Magister Artium - MA / The Transformational Leadership style has shown that it elicits improved performance in followers and that emotion plays an important part in the leadership process. The goal of the present study is to investigate the role of emotional intelligence in the effectiveness of leadership in organisations through high Leader Member Exchange (LMX) relationships. The overarching research initiating question can be framed as “Does high emotional intelligence in leaders lead to higher LMX relationships?”. Through the synthesis of literature, the study proposes that leadership style and high-quality leader member exchange relationships have a profound impact on follower performance. It is hypothesized that emotional intelligence in both leaders and followers would have a positive impact in the quality of the exchange. Transformational leaders make use of emotional intelligence to understand the emotional needs of their followers, which in turn results in a high-quality relationship between the leader and their followers. High quality LMX relationships typically result in higher levels of follower commitment and performance. However, the mediating role of emotional intelligence between Transformational Leadership, LMX and follower performance have not been explored fully in the management literature and to date, there has been very little research exploring the sequential chain of influence between these variables. The current study aims to contribute to the body of knowledge in the fields of leadership, emotional intelligence, LMX and unit level performance. The research follows a quantitative approach. The sample for this research project consists of managers and employees in the banking sector. The biographical characteristics of the sample will include age, gender, educational level, years of service, type of employment and job level. The targeted sample size is between 300-350 employees working in the financial services industry in the Western Cape. The goal of the study was to examine the complex nomological network of relationships between Transformational Leadership, LMX, Emotional Intelligence, and unit level performance. The findings of the study indicate that the proposed model could be considered a credible representation of how emotional intelligence, LMX, and transformational leadership interact to influence unit level performance.

Champions for Change Mentorship Program (CFCMP) was implemented to address the academic and social struggles of emotional behavior disorder (EBD) students. The problem was that although the passing of the California Assembly Bill 1729, called the Other Means of Correction law, had prompted a greater need for positive behavior intervention support at Tier 2 and Tier 3 levels, implementation of the CFCMP continued to generate serious concerns involving students with behavior issues. The conceptual framework for this study is Bandura's social learning theory which guided CFCMP to incorporate cognitive and observational learning to develop academically and socially sound students with EBD who can function appropriately in the educational setting. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the essence of the lived experiences of teachers in regard to the implementation of CFCMP as an effective behavioral strategy. The guiding research question explored the essence of the lived experience of elementary teachers who have implemented CFCMP. Using a qualitative phenomenological research design, data were gathered from face-to-face interviews and observations of 6 participants. Data analysis revealed 4 common themes including training, time management, communication, and lack of administrative support were used to identify commonalities and differences in the participants' lived experiences and perspectives on the needs of EBD students involved in CFCMP. Research findings showed a lack of organization of CFCMP and the need for intensive training for teachers. Positive social change will result from a 3-day professional development providing the study's findings and procedures teachers can use to assist EBD students in modifying behaviors to improve their educational achievement and that of their classmates.

United States business leaders spend $15 billion per year on sales training, but approximately 50% of salespeople still fail to reach their annual sales targets. Business leaders have limited understanding of the relationship between emotional intelligence and its central constructs (self-perception, self-expression, interpersonal, decision making, and stress management) and sales performance of sales professionals based in the United States. The purpose of this correlational research study was to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence and sales performance via an online pre-existing emotional intelligence assessment. The theoretical framework incorporated emotional intelligence theory and job performance theory. The sample included 86 technology sales professionals working in the United States who were recruited through a nonrandom purposive sampling method. The correlation results showed an association exists between decision making and sales performance (r = .310, n = 73; p Ë? .01). For all 6 predictor variables, the regression model was not a significant predictor of sales performance, F(6,66) = 1.295, p = .272, R-² = .105. By including only decision making, the linear regression model was a significant predictor of sales performance, F(1,71) = 7.550, p Ë? .01, R-² = .096. The results were not generalizable, but suggest that decision making is significant in achieving sales performance. These results suggest that higher decision making skills lead to higher sales performance. Social implications for sales and business leaders include using these results to seek and hire emotionally intelligent sales professionals and training existing sales professionals about emotional intelligence competencies to improve company-wide sales performance.

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Negotiation is one of the most critical processes that determine organizational performance. Since the 1950s, scholars have revealed that negotiator cognition and decision-making processes play a crucial role in determining negotiation performance. Recently, scholars have started to pay attention to the importance of emotion in negotiation and have suggested that emotional intelligence is likely to contribute to improving negotiation performance. However, few studies have tested the relationship between emotional intelligence and negotiation outcomes. The current study contributes to the literature on negotiation by empirically testing the influence of emotional intelligence on negotiation outcomes, and also examining the mediating effects of rapport, negotiation strategy, and judgment accuracy. In particular, the current study hypothesized that emotional intelligence would have a positive association with both economic outcomes (individual and joint gain) and social outcomes (satisfaction, trust, desire to work in the future), and that rapport, bargaining strategy, and judgment accuracy would mediate the relationships between emotional intelligence and negotiation outcomes. This study employed a laboratory experimental design. 204 business major students (102 dyads) at the junior and senior level participated in a negotiation task involving a job contract where one party played the role of personnel manager and the other played the role of new employee. The direct effects of emotional intelligence on negotiation outcomes were tested using regression analysis, and the mediating effects of rapport, strategy, and judgment accuracy were tested using Baron and Kenny's (1986) four-step approach. Emotional intelligence scores of participants were measured using the 33-item Emotional Intelligence Scale (Schutte, Malouff, Hall, Haggerty, Cooper, Golden, & Dornheim, 1998). The current study found that emotional intelligence had a significant effect on the opponent's trust, satisfaction, and desire to work in the future, and that rapport and negotiation strategy fully or partially mediated the relationship between emotional intelligence and trust, satisfaction, and desire. Implications, future research issues, contributions, and strengths/weaknesses of the current research are discussed.

<p> Experiments were conducted, with rats, to ascertain the effects of partial reinforcement in aversive classical conditioning. Conditioned suppression of bar-pressing was more resistant to extinction following intermittent reinforcement of a conditioned stimulus than following consistent reinforcement. This effect was obtained whether or not bar-pressing was permitted during conditioning as well as during extinction. The effect was amplified by interpolating a large block of nonreinforced trials early in the partial schedule; it was eliminated by adding more reinforced trials prior to the partial schedule. The effect was not obtained by interpolating a large block of nonreinforcements in a continuous schedule. The data were related to current theoretical conceptions of partial reinforcement.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Research examining the academic experiences of youth with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) residing in foster care (FC) is scarce. Research is warranted to understand the academic strengths, weaknesses, and school disciplinary experiences of youth with EBD residing in FC. Data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being II (NSCAW II) included data on eight participants classified as EBD. Having a limited number of participants classified as EBD in the data set, I used participants’ scores on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) to classify participants who may be at-risk for EBD. Analyses were conducted to determine if significant relationships existed between participants’ internalizing and externalizing scores on the CBCL and their (a) scores on assessments of academic achievement and (b) behavior problems leading to suspension or expulsion. Results indicated that participants’ scores on the CBCL were not predictive of their academic achievement or of their numbers of behavior problems leading to suspension or expulsion.

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