The moderating role of emotional intelligence on the effect of authentic leadership on employee job satisfaction

This study aims to examine the moderating role of emotional intelligence in the effect of authentic leadership on employees' job satisfaction. Authentic leadership is important in terms of ensuring that employees work effectively and efficiently, are committed to the organization, and gain important values such as a sense of belonging. This study attempts to reveal the role of emotional intelligence levels in increasing the effect of authentic leadership on employees' job satisfaction. A total of 261 people participated in the study using the convenience sampling method. "Emotional Intelligence Scale", "Authentic Leadership Scale" and "Job Satisfaction Scale" were used as data collection tools. Internal consistency analysis was conducted to examine the reliability of the scales, confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to examine their validity. Correlation analyses were conducted to examine the binary relationships between variables, and regression analyses were conducted to examine causal relationships. As a result of the study, it was observed that managers' authentic leadership practices had a positive effect on employees' job satisfaction, and emotional intelligence did not have a moderating role on this effect. However, it was observed that the emotion regulation sub-dimension of emotional intelligence had a significant moderating role in the effect of the self-awareness sub-dimension of authentic leadership on employees' job satisfaction. The findings were discussed in the context of the literature.