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African Journal of Agricultural Marketing ISSN: 2375-1061 Vol. 2 (11), pp. 177-181, November, 2014. Available online at 
www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals 

 

Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. 
 
 
 

Review 

 

Effects of emotional intelligence, communication 
effectiveness and strategic alignment in an 

Organizations performance 

 

*Halim Daim Francis, Shoba Hakim Hong and Dato Hiew Sulong 
 

Department of Management Studies, University of Nottingham, Selangor, Malaysia. 
 

Accepted 14 October, 2014 
 

In today's complex communication environment, emotional intelligence, communication effectiveness, 
and strategic alignment remain a key topic of concern among managers and employees worldwide. 

Communication effectiveness is a key for organization’s performance and progress. The 
interrelationship between emotional intelligence, communication effectiveness, and strategic alignment 

plays a vital role in the growth and success of organizations of Iran. Emotional intelligence (EI) and 
communication effectiveness are proposed as an important predictor of key organizational outcomes 
including strategic alignment. The paper is undertaken to understand the relationship between 

demographic variables (age and gender) and emotional intelligence, and communications effectiveness 
to improve strategic alignment in the organizations of Iran. The dimension of emotional intelligence in 

this study includes: happiness and optimism. Data (N = 82) for this study were collected through 
questionnaires and the participants were managers in Agriculture Bank and Educational 

Administrations of Iran. The aim of this paper is to assess the emotional intelligence and 
communication effectiveness and relationship with strategic alignment. The results showed emotional 
intelligence can impact on communications effectiveness through demographic variable and also 

communication effectiveness has a positive impact on strategic alignment. 
 

Key words: Emotional intelligence, communications effectiveness, strategic alignment, demographic factors. 

 
INTRODUCTION 
 
Emotional intelligence (EI) can play a crucial role in 

today‟s work settings (George, 2000; Goleman et al., 
2002; Law et al., 2004; Sy and Cote, 2004; Wong and 
Law, 2002). In the background of the emerging „moving 

revolution‟ in social and organizational psychology 
(Barsade and Gibson, 2007), emotional intelligence (EI) is  

 
 

 

 
 

 
 

*Corresponding Author. Email: diam.francis07@yahoo.com 
 

 
 

 
 

proposed as a significant predictor of key organizational 
outcomes. According to Goleman [2001], emotional 

intelligence (EI) refers to the abilities to recognize and 
regulate emotions in ourselves and others. Salovey and 
Mayer understand EI as the ability to monitor one‟s own 

and others‟ emotions, to discriminate between them, and 
to use the information to guide one‟s thinking and actions 

[Mayer and Salovey, 1990]. Bar-On indicates that 
emotional intelligence in his model consists of five 

components (that is, intrapersonal, interpersonal, general 
mood, adaptability, and stress management) [Bar-On, 
2002]. In this paper, the researcher focuses on general 

mood component that this component includes happiness



Halim et al.       177 
 
 

 
General mood can impact communication effectiveness 

in major of organizations. Happiness is defined as ability 
to enjoy one, and enjoy being with others and the sense 
of satisfaction with one‟s own life [Bar-On, 1997]. This 
element plays a main role with communication because 
individuals that are happy and satisfied at work and life 
will have better communications with others [Goleman, 
1995]. Critical to understanding moods is that individual 
voluntarily likes to changes moods that they dislike. Thus, 
people who can feel better about themselves can actively 
seek out ways to change their mood. Managers are 
among the people that might want to keep their mood 
because how they feel will influence the way they 
communicate with others [Goleman, 1995]. The result 
shows that if manager or employee is happy in 
educational organization, he/she can better communicate 
and make good relationship effectiveness with others. 
Thus, general mood has a direct impact on communication 
and leads to communication effectiveness.  

On the other hand, Communication plays an important 
role in the management of professional organizations and 
their achievement of success. Communication effective-
ness has long been held to be a success factor for 
managers. Effective communication can add value to 
organizations [Thamhain, 1992]. Fisher states that com-
munication effectiveness is a vital factor in the workplace, 
in relationships, and in everyday life [Campbell, 1999]. 
Communication effectiveness in organizations can unite 
the managers, workers, decision making, and improve 
teamwork [Thamhain, 1992]. Emotional Intelligence 
transformed progressively from a mere notion into a 
dominant theory in many research areas within which its 
effects on human behavior were analyzed. Recently, EI 
received much interest in the study of effectiveness of 
communications. Results of these studies indicated that 
emotional intelligence played a pivotal role in human 
communication. The need to establish the relationship 
between EI and effective communication was recognized. 
This relationship was further emphasized by many EI 
theorists who asserted that managers who are em-
otionally intelligent communicate well with people 
(Goleman, 1995; Mayer et al., 2004; Weisinger, 1998). 
This manuscript describes emotional intelligence and 
communication effectiveness of managers and employees 
in educational administration. However, the empirical 
evidence is scant (Day and Carroll, 2004; Reich and 
Benbasat, 1996) and no study has examined the inter-
action effect of managers‟ EI and employees‟ EI on 
communication effectiveness. As such, the goals of this 
study are to examine the impact of manager and em-
ployees‟ EI and communication effectiveness on strategic 
alignment. 
 
 
Emotional intelligence 
 
Mayer et al. (1997)  defined  EI  as “the ability to perceive 

 

 
 
 
 
emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to 
assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional 

knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to 
promote emotional and intellectual growth”. Also, Esther 
et al. (1997) defined EI as “ability to sense, understand, 

and effectively apply the power and acumen of emotions 
as a source of human energy, information, trust, creativity 

and influence”. Bar-On describes EI as “an array of non-
cognitive capabilities, competencies, and skills that 

influence one‟s ability to succeed in coping with environ-
mental demand and pressures” [1997]. 
 
 
Communication effectiveness 
 
According to Campbell communicative effectiveness is 
deliberate behavior aimed at augmenting the result of an 
interpersonal meeting [Campbell, 1999]. Similarly, the 
expression “communication effectiveness” is often re-
placed by, “effective communication” (Gudykunst, 1993, 
1995, 2005a). A high level of communication effectiveness 

leads to a high degree of similarities of understandings 
between the sender and the receiver [Gudykunst, 2005]. 
In this case, the communication effectiveness of the group 
managers has positive correlation with maximizing 
understanding or minimizing misunderstanding of group 
workers with strategic alignment. According to Campbell 
communicative effectiveness is deliberate behavior aimed 
at augmenting the result of an interpersonal meeting 
[Campbell, 1999]. 

 
Strategic alignment 
 
The strategic alignment indicates the degree of business 
mission, objectives and plans support; that it is supported 
by information technology missions and objectives [Reich 
and Benbasat, 1996]. Strategic alignment is very vital and 
its importance was mentioned since the past decades, as 
Papp observes, the importance of strategic alignment has 
been substantiated since 1980s [Papp, 1995]. Review of 
the aforementioned studies reveals that the importance of 
the strategic alignment is due to its impact on a number 
of its principle business deeds, like gaining competitive 
advantage, competing in a tough competitive market, 
imposing positive effect in the performance of a company, 
highest return on IT investment, competing in a diverse 
market, supporting business strategies and contributing 
to business value achievement, resulting in better 
performance, introducing flexibility in response to new 
opportunities. 

 
Relationship between EI and communication 

effectiveness 
 
Scientists of emotional intelligence theory argue that 

emotional intelligence leads to  improved  communication 



 
 
 
 
 
 

Relationship between 

managers and employees 

 
 

 
Communication Emotional 

 
Effectiveness 

Intelligence  

 
 

 
 

 
Figure 1. Communication effectiveness view of managers and 

emotion intelligence. 
 
 
 
effectiveness in messages (Goleman, 1998b; Mayer et 
al., 2004; Weisinger, 1998). Bar-On said “to be emo-
tionally and socially intelligent is to effectively understand 
and express oneself, to understand and relate well with 
others, and to successfully cope with daily demands, 
challenges, and pressures” [2002]. Goleman [2001] said 
social awareness of emotional intelligence has direct 
relationship with people and groups precisely and 
communication such as “the empathic individual can read 
emotional currents, picking up on nonverbal cues such as 
tone or facial expression”. Mayer et al. said “the high EI 
individual, most centrally, can better perceive emotions, 
use them in thought, understand their meanings, and 
manage emotions better than others … tends to be more 
open and agreeable …” (p. 210) [2004]. As shown, these 
theories focus on the significance of understanding and 
relating with others which has near connection with case 
of communication where adaptation and proper use of 
knowledge and skills are essential when interacting with 
other persons. For that reason, there could be a common 
underlying factor which looks to connect emotional 
intelligence with communication effectiveness. In sum-
mary, there is a communication view of emotional intelli-
gence on the interaction and relationship components of 
the process. The view holds that emotional intelligence is 
outcome of the communicative process. It follows that to 
improve manager effectiveness requires a significant 
emphasis on communication effectiveness since 
according to this view; it is through communication 
effectiveness that emotional intelligence occurs. Figure 1 
shows this relationship. 
 
 

Emotional intelligence and age 
 
Mayer et al. (2000) found that emotional intelligence is 

also related to age. They found a positive correlation 

between levels of emotional intelligence and the age of 

individuals. Kafetsios (2004) also found   significant differ- 

178          Afr. J. Agric. Mark. 
 
 

 
rences in emotional intelligence based on age. In the 

study, older study participants outscored younger ones in 
three of four branches of emotional intelligence: facilitating 

thought, understanding emotions and managing emotions. 
In a similar study, older groups scored significantly higher 
than younger groups, suggesting emotional intelligence 

can increase with age [Bar-On, 1997]. Emotional intelli-
gence test developers have reported that emotional 

levels in their normative samples increase with age (Bar-
On, 1997, 2002 Mayer et al., 1999, 2002). 
 
 
Emotional intelligence and gender 
 
Kafetsios (2004) found significant differences in emotional 

intelligence and gender groups. Female participants 

scored higher than males in regard to perceiving emotions 

and in the experiential dimension (area) of emotional 

intelligence. Gender has important effects on emotions 

and emotional intelligence. Our own work, for example, 

suggests that women may have a slight advantage in the 

hard skills of emotional intelligence [Mayer et al., 1999]. 
 
 
GOALS AND METHODS 
 
The goal of the research was to determine the impact of 
emotional intelligence through communication effective-
ness on strategic alignment. Also, demographic variables 
(gender and age) play an important role in relationship 
among emotional intelligence, communications effective-

ness, and strategic alignment. The research was based 
on a questionnaire study, which is a quite common form 
of investigation in this behavior and business field and 
also provides opportunities for determining relationship 
between emotional intelligence, communications effec-
tiveness and strategic alignment. The respondents for the 
research were selected from the Agriculture Bank and 
Educational Administrations of Iran. The group comprised 
82 persons, out of which 502 respondents completed the 
questionnaire. 

 
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 
 
The model for this paper is composed of three key 
constructs (Figure2) including emotional intelligence, 
communications effectiveness, and strategic alignment. 
Based on the existing literature-as stated earlier- there is 
a positive impact of emotional intelligence on communi-
cation effectiveness and also communication effective-
ness can impact strategic alignment. Also, reviewing the 
literature showed that gender and age serving as control 
variables can impact emotional intelligence. Therefore, 
we can propose that communication effectiveness me-
diates the link between emotional intelligence and strategic 

alignment. Good communication is one factor that has  
been   found   to   affect   strategic   alignment  [Goleman, 



Halim et al.       179 
 
 
 
 
 

Gender 
 
 
 

Age 
 

Emotional  
Intelligence  

Happiness 
Communication Strategic 

 

Effectiveness Alignment  

Optimism  

  
 

 

 
Figure 2. Conceptual framework. 

 
 
 
Due to this, the researcher proposed the definition of 
good communication in current study as communication 
effectiveness, which has a relationship with strategic 
alignment.  

In the light of the above literature we try to find out the 

effects of independent variables on the dependent 

variable; the following hypotheses will help us to do so: 
 
1. H1: Emotional intelligence will have a significant 

relationship with communications effectiveness   
2. H1a: Happiness will have a significant relationship with 
communications effectiveness   
3. H1b: Optimism will have a significant relationship with 
communications effectiveness   
4. H2: Communication effectiveness will have a significant 
relationship with strategic alignment.  
5. H3: Gender factor will have a significant relationship 
with emotional intelligence.   
6. H4: Age factor will have a significant relationship with 

emotional intelligence.  

 
OUTCOMES AND DISCUSSION 
 
Emotional intelligence is independent variable in this 
research, communications effectiveness is a mediator 
variable and strategic alignment in the Agriculture Bank 
and Educational Administrations of Iran is considered as 
the dependent variable. Also, age and gender study plays 
the role of a control variable in current study. The present 
research is an applicable one with interrelationship. The 
researcher tries to investigate a connection between 
variables. The purpose of this applied study and 
correlation in this research is the assessment of this 
connection between variables and making on these 
predictions the researcher looks for a probable relation 
between emotional intelligence, communications effec-
tiveness, and strategic alignment in Agriculture Bank and 
Educational Administrations of Iran. Statistically group 
consists of 502 subjects sample volume of about 82 
people. Data were collected from  libraries; other sources 

 
 
 
include books, journals, magazines, newspapers, scien-
tific reports, organizations archives, field studies and 
questionnaire by making use of evaluated specter of 
Likerts‟ spectrum. For hypothesis test, the average 
questions selected for each variable were specified then 
the software package (SPSS, Ver16) was used to 
analyze the connections between both groups of 
variables. The validity of the questionnaire was evaluated 
by Cronbach‟s alpha, which was 88% and acceptable. 
The reliability of variables consists of: happiness (.79), 
optimism (.79), communication effectiveness (.91), and 
strategic alignment (.78). The consistency of the ques-
tionnaire was announced by seven authorities at the 
average of 92%. Statistic methods were used to analyze 
and explain the present research such as: 1) Kendall‟s 
coefficient of concordance. 2) Krosskal and Walice. 
Based on Kendall‟s coefficient of concordance by the use 
of SPSS, Ver16, the following results were obtained: 
 
H1: Kendal‟s coefficient between independent variable 
(emotional intelligence) and dependent variable (commu-
nication effectiveness) is equal to 76% and there is 
significantly positive correlation between two variables 
considering the fact that a rate of 0.999 is significant.  
H1a: there is a significant relationship between the 
happiness of emotional intelligence and communication 
effectiveness. The correlation coefficient is 0.71 out of a 
significant level of 0.999; thus, the first hypothesis has 
been validated.  
H1b: there is a significant relationship between assertive-
ness of emotional intelligence and communication effec-
tiveness. The correlation coefficient is 0.75; thus, the 
second hypothesis has been validated. H1c: there is a 
significant relationship between independence of emo-
tional intelligence and communication effectiveness. The 
correlation coefficient is 0.81; thus, the third hypothesis 
has been validated.  
H2a: Kendal‟s coefficient between mediator variable 

(communication effectiveness) and dependent variable 

(strategic alignment) main hypothesis is equal to 66% 

and there is significant  positive  correlation  between  the 



 
 
 
 
two variables considering the fact that a rate of 0.999 is 
significant.  
H2b: Kendal‟s coefficient between control variable (gender) 
and independent variable (emotional intelligence) main 
hypothesis is equal to 87% and there is significant positive 
correlation between the two variables, considering the 
fact that a rate of 0.999 is significant.  
H2c: Kendal‟s coefficient between mediator variable (age) 

and independent variable (emotional intelligence) main 

hypothesis is equal to 79% and there is significant positive 

correlation between the two variables, considering the 

fact that a rate of 0.999 is significant. 
 
 
Conclusion 
 
Over results have shown there is a significant and posi-
tive relationship between independent variable emotional 
intelligence (that is, happiness, assertiveness, and 
independence) and communication effectiveness with 
dependent variable (strategic alignment) in Agriculture 
Bank and Educational Administrations of Iran. From the 
results of the study, we can conclude that the Agriculture 
Bank and Educational Administrations of Iran should pay 
much attention to both communications effectiveness and 
emotional intelligence as they could lead to maintain 
strategic alignment. We encourage future research to 
replicate our findings in wider samples in organizations of 
Iran. It is important to note that prior researches have 
ignored the link between emotional intelligence, commu-
nication effectiveness and strategic alignment that the 
current study was developed with the intention of filling 
the research gap. 
 
 
Limitations 
 
The present research is concerned with the study of 
emotional intelligence and its impact on communication 
effectiveness and strategic alignment. As such, there are 
many areas for communication effectiveness and strategic 
alignment and for further research. In particular, we 
recognize that our study is subject to some important 
limitations. The first and most obvious limitation of the 
present study is limited by cost and time. A second 
limitation concerns the suggestions made by the study 
may require policy decisions and top management 
support for implementations. Finally, the findings of the 
study can be generalized only to likewise industry and 
organization of the same size. 

 
RECOMMENDATIONS 
 
Emotional intelligence, as an important area of human 

behavior needs a lot of research in the developing coun-

tries like Iran. As it directly influences the employees‟ 

behavior working in any organization, the decision 

making power and the abilities are  related  to  handle  he  

180          Afr. J. Agric. Mark. 
 
 
 
contin-gency situations, which may arise out of blues. 
There is also need to carry out research regarding 
intrinsic and extrinsic factors which have impact on the 
employees‟ behavior and emotional intelligence of the 
employees. Sector wise research may also be carried out 
to see the emotional intelligence level of employees in 
different sectors of the country, to make country prosper 
by having business human capital with in the country. On 
the other hand, further studies with respect to impact of 
emotional intelligence on organizational performance by 
different organization variables, are required in this field 
especially in Iran be it manufacturing industry or service 
industry. 
 
 
Conflict of Interests 
 
The authors have not declared any conflict of interests. 
 
 
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