Principals’ leadership styles: the role of emotional intelligence and achievement motivation

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of emotional intelligence (EI) and achievement motivation (AM) on elementary school principals’ leadership styles. This study investigates the contribution of EI and AM on the two major leadership categories: the task-oriented and relationship-oriented leadership.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is a quantitative study with the implementation of correlation and hierarchical regression analysis. The surveys (i.e. EI scale, AM scale, leadership style questionnaire) were sent randomly to 280 elementary school principals in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, and 90 of them completed the survey (mostly male=77.78 percent).FindingsPrincipals’ EI significantly predicted both task-oriented and relationship-oriented leadership. In contrast, the principals’ AM yielded non-significant results in predicting both task-oriented and relationship-oriented leadership style. The results also suggested that the effect of EI on two major leadership styles (i.e. task- and relationship-orientation) outperformed the leader’s AM.Research limitations/implicationsThis study did not consider the principals’ performance in the analysis. Future studies should also address this issue by considering leadership performance as well as different culture and context. On the other hand, the authors developed new measures rather than using preexisting measures. Although the measures have been constructed according to the scale construction principles and reached an acceptable standard, future research should advance the psychometric property of the scales.Originality/valueThis study discusses the effect of EI and AM on task- and relationship-orientation leadership. In addition, this study has also brought a new insight into understanding leadership styles in collective culture such as Indonesia.