Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Effectiveness: Moderating Role of Organizational Climate in Nigeria

Leadership effectiveness remains one of the most debated constructs in organizational behaviour, yet its drivers in Sub-Saharan African contexts remain chronically understudied. This study investigates the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and leadership effectiveness (LE) among Nigerian organizational leaders, while examining the moderating role of organizational climate (OC). Drawing on a large-scale cross-sectional survey of 7,740 respondents across multiple sectors, industries, and geographic locations in Nigeria, we employ ordinary least squares (OLS) regression with robust standard errors, supplemented by interaction term analysis to test moderation. Control variables — including leader age, leader education, leader tenure, organization size, sector dummies, location (urban/rural), and ownership type — are incorporated to ensure model precision and minimize omitted variable bias. Our findings confirm a statistically significant positive relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness (β = 0.412, p < 0.001). Organizational climate significantly moderates this relationship (β = 0.187, p < 0.01), amplifying the effect of EI on LE in positive climatic conditions and attenuating it under hostile organizational environments. These results survive a battery of post-estimation checks, including tests for heteroscedasticity, multicollinearity, and endogeneity. The study contributes to the literature by providing the largest empirical evidence to date on EI-LE dynamics in the Nigerian context, and it offers actionable insights for human resource practitioners, organizational leaders, and policymakers seeking to optimize leadership performance in developing economies.