Assessing the Relationship among Emotional Intelligence, Creativity and Empowering Leadership: An Empirical Study

Abstract

The study is conducted to unveil the relationship among emotional intelligence of
supervisors, creativity, and empowering leadership competencies perceived by the
subordinates. Emotional intelligence was measured by the Emotional Quotient Index (Rahim
et al., 2002) while creativity was measured by the Creativity Scale (Zhou & George, 2001).
Additionally, empowering leadership was measured by Ahearne, Mathieu, and Rapps’ (2005)
scale. The data for the study were collected from 142 subordinates (who rated their
supervisors’ emotional intelligence, creativity, and empowering leadership capability)
working at different organizations in Chittagong with the help of a structured printed survey
instrument. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, bivariate
correlation, and regression analysis. The results demonstrated a positive correlation between
emotional intelligence and creativity (r=0.73). Strong relationship was also found between
emotional intelligence and empowering leadership (r=0.75). An important implication of the
study is that modern organizations should focus on improving emotional intelligence
competencies of those managers who feel encouraged to transfer responsibilities and to
support employees to be creative. The limitations and further research directions are also
discussed.