​In sy rubriek in die Cape Times van 21-12-2015, Songololo: In my words..., skryf dr. Shanil Haricharan oor sy onlangse PhD-studie in leierskap en organisatoriese gedrag aan die Universiteit Stellenbosch. (Hy het sy PhD in Desember 2015 verwerf.)

Dr. Haricharan het die uitwerking van senior staatsdiensbestuurders se bekwaamheid in emosionele en sosiale intelligensie op die kwaliteit van hul leierskap en organisatoriese kultuur ondersoek. Die bevinding van sy studie is dat daar 'n sterk en positiewe verhouding bestaan tussen gedrag wat emosionale intelligensie toon, en uitmuntende leierskap.

Die volledige Cape Times-artikel is hier onder.

Op die foto is die skrywer, dr. Shanil Haricharan, saam met sy PhD-studieleier, prof. Erwin Schwella van die Skool vir Openbare Leierskap.

Tuning into emotions of others

“Our managers need to be able to wear the shoes of the grassroot levels. They should be able to take off their authority caps when engaging with staff. This will assist in eliminating intimidation, which instils fear. Fear limits our performance.

"When there is no intimidation, communication improves and a lot can be achieved.

"I’m tired of this status consciousness in this department. If you are not in their league, it is like mnxim (Xhosa word which means “you are nothing” or “we don’t care for you”, in this context).

"In an environment where everyone is shown respect regardless of rank and role, then you see people performing wonders. We need a people-friendly and service culture in this department…a sense of belonging and a sense of warmth.”

This vignette reflects the current realities experienced by one of the participants in my doctoral study in a provincial government department. My recent study in leadership and organisational behaviour at Stellenbosch University examined the impact of senior public service managers’ emotional and social intelligence (EI) competence on the quality of their leadership, and organisational culture. The overall results of this mixed-methods study found a strong and positive relationship between EI behaviours and leadership excellence.

The findings are significant, especially for our transforming and turbulent South African public service. Helpless, dispirited and fearful – examples of the abovementioned participant’s negative feelings – are also prevalent in the narratives of the forty-six other public servants interviewed in four provincial departments, across all rank levels. Many expressed strong feelings of marginalisation and subjugation: disempowered, victimised, voiceless. These public servants feel demoralised, discouraged, demotivated.

Most yearn for a workplace that engenders positive emotions and feelings of joy, love, optimism, meaning, and personal growth. Additionally, they value integrity, equity, respect, trust, and caring. Their collective appeal is for their managers to support government’s three Batho Pele (People First) collective beliefs: to care, to serve, and to belong.

However, in general, the behaviours of public service leaders frustrate public servants’ hopes, aspirations, and values. Leaders are obsessed with their “status consciousness” bestowed in their rank and positional power. Participants spoke of the prevalence of “dissonant” leadership styles: self-centred, authoritarian, punitive, frenetic, indecisive and uncaring. Though, public servants prefer leaders who are optimistic, self-aware, visionary, inspirational, empathetic and supportive, that is, “resonant” leadership behaviours and styles. These behaviours are related to emotional and social intelligence.

With the current “toxic” public service landscape and public leadership challenges in mind, I set out to test (using a correlational study design) the scholarly claims that EI competencies predict effective and resonant leadership. From the same four provincial departments, I randomly selected a sample of forty senior managers (at the top three rank levels). I asked their superiors, sub-ordinates, peers and clients to rate these managers using the Goleman-Boyatzis EI survey tool, which measures twelve EI competencies. I also surveyed employees across these four departments to measure their perception of the senior managers’ leadership effectiveness.

The study results indicate that leaders with high EI competency scores are also perceived as outstanding in their leadership performance. The competencies with the strongest correlations were emotional self-awareness, adaptability, positive outlook, and inspirational leadership.

Emotionally intelligent leaders possess strengths in most of the twelve competencies, organised in four clusters. These leaders are aware of their own emotions (self-awareness); they effectively manage their emotions (self-management); they are aware of the emotions of others (social awareness), and are adept at managing the emotions of others (relationship management).

Of the four clusters, the self-awareness cluster showed the strongest correlation with leadership performance. The competency of emotional self-awareness (ESA) – to understand ones’ emotions, drives, strengths, weaknesses and seek out feedback to improve performance – is widely regarded as fundamental to the concept of emotional intelligence. The study established that participants with high ESA display more EI competency strengths (a strength is a score of 85% or above). 11% of the senior managers who had eight or more ESCI strengths had significantly higher ESA scores than 60% of the managers with three or fewer EI strengths.

Despite the strong association between ESA and leadership performance, the public managers in the study received the lowest score in this competency from all rater groups, including their self-scores. This represents an important area for leadership development. So do the competencies of empathy, coach and mentor, and influence, which received low average scores.

Furthermore, I interviewed the top five managers who received the highest EI ratings and leadership nominations to examine how these outstanding leaders use their EI competencies in critical incidents in the workplace. These leaders draw on many elements to be effective in their leadership: their strongly held values, technical expertise, knowledge, experience, and emotional, social and cognitive intelligence competencies. They are visionary and inspiring, promoting a culture of teamwork, valuing employees and encouraging their sense of affiliation – the hallmark of resonant leaders.

Moreover, EI plays an important role in how leaders cope within the perplexing and unstable public service environment. Those with high EI competence positively influenced the well-being, motivation, creativity and performance of their subordinates and teams. In particular, EI strengths in relationship management, such as inspirational leadership, teamwork, and coach and mentor, are crucial to build strong and inclusive social bonds in the workplace.

However, as illustrated in the vignette at the start of this column, senior managers’ behaviours and a rigid hierarchy contributes to a polarised organisational culture of the powerful and the powerless. These behaviours are in conflict with a key objective espoused in the White Paper on the Transformation of the Public Service in 1995, that is, to empower, challenge and motivate senior managers to be “leaders, visionaries, initiators and effective communicators and decision-makers, capable of responding pro-actively to the challenges of the change process”.

The results of the doctoral study have policy and practical implications for public service leadership development, recruitment and selection, and succession planning. 

For example, the Senior Management Service (SMS) competency framework focuses narrowly on cognitive abilities and technical skills. Although these abilities and skills are important for good public management (especially in a transforming and affirmative setting), they are not sufficient. Only a few SMS core competencies relate to emotional and social competencies, despite the mounting evidence that the latter competencies are crucial for effective leadership.

The challenge for 21st century public service leaders is to deconstruct the rigid bureaucratic and hierarchical governance structures, and to evolve their consciousness toward resonant leadership styles, which are grounded in emotional and social competencies, and public values of caring, serving and belonging. Only then, public servants and citizens will proudly say: "We feel loved, respected and cared for in public institutions" (cited in the preamble of the chapter on Building a Capable State in the National Development Plan, 2030).