Developing a Framework for Integrating Emotional Intelligence into Crisis Leadership Models

This paper builds and empirically explains the development of a theory of introducing emotional intelligence (EI) into the models of crisis leadership with an emphasis on the EI competencies that enhance leadership performance in the context of organisational disruption. The quantitative design was cross-sectional based on survey data of 214 organisational leaders that represent corporate, healthcare, and educational industries. The operationalisation of emotional intelligence involved four dimensions competency areas of self-awareness dimension, self-regulation dimension, social awareness dimension, and relationship management dimension, which had a 5 point Likert scale measurement. Effectiveness of crisis leadership was measured in terms of clarity of decisions made, effectiveness of communication, employee morale and adaptability of the organisation. Data was analysed with SPSS by descriptive statistics, reliability test (Cronbachs alpha), Pearson correlation analysis and multicollinearity diagnostic multiple linear regression (VIF).

Descriptive findings showed that there were moderate-to-high scores of EI and crisis leadership effectiveness within the sample. Reliability test revealed high internal consistency of EI and leadership effectiveness constructs. The correlation analysis indicated that the effective crisis leadership was positively related with all of the EI dimensions, with the relationship management demonstrating the most significant correlation. Findings of the regression showed that the EI competencies, as a group, were able to predict a significant percentage of variance in the effectiveness of crisis leadership (R 2 = 0.52, p = 0.001). The strongest predictor was relationship management ( = 0.39, p = 0.001), then social awareness ( = 0.24, p = 0.001), self-awareness ( = 0.21, p = 0.004) and self-regulation ( = 0.18, p = 0.012). The values of VIF were lower than conservative values which means that there could not be any serious cases of multicollinearity.

The results validate that emotionally intelligent leadership has a significant positive impact on the effectiveness of crisis leadership by increasing the degree of trust-based relationships, empathetic communication, and ability to remain stable during pressure. According to the proposed framework, the integration of EI competencies should be systematic at all the crisis stages preparedness, response, stabilisation, recovery, and reflection. In practice, the study suggests the incorporation of EI training in the leadership development and crisis preparedness programs to enhance organisational resiliency and employee relatively high morale in case of crisis.