Finnish Urban School Teacher's Evaluations on Principals Emotional Leadership Competencies

1
Finnish Urban School Teacher's Evaluations on
Principals Emotional Leadership Competencies

• Petri Nokelainen and Kirsi Tirri
• University of Helsinki, Finland
• Pekka Ruohotie
• University of Tampere, Finland

2
Outline

• Introduction
• Research Questions
• Theoretical Framework
• Method
• Results
• Discussion

3
1. Introduction
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• Leadership as a social process, affecting both
  end products and personnel emotions, is seldom
  studied.
• Emotional Intelligence (EI) research has recently
  become one of the most important constructs in
  modern psychological research.

4
1. Introduction
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• EI refers to the competence to identify, express
  and understand emotions, assimilate emotions in
  thought, and regulate both positive and negative
  emotions in one and others (Matthews, Zeidner
  Roberts, 2002).

5
1. Introduction
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• In this paper, we use the term Emotional
  Leadership (EL) to describe school principals EI
  capabilities as leaders.
• We study with an empirical sample (N 124) how
  Finnish schoolteachers evaluate their principals
  EL competencies.
• This paper focuses on teachers responses, leaving
  out other school personnel, students and their
  parents.

6
1. Introduction
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• Emotional Leadership Questionnaire (ELQ) measures
  leaders EL as perceived by his/her subordinates.
  
• ELQ is based on Daniel Golemans and his
  colleagues (2002) four domain model of emotional
  intelligence (1) self-awareness, (2)
  self-management, (3) social awareness and (4)
  relationship management.

7
Research Questions
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• RQ 1 What are teachers evaluations on their
  principals EL competencies?
• RQ 2 Is the variable structure of the ELQ
  related to the theoretical EI model?

8
2. Theoretical Framework
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• 2.1 Emotional Intelligence
• 2.2 Measuring Emotional Intelligence
• 2.3 Self-regulation as a System Concept Managing
  Emotional Leadership Competencies

9
2.1 Emotional Intelligence
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• Howard Gardners theory about multiple
  intelligences (MI) builds on a concept of
  intelligence, which he defines as the ability
  to solve problems or to create products that are
  valued within one or more cultural settings
  (Gardner, 1983, x).

10
2.1 Emotional Intelligence
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• Reuven Bar-On developed in 1998 the concept of
  emotional quotient (EQ) in order to evaluate
  persons emotional intelligence (EI).
• According to Bar-On (EQ Symposium, 2004), EI is
  an array of noncognitive capabilities,
  competencies, and skills that influence one's
  ability to succeed in coping with environmental
  demands and pressures.

11
2.1 Emotional Intelligence
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• According to Peter Salovey and John Mayer (1990),
  emotional intelligence is a form of social
  intelligence that involves the ability to monitor
  ones own and others feelings and emotions, to
  discriminate among them, and to use this
  information to guide ones thinking and action.
• Their EI model has five domains (1)
  self-awareness, (2) self-management, (3)
  motivation, (4) empathy and (5) social skills
  (Salovey Mayer, 1990).

12
2.1 Emotional Intelligence
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• Daniel Goleman popularised the term claiming that
  EI was as powerful and at times more powerful
  than IQ in predicting life success (1995, 34).
• In his four-domain model motivation is merged
  into other four domains (Goleman, Boyatzis
  McKee, 2002, 253-256).

13
2.1 Emotional Intelligence
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• The theory as formulated by Salovey and Mayer
  (1990 Mayer Salovey, 1997) framed EI within a
  model of intelligence.
• Golemans model formulates EI in terms of a
  theory of performance (1998b) as he argues (2001)
  that an EI-based theory has a direct
  applicability to the domain of work and
  organizational effectiveness, particularly
  predicting excellence in jobs of all kinds, from
  sales to leadership.

14
2.1 Emotional Intelligence
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• Goleman aimed to show in his studies that
  emotional and social factors are important (1995
  1998a), but his views on EI often went far
  beyond the evidence available (Brackett, Lopes,
  Ivcevic, Pizarro, Mayer Salovey, 2004).
• A recent study showed that the most popular EI
  and ability measures are only related at r lt.22,
  i.e., sharing only about five per cent of common
  variance (Brackett Mayer, 2003).

15
2.1 Emotional Intelligence
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee further state (2002,
  38) that EI characteristics are not innate
  talents, but learned abilities and, thus, the
  emotional task of the leader is primal, i.e.,
  both the original and the most important act of
  leadership.
• They state that, as people rely on connections
  with other people (open limbic system) for their
  emotional stability, leader has the power to sway
  them towards resonance (to bring out everyones
  best) or dissonance (to drive emotions
  negatively).

16
2.2 Measuring Emotional Intelligence
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• Gerald Matthews, Moshe Zeidner and Richard
  Roberts (2002) classify EI measurement
  instruments into two main categories
  performance-based and self-reported tests.
• The most prominent performance-based tests are
  developed by John Mayer, Peter Salovay, and
  colleagues (MEIS and MSCEIT, see e.g., Mayer,
  Caruso Salovey, 2000).
• However, as the purpose of this paper is to
  present the ELQ instrument, our focus is on the
  self-report measures of EI.

17
2.2 Measuring Emotional Intelligence
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• Matthews and his colleagues (2002) have done a
  seminal review of both performance-based and
  self-reported EI instruments.
• They state that there are an abundance of
  self-report measures of EI, but only a few,
  including Reuven Bar-On's EQ-i, are built on
  published empirical studies.
• However, when a factor analysis was ran on the
  basis of the normative correlations provided by
  Bar-On (1997), they noticed that the reliable
  variance of the EQ-i can only be attributed to
  three (instead of ten or fifteen) constructs
  self-esteem, empathy, and impulse control.

18
2.2 Measuring Emotional Intelligence
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• Matthews and his colleagues concluded that "the
  close relationships between EQ and various
  measures of personality and psychopathology
  suggest that EI, as assessed by the EQ-i, has
  actually been under investigation for decades"
  (2002, 213).
• Further, referring to work of Newsome, Day, and
  Catano (2000), they stated that as neither EQ-i
  total score nor factor scores predicted academic
  achievement or cognitive ability, there is not
  enough evidence to justify it as a valid
  instrument for personnel selection.

19
2.2 Measuring Emotional Intelligence
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• According to Matthews and his colleagues (2002),
  the lack of research evidence is also a problem
  with another popular EI paradigm, Emotional
  Competence Inventory (ECI), developed by Daniel
  Goleman (see, e.g., Goleman, 1995 1998a).
• They evaluated the ECI model at conceptual level,
  as there was no factor or cluster analysis
  supporting the derivation of factors available in
  the scientific literature.
• They concluded that "the ECI is likely .. (to)
  have some utility" (Matthews et al., 2002, 218).

20
2.2 Measuring Emotional Intelligence
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• Matthews and his colleagues synthesize that EI
  self-report measures assess emotional competence
  rather than intelligence as they relate to
  persons experience of emotion and behaviour in
  emotionally challenging circumstances.

21
2.3 Self-regulation as a System Concept Managing
EL Competencies
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• Self-regulation is characterized by Barry
  Zimmerman and Magda Campillo (2003, 238) as
  self-generated thoughts, feelings, and actions
  that are planned and cyclically adapted for the
  attainment of personal goals.
• Self-regulation (or conative constructs)
  intermediates between persons cognitive and
  affective attributes.

22
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Taxonomy of Individual Difference Constructs
(Snow, Corno Jackson, 1996, 247.)
23
2.3 Self-regulation as a System Concept Managing
EL Competencies
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• Gregory Schraw (1998) points out that an
  interesting activity-related control strategy,
  metacognition (or metacognitive skills), has
  two components the knowledge of cognition and
  regulation of cognition.
• Knowledge of cognition is about ones own
  knowledge and reasoning ability
  (metaknowledge).
• Regulation of cognition is understanding the
  possibilities and limits of ones competencies in
  specific situations (metacompetence).

24
2.3 Self-regulation as a System Concept Managing
EL Competencies
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• Components of metacognition interact with both
  motivation and emotion (Ruohotie, 2004).
• Margarita Limón Luque (2003) uses the terms
  meta-motivation and meta-emotion to refer to
  the knowledge and regulation of ones motivation
  and emotions.

25
2.3 Self-regulation as a System Concept Managing
EL Competencies
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• Marja-Liisa Malmivuori states that within
  self-system processes, emotions activate various
  self-regulatory processes at different levels of
  self-awareness, including self-reflection (2006).
  
• She contrasts automatic affective regulation (low
  level of control) to active regulation of
  affective responses (high level of control).
• Both features of affect in the self-regulation
  process are visible to leaders subordinates as
  his or her EL competency.

26
2.3 Self-regulation as a System Concept Managing
EL Competencies
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• According to Matthews and his colleagues (2002,
  171), emotion may be seen as both a universal
  human quality and as an attribute of the
  individual person, operationalized through
  validated self-report measures.
• Thus, two different research strands argue
  whether emotion is essentialist or evaluative in
  nature.
• In this paper, we view EL dimensions as
  constructs in their own right and identified with
  subjective feelings.

27
2.3 Self-regulation as a System Concept Managing
EL Competencies
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• Marc Brackett and his colleagues (2004)
  characterize general approaches to EI in the
  literature as ability models and mixed models.
• Ability models view EI as a standard intelligence
  and argue that EI meets traditional criteria for
  intelligence.
• Mixed models combine the ability conception of EI
  with numerous self-reported attributes including
  optimism, self-awareness, and self-actualisation.
  (Brackett et al., 2004.)

28
2.3 Self-regulation as a System Concept Managing
EL Competencies
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• Emotional Leadership Questionnaire (ELQ) was
  developed to measure leaders EI as perceived by
  his/her subordinates.
• In a conceptual level, ELQ measures leaders
  competencies instead of his/her intelligences
  or abilities.
• The subordinates are only expected to be aware of
  their leaders explicit, procedural abilities
  (metacompetencies), not that much of their
  declarative knowledge (metaknowledge).

29
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
30
3. Method
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• 3.1 Sample
• 3.2 ELQ

31
3.1 Sample
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• The non-probability sample consists of 124
  Finnish teachers from four comprehensive (n 84)
  and two upper secondary (n 40) schools.
• All the schools were located in Helsinki, capital
  of Finland (about 560 000 inhabitants, 9.3 of
  total population 5 223 442).

32
3.1 Sample
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• The respondents age was classified into four
  categories (1) 21 to 30 years old (n 18,
  14.5) (2) 31 to 40 years old (n 25, 20.2)
  (3) 41 to 50 years old (n 34, 27.4) (4) over
  50 years old (n 39, 31.5).
• Seventy per cent of the respondents were females
  (n 87, 70.2), the rest were males (n 29,
  23.4).

33
3.2 Emotional Leadership Questionnaire
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• ELQ operationalises Goleman and his colleagues
  (2002) four domains of emotional intelligence
  characteristics with 51 items
• (1) self-awareness,
• (2) self-management,
• (3) social awareness and
• (4) relationship management.

34
4. Results
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• RQ 1 Comparison of the mean values and standard
  deviations of the 51 ELQ items measuring
  teachers evaluations on their principals EL.
• RQ 2 Examination of the variable structure of
  ELQ to test it against the theoretical EI model.

35
4. Results
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• RQ 1 Teachers Evaluations on Principals
  Emotional Leadership Competencies.
• Results indicated that school principals were
  able to
• keep disruptive emotions and impulses under
  control,
• adapt to new challenges and
• see the upside in the events.
• The result of high emotional self-control was
  expected, as it is a highly respected leader
  ability in Finnish work culture.

36
4. Results
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• RQ 1 Teachers Evaluations on Principals
  Emotional Leadership Competencies.
• Respondents were most unsatisfied to their
  principals lack of high personal standards that
  would drive them to constantly seek improvements
  in performance.
• Further, teachers would see their leaders to
  possess higher ability to monitor parents and
  students satisfaction carefully to ensure they
  are getting what they need.
• As expected, leaders skills to resolve
  disagreements and to generate an atmosphere of
  friendly collegiality would benefit from
  improvement.

37
(No Transcript)
38
4. Results
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• RQ 2 Variable Structure of the Emotional
  Leadership Scale.
• The clustering of eighteen EL characteristics was
  further studied to see if the theoretical model
  of four domains (Goleman et al., 2002) is present
  in this sample.
• The visual inspection of the Bayesian network
  shows that the model is unidimensional, as all
  four EI domains are connected to each other in
  the model. (Figure 2.)

39
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
40
4. Results
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• RQ 2 Variable Structure of the Emotional
  Leadership Scale.
• Figure 2 shows that clustering of the EI domains
  follows the theoretical assumption.
• First cluster depicting leaders self-awareness
  (i) leads to two other clusters of
  self-management (ii) and social awareness (iii).
• Fourth domain, relationship management (iv) is
  related to both second and third domains as
  follows.

41
4. Results
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• RQ 2 Variable Structure of the Emotional
  Leadership Scale.
• The predictive model shows that principal who is
  able to cut through red tape or even bend the
  rules is experienced by his/her subordinates as
  an influential person who is able to overcome
  barriers to change.

42
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
EL_ii_08_23 My superior does not hesitate to cut
through bureaucratic obstacles. EL_iv_14_40 My
superior knows how to create a network of support
for a new initiative. EL_iv_16_45 My superior
is a strong advocate for change even in the face
of opposition.
43
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
EL_ii_08_23 My superior does not hesitate to cut
through bureaucratic obstacles. EL_iv_14_40 My
superior knows how to create a network of support
for a new initiative. EL_iv_16_45 My superior
is a strong advocate for change even in the face
of opposition.
44
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
EL_ii_08_23 My superior does not hesitate to cut
through bureaucratic obstacles. EL_iv_14_40 My
superior knows how to create a network of support
for a new initiative. EL_iv_16_45 My superior
is a strong advocate for change even in the face
of opposition.
45
4. Results
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• RQ 2 Variable Structure of the Emotional
  Leadership Scale.
• Investigation of predictive dependencies showed
  that empathetic leader with high intercultural
  abilities is able to promote teamwork and
  collaboration, manage conflict situations, and
  develop others.

46
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
EL_iii_10_30 My superior is able to get along
with people of diverse backgrounds or
from other cultures. EL_iv_15_42
My superior shows a genuine interest in helping
his/her subordinates. EL_iv_17_49 In conflict
situations, my superior is able to draw out all
parties and understand
the differing perspectives. EL_iv_18_51 My
superior draws others into active, enthusiastic
commitment to the collective
effort.
47
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
EL_iii_10_30 My superior is able to get along
with people of diverse backgrounds or
from other cultures. EL_iv_15_42
My superior shows a genuine interest in helping
his/her subordinates. EL_iv_17_49 In conflict
situations, my superior is able to draw out all
parties and understand
the differing perspectives. EL_iv_18_51 My
superior draws others into active, enthusiastic
commitment to the
collective effort.
48
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
EL_iii_10_30 My superior is able to get along
with people of diverse backgrounds or
from other cultures. EL_iv_15_42
My superior shows a genuine interest in helping
his/her subordinates. EL_iv_17_49 In conflict
situations, my superior is able to draw out all
parties and understand
the differing perspectives. EL_iv_18_51 My
superior draws others into active, enthusiastic
commitment to the
collective effort.
49
4. Results
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• RQ 2 Variable Structure of the Emotional
  Leadership Scale.
• Where domain boundaries are not following the
  theoretical model, a closer examination reveals
  theoretically justifiable item-level
  dependencies.
• For example, predictive model shows that
  principals conflict management competency is
  positively connected with his/her level of
  optimism.

50
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
EL_iv_17_49 In conflict situations, my superior
is able to draw out all parties and
understand the differing
perspectives. EL_ii_09_26 My superior sees
other people in positive rather than in negative
light. EL_ii_09_25 My superior has an
optimistic "glass half full" outlook.
51
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
EL_iv_17_49 In conflict situations, my superior
is able to draw out all parties and
understand the differing
perspectives. EL_ii_09_26 My superior sees
other people in positive rather than in negative
light. EL_ii_09_25 My superior has an
optimistic glass half full outlook.
52
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
EL_iv_17_49 In conflict situations, my superior
is able to draw out all parties and
understand the differing
perspectives. EL_ii_09_26 My superior sees
other people in positive rather than in negative
light. EL_ii_09_25 My superior has an
optimistic glass half full outlook.
53
4. Results
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• RQ 2 Variable Structure of the Emotional
  Leadership Scale.
• Another boundary-crossing dependency worth
  mentioning is the one between items EL_ii_08_21
  (My superior seizes opportunities rather than
  simply waits for them to come.) and EL_i_03_07
  (My superior welcomes difficult assignments
  knowing that he/she is able to meet the
  expectations.).
• Predictive examination of the interdependency
  shows that superiors strong self-confidence
  leads to opportunity-seizing, i.e. initiative,
  behavior.

54
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
EL_ii_08_21 My superior seizes opportunities
rather than simply waits for
them to come. EL_i_03_07 My superior
welcomes difficult assignments knowing that
he/she is able to meet
the expectations.
55
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
EL_ii_08_21 My superior seizes opportunities
rather than simply waits for
them to come. EL_i_03_07 My superior
welcomes difficult assignments knowing that
he/she is able to meet
the expectations.
56
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
EL_ii_08_21 My superior seizes opportunities
rather than simply waits for
them to come. EL_i_03_07 My superior
welcomes difficult assignments knowing that
he/she is able to meet
the expectations.
57
5. Discussion
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• Matthews, Zeidner and Roberts state that before
  evaluating distinctiveness of any EI instrument,
  researcher needs to ascertain the statistical
  dependency between the instrument and existing
  measures of intelligence, as well as established
  personality dimensions, for example, those of the
  Five Factor Model neuroticism, extroversion,
  openness, agreeableness and consciousness (2002,
  178).

58
5. Discussion
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• In this study, we calculated correlations between
  the four EL domains and four Spiritual
  Sensitivity Scales (1) Awareness sensing, (2)
  Mystery sensing, (3) Value sensing, and (4)
  Community sensing (Tirri, Nokelainen Ubani,
  2006).
• The results of correlational analysis revealed
  zero correlations between the EL and SSS
  components.

59
5. Discussion
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

• In the current version of ELQ, we asked teachers
  to evaluate their superiors according to our
  fixed, person-related questions.
• In the next version we will add an additional
  scale measuring the importance of each question
  in a five-point Likert scale.
• This allows us to compare personal level EL
  factors to other measures, for example, the
  Multiple Intelligences Profiling Questionnaire
  (MIPQ), an operationalization of Howard
  Gardners MI theory, (Tirri, K., Komulainen,
  Nokelainen Tirri, H., 2002).

60
Finnish Urban School Teacher's Evaluations on
Principals Emotional Leadership Competencies

• Abstract. This paper presents a 51-item
  self-rating Likert-scale Emotional Leadership
  Questionnaire (ELQ) that operationalises Goleman,
  Boyatzis and McKees (2002) four domains of
  Emotional Intelligence (EI) with eighteen
  characteristics. The sample consists of 124
  Finnish teachers from four comprehensive and two
  upper secondary schools. The construct validity
  of the ELQ was tested with following two stages
  (1) Comparison of the mean values and standard
  deviations of the 51 ELQ items measuring
  teachers evaluations on their principals
  Emotional Leadership (EL) and (2) examination of
  the variable structure of ELQ to test it against
  the theoretical EI model. Results showed that
  school principals were able to keep disruptive
  emotions and impulses under control they were
  able to adapt to new challenges and see the
  upside in the events. The theoretical structure
  of EI was present at least in component level in
  this domain. Further, the visual inspection of
  the Bayesian dependency network showed that all
  four EL domains were present in the model derived
  from the empirical sample.