A Dissertation Proposal

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A Cross-cultural Investigation of
Academic Leaders Emotional Intelligence
and Leadership Effectiveness
in Taiwan and the United States
A Dissertation Proposal by Hui-wen Tang (Vivian)
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To explore how and to what extent EI accounts for
effective leadership in both cultures.
Purpose of the Study

• To discern if there are noteworthy differences
  that might be explained by cultural differences.

To estimate the best fitting relationships
between EI leadership effectiveness in both
cultures.
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Research Questions

• Do cultural differences between US and Taiwan
  play a role in the relationship between emotional
  intelligence and leadership effectiveness?
• Are there differences/similarities with regard to
  the optimized (best fitting) relationships
  between EI and leadership effectiveness across
  cultures?

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Significance of the Study

• Knowledge regarding exactly how EI relates to
  leadership may lead to significant advances in
  leadership training, educational human resource
  development and the ability to select potentially
  effective leaders in different cultures.
• This study may serve as a preliminary basis for
  future research to further identify and pinpoint
  competencies necessary to improve the training of
  academic leaders assigned to work
  cross-culturally.

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Definitions of Terms

• Five leadership practices by Kouzes and Posner
  (1995)
• Three Components of Chinese (Taiwanese)
  Paternalistic leadership (Cheng 1997 Kang
  Chang 2001)
• Leadership comparisons Hofstedes five
  dimensions of difference. (Hofstede, 1998)
• Thirteen emotional skills dwelled in four key
  competencies and three potential problem areas
  (Low Nelson,1999, 2003)

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Review of Literature

• Part I 1. Culture
• 2. The Influence of Culture on
• Leadership Behavior
• 3. East/West Leadership Comparisons
• Part II 1.Models/Definitions of Leadership
• 2. General History Background of
  EI
• 3. Relationships between EI
• Transformational Leadership
• Part III Cross-cultural Examination of EI
  Leadership Effectiveness.

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I.1Culture

• The collective programming of the mind which
  distinguishes the members of one group or
  category of people from those of another
  (Hofstede,2000).

I.2 The Influence of Culture on Leadership
Behavior
Boehnke (2003) suggest that the transformational
leadership style will universally help leaders
work more effectively with people to reach their
needs and create exceptional performance.
Review of Literature
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I.3 East/West Leadership Comparisons
West Individualism The nature of leadership style
would be one that entails individualistic essence
because most business leaders would lack
emotional attachment to the company and his/her
involvement is essentially calculative.

• East
• Collectivism
• The nature of leadership
• would be one that
• emphasizes cooperative
• purposes over personal
• goals and group harmony
• over individual
• achievements.

v.s.
(Hofstede,1998 Bjerke,1999 )
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Power Distance
I.3 East/West Leadership Comparisons

• The extent to which people in a society accept a
  hierarchical or unequal distribution of power in
  a society.
• High power distance in a culture (Chinese)
  reflects acceptance of inequality and respect for
  social status or class boundaries whereas low
  power distance countries (U.S) de-emphasize
  status and class distinction.
• On Hofstedes power distance scale, United States
  scored 40 Taiwan scored 58.

(Hofstede,1998)
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II.1 Models of Leadership

• Trait- and Behavior-Based Model
• Three factors are necessary to produce
  successful leaders having strength of character
  (in terms of honesty, loyalty, courage,
  self-confidence, and self-sacrifice) having the
  requisite knowledge and application of character
  and knowledge through teaching, mentoring,
  setting an example, etc. (Meyer, 1997).

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II.1 Models of Leadership (cont.)

• Charismatic and Transformational Leadership
• Both have been associated with higher follower
  attitudes, organizational commitment, and
  performance (Kirkpartick Locke, 1996),
  increased organizational financial performance
  (Barling, Weber, Kelloway, 1996).
• The charismatic literature focused on the
  characteristics and behaviors of the leader,
  whereas the transformational literature examined
  the impact of the leader characteristics on the
  followers (Conger Kanungo, 1994).

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II.2 Models of EI

• Ability-Based Model a theoretical connection
  between emotions and cognition.
• A four-branch model of EI (1) Emotional
  Perception (2) Emotional Facilitation of
  Thought (3) Emotional Understanding (4)
  Emotional Management (Mayer Salovey, 1997)
• Mixed or Trait-based Model incorporates both
  ability factors and personality traits
• EI is defined in broad terms as a set of
  non-cognitive abilities, skills, and competencies
  that affect the way in which individuals cope
  with environmental demands (Bar-On, 1997).
• The trait-based model of EI tends to be more
  pervasive in non-academic settings than the
  ability-based approach.

II. Leadership and Emotional Intelligence
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II.2 Models of EI (cont.)

• Nelson and Lows Emotional Learning System
• A Skill-based Model
• Emotional intelligence is a learned ability to
  identify experience, understand, and express
  human emotions in healthy and productive ways. A
  psychologically sound yet practically
  comprehensible emotional intelligence measure.
• the Emotional Learning System is based on five
  systematic and sequential steps of
• Step 1 (Self Assessment Explore).
• Step 2 (Self Awareness Identify).
• Step 3 (Self Knowledge Understand).
• Step 4 (Self Development Learn).
• Step 5 (Self Improvement Apply and Model).

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II.3 EI Transformational Leadership

• Emotional intelligence is positively associated
  with transformational leadership (i.e., idealized
  influence, inspirational motivation, and
  contingent reward Barling et al., 2000).
• In this paper, a theoretical link will be made
  between skill-based emotional intelligence
  (Nelson Low, 1999) and elements of effective
  leadership as operationalized by the theory of
  transformational leadership (i.e., idealized
  influence, inspirational motivation,
  individualized consideration, and intellectual
  stimulation).

II. Leadership and Emotional Intelligence
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III. Cross-cultural examination of EI
Leadership Effectiveness

• An exploratory study examining the relationship
  between emotional intelligence and managerial
  effectiveness across three cultures concludes
  that in low power distance cultures,
  self-awareness of interactive skills is crucial
  relative to effectiveness whereas in high power
  distance cultures self-awareness of controlling
  skills may be crucial relative to effectiveness
  (Shipper Kincaid, 2003).

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Methodology

• I. Research Design
• II. Population and Sample
• III. Instrumentation
• IV. Data Analysis

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I. Research Design

• The selection of quantitative method aims at
  developing generalization that would contribute
  to leadership theory, and to explain, understand
  and better predict emotional intelligence as a
  set of competencies for effective leadership in
  the two different cultures.

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II. Population Sample

• A convenience sample was selected from the two
  universities. One is in the Southern Texas of the
  USA and has a graduate program in educational
  leadership that prepares teachers to be
  principals and superintendents. The other
  university in Taiwan has a comparable enrolment
  and educates students more broadly for
  administrative positions in public education,
  higher education, and other organizations.
• Sample size of 30 from each educational
  setting is based on the recommendation from Gall,
  Gall and Borg (2003)for correlational research,
  and grey relational analysis (Lin Liu, 2004).

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(1)Leadership Practice Inventory(Self)
Instrumentation

• Face validity, content validity and predictive
  validity in that the results are significantly
  correlated with various performance measures
  (Kouzes Postner, 1997).
• Internal reliabilities of the LPI range between
  .81 and .91 for the five leadership practices.
  Reliabilities for the LPI-self report form fall
  in the range of .71 to .85 (Kouzes Postner,
  1995). Test-retest reliability within a short
  time span is high (.93 and above), as are
  measures of concurrent validity and predictive
  validity.

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(2) The Emotional Skills Assessment Process
Instrumentation

• Construct and concurrent validity of ESAP were
  established by factor analytic and regression
  analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis was used
  to prove that fit indexes confirmed the construct
  validity of the ESAP.
• The reliability coefficient (coefficient alpha)
  of the thirteen sub-tests were above .70 with the
  exception of assertion (.60). The reliability of
  the whole assessment was .91.
• Stability coefficients (test-retest) over two
  months period (n50) exceeded .60 which indicated
  acceptable levels of scale stability. (Jin and
  Wang, 2002).

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Data Analysis

• Pearson correlation coefficients and regression
  analysis
• One-Way ANOVA
• Optimal grey relational grade derived from the
  grey system theory

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"Good leaders make people feel that they're at
the very heart of things, not at the periphery.
Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference
to the success of the organization. When that
happens people feel centered and that gives their
work meaning."
- Warren Bennis

• A leader is best when people barely know he
  exists. Not so good when people obey and acclaim
  him. Worse when they despise him. But of a good
  leader who talks little when his work is done,
  his aim fulfilled, the people will say, "We did
  it ourselves.
• -- Lao
  Tzu, Taoism--

The End