Emotional intelligence of school principals in managing change: Malaysian perspective

Abstract

The increasing demands for accountability and school reform continuously challenge the roles of school leaders. Today, school leadership is no longer task driven per se, but emotionally compelling as emotions and change are interlinked at the micro-level of organisational behaviours. The purposes of the study were to examine the levels of Principal Change Leadership Emotional Intelligence (PCLEI) in Malaysian secondary schools and the demographic determinants of PCLEI. Analysis of the survey was performed based on the data of 743 school principals, 2021 senior assistants and 2707 teachers. The findings revealed that, (a) school principals were rated as Excellent in PCLEI; (b) in terms of dimensions, school principals were reported Excellent in Emotional Regulation and Emotional Utilisation, and Good in Emotional Perceiving and Expressing and Emotional Understanding; and (c) PCLEI was reliably related to gender, race, age and seniority but not academic qualification.