J. Basic. Appl. Sci. Res., 4(5)6-12, 2014 © 2014, TextRoad Publication ISSN 2090-4304 Journal of Basic and Applied Scientific Research www.textroad.com Corresponding Author: Raazia Irshad, MS Scholar at Institute of Business and Management Sciences, UET, Lahore. Contact # 0335-0371029; raaziairshad6@gmail.com Does Managers’ Emotional Intelligence Impact Employees’ Performance? Assessing Mediating Role of Transformational Leadership Raazia Irshad 1 , Maryam Saeed Hashmi 2 , Dr. Shazia Arshad 3 , Dr. Shakaib Akram 4 1 MS Scholar at Institute of Business and Management Sciences, UET, Lahore 2 Faculty at Institute of Business and Management Sciences, UET, Lahore 3 Faculty at Institute of Business and Management Sciences, UET, Lahore 4 Faculty at University of Central Punjab, UCP, Lahore Received: March 6 2014 Accepted: April 19 2014 ABSTRACT Managers’ emotional intelligence and leadership styles play an important role in the success of an organization. The current research investigates the mediating role of transformational leadership on the relationship between four dimensions of emotional intelligence (perceiving emotions, understanding emotions, facilitating thoughts and managing emotions) and three types of organizational outcomes (leader effectiveness, team effectiveness and service climate). Data has been collected from employees of public service sector organizations in Pakistan. Structural equation modeling has been used to test the proposed hypotheses in the conceptual model. All the dimensions of emotional intelligence except facilitating thoughts are found to have indirect effect (through transformational leadership) on the organizational outcomes. The paper concludes with the discussion on results and implications for the academicians and manager. This paper also contributes in the literature review by focusing on emotional intelligence dimensions. KEYWORDS: Emotional intelligence, leadership styles, leadership effectiveness, team effectiveness, service climate INTRODUCTION Dynamic business environment is making organizations to be adaptive to change to attain and sustain competitive edge. Adopting new management approaches has therefore become an imperative for the organizations to meet ever changing demands of customers and competitive environment [1], [2]. The consistent development and better quality are the prerequisites of business particularly, when environment is under asymmetrical change. To meet changes, organizations need to have leaders who have ability to get followers adapt to change, to improve and to be led. Transformational leadership values its associates by motivating and satisfying the followers. It creates worth working climate in organization and makes team work effectively [3]. Given the significance of transformational leadership, attention also develops to other issues, for instance, how it develops and how it links with other variables [4]–[6]. Emotional intelligence has now become a popular area of interest for scholars and practitioners. Despite the importance of this construct, there is little empirical evidence that substantiates the relationship of emotional intelligence with other variables. In today’s turbulent environment, organizations need leaders who are not only emotionally intelligent but those who have ability to imbibe such values in their followers that are helpful both for service climate and followers themselves. The leaders who often engage in transformational leadership behaviors, including idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration, have a direct effect on their subordinates’ attitudes and behavior. Literature reports positive relationship between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership [7], [8]. There exists a well evident gap in literature with respect to an appropriate framework that links transformational leadership with its causes and consequences. There is a need to understand the mechanisms through which transformational leadership affects the work related behaviors and organization itself. This study attempts to fill this gap by developing a framework that associates transformational leadership with dimensions of emotional intelligence on one hand and on the other hand it links transformational leadership with leadership effectiveness, service climate and team effectiveness. The purpose of this study is twofold. First, to set out process through which transformational leadership is predicted by dimensions of emotional intelligence. Second, to identify the effect of transformational leadership on leadership effectiveness, service climate and team effectiveness. A theoretical framework has been presented in which managers’ emotional intelligence is posited to influence their transformational leadership which in turn impacts leadership effectiveness, team effectiveness and service climate. 6