The Influence and Interplay of Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Type on Early Childhood Educators’ Organizational Commitment

Tracie L Shepherd

doi:10.37391/ijbmr.090207

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of emotional intelligence on the organizational commitment of early childhood educators. Organizational commitment and its precursor, job satisfaction, have gained relevance because of routinely high industry of turnover. The interplay among educators’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and supervisors’ leadership type were secondarily assessed. A valid and reliable survey was administered to educators in the southeastern United States. Although select dimensions were correlated, no significant relationship was found between educators’ overall emotional intelligence and organizational commitment. However, emotional intelligence was moderately correlated with job satisfaction. There was no significant relationship found between supervisors’ leadership traits and processes and educators’ organizational commitment, although educators’ job satisfaction and supervisors’ leadership traits and processes were slightly correlated. Based on positive associations within the current study, it is recommended that organizations incorporate emotional intelligence assessment into the educator hiring process as well as determine the job satisfaction and organizational commitment levels and leadership type preferences of current educators as a basis for forming training budgets, retention strategies, and succession management plans.

Highlights

As the United States population topped 330 million in 2019, roughly 66% of mothers of children from birth to age six were in the workforce, and almost 76% of employed mothers worked full time [1]
The result from the current study was still deemed satisfactory given the interrelatedness of emotional intelligence and job satisfaction [24], and subsequently, the identification of job satisfaction as a precursor to organizational commitment [25]
As indicated by results from Pearson’s R, related averaged dimensions were observed below the 0.05 level. This finding was consistent with Humphreys, et al [26] who found a significant correlation among emotional intelligence, emotional coping ability, and organizational commitment indicating that some workers who exhibited higher emotional coping abilities were more committed overall when certain emotional intelligence dimensions were high rather than low

Summary

Introduction

As the United States population topped 330 million in 2019, roughly 66% of mothers of children from birth to age six were in the workforce, and almost 76% of employed mothers worked full time [1]. With nationwide job turnover for early childhood educators between 26 and 40%, the current employee shortage in many organizations has reached crisis proportions [4]. Such staffing shortage causes undue burden in organizations because it depletes the pool of applicants in addition to causing recurring turnover in this high-emotion high-demand job [4]. Teaching teams made up of high performing emotionally intelligent educators should directly contribute to positive teacher-child interactions, developmentally appropriate learning, an inviting classroom environment, and comprehensive organizational quality. High quality early childhood programs could gain performance-based advanced environmental ratings, improved licensing scores, positive compliance audits, and distinguished national accreditation – all tied to additional money and resources. Additional avenues and opportunities to meet eligibility for grant funds would facilitate expansion of services and facilities based on demonstrated establishment of superior early childhood educational services

Objectives

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Results

Conclusion