The association of emotional intelligence and transformational leadership to job satisfaction of social work leaders

Abstract

The purpose of this explanatory correlational study was to examine how emotional intelligence (EI) and transformational leadership (TL) were related to social work leaders' job satisfaction in healthcare settings. The independent (predictor) variables are social work leadership characteristics of emotional intelligence measured by the overall scores of the Genos Model of Emotional Intelligence (GMEI) instrument, and transformational leadership, measured by the MLQ-5-x short (Bass & Avolio, 2004; Palmer, Stough, Harmer, & Gignac, 2014). The dependent (outcome) variable is job satisfaction measured by a short form of the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) modified to a 16-item questionnaire (Koeske, Kirk, Randi, & Rauktis, 1994; Spector, 1985). Study participants were drawn from social work leaders practicing in healthcare settings who are members of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB). As represented in the literature, there was a significant positive correlation between variables emotional intelligence (EI) and transformational leadership (TL), and job satisfaction (JS). The analysis shows that emotional intelligence level and gender did not significantly predict job satisfaction (β = .033, t (789) = .97, p > .34 and β = .01, t (789) = .28, p > .78 ns respectively). However, transformational leadership, and years of practice did significantly predict job satisfaction (β = .313, t (789) = 9.06, p < .001, and (β = .089, t (789) = 2.62, p < .001 respectively).