Published Online:December 2025
Product Name:The IUP Journal of Business Strategy
Product Type:Article
Product Code:IJBS021225
DOI:10.71329/IUPJBS/2025.22.4.15-36
Author Name:Anirban Nandi and Indrani Ghatak
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Management
Download Format:PDF
Pages:15-36
This study explores the critical role emotional intelligence (EI) plays in shaping ethical leadership (EL), particularly among Generation Z management graduates who represent the emerging workforce. As leadership demands evolve beyond technical expertise to include emotional awareness and interpersonal competence, the study investigates how the five core dimensions of EI—self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills—relate to ethical leadership behaviors. Employing a quantitative methodology, data was collected from 88 human resource management students using validated EI and EL scales. Through moderation analysis using IBM SPSS, the study examined whether demographic and academic factors—age, CGPA, gender, graduation subject, and work experience—influence the EI-EL relationship. The findings reveal that age, CGPA, and work experience significantly moderate this relationship, suggesting that maturity, academic discipline, and exposure to professional environments enhance the ethical application of emotional competencies. Conversely, gender and graduation subject were not significant moderators, reinforcing the universal applicability of EI in fostering ethical conduct regardless of background. The results underscore the need for integrating soft skill development, particularly EI training, in management education to nurture ethically grounded leaders. The study contributes to a relatively underexplored domain by highlighting how developing EI in early career professionals can serve as a foundation for ethical leadership.
A company’s long-term success is deeply ingrained in the ethical integrity of its leadership patterns. When leaders prioritize ethical values, they set the tone for the entire organization. Their commitment to principles such as justice, transparency, accountability, honesty, and compassion guides both their decisions and behavior (Anantatmula & Shrivastav, 2020).