In today’s globalised and fast-changing work environment, leadership goes beyond strategy or authority: it requires emotional awareness, adaptability and connection. This proposed study seeks to explore how immigrant women leaders in the United Kingdom use emotional intelligence (EI) to find belonging, build credibility and lead effectively in diverse and often hybrid organisational settings. Leadership for these women is not only about performance, but also about navigating cultural expectations and maintaining authenticity within systems that may not have been designed with them in mind.

The study will use a qualitative narrative ​approach to explore the lived experiences of​ immigrant women holding senior leadership roles across public, private and third-sector organisations. It will be guided by three key frameworks: Goleman’s (1995) emotional intelligence theory, which focuses on empathy, self-awareness and social skill; intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989), which highlights the overlapping influences of gender, race and migration; and the identity work framework (Sveningsson & Alvesson, 2003), which examines how leaders construct and sustain their professional identities. Through in-depth narrative interviews, the research will examine how emotional intelligence helps these leaders manage cultural and emotional tensions, foster trust and adapt to hybrid or remote leadership environments.

It is expected that the study will reveal how empathy, resilience and authenticity support immigrant women’s leadership journeys. The findings aim to provide both theoretical and practical insights into how emotional intelligence can promote inclusive, adaptive and human-centred leadership in multicultural organisation.