Final Project Proposal

"Comparing Relation between Manager's Emotional Intelligence

(EI) and Delegating Authority and Empowerment to Staff in
Private Construction Companies in Malaysia"

BAHADOR GANJEH KHOSRAVI

1081200086

Master of Business Administration

Faculty Of Management
MULTIMEDIA UNIVERSITY
May 2010
Introduction:
Nowadays we are observing deep change in fundamental constituents of management and the
ways of applying them, in organizations activities. In this situation trying to improve and
expanding capacity of managers ability is inevitable. In fact discovering new talents and
outstanding abilities which are hidden in human resources, and use them and developing those
recourses and abilities is managerial art and one of the most important responsibilities of leaders.
One of the best ways of increasing human skills and managers cognition and simplifying their
management method is to improve their Emotional Intelligence (EI).

Background of Study:
Organizations strongly emphasize to select managers in different levels from supervisory to high
rank executive positions. Organization behavior gurus and even psychologist noticed that success
and failure of firms tremendously rely on manager's performance quality. The difference
between successful and unsuccessful firms normally is defined by their management team.
Almost half of the new businesses would fail in first two years of their establishment and only
one third of them could last for five years. In addition, forgoing people's carrier ranking in firm,
manager's performance quality also affects workers quality of life.
Considering this fact organizations for increasing their circle of influence, focus on the
management functionality. Research result shows that management is the most important issue in
area of organization behavior and human relationship. Researchers also acknowledge that
managers could be successful in certain types of jobs, while same person would fail in different
kind of job. So they come across the conclusion that apart from personal skills, nature of
relationship between managers and staff also play key role in making one manager succeed or
fail in leading the organization.
United State is moving forward from a manufacturing economy to a value-added, service-
oriented provider. And at the center of these services are interpersonal relationships, intergroup
relationships, and interdepartmental relationships. The increasing of team work in large firm puts
a new premium on relationship team skills. Among others, this set of skills includes the
following competencies: 1.communicating or ability to connect managerial skills with others,
like giving order or sending messages 2.managing conflict, which contain negotiating and
Solving disagreements between peers or with different level of management 3.inspiring and
guiding individuals and groups as a leader 4 initiating and managing change, and
5.collaborating and cooperating with others toward shared goals (Perrella, 1999, p 437).

Emotional Intelligence (EI)

[Emotional intelligence is defined as a person’s self-awareness, self-confidence, self-control,

commitment and integrity, and a person’s ability to communicate, influence, initiate change and
accept change] (Goleman, 1998). Researchers have shown that emotional intelligence impacts a
leader’s ability to be effective (Goleman, 1998). Three of the most important aspects of
emotional intelligence for a leader’s ability to make effective decisions are self-awareness,
communication and influence, and commitment and integrity. Managers who do not develop
their emotional intelligence have difficulty in building good relationships with peers,
subordinates, superiors and clients (Goleman, 1998).

This thesis is going to find out of how emotional intelligence affects a leader’s ability to make
effective delegating and empowerment to employees. The first part of the essay defines the
parameters of emotional intelligence, leadership and delegating and empowerment defenition.
This is followed by a discussion of how the aspects of emotional intelligence affect a leader’s
ability to make good relation and effective communication with staff. And how emotional
intelligence is integral to Stephen Covey’s seven habits of highly successful people and Warren
Bennis’ beliefs on what leadership is. The next section of the thesis will concludes with the
measurement of emotional intelligence of managers and relation of it with delegation authority to
employees and its importance.

Emotional intelligence is a combination of competencies. These skills contribute to a person’s

ability to manage and monitor his or her own emotions, to correctly gauge the emotional state of
others and to influence opinions (Caudron, 1999; Goleman, 1998). Goleman describes a model
of five dimensions. Each area has its own set of behavioral attributes as follows.

1. Self-awareness is the ability to admit feeling as it happens, to accurately perform self-

assessments and have self-confidence. It is the essential part of emotional intelligence
(Goleman, 1995).
 2. Self-management or self-regulation is the ability to keep disruptive emotions and
impulses in check (self-control), maintain standards of honesty and integrity
(trustworthiness), take responsibility for one’s performance (conscientiousness), handle
change (adaptability), and be comfortable with novel ideas and approaches (innovation).
3. Motivation is the emotional tendency guiding or facilitating the attainment of goals. It
consists of achievement drive (meeting a standard of excellence), commitment
(alignment of goals with the group or organization), initiative (acting on opportunities),
and optimism (persistence reaching goals despite setbacks).
4. Empathy is the understanding of others by being aware of their needs, perspectives,
feelings, concerns, sensing the developmental needs of others.
5. Social skills are fundamental to emotional intelligence. They include the ability to induce
desirable responses in others by using effective diplomacy to persuade (influence); listen
openly and send convincing messages (communicate); inspire and guide groups and
individuals (leadership); nurture instrumental relationships (building bonds); work with
others toward a shared goal (collaboration, cooperation); and create group synergy in
pursuing collective goals.

Models of Emotional Intelligence

Several measures of EI have been advanced in the literature and the conceptual underpinnings
differ across them. (Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso) (2000), in a review of the EI literature,
identified two distinct models of EI. They refer to the first as the ability model (cf. Petrides &
Furnham, 2001) where EI is conceptualized as an ability and classified as an intelligence. It is
postulated to consist of four hierarchical dimensions: perception, assimilation, understanding
and management of emotion. This model is based on the interaction of emotions and thought. In
contrast to the ability models, the mixed models of EI conceptualize EI as a combination of
cognitive, motivational, and affective constructs. By combining intellective and non-ability traits,
mixed models do not claim EI to be a type of intelligence (e.g., spatial ability). Parallel to the
ability and mixed model classification of EI measures, Petrides and Furnham (2001) classify EI
measures as trait and state measures. Given that our interest in the current study is on trait like
characteristics for personnel assessments, we focus on a trait measure of EI. 690 D.L. Van Rooy
et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 38 (2005) 689–700 Of the several measures used
to assess EI (e.g., Bar-On, 1997; Mayer, Salovey, Caruso, & Sitarenios, 2003; Sala, 2002), we
wanted to choose a measure that has been widely used and researched. This thesis will use the set
of two different standard questioners to conduct measurement of EI in managers.

Problem Statement:
The definition of effectiveness, in the organization affair could be "Get the job done" considering
high quality and quantity standards of performance. Manager's rule here is to shows and
delineates the pathway to employees to archive maximum performance quality in less time
consumption and lower budget spending. Studies have shown the relation between manager's
personal skills and managerial abilities. One of the most important aspects of personality is
emotional intelligence of managers. Many researches have been done which considered, relation
among EI and leadership, motivation, decision making aptitude. But This thesis will focus on
another important aspect of leading which is, delegating and empowerment the authority to
employees, and the effect of EI on it.
The thesis will reveal which kind of managers should be hired, in order to have high
communication through managerial positions and administration segment. This research also will
study the various methods of , so called "delegating" and the way of applying it.

Methodology:
In an effort to gather the information for this thesis analysis, set of two questioner will be
conducted and fill up by managers in private construction project management in Malaysia to
measure their emotional intelligence. And another standard questioner will fill up in organization
to evaluate the effectiveness of delegating and empowerment in the firm. Then these information
will be analyze in managerial software to compare the results. Finding how significant is the
relation between EI of manager and delegating could play very important role in human resource
department to recruit proper manager to deal with this concept of delegating authority.
Research Objectives:
The purpose of this thesis is to explore the link between level of emotional intelligence in
managers and effective delegating to employees. To study the importances of hiring managers in
deferent level of positions in organization how have high emotional intelligence ability. And the
significant role of these managers in order to have strong communication among staff and
managers. This thesis also will examine the relationship between the level of manager's
emotional intelligence and proper delegation results. Last but not least objective of this study is
about to describe the importance of delegating and apply guideline to learn how to delegate, the
benefits of delegating, and how accomplish guidelines to delegating responsibilities from
managers with supervisory role.

Research Questions:
1- The role of emotional intelligence (EI), on manager's communication ability in
organizations?
2- When delegating authority or responsibility is needed in organization? And how to
applying it in construction companies in Malaysia?
3- Is there any relationship between manager's EI and conducting effective delegating?
4- How important it is for organization to have managers with high EI score? And how
measure someone's EI level? Specifically how it can improve performance in
construction companies in Malaysia?

Significance of Study:
David A.whetten in his book "Developing Managerial Skills" describe ten concepts as key
managerial skills 1-Developing self awareness 2-Managing conflict 3-Motivating employees
4-communicating supportively 5-Gaining power and influence 6-Building effective team 7-
Leading positive change 8-Delegating and empowering 9-Solving problems creatively 10-
Managing stress. Some of these key points are related to personal matter some interpersonal and
some conducting with group of employees. This is the first attempt to investigate the relation
between one of the key points of managerial skills which is delegating and empowering with
personal ability like emotional intelligence of managers. And thesis also going to observes more
specifically this relationship in private construction companies in Malaysia. Additionally the
research results may serve as a guide line for human resource officers. It may provide different
way to understand the interrelation among managers and staff and show the effectiveness role of
communication with personality.

Data Collection:
Two main sources of data will be considered in this thesis. Primary data for analyze the relation
with emotional intelligence of managers and delegating would be two sets of questionarie. The
source of data collection will be three or four private construction companies in Malaysia. And
secondary data for this study was mainly gathered from journal articles, textbooks, newspaper
articles, internet and magazines. Reviewing the journal articles on similar study has significantly
help in developing the hypothetical framework for this study. In addition, findings from previous
research conducted in the same area have served as a valuable source of supporting material,
forming the backbone of the secondary data. Analysis was performed using Statistical Packages
of the Social Science (SPSS). Descriptive statistics was used to describe the profile of the
respondents.

Limitation of Study:

This study is about assessing the relation between managers with high or low emotional
intelligent ability and delegating responsibilities to employees. This study does not attempt to be
comprehensive study of what is the best way to have effective delegating when it is needed;
rather it only focuses on one factor which is emotional intelligence of managers, not the
employees. Another limitation of this thesis comes from the nature of the tools to be used to
collect data. Questionaire measures will be administrated in this study. Reliability of the data
obtaining through self-report depends on the truthfulness of the respondents which are managers
in filling out the papers.
References:

Samuel E.Bliss , The Affect of Emotional Intelligence on Modern Organization Leaders Ability
to Make Effective Decisions Bellevue University (2004)

Don Chruscoel , Considering of emotional intelligence in dealing with change decision

management Iowa state University Ames ,Iowa USA ( May 2006)

R. Chiva & J. Alegre Emotional intelligence and job satisfaction: the role of organizational
learning capability University Jaume I & University de Valencia (Oct 2007)

David A.Whetten & K S.Cameron book: "Developing Managerial Skills"

R. Kerr & J. Garvin & N. Heaton and E. Boyle, Emotional intelligence and leadership
effectiveness. School of business organization and management , University of Ulster
,Newtownabbey ,UK (2005)

J. Warwick & T. Nettelbeck Emotional intelligence is…? Department of psychology ,

University of Adelaide , Australia (2004)

F. Moafian & A. Ganizadeh The relationship between Iranian EFL teacher's Emotional
Intelligence and their self-efficiency in Language Institutes English faculty of Azad
University of Mashhad , Iran (2009)