Doctoral Degrees (Psychology)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Psychology) by Author "Boshof, A."

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    Emotional intelligence and leadership in corporate management: a fortigenic perspective
    (University of the Free State, 2006-11) Prins, Annette; Van Den Berg, H. S.; Boshof, A.; UFS’s Directorate Research
    English: The changing world of work necessitates a new approach to managing organisations and employees together with a stronger focus on employee wellbeing. The main aim of the study was to investigate how manager emotional intelligence influences psychological climate, job affect, and indices of work-related well-being in sub-ordinates. These include job engagement, health and contemplated quitting. Secondly, focus fell on the processes by which the proposed effects took place. Next, the extent to which these processes were mediated by sub-ordinates’ own level of emotional intelligence was investigated. Fourthly, measuring instruments were revalidated to ascertain their fit to data in the South African sample. A cross sectional correlational design was used. The sample consisted of 198 participants from private hospitals in rural and urban areas in South Africa. The sample composed mainly of nursing staff but also included health care managers. Each manager/leader was subsequently coupled (in dyads) with an employee for whom he/she acted as direct manager/team leader. The most prominent measuring instruments (developed abroad) were revalidated to ascertain how well the properties described by the test developers fit the data obtained from the current sample. Results of the confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the factors identified by the test constructors did not fit the data of the current sample well since discrepancies presented when compared to the original factor structure. Four a priori models, depicting tentative causal relationships between emotionally intelligent managers, their influence on the psychological (work) climate, subordinate job affect, work engagement, health, burnout and contemplated quitting, were investigated. The employees’ own emotional intelligence was then brought into the equation. Descriptive statistics, Productmoment correlations, multiple regressions, and structural equations modelling (SEM) were applied to analyse the data. SEM was used to test the goodness-of-fit indexes of the hypothesised models on the data. The subscales of the questionnaires served as manifest variables. Emotional intelligence did indeed contribute to how the individual experiences work climate in the current study. For manager EI the positive influence was small and non-significant whereas it was moderately strong and significant in the case of the employee’s own EI. Psychological work climate and job affect clearly demonstrated their significance as mediators in relation to indices of well-being at work and therefore needs careful consideration in the workplace. The results again serve to reiterate the important influence of affective experiences in the workplace. In a quest to understand organisational behaviour better, leaders/managers will do well to consider how best to effectively manage the affective climate at work and enhance emotional intelligence.