The Effect of Emotional Intelligence Skills on Leaders’ Performance: An Empirical Study Applied on Egyptian Public Universities

Abstract

This study is conducted to determine the effects of emotional intelligence on leaders’ performance within Egyptian universities. The concepts of emotional intelligence and employee engagement have received significant attention in both academic and business fields in the recent years. Much of the attention has been focused on the relationship between the leaders’ performance and organizational results. The attention has not come without controversy related to many aspects of each concept. The debate continues amongst researchers of how to define and measure emotional intelligence, and whether emotional intelligence is a new type of intelligence or simply another way of assessing personality characteristics. The research examines the role that emotional intelligence plays in leaders’ performance at the Egyptian universities. The goal is to draw conclusions about the effect of emotional intelligence on leaders’ performance among leaders’ candidates, and offer relevant recommendations for selecting, training, developing, and evaluating leaders. 

The research sample includes the university leaders, as higher education is so important in Egypt. It reveals importance of education in enhancing the competitiveness and economic development. It will help developing the knowledge economy, which will in turn create a demand for higher skill levels in most occupations. A new range of competences such as adaptability, team work, communication skills and motivation for continual learning has become critical. 

The public Egyptian universities have been chosen to be the research society because of being an important sector, which has an impact on other productive and service sectors. All sectors are affected by education policies; it is the environment which affects the mechanism of all other sectors. In short, the success or failure of the leadership process within any sector would directly affect the success of business in other sector.