THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGERS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

In these volatile economic times, it is often the quality of leadership in organisations that determines their success or failure. Emotional Intelligence (El) has been topical in the last few years, especially its importance as a skill in business leaders. Various El research has revealed that a high level of El is vital for successful leadership. In the Information Systems (IS) field many professionals may be technically brilliant but often lack the El required to move into successful leadership positions within the IS field. These El skills are essential for successful leadership in all spheres of business and therefore the IS field should be no different. It is also well documented that transformational leaders motivate employees to achieve more than expected and beyond their self-interests for the good of the group. This type of leadership is particularly relevant in the current economic climate. This research aims to investigate whether a relationship exists between IS managers' El traits and their transformational leadership abilities and whether this could influence an IS professional's progression from a technical role into a successful IS leadership role. Sixteen South African IS managers completed research questionnaires which comprised an Emotional Intelligence test, a Leadership test and a researcher-designed questionnaire. The hypotheses were H-o - There is no correlation between IS managers' El and their transformational leadership abilities and H-l - There is a positive correlation between IS managers' El and their transformational leadership abilities. The two variables under investigation were Emotional Intelligence = independent variable and transformational leadership = dependent variable. Correlation analysis was performed on the data and revealed significant positive correlations between various pairs of El and transformational leadership variables. Because El is not "fixed" like IQ, it can be improved through training and practice and, as such, IS businesses may encourage their IS managers/potential IS managers to work on the improvement of their El competencies in order to become better leaders. This research was done on a small sample and in a small geographic area and is therefore not generalisable. A similar research project conducted on a much larger sample and a broader geographic area would be worthwhile.