Access Type

Open Access Dissertation

Date of Award

January 2014

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Instructional Technology

First Advisor

Ingrid Guerra-Lopez

Abstract

ABSTRACT

AN EXPLORATION OF EMOTIVIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO HIGHER EDUCATION EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP PRACTICES OF LEADERS IN A COMMUNITY COLLEGE ENVIRONMENT

By

VICKI A. GOLDEN

November, 2014

Advisor: Dr. Ingrid Guerra-Lopez

Major: Performance Improvement

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

Emotional intelligence (EI) has been shown to directly relate to the enhancement of successful leadership attributes (Giesecke, 2008a, 2008b; Goleman, 2011a; Kruml & Yockey, 2010; Nadler, 2011; Riggio, 2010) and effective leaders have been found to possess significant degrees of EI in business settings (Lykins, 2011; Allen, Shankman, & Miguel, 2012; Rehman, 2011)). Although the positive effects of EI on leadership in business have been repeatedly demonstrated (Abraham, 2006; Goleman, 2011a; Hughes, Tompson, & Terrel; 2009), there is a lack of information on the impact of EI in higher educational leaders (Indoo & Ajeya, 2012; Kreitz, 2009; Landau & Meiroveich, 2011).There is also a need for EI to be implemented in the curricula of higher education (Abraham, 2006; Bay & Mckeage, 2006; Jones & Abraham, 2009; Kiel, Bezboruah, & Oyun, 2009; Manring, 2012; Tucker, Sojka, & Barone, McCarthy, 2000) and there has been a call for the establishment of community college leadership competencies related to of EI (American Association of Community colleges (AACC ), 2005). The purpose of the current study is to fill a gap in the current performance improvement literature as it is relative to community college senior leadership, EI, and frequency levels of leaders engaging and performing effective leadership behavioral practices. A quantitative research approach and a correlational research design are proposed. The study population sample is senior leaders from selective community colleges located within the United States' Region Two Midwest's division three, namely the East North Central Division which is inclusive of the following five states: Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and, Wisconsin (The United States Census Bureau, n.d. a). Senior leaders participates will be invited to participate in this study by completing the Assessing Emotions Scale, AES (Schutte et al., 1998) to measure EI and the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) to measure leadership efficacy. Descriptive statistics will be used to provide information on senior community college leaders' self-reported degree of EI and their level of self-reported of frequency of standing relative to effective leadership practices in the domain of higher education. Inferential statistics consisting of a Spearman moment correlation analysis will be used to determine the relationship between EI leadership attributes and leadership efficacy. The results of the investigation may provide new data that could advance post secondary educational leadership to improve institutional performance and provide information on whether EI theory can be extended to the community college. This information may encourage community colleges to acknowledge the vital need for their leaders, faculty, and students to become emotional intelligent by their leaders participating in effective professional development EI programs who could impact and improve their performance as EI may also be included in their curriculum for their students who could substantially impact social change.

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