Emotional Intelligence and Trust in Servant Leadership
Discussion
Outline of the results
The aim of this study was to determine the relationships between emotional intelligence, trust in the manager and servant leadership. The results of the analysis suggest that significant relationships can be found between emotional intelligence, trust and servant leadership. Furthermore, the path coefficients of the best fitting and most parsimonious model indicate that emotional intelligence and trust have a statistically significant positive relationship with servant leadership.
The relationship between emotional intelligence and servant leadership has not been extensively studied. The existing wealth of literature, however, does suggest a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership (mostly transformational leadership). These sources conclude that supervisors and managers with a high level of emotional intelligence are seen by subordinates as better leaders. The results of the current study provide evidence for the relationship between emotional intelligence and servant leadership. Respondents who rated their manager as having a high level of emotional intelligence also rated their manager as exhibiting a high level of servant leadership. This contradicts the finding of Barbuto, who found no significant relationship between emotional intelligence of the leader and followers' perception about their leader's servant leadership behaviour.
The relationship between emotional intelligence and trust in the immediate supervisor was also significant. This confirms the conceptual link between emotional intelligence and trust in the immediate supervisor. Leaders who are able to understand and manage their emotions and display self-control act as role models for followers; in so doing they enhance the followers' trust and respect for the leader. This relationship between emotional intelligence and trust in the immediate supervisor (t = 2.6; p < 0.05) was correspondingly found in a South African context (n = 178) by Schlechter and Strauss.
A significant relationship was also found between servant leadership and trust in the immediate supervisor. This confirms the conceptual relationship between servant leadership and trust in the immediate supervisor as suggested in the literature. Farling proposed that followers of servant leadership would place their trust in the leader as a result of the leader's concern that puts the followers' self-interest first. In this regard, the servant leader does not persuade the follower to trust, but rather portrays their authentic behaviours and values, such as emotional intelligence, appreciation of others, empowerment, integrity, internal self-change, persuasion and service, as an example to others. In fact, Beck argues that servant leaders influence others through developing trusting relationships.
Greenleaf perceived servant leadership as both a product and an antecedent of leader and organisational trust. This may be because servant leadership increases perceptions of leader trustworthiness, which has a reciprocal relationship with leader trust. Servant leadership behaviours include expressing authenticity, humility and providing guidance to employees, hence leaving employees with a sense of being empowered by their leader. With these characteristics in mind, it can be understood that it takes time for a leader to authentically nurture and exhibit servant leadership behaviours. Only when the dimensions of service, trust and emotional intelligence are aligned and fully integrated within the leader does such a leader ascend to meaningfulness. Therefore, much of the findings seem to be attributable to how long a (servant) leader has been in their specific role. To this end both Baker and Beck found that the longer a leader is in a leadership role, the more frequent the servant leader behaviours such as trust, coping, emotional intelligence and altruism are perceived by followers. Consequently, it most likely also applies to the findings of this study, especially when one considers that about half (42.1%) of the respondents have been reporting to their current manager for more than one year. Time could subsequently be offered as an interpretation for the results on the relationships between the variables in this study.
Inspection of the proposed relationships between the latent variables revealed that there are significant paths between emotional intelligence, servant leadership and trust. In light of these results, the following possible interpretations can be made: (1) that trust is significantly influenced by explicit leader emotional intelligence, (2) that the subordinate's level of trust in their manager has a substantial impact on the subordinate's perception of their managers servant leadership levels and (3) that explicit leader emotional intelligence and the trust that subordinates have in their leader have a significant impact on how they view their supervisor or manager's level of servant leadership. These possible deductions are consistent with the view that the reporting period to the current manager could influence an individual's perception of the behaviours that leaders may display and to what extent the leader has been able to develop trust in the follower.