Leaders Emotional Intelligence And Employee Creativity In Indigenous Ghanaian Banks: The Mediating Role Of Employee Voice

ABSTRACT The main aim of this study was to assess how leaders’ emotional intelligence influence the creativity of employees in indigenous Ghanaian banks. Moreover, the study examined how employee voice acts as a mediator for the leaders’ emotional intelligence-employee creativity relationship. Specifically, the objectives of the study were to examine the relationship between leaders emotional intelligence and employee creativity in indigenous Ghanaian banks; to determine the relationship between leaders emotional intelligence and employee voice; to assess the relationship between employee voice and employee creativity; to identify the relationship between leadership style (transformational and transactional) and employee creativity and to find out whether employee voice mediate the relationship between leaders emotional intelligence and employee creativity. A cross sectional study was conducted among four indigenous Ghanaian banks, namely; Agricultural Development Bank, Consolidated Bank, Ghana, National Investment Bank and GCB Bank. An explanatory sequential mixed method led by the quantitative approach was employed in this study. This involved the use of questionnaires to gather data from 266 employees and the use of semi- structured interview guide to gather data from 18 branch managers (leaders) of the banks used for the study. The findings of this study revealed that, leaders Emotional Intelligence (EI) has a significantly positive influence on Employee Creativity. Additionally, leaders EI was significantly and positively related to Employee Voice (EV). Employee voice was also observed to show positive regression with EC. For leadership style, it was found that both transformational leadership and transactional leadership significantly and positively predicted employee creativity in indigenous Ghanaian banks, even though transformational leadership was associated more with employee creativity than transactional leadership. Regarding the mediator role, EV was supported as a mediator between leaders’ EI and employee creativity. It was therefore suggested that leaders in indigenous Ghanaian banks should be emotionally intelligent and also practice a mix of transformational - transactional leadership, in order to create a conducive environment that will awaken their employees’ creativity. This would help in the development of innovative and attractive products and services that meet customers’ satisfaction and give competitive advantage to their banks