Linking Emotional Intelligence to Transformational Leadership: Implications for the Indian IT-BPO Industry

The Indian IT-BPO sector contributes to the country’s GDP and employs substantial professionals, making it a cornerstone of economic growth (NASSCOM, 2023). Despite its success, the sector faces persistent challenges such as high attrition, stress, and weak work-life balance. Therefore, it demands effective leadership, with Emotional Intelligence (EI) emerging as a pivotal factor in shaping Transformational Leadership (TL). This conceptual paper synthesizes existing empirical and theoretical literature to develop a proposed model linking emotional intelligence with transformational leadership. The paper further proposes testable hypotheses to guide future empirical research within the Indian IT-BPO context. Illustrating from reviewed research studies, the study proposes that leaders’ emotional intelligence positively influences transformational leadership, with specific EI competencies and trait-based EI exerting stronger effects, particularly in high-stress IT-BPO environments. The proposed model shows the paths linking EI and TL, highlighting the moderating effect of work stress and the stronger impact of Trait-based EI than Ability-based EI on TL. “There’s no scientific answer to the most difficult problems that leaders face, and those problems are not amenable to solutions sought through the application of rational analytic techniques†. Denhardt and Denhardt, 2006