The Mediating Effect of Leaders’ Idealized Influence on the Relationship between Leaders’ Emotional Intelligence and Intention to Perform among Academics in Malaysian Research Universities: Gender as a Moderator

Abstract

Academic leaders have a significant task to carry out in higher educational institutions, and for the improvement of academic leaders' responsiveness regarding their emotional intelligence and their influence is essential. This research is intended to examine the academic leaders’ emotional intelligence and idealized influence towards subordinates intention to perform and how it moderated by academic leaders’ gender. Drawing from attribution theory and social exchange theory, the research hypothesized that leaders’ emotional intelligence and subordinate intention to perform will be mediated by leaders’ idealized influence. 386 questionnaires samples from five Malaysian public research universities was obtained with partial least squares structural equation modeling used in analyzing the measurements. The findings revealed that academic leaders’ emotional intelligence-subordinates intention to perform relationship mediated via academic leaders’ idealized influence. In addition, the mediation analysis revealed that academic leaders’ idealized influence mediated the leaders’ emotional intelligence-subordinates intention to perform when it was modeled with academic leaders’ gender as moderated in the structure model.