Enhancing public sector performance: the role of emotional intelligence in strengthening leadership effectiveness

Purpose In today’s organizational landscape, particularly within the public sector of developing countries such as Ghana, changes are often unexpected and unpredictable. Turbulent environments in this context stem from shifting political priorities, resource constraints and regulatory changes. These factors compel public organizations to continuously adapt their operations and decision-making. Given that leaders play a pivotal role in navigating such uncertainties, this paper aims to explore how their emotional intelligence contributes to leadership effectiveness in driving organizational performance under these conditions. Design/methodology/approach To address response bias, employees were chosen as the unit of analysis. A structured questionnaire was used to collect 297 responses from Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in Ghana, with the data analyzed with Structural Equation Modeling. Findings Emotional intelligence was found to influence organizational performance positively and significantly. Also, leadership effectiveness was discovered to partially mediate the nexus between emotional intelligence and organizational performance. Originality/value The novelty of this paper lies in its focus on individual traits in enhancing leadership effectiveness, which in turn drives organizational performance in the public sector of a resource-constrained economy.