Emotional-Social Intelligence, Leadership, and Gender in Contemporary New Jersey School Districts

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the self-perceived emotional-social intelligence and the self-perceived leadership characteristics of New Jersey educational administrators in relation to issues potentially complicated by gender. Both emotional-social intelligence and leadership were categorized into more specific aspects for comparison purposes. I administered a version of the Bar-On EQ-i test (EQ-i 2.0 online version) for emotional intelligence to school administrators in educational leadership positions in various New Jersey school districts. Additionally, the educational administrators completed the online version of the Leadership Practices Inventory assessment by Kouzes and Posner measuring “The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership.” A minimum sample of twenty-five participants was sought from across all district types in New Jersey via emailed invitations to over five hundred individuals. More than twenty-five administrators ultimately agreed to participate; however, out of the forty-two administrators who did so and completed the consent agreement, two elected to formally withdraw their participation after the research was in process. Any completed responses from these two individuals were withdrawn from final analyses. From the remaining forty participants, two female administrators did not complete the EQ-i 2.0 assessment, and one male and three females did not complete the LPI assessment. Although the proposal for this research initially included a potential open-ended semi-structured interview designed by the researcher in which specific points would be analyzed if the need for such emerged from the quantitative data collection process, this phase ultimately did not occur; however, it is my recommendation that a fully independent but related qualitative project be undertaken in the future. Several research questions were posed and studied. It was assumed that there are no significant differences between male and female school leaders’ responses on the two instruments. An analysis of variance was used to determine the relationship between emotional-social intelligence and administrators’ self-perceived leadership abilities when analyzing response variables and explanatory variables of each gender group. Resultant data were analyzed and reported to include measures of validity and reliability. This work may provide a framework to better understand the emotional-social acuity, leadership skills, and experiential history of male and female New Jersey educational leaders in relation to self-perceptions of emotional-social intelligence and leadership characteristics. The research results have the potential to provide preliminary suggestions for additional research in the area of leadership development in schools and in graduate preparation programs.