The role of emotional intelligence (EI) has emerged over the past two decades as critical to personal, social and professional success. Particularly with regard to managers, it is crucial in enhancing leadership characteristics and successful management of human resources and organizations.
It is, in fact, considered to be the element that distinguishes excellent leaders from mere managerial leaders. This view is supported by the vast majority of the research reviewed for the purposes of this article, but without, however, finding enough information on its generalized role in the Greek Public Administration (PA). The link between SN and the formation of leadership characteristics of public sector managers is attempted in this article. In the complex and idiosyncratic environment of the Greek public sector, SN has an upgraded role; it contributes to the formation of effective leaders and improves their response to repeated crises, to the increasing demands of citizens for quality management and to the implementation of the principles of the New Public Management (NPM). A prerequisite for the effectiveness of SN in the public sector is, on the one hand, its training and cultivation and, on the other hand, the removal of inhibiting factors, focusing on the system of selection of supervisors and the organizational framework of the Public Administration.
Study published in the Public Administration Review, the journal issued by the Law School of University of Nicosia.