Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Nursing Leadership Styles Among Nurse Managers

Abstract

Less than 12.5% of nurses aspire to leadership roles, noting lack of support and stress as major factors in their decision not to pursue this area of practice. Psychological resiliency, described as the ability to properly adapt to stress and adversity, is key to successful nurse managers. Emotional intelligence (EI) is a related concept to resiliency and is another noteworthy predictor of leadership and management success. This study was undertaken to determine the level of and relationship between EI and leadership style of nurse managers employed in Wisconsin and Illinois facilities. A descriptive, exploratory study design was utilized, with a convenience sample of nurse managers working in 6 large Midwestern health systems. Nurse managers were invited to participate in the study by their employer, completing the online consent form and the demographic, Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) Form 5X and the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i 2.0) surveys. Statistically significant positive relationships were noted between EI and transformational leadership and the outcomes of leadership (extra effort, effectiveness, and satisfaction). No statistically significant relationships were noted between EI and transactional or laissez-faire leadership styles.

High resilience leads to better work performance in nurses: Evidence from South Asia

“…Domains leadership and planning elicited the strongest association, while both these domains depict the managerial skills in addition to technical nursing skills. In line with the findings, Tyczkowski et al () describing the leadership styles of nurse managers have also stressed the importance of nurse resilience in managerial success. The fact that six out of the seven subscales of the RAW scale (except ‘building networks’) accounted for nearly 70% of the variance of work performance is important as the RAW scale specifically comprises developable and teachable elements of resilience (Winwood et al, ).…”

Transformational leadership in nursing: a concept analysis

“…), emotional intelligence and social skills (Tyczkowski et al . ). However, the competencies considered essential to TFL could be construed as antecedents, including communication, collaboration, coaching skills and mentoring skills (O'Brien et al .…”

“…An important theoretical implication that emerges from this concept analysis is the questionable validity of the commonly used operational definition of the term ‘transformational leadership.’ TFL is defined by Bass and Avolio () as ‘a type of leadership style that leads to positive changes in those who follow.’ Leaders who use this style ‘are generally energetic, enthusiastic and passionate [as well as] … concerned and involved in the process [and] focused on helping every member of the group succeed as well’ (p. 25). A problem with this definition is that it defines Transformational Leadership on the basis of what it does, rather than what it is.…”

“…Despite the extensive research related to TFL, few antecedents have yet been proposed: leader identity (Johnson et al 2012), emotional intelligence and social skills (Tyczkowski et al 2015). However, the competencies considered essential to TFL could be construed as antecedents, including communication, collaboration, coaching skills and mentoring skills (O'Brien et al 2008, Clavelle 2012, Buckner et al 2014.…”

Health Workers' Emotional Intelligence Development: An Examination of the Potential Roles of Tenure, Education and Training

“…Theories of EI basically argue that EI is a cognitive skill that enables humans to succeed in these relationships. More interestingly, a plethora of studies (e.g., Brackett et al, 2004;Danquah and Wireko, 2014;Opuni et al, 2014;Kaur et al, 2015;Tyczkowski et al, 2015;Ozer et al, 2016) have confirmed that EI positively impacts everyday behavior and business performance indicators (e.g., job performance, service quality, customer satisfaction, etc. ), though some studies have not confirmed these effects (Farooq and Ur Rehman, 2011).…”