Punishment, Emotional Intelligence, and Leadership Skills Development: Constructive Discipline or Counterproductive Stress

Abstract

The majority of leadership development in military-style educational institutions is a result of stringent methods of discipline and punishment. While punishment seeks to correct behavior and promote discipline, the effect of punishment on the development of leadership traits and emotional growth are debated. The aim of this study is to determine whether punishment has direct effect on the development of leadership traits or whether punishment acts through emotional intelligence, and whether emotional intelligence functions as a mediating variable with respect to punishment and leadership traits development.

The study when carried out entailed the survey of a total of 270 cadets from Pakistan’s Cadet Colleges in a cross sectional survey form, and used validated scales measuring punishment, emotional intelligence and leadership traits. The data collected were analyzed through Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), regarding direct, indirect and mediating effects.

Results indicate that punishment does not directly develop leadership traits, but that it does modify emotional intelligence in a positive direction through supervision, and development of emotional intelligence does subsequently develop leadership traits. Cadets with a higher emotional intelligence were able to translate punishment into reflective learning, resiliency and interpersonal skills, hence in this indirect way enabling them to have increased leadership traits. Thus, the importance of emotional intelligence in the function of punishment being either a constructive discipline medium or a means of stress is indicated. These results point to the importance of integrating emotionally intelligent concepts into discipline with regard to the literature on leadership skills development.