Introduction
The relationship between the leader and the follower has been studied for many decades. Little research has been done on the relationship between emotional intelligence and leader-member exchange (LMX) (Ashkanasy et al., 2019). The leader exchange theory is a leadership process, which is understood by the quality of interactions and opportunities surrounding the phenomenon behind leadership, and the followers’.A leader-member exchange is a unique exchange among the leaders and their followers. It is characterized by liking, openness, support, trust, loyalty, intimacy, and trust. The emotional theory is characterized by the significant role it plays in the development of the interpersonal relationship between the leader and the follower (Naz, 2019). Due to the social functions played by emotions and the nature of the leader-member exchange, emotional intelligence is essential in developing a good relationship between a leader and a follower.
Leader-Member Exchange Theory
The Leader-member exchange theory was first proposed as an option to theories, which described leaders as having the average style used among the followers. The theory states that leaders have a different leadership style for every employee based on their relationship in the work place (Gong et al., 2020). Leader-member exchange is an association strategy between the leader and the follower. In this case, a leader develops a high-quality relationship with a given employee and produces low quality. This led to in-group and out-group, whereby the in-groups could receive unique benefits while the out-group received the unfavorable conditions (Smith, 2010). The in-group would be rewarded while the out-group would not. The leader-member relationship has been linked to the positive results of the company. The previous studies show that performance, engagement, job satisfaction, and employee commitment are significantly related to the leader-member exchange (Bauer & Erdogan, 2016).
Emotional intelligence
Many scholars have defined the concept of emotional intelligence. It was developed and published in 1990. The author used these to create the original theory, and definitions increased in the 1980s due to the high interaction of emotion and cognition. Originally, emotional intelligence was defined as the ability to monitor others and personal feelings, discriminate among them and use it to help in thinking and acting. Emotional intelligence involves the perception of emotions that guide the thought and use the feelings to train and improve cognitive thinking. When one understands the feelings of others, they will know how to reason, manage individual and employee’s emotions.
Rationale
It is always hard for the employees to show engagement and performance when they do not see the importance (Gutermann et al., 2017). The development of emotional intelligence among leaders creates a good leader-member relationship. A leader can intelligently perceive, understand, and regulate the emotions of the followers. Such leaders maximize the interpersonal functions of the emotions and create a high-quality bond with the followers. In this case, the leader and the follower should be motivated (Gutermann et al. 2017). Based on the social exchange theory, the leaders with high emotional intelligence have greater understanding and regulation of the followers’ emotions.
Justification
Leaders with little emotional intelligence cannot understand their followers since they have difficulty engaging with their followers. They fail to deal with those regarded as a mismatch with the leadership style (lee et al., 2020). The followers associate better with the leaders who have high emotional intelligence hence improving performance and engagement. Therefore, I propose that my study consider the experiences of employees and leaders who experience a mismatch. Most of the research I have reviewed discusses the topic from a quantitative perspective, which does not get to the core of the emotions, beliefs, values, or lived perceptions (lee et al., 2020). Thus, there is a gap in the literature concerning qualitative data that explores the phenomenon of emotional intelligence in the context of leader-follower relationships and perceived fit.
Purpose
The study aims to evaluate the experiences, perceptions of the leaders and followers who feel that they are in a mismatched working relationship. Qualitative research will explore the skills, values, and behavior of the leaders in a company. Since the introduction of emotional intelligence, there has been a growing controversy surrounding the constructs of emotional intelligence and LMX theory (Smith, 2010). Different conceptualization used in literature, low construct validity has a popular measure of emotional intelligence, and the results are produced. This study will contribute more towards research areas of emotional intelligence and leader-member exchange theory.
Research question
What is the role of emotional intelligence in mismatched leader-follower relationships?
Nature of the study
Qualitative descriptive phenomenology design will be employed in this study. This method is proposed by Giorgi (2009) to evaluate the live experiences of the followers and the leaders. I will not prejudice the investigation by presuming any organizing themes when I conduct the open-ended interviews (Giorgi, 2009). The preliminary study will be the grounded theory approach; the general nature of qualitative research is based on the substantive theory according to the systematic collection and analysis of data. This method involves the collection of data through open-ended interviews conducted in their natural setting. Data will be analyzed through comparison of the incidences for the general themes and categorize them to the emerging theory.
This method is preferred since it will generate a comprehensive description of the leader’s characters or behavior from the participants’ point of view. The resulting will explain how the respondents characterize the leadership in the context in which it is explored. This method will shed light on the phenomenon, which can be explored beyond the context of this study.
Data collection
The participants for this study will be obtained through purposeful selection. They will be selected from the gas and oil industry in Nigeria, which will be willing to participate. Based on the criteria of the sample size, there will be two sizes from two departments. Since the departments are very small, and there will be 20 participants, whereby 10 will be leaders, while 10 will be followers. According to Giorgi (2020), the samples of phenomenological studies are always small. The interviews will focus on the context and conditions of the phenomenon. The responses will be recorded, transcribed, and evaluated for thematic content using Vivo software. I will observe researchers’ ethical compliance rules by submitting to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) (Giorgi, 2020).
Interview
A one on one interview will be conducted among the participants to provide an opportunity for introspection and reflection. This will be achieved by making the questions available in advance before the audio recording is done at the respondents’ sites. This will take place at either office or home, depending on the time and personal preferences. After data collection, the data will be coded in various emerging themes. The researcher will then go back to the evolving theory and fill the gaps to explain what happens based on the data collected.
Data analysis
The transcribed semi-structured, in-depth interviews and secondary data will be analyzed for the contexts and the concepts to identify the patterns. The development of the leaders’ conceptual framework associated with outstanding performance in the weak environment will be done. The process will begin immediately after the interview, then involve coding and abstraction of data.