Emotional Disposition And Leadership Preferences Of American And Chinese MBA Students

This paper reports results from an exploratory study examining the relationship between American and Chinese MBA students' emotional intelligence, constructive thinking ability, emotional creativity, and leader behavioral preference. Data analyses indicated a significant, positive correlation between emotional intelligence and the desirability of transformational leadership. No such relationship was found with constructive thinking ability, and emotional creativity actually exhibited a negative association. Moreover, there were significant differences found between the American and Chinese samples on emotional intellect and emotional creativity, with Americans scoring higher on the emotional intelligence scale but the Chinese exhibiting higher scores on the emotional creativity measure. Further, significant differences were found as to the desirability of transformational leadership.