Date
4-29-2026
Department
School of Behavioral Sciences
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)
Chair
Matthew Ferdock
Keywords
leadership, transformational leadership, shared vision, inspirational motivation, emotional intelligence, work engagement, employee work engagement, organizational performance, team performance, work group performance, employee performance
Disciplines
Leadership Studies | Psychology
Recommended Citation
Hill, Jacob Glen, "Do Financial Institutions’ Senior Leaders’ Shared Vision Moderate or Mediate the Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Sales Professionals’ Work Engagement?" (2026). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 8336.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/8336
Abstract
The modern workplace is driven by rapid changes, complexities, and challenges resulting from disruptions in the global marketplace. The disruptions have prompted organizations to prioritize leadership effectiveness to navigate the required business changes better and maintain a competitive advantage. The prioritization of leadership effectiveness has brought emotional intelligence, transformational leadership, and employee work engagement to the forefront of research. This study evaluated the relationship between the emotional intelligence of financial institutions’ leaders and their sales professionals’ work engagement as mediated or moderated by the leaders’ communication of a shared vision. The sales professionals and their leaders at select asset managers and broker-dealers completed a survey, which included the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-9, and the inspirational motivation component of the Transformational Leadership Measure. The results of the study indicated that the leaders’ ability to communicate a shared vision mediated the relationship between their emotional intelligence and the work engagement of their sales professionals. The results contributed to the current research, as evaluations of shared vision as a moderator or mediator of the relationship between emotional intelligence and work engagement were absent. Additionally, research focused on sales professionals in the financial industry was not found in the literature. From a practical perspective, organizations can enhance the effectiveness of their leadership training, development, and intervention programs by focusing on a single, highly impactful behavior that may improve employee work engagement, ultimately benefiting team, work group, and organizational performance.
