Leadership and Emotional Intelligence

experiential learning and situated learning. Research on the context – the Federal
government – was salient. Development of adults was important, in terms of
understanding the experiences and situations in which EI development occurs for leaders
within the Federal government. Given the conceptual framework, therefore, primary key
words searched were: learning; adult learning; experiential learning; situated learning; EI;
leader development; leadership development; leadership theories; leadership
perspectives; Federal government; and public sector.
Scholarly, peer-reviewed publications were researched, the majority of which
were published during the past 10-20 years (EI as a concept was first published in 1990
by Salovey and Mayer), plus seminal literature from earlier years. Ultimately, the study’s
research question – What are the experiences of effective Federal government leaders in
developing their EI? – guided the entire literature review framework. In support of this
framework, an array of academic databases was searched, such as ABI/INFORM
Complete, Business Source Complete, Business Source Premier, Emerald Library, ERIC,
JSTOR, ProQuest, PsycARTICLES, and PsycInfo. Research source selection was a
product of triangulation: peer-reviewed publications that centered on human resource
development and management issues; reports and studies germane to the Federal
government; and articles derived from the author’s Doctorate of Education studies at the
George Washington University. Notably, searches on the term leadership development
yielded far more results than leader development. This may be due in part to the extant
literature focusing on mission orientation (connoting leadership) more so than building
tools for single leader success.