Leadership and Emotional Intelligence

“individuals develop subjective meanings of their own experiences” (Bloomberg &
Volpe, 2008). Emotional intelligence skills and skill sets are learned abilities and can be
developed in a variety of learner-centric ways in educational programs (G. R. Low,
personal communication, June 27, 2012).
This study takes a constructivist epistemological perspective. Constructivism is
“where the interactive power of action and learning is realized through mental framing
and its relevance to a particular context” (Yeo & Gold, 2012, p. 512). Constructivist
approaches to emotion in learning challenge the paradigm of reason and scientific-based
approaches to learning (Dirkx, 2008). These constructivist approaches are manifested in
learning oriented towards the participant, environment and action (Dirkx, 2008; Merriam
Caffarella, & Baumgartner, 2007). Accordingly, two adult leadership theories resonate:
experiential learning and situated learning, which have strong roots in pragmatism
(Dewey, 1916 et seq.). Pragmatism is “concerned with the consequences of action and
the attributions of meanings to phenomena ... thinking is to use concepts and theories to
define a problem and, as such, is part of the result of inquiry” (Elkjaer, 2009, pp. 76-77).
In adopting an interpretivist and constructivist lens for this phenomenological study,
congruence between epistemology, theoretical perspective and methodology is promoted
(Crotty, 1998). A brief description of each variable within the conceptual framework
follows.
Leadership. For purposes of the study, the Yukl (2010) definition of leadership
was used: “Leadership is the process of influencing others to understand and agree about
what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and
collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives” (p. 8). The leader’s effectiveness in