EMOTIONAL COMPETENCIES AND PRIMARY SCHOOL LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOR IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

This article aims to study the concept of emotional needs among primary schools leaders in Malaysia. This study involved 485 primary school leaders in the northern states like Kedah, Perlis, Perak, and Penang. The emotional competency inventory (ECI-2) was used to measure four emotional competencies i.e. self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and business relations. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire was used to measure transformational leadership in terms of exploring motivation, encouraging intellectual and considering individual. The data collected were sorted and keyed in for analysis to examine the relationship between transformational leadership and emotional competencies. This article drew the line between the strengths and weaknesses found among schools leadership in their efforts to increase the transformational leadership. The test and data analysis showed that there were four emotional competencies significantly correlated with transformational leadership, yet self-awareness and relationship management was the important key of emotional competencies in elevating the level of transformational leadership among primary school teachers in Malaysia.