Role of Emotional Intelligence in Leaders’ Decision-making

Abstract

Emotional intelligence is becoming more recognized from organizations in order to overcome competition in the fast paced business world of the 21st century. Leadership and decision-making are vital parts of the business world, and emotional intelligence shows great potential to enhance these aspects of business. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the effects emotional intelligence has on leaders’ decision-making in order to expand research in the field of emotionally intelligent decision-making and possibly enhance leaders’ decision-making processes and quality of decisions. The commissioner of the thesis is a Hungarian company which asked for extended autonomy. The theoretical backround throughly explroes well-known emotional intelligence concepts and their importance, and emotional intelligence’s role in effective leadership and decision-making. The research was done using a qualitative methodology in the forms of semi-consturcted interviews and an emotional intelligence assessment tool. The findings and analysis shows that leaders utilize emotional intelligence to remain objective in decision-making, gather vital information in the decision-making processes, communicate decisions in a professional manner, and reflect on their past decision to enhance quality of their present decisions. In addition, the research confirms that emotional intelligence positively affect leaders decisions and decision-making processes and the thesis provides recommendations for leaders and companies to enhance their decision-making processes. This research potentially expands the field of emotional intelligence in decision-making as available research regarding this topic is limited.