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The Joint Influence of Supervisor and Subordinate Emotional Intelligence on Leader–Member Exchange

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between supervisor and subordinate levels of emotional intelligence (EI) and leader–member exchange (LMX). Drawing on the similarity-attraction paradigm and behavioral integration theory, we propose that supervisor–subordinate EI similarity will play a prominent role in LMX development.

Design/methodology/approach

Measures of EI and demographic and personality control variables (conscientiousness and core self-evaluations) were collected from senior public service executives and their direct subordinates (N = 37 dyads). Subordinates also completed a measure assessing their perceptions of LMX.

Findings

Results of both hierarchical moderated multiple regression and difference score analyses showed that supervisor–subordinate EI similarity was significantly associated with LMX.

Implications

Our results temper recent findings supporting direct effects of EI on various workplace outcomes, and reinforce a dyadic approach to studying individual difference variables in LMX development. These results also suggest that HR initiatives designed to develop EI should target both employees and their managers to successfully cultivate LMX in the organization.

Originality/value

This is one of the first studies to examine EI in relation to LMX, and in particular, the joint influence of supervisor and subordinate EI on LMX.

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Notes

  1. Recently, “social intelligence,” a construct reflecting “one’s ability to get along with others while winning their cooperation” (Albrecht 2005, p. 13), has been gaining attention in the popular press (e.g., Albrecht 2005; Goleman 2006). While the roots of social intelligence date back to Thorndike (1920), this construct has attracted limited empirical research attention. Given some ambiguity in the literature regarding the relation between EI and social intelligence (e.g., Davies et al. 1998; Landy 2005) and their relative effects on leadership (Riggio et al. 2002), we encourage future studies to explore the dimensional structure of social intelligence and its discriminant validity relative to EI.

  2. Consistent with previous studies (e.g., Bernerth et al. 2008; Green et al. 1996), supervisor–subordinate differences on gender, age, and education were measured by calculating an index of the absolute differences between supervisor and subordinate scores on these variables.

  3. Difference scores for core self-evaluations and conscientiousness were calculated in the same manner as EI (i.e., using the square root of the sum of squared differences of supervisor and subordinate responses to these scale items).

  4. These analyses indicated that neither supervisor–subordinate differences on CSE (r = .05, p > .10) nor conscientiousness (r = −.05, p > .10) were significantly associated with LMX.

  5. Given the demonstrated difficulty in detecting interaction effects in field studies (McClelland and Judd 1993) and the theoretical rationale underlying the precise pattern of the hypothesized interaction, we used one-tailed tests to evaluate the simple effects in the current study.

  6. A similar picture emerges when examining the simple effect of subordinate EI at high and low levels of supervisor EI. There is a significant positive effect (b = .71, p < .05, one-tailed) of subordinate EI at high levels of supervisor EI. Moreover, although the simple effect of subordinate EI at low supervisor EI is not significant (b = −.57, p = .06, one-tailed), it is in the hypothesized direction.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6, Canada

    Greg J. Sears

  2. Departments of Psychology and Management, Saint Mary’s University, 923 Robie Street, Halifax, NS, B3H 3C3, Canada

    Camilla M. Holmvall

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Sears, G.J., Holmvall, C.M. The Joint Influence of Supervisor and Subordinate Emotional Intelligence on Leader–Member Exchange. J Bus Psychol 25, 593–605 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-009-9152-y

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