A Collegial Approach In Understanding Leadership As A Social Skill

Abstract

Current research indicates that the complexities of organisations require a new focus on collegial leadership and the creation of a sense of community in which leadership is shared. Collegiality forms the backbone of shared leadership. Leadership, as a social skill, makes people respect and follow others and is identified by emotional intelligence (EI) factors such as attitude, confidence, respect for others, and trustworthiness. EI is not a replacement for on the job skills and intelligent task-related logical thinking, but it adds to the variety of skills that enable and empower leaders to develop their employees through the enhancement of their social skills.

A survey was conducted among 474 employees with the purpose of the exploratory study being to determine employees’ perceptions of their leaders’ social skills. Six social skills formed the basis of this investigation; namely, leadership characteristics, communication, conflict management, relationships, empathy, and trust. Both Pearson r and Spearman ? indicate that the two variables; namely, the job satisfaction of workers and the social skills of leaders rated by the respondents, are significant and therefore directly related. The findings of this exploratory study confirm that the more satisfied a worker is, the higher a leader’s social skills are likely to be. Conversely, the more dissatisfied an employee is, the lower a leader’s social skills are likely to be. However, this data must be interpreted in terms of the social skills of leaders as being one of the major factors affecting the job satisfaction of workers.