Purpose: This research aims to explore the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational commitment. In addition, we intend to study the effect of emotional intelligence, which moderates the relationship of transformational leadership and organizational commitment.

Research methodology/design: Insurance experts ( working in 6 branches of Social Security Organization of Qazvin province completed a measure of EI (Bar-On's self-report Emotional Intelligence Inventory), Multi Factor Questionnaire (MLQ), a measure of transformational leadership, and a questionnaire of organizational commitment.

Findings: Correlational and regression analysis revealed that there is a direct and positive relationship between transformational leadership and organizational commitment. Also results show that emotional intelligence moderates the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational commitment.

Originality/value: This paper establishes a link between transformational leadership and emotional intelligence. It, also, shows that follower's emotional intelligence moderates that relationship. One of the managerial applications of our result is that effectiveness of transformational leadership depends on follower's EI. It means that managers who have transformational leadership style are effective when their followers are high on EI.