the
impact of technology on people. Bassem E. Maamari is the corresponding author and can be contacted
at: bassem.maamari@lau.edu.lb
Joelle F. Majdalani, with a long work experience in education, training and research, is presently a
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Doctoral Candidate at Grenoble School of Management (France). Her research interests include the
emotional intelligence of employees, faculty and students. In parallel, she is running a number of field
studies on EI, customer satisfaction and consumer behaviour.

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