The Impact of Trait Emotional Intelligence on Transformational Leadership: The Case of Managers and Employees of Hotel Companies

The concept of emotional intelligence (EI) has been attracting the interest of scholars and practitioners during the past two decades. There has been a plethora of research about the definitions, dimensions, and measurement of EI. Although some researchers believe that emotional intelligence is an ability to perceive, understand, manage, and handle emotions (Goleman, 1998b; Freudenthaler and Neubauer, Freudenthaler & Neubauer, 2003; Salovey & Mayer, 1990; Sullivan, 1999), there are other scholars who believe that emotional intelligence is a trait personality skill (trait emotional intelligence—TEI) that refers to an individual’s self-perceptions of their emotional capabilities (Petrides & Furnham, 2000; Tett et al., 2005).