The development and evaluation of an emotional intelligence and leadership training program in a culturally diverse population

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a relatively new construct in psychology. It has been argued by some researchers that EI can be related to personal and societal wellbeing. The growing scientific and public interest in EI however, has raised inevitable controversy in the conceptualisation, assessment, and the development of the new construct. The purpose of this thesis is to empirically evaluate whether it is possible to improve EI through an Emotionally Intelligence and Leadership Training Program (EILTP) specifically developed for this thesis. In order to develop the EILTP a review of the literature was undertaken in the areas of EI and leadership as well as in the related constructs of personality and mental health. The conceptualisation, validity, and assessment of the construct of EI were also investigated, as well as the main approaches in the pedagogy of EI and leadership training. The evaluation of the EILTP was investigated using two studies with two heterogeneous samples. Study One involved 82 participants aged between 18 and 62, (Mean=41.23, SD=10.14) and Study Two involved 80 participants aged between 23 and 61 (Mean=39.46, SD=10.40). Participants’ performance was measured pre- and post-training by Genos EI, NEO FFI, DASS 21, and the Transformational Leadership Questionnaire. The findings indicated significant correlations between specific EI dimensions and participants’ years of employment and significant differences between EI dimensions and participants’ cultural background, suggesting that EI may be related to years of vocational experience and differences in culture. Therefore it was argued that EI may be learned and developed by social, vocational, and cultural influences. The evaluation of the EILTP revealed significant improvement on participants’ scores on specific EI dimensions in the Experimental group, following completion of the training program but not in the Control group. Interestingly, significant changes on specific facets of personality in addition to improvements on EI were also observed in the experimental group. As there was no overt training included in EILTP on personality, it was argued that by improving EI through an EI training program, participants’ performance on specific domains of personality may also change. The influences of culture on EI, personality, mental health, and leadership, within a culturally diverse sample were further explored. The limitations of this study and the implications on EI training programs were considered and directions for future research were identified. The findings in the two studies reported in this thesis contribute to the existing controversy about the conceptualisation of EI by addressing relevant issues in the discriminant and incremental validity of the construct.