Emotional intelligence and leadership practices in Colombian organizations

Abstract

The relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership has been explored by many researchers (Barbuto and Barbach, 2006; Dulewics, Young, and Dulewics, 2005; Gardner andStough, 2002; Barling, Slater, and Kelloway, 2000). This relationship had not been investigated in Latin America. This study shows the relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership practices in Colombian employees. To conduct the investigation, the authors used the leadership practices inventory (LPI) from Kouzes and Posner (1997) and the emotional intelligence instrument developed by Wong and Law (2002). The instruments were applied to a total of 339 employees from different companies in different economic sectors in Colombia. The results show a significant relationship between leadership practices and emotional intelligence. Also, leaders who are emotionally intelligent are more efficient. Additionally, it was found that a relationship exists among leadership practices and emotional intelligence with age, gender, educational level, and time of experience in employee management