0.1 Nicely, k., womack, j., & Wright, l. (july 2009). emotional  (Page 3/5)

Literature review

Salovey and Mayer (1990) are among the key researchers of the past twenty years who have advanced emotional intelligence as a valid component of what intelligence is understood to be. In their construct, emotions are either positive or negative responses to events and motivate people to act in certain ways, including prioritizing their actions. A person exercises emotional intelligence when he assesses and expresses his own emotions, recognizes emotions in other people, and is motivated to adapt his behaviors accordingly.

Goleman (1995) drew from the work of Salovey&Mayer (1990) and other theorists to further describe what it means to be emotionally intelligent and he explained why emotional intelligence is an important dimension of human interactions. Goleman built part of his case on human physiology, describing the role of two parts of the brain: the thalamus and the amygdala . The amygdala serves as an emergency response mechanism through which signals are sent from the brain to other parts of the body before stimuli have been fully processed by the neocortex. These signals trigger emotional responses which can be determining factors in whether a person remains safe when confronted with physical danger (i.e. the fight or flight response) or whether he laughs or cries when told he has just been fired from his job. Goleman provided many examples of scenarios in which a person’s emotional response to a situation can become more important that the person’s cognitive ability. Fortunately for school leaders who want to gain these skills, Goleman concluded that the ability to assess and manage one’s emotions in a given situation can be learned and improved.

Palmer (2003) further developed the conceptualization of emotional intelligence by applying a goodness of fit analysis to instruments that measure emotional intelligence. He found that no one instrument clearly emerged as a statistically good fit for conceptualizations of emotional intelligence. Palmer proposed a new taxonomy that included a dimension associated with leadership: Interpersonal Management , refering to the ability of someone to manage his own emotions and manage the emotions of others. The addition of the management dimension to previous conceptualizations of emotional intelligence further established the role that emotional intelligence plays in effective leadership.

Mills and Rouse (2009) stated, “That there is a moderately strong relationship between emotional intelligence an effective leadership” (p. 2). They conducted a meta-analysis to determine if a relationship exists between emotional intelligence and effective leadership. The results of the study suggested a moderately strong relationship between emotional intelligence effective leadership, r = .383, p<.05.

Mills and Rouse also suggested that emotional intelligence is a concept that school leaders should assess for themselves and that it should be incorporated in the evaluation process. School leaders who understand their own emotional intelligence are able to lead and interact with others more effectively. Also, the researchers suggested that emotional intelligence be used as an assessment tool for those entering educational leadership preparation programs.