The relationship of school principals’ leadership styles and emotional intelligence on school effectiveness / Sueb Ibrahim

Research on effective leadership and emotional intelligence is growing. Yet, there still remains a gap on the relationships that exist between leadership and emotional intelligence especially on school effectiveness. Utilizing these connections, the main aim of this study was to identify the relationship of principals’ leadership style and emotional intelligence and on school effectiveness. This study utilized both quantitative and qualitative approaches in gathering the data for this study. A total of 115 school principals participated in this study for the quantitative analysis while 8 school principals participated in the qualitative analysis. A focus group interview was also conducted for the development of the School Effectiveness Indicator Instrument (SEII) that measured the level of school effectiveness. Two other instruments that were adapted for this study were Bass and Avolio’s Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ5X Form) that identified the principals’ leadership styles, and Mayer - Salovey - Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) was used to operationalize emotional intelligence. The findings of this study are as follow. First, it indicated that the principals perceived themselves as exhibiting a highly transformational leadership style as compared to the other two leadership styles, namely transactional and laissez- faire