Emotional Intelligence as a Human Leadership Capability in the AI-Driven Technology Workplace

Abstract

This study examines emotional intelligence (EI) as a human leadership capability among information technology professionals and interprets empirical relationships within the contemporary AI-driven technology workplace. The empirical foundation is a quantitative, correlational, cross-sectional dissertation study. A total of 230 surveys were collected in 2016; 45 incomplete responses were excluded, leaving 185 usable cases. Leadership was measured with 36 items from the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ 5X), and EI was measured with the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT). Blockwise multiple regression incorporated demographic controls. Overall, EI significantly predicted transformational leadership (R² = .343, β = .585, F(1, 183) = 95.424, p < .001) and transactional leadership (R² = .222, β = .471, F (1, 183) = 52.236, p < .001) but did not significantly predict passive-avoidant leadership. Transformational leadership also showed the broadest relationship across the four EI components examined. The study contributes IT-specific evidence that EI is associated with active leadership forms and provides a defensible pre-generative-AI empirical baseline for examining human leadership capabilities in increasingly AI-enabled workplaces. Because AI was not measured in the original dataset, the study does not claim an AI effect; rather, contemporary AI and digital-leadership literature is used to interpret the continuing importance of emotional, relational, and adaptive leadership capabilities.