Emotional intelligence of school leaders and teacher morale in Pakistani secondary schools

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) competencies of school leaders and teacher morale in secondary schools in Pakistan. A questionnaire-based survey with a cross-sectional design was conducted with 50 school leaders and 250 teachers from five administrative regions in Pakistan. The findings indicated that the overall EI scores were moderate with the Social Awareness & Relationship Management competency exhibiting the strongest positive correlation with teacher morale. Regression analysis showed that this interpersonal dimension was the only EI subscale significantly associated with teacher morale and explaining a significant proportion of its variance. Provincial-level analyses revealed that Punjab continued to lag behind other provinces on both EI and teacher morale, while Sindh and Balochistan scored the highest on these variables. Interaction analysis, however, showed that the strength of the relationship between EI and teacher morale was stable across provinces. The study concludes that emotionally intelligent leadership is associated with positive school climate indicators that may support teacher morale. The findings suggest that emotional intelligence training may be considered in leadership development programs. However, such programs should be adapted to regional needs. Despite the limitations of its small sample size and cross-sectional nature, the study contributes to the body of knowledge on educational leadership beyond Western contexts.