Multiple Intelligences and Leadership

Ronald E. Riggio, Susan Elaine Murphy, Francis J. Pirozzolo, Ronald E. Riggio, Susan Elaine Murphy, Francis J. Pirozzolo

• Éditeur: Psychology Press
• Année: 2001
• ISBN:
  9781135662424
• Édition: 1
• Sujet: Psychology
• Sous-sujet: History & Theory in Psychology

This edited book presents cutting-edge research looking at the role of multiple intelligence--cognitive (IQ), emotional intelligence, social intelligence--in effective leadership, written by the most distinguished scholars in the two distinct fields of intelligence and leadership. The synergy of bringing together both traditional intelligence researchers and renowned leadership scholars to discuss how multiple forms of intelligence impact leadership has important implications for the study and the practice of organizational and political leadership. This volume emanates from the recent explosion of interest in non-IQ domains of intelligence, particularly in Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence. Indeed, the leading EI and SI scholars have contributed to this book. Research described in this book suggests that: (1) possession of multiple forms of intelligence is important for effective leadership; (2) researchers are just beginning to understand the breadth, depth, and potential applications of non-IQ domains of intelligence; (3) incorporating multiple intelligence constructs into existing leadership theories will improve our understanding of effective leadership; and (4) research on multiple intelligence has important implications for both the selection and training of future leaders.

1
Multiple Intelligences and Leadership: An
Overview

Ronald E.Riggio
Kravis Leadership Institute
Claremont McKenna College

Questions of the role that intelligence plays in leadership are old ones. Are the smartest individuals most likely to obtain positions of leadership? Are bright leaders the most effective leaders? Is a high IQ a prerequisite for leaders? While high-level leaders in politics, business, and social movements certainly seem smart, and appear to be well above average in intelligence, skeptics note that there have been prominent leaders of average (and perhaps even below average) intelligence. Moreover, many of our greatest intellectual minds are in the sciences, research, and education, and they neither obtain nor even pursue positions of leadership. So, what is the connection between intelligence and leadership?

Scientific studies of the role of intelligence in leadership date back to the 1920s and 1930s. Much of this early research suggested that intelligence did indeed contribute to leadership. For example, leaders were found to be more intelligent than their followers, and intelligence was consistently correlated with perceptions of leadership (see Bass, 1990, and Lord, DeVader, & Alliger, 1986, for reviews). One obvious limitation to this approach, however, was that it did not take context or situational factors into account. Early on, for example, Holling-worth (1926) found that if a leader’s intelligence was too much greater than that of followers, the followers did not identify with the leader, and this presumably detracted from the leader’s effectiveness. So we might expect that the leader of a cutting-edge software development company should be reasonably intelligent— at least on par with some of the bright software engineers she or he oversees. In contrast, the on-field leader of a sports team might not require a particularly high IQ, especially if he or she is a talented athlete, experienced, and knowledgeable of the sport. Because of situational factors, we cannot assume that the relationship between intelligence and leadership is a straightforward one. Of course, many modern theories of leadership emphasize this interaction of leader characteristics (such as intelligence) and qualities of the leadership situation.

Another limitation of this early research on intelligence and leadership was the overemphasis on general academic intelligence. Most commonly, research on intelligence and leadership focused on traditional, IQ-based notions of intelligence, even though early scholars did note the importance of a broader conceptualization of intelligence. For instance, constructs such as “emotional maturity,” “social insight,” “tact,” and “social skills/competence” were all believed to be associated with effective leadership by early researchers (Bass, 1990). This makes sense. Although some prominent and successful leaders may not be intellectual giants in the academic sense, these individuals have some sort of savvy—a kind of “street smarts” that makes them effective in their leadership roles. In many ways, these other constructs discussed by early leadership researchers parallel the multiple types of intelligence that are now capturing the attention of intelligence researchers, personality and social psychologists, and social scientists in general. For example, social insight and social skills are components of the domain of “social intelligence” (Marlowe, 1986; Riggio, Messamer, & Throckmorton, 1991). The notion of “tact” is reflected in Sternberg and Wagner’s conceptualization of “practical intelligence” (Sternberg & Wagner, 1986; Wagner & Sternberg, 1985), and “emotional maturity” has transformed into Salovey and Mayer’s notion of “emotional intelligence” (Mayer & Salovey, 1993; Salovey & Mayer, 1990). The chapters of this book explore each of these various types of intelligence.

Even the earliest intelligence researchers knew that there was more to intelligence than the mental abilities represented in traditional intelligence tests. For example, Edward Thorndike first defined social intelligence in 1920, and there were soon several attempts to measure the construct (Moss, Hunt, Omwake, & Ronning, 1927; R.L.Thorndike & Stein, 1937). Guilford (1967) was a long-time advocate of multiple facets of intelligence, and in the past two decades, Gardner (1983) and Sternberg (1985) have argued for specific, multiple domains of intelligence. Today, intelligence is being more broadly conceptualized and defined. What is surprising is that it is only recently that these broader notions of intelligence have been applied to the study of leadership. For a long time, any scholar or informed observer of leadership has known that great and effective leaders have had something more than mere IQ going for them.

The most recent explosion of interest in intelligence and leadership has been fueled by the success of Daniel Goleman’s (1995) Emotional Intelligence. Even though the construct of “emotional intelligence” itself is only a decade old, the past few years have seen the terms EI or EQ (as opposed to IQ) become common place terms, and there has been a rush of books on the importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace (e.g., Cooper & Sawaff, 1997; Feldman, 1999; Goleman, 1998; Ryback, 1997; Weisinger, 1998). Despite the popularity of the emotional intelligence concept, research has only begun to explore its depths, and to try to understand its true relationship to leader effectiveness. Moreover, emotional intelligence is only one type of intelligence that plays a part in successful leadership. Social intelligence, practical intelligence, and creativity are other facets of the broader construct of intelligence that are implicated in good leadership.

The resurgence of interest in leadership and intelligence, and particularly the exploration of the role of multiple types or facets of intelligence in leader effectiveness, appears to be a reawakening of the “trait approach” to leadership (see chapter 3). However, rather than focusing on narrow conceptualizations of leader characteristics, traits such as social, emotional, or practical intelligence represent complex constellations of abilities. These multiple forms of intelligence are not only possessed by effective leaders, but they are the types of characteristics that may make leaders effective in a range of leadership situations because they involve abilities to adapt to a variety of social and interpersonal situations. While IQ has not been a particularly good predictor of effective leadership across situations, a combination of general/academic intelligence, social intelligence, emotional intelligence, and perhaps other domains of intelligence, may do a good job of predicting leadership effectiveness. We are only beginning to explore the connections between multiple forms of intelligence and leadership.

This volume brings together well-known researchers from the field of intelligence who are investigating the multiple domains of intelligence, and renowned leadership scholars who are exploring the role that multiple intelligences play in effective leadership. In many ways, these two fields— intelligence and leadership—have been moving along parallel lines. While intelligence researchers were working to broaden the rather narrow existing emphasis on verbal and academicbased cognitive abilities, leadership researchers realized that while it was important for a leader to be smart, there was much more to “intelligent” leadership than simply IQ.

The first section looks at the multiple domains of intelligence—practical intelligence, social intelligence, emotional intelligence, and other domains. Robert J.Sternberg sets the stage with a discussion of what he calls “successful intelligence.” According to Sternberg, successful intelligence is a fusion of traditional notions of analytical intelligence, practical intelligence, and creativity. An important theme, however, is that leaders are successful by recognizing and capitalizing on their strengths and compensating for their weaknesses.

Stephen J.Zaccaro next emphasizes the crucial role of social intelligence in organizational leadership. According to Zaccaro, there are two key components of social intelligence: the ability to perceive and interpret social situations, and behavioral flexibility or adaptability. Evidence suggests that the importance of social intelligence for effective leadership increases as one moves higher in the organizational hierarchy, where the complexity of social situations likewise increases.

David R.Caruso, John D.Mayer, and Peter Salovey present an overview of their recent ability model of emotional intelligence, and explore the role that emotional intelligence plays in effective leadership. According to these authors, emotional intelligence underlies a leader’s “people” or “relationship” skills. Caruso, et al. apply their model of emotional intelligence to leadership in work organizations and discuss why organizations should consider emotional intelligence in the selection and development of leaders and managers.

Joyce Hogan and Robert Hogan further expand the multiple domains of intelligence with their concept of “sociopolitical intelligence.” According to the Hogans, sociopolitical intelligence involves the possession of social skills and how critical they are for leader effectiveness in today’s relationship-oriented, team-based organizations. Drawing on research examining the connections between personality constructs (such as empathy) and leader effectiveness, the Hogans have developed measures of sociopolitical intelligence and examined its role in leadership success and failure.

Chapters in the second section of this book call on renowned leadership scholars to explore the relationships between established leadership theories and multiple domains of intelligence. Fred E.Fiedler explores the role that situational factors play in influencing the leader’s deployment of intellectual resources. According to Fiedler, leaders may possess intelligence, but it may not be utilized effectively due to situational factors. Fiedler reminds us that effective leadership is a complex interaction of the leader’s characteristics, the leader’s experience, and elements of the situation. Simply possessing multiple domains of intelligence is not enough if a leader cannot use these resources effectively.

Bernard M.Bass explores how three types of intelligence—cognitive intelligence, social intelligence, and emotional intelligence—contribute to transformational leadership. Bass’s thesis is that truly exceptional leaders, those we call “transformational,” must possess multiple types of intelligence. Social and emotional intelligence are particularly important because these contribute to the transformational leader’s ability to inspire and build relationships with followers.

David G.Winter explores the motivational dimensions of leadership, suggesting that the leaders’ motives influence the utilization of multiple intelligences. Winter looks at the motivational profiles of political leaders and explores relationships between motives, intelligence, and leader effectiveness. Winter uses contemporary examples such as Clinton’s presidency to examine how motivation and multiple intelligences interconnect.

Martin M.Chemers recently presented an integrative theory of leadership (Chemers, 1997) that provides a unifying framework for the study of effective leadership. He further extends this work by exploring how multiple domains of intelligence contribute to leadership effectiveness. Chemers also shows how possession of multiple intelligences contributes to a crucial component of effective leaders, what he calls “leadership efficacy.”

The final section moves us from the theoretical to the applied, and explores how multiple intelligences play a role in effective leadership in conditions of stress, in multicultural work environments, and in the international environment. Drawing on a social cognitive approach to leadership, Susan E.Murphy begins by reporting research that demonstrates the roles that social and emotional intelligence play in leader self-regulation and efficacy when under stressful circumstances.

Lynn R.Offermann and Ly U.Phan address the issue of the increasing diversity of the workforce with the concept of “cultural intelligence.” According to Offermann and Phan, cultural intelligence is a form of meta-intelligence that allows leaders to function effectively in a variety of cultures.

Ram N.Aditya and Robert J.House further explore this multicultural focus by examining how social intelligence plays a role in cross-national leadership using data from the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) research program. Aditya and House find that elements of social intelligence, as represented by the construct of interpersonal acumen, play an important part in cross-cultural leadership effectiveness.

Finally, Francis J.Pirozzolo and I conclude by noting common themes presented throughout the volume, determining what this collection of research tells us about multiple intelligences and leadership, and exploring the implications that research on multiple intelligences has for leadership selection, training, and development. Although we conclude that we are only beginning to understand the concept of multiple intelligences, and only starting to explore its relationship to leadership, we firmly believe that this line of research can be readily applied to the selection, training, and developing of future leaders.

REFERENCES

Bass, B.M. (1990). Bass & Stogdill’s handbook of leadership: Theory, research, and managerial applications. (3rd ed.). New York: Free Press.

Chemers, Martin M. (1997). An Integrative Theory of Leadership. Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Cooper, R.K., & Sawaff, A. (1997). EQ: Emotional intelligence in leadership and organizations. New York: Grosset/Putnam.

Feldman, D.A. (1999). The handbook of emotionally intelligent leadership: Inspiring others to achieve results. New York: Leadership Performance Solutions.

Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York:
Basic Books.

Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ. New York:
Bantam.

Goleman, D. (1998). Working with emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam.

Guilford, J.P. (1967). The nature of human intelligence. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Hollingworth, L.S. (1926). Gifted children. New York: Macmillan.

Lord, R.G., DeVader, C.L., & Alliger, G.M. (1986). A meta-analysis of the relation between personality traits and leadership perceptions: An application of validity generalization procedures. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 402–410.

Marlowe, H.A. (1986). Social intelligence: Evidence for multidimensionality and construct independ...

Table des matières

• COVER PAGE
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT PAGE
• ABOUT THE AUTHORS
• SERIES FOREWORD
• 1. MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES AND LEADERSHIP: AN OVERVIEW
• I. MULTIPLE DOMAINS OF INTELLIGENCE
• II. MODELS OF LEADERSHIP AND MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE
• III. APPLICATIONS OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES TO LEADER EFFECTIVENESS
• COMMENTARY: MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES AND LEADERSHIP: IMPLICATIONS FOR LEADERSHIP RESEARCH AND TRAINING