A. Introduction to Excellence in management and leadership
1. Leadership in the workplace
d. Leadership, learning and emotional intelligence
index of contents
The concept of emotional intelligence can be traced back to Gardner's (1983) work on multiple intelligences, where he introduced intra- and interpersonal intelligences. The term emotional intelligence appeared in an unpublished dissertation (Payne, 1986) and was next seen in the work of Salovey and Mayer (1990), who developed a systematic theoretical account of the construct, described as a combination of Gardner's interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences. Salovey and Mayer (1990:189) define emotional intelligence as:
The subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions.
Emotional intelligence has five characteristics:
1. The ability to understand and integrate emotions with cognitions;
2. The ability to manage such emotions;
3. The ability to appropriately control and regulate emotions;
4. The ability to recognise, understand and empathise with the emotions of others;
5. The ability to manage relationships (Slaski & Cartwright, 2002:64).
Emotional intelligence according to Mayer and Salovey (1997) is a composite of emotional reasoning abilities: perceiving, understanding and regulating emotions. Perceiving emotions consists of recognising and interpreting the meaning of emotional states and their relation to other sensory experiences. Understanding emotions involves understanding how basic emotions are blended to form complex emotions, how experience affects emotions and whether particular social settings produce emotions, specific to the setting. Regulating emotions is about the control of one's own emotions and the emotions of others.
Goleman (1995) popularised emotional intelligence in his best-selling book, Emotional intelligence: why can it matter more than IQ?, which describes the skills involved in emotional and social competence. These include monitoring and controlling emotions and behaviours, coping with frustration and stress, social problem solving and decision making, communicating effectively both verbally and non-verbally, controlling impulses and delaying gratification, working cooperatively with others and initiating and maintaining friendships and other significant relationships. Ross, Powell and Elias (2002) suggest that although Goleman popularised these ideas, research into these types of skills 'is nothing new' . For example, a critical component of social and emotional competence that had received considerable attention in the literature involves social problem solving and decision making. Success in these areas requires the skills of noticing and understanding feelings, determining and selecting goals, generating alternative solutions, selecting appropriate solutions and reflecting on the process (Ross et al., 2002:43). Coping with stress, an aspect of emotional intelligence described by Goleman (1995), is also a much researched area (see for example, Forman, 1993). Effective coping skills improve one's ability to handle stress and increase one's sense of personal competence (Ross et al., 2002).
Slaski and Cartwright (2002) note that while environmental factors impact on moderating stress, experiences of stress or negative emotions are also moderated by the way in which individuals appraise and perceive their relationship with their environment. Their study of 320 middle managers at a major UK retailer found a significant link between emotional intelligence and health and performance, suggesting that emotional intelligence may play an important role in moderating the stress process and increasing individual resilience. This is significant as emotional intelligence can be developed through training and experience. Their study also suggests a link between physical exercise, good diet and emotional intelligence as exercising can provide a sense of achievement and a positive outlook (Slaski & Cartwright, 67).
Using skills sets that include emotional intelligence has become an increasingly popular consulting tool. According to popular opinion and anecdotal evidence, emotional intelligence can increase performance and productivity (Thi Lam & Kirby, 2002). The competitive advantage of using emotional intelligence was confirmed by Coleman (1997:76):
Emotional intelligence gives you a competitive edge . . . Having great intellectual abilities may make you a superb fiscal analyst or legal scholar, but a highly developed emotional intelligence will make you a candidate for CEO or a brilliant trial lawyer.
A growing number of writers suggest that emotional intelligence is an equal or a more powerful predictor of success than IQ (see for example, Goleman, 1995). Ross, Powell and Elias (2002) suggest that the study of the effect of emotions on performance in the classroom, workplace and personal relationships has been gaining credibility since the mid-1980s. They state that the evidence suggests that emotional and social intelligence is not fixed at birth, and can be developed through learning and experience.
There has been debate about whether emotional intelligence is an independent factor of intelligence or a cluster of personality traits (Slaski & Cartwright, 2002:64). The original Salovey and Mayer (1990) model included variables that traditionally belonged in areas outside intelligence such as flexibility and motivation (Petrides & Furnham, 2001:425). Salovey and Mayer's 1990 model redefined emotional intelligence in cognitive-emotional terms. The model consisted solely of abilities such as perceiving, appraising and expressing emotions (1990:426). Goleman's (1995) popularised version includes personality variables such as impulsiveness, assertiveness and optimism, which are attributes outside of intelligence. To address this issue Petrides and Furnham (2001) propose a differentiation between trait emotional intelligence and ability. Trait emotional intelligence includes behavioural dispositions and self-perceived abilities and is measured through self-report conducted within a personality framework. Ability emotional intelligence refers to actual abilities, measured preferably by maximum performance rather than self-report tests (Petrides & Furnham, 426).
The Mayer and Salovey (1997) definition of emotional intelligence in cognitive-emotional terms has also been challenged. Van der Zee, Thijs and Schakel (2002:105) posit there is limited evidence for placing emotional intelligence within the framework of cognitive abilities. Accordingly these authors define emotional intelligence as:
. . . the ability to perceive one's own and others' emotions, to interpret one's own emotions and the emotions of others, and to cope with emotions of self and others effectively.
Van der Zee et al. (2002) defend their definition by identifying the commonalities and differences between academic and emotional intelligence. They explain that the concept of intelligence is a general ability to transform information into new concepts and skills. The ability is inherited. What analytical and emotional intelligence have in common, they explain, is that they both use declarative (understanding the nature of specific situations) and procedural (understanding what to do in specific situations) knowledge and apply this knowledge in a flexible manner (Van der Zee et al., 105). They argue that flexible application of declarative and procedural knowledge means 'understanding what is going on in new and unknown situations and knowing what to do in such situations'. The use and application of knowledge marks the major difference between the two types of intelligence. Analytical intelligence, they argue, concerns problems for which there is one best solution available whereas emotional intelligence concerns problems which can be interpreted in multiple ways and for which there is no one best solution. Van der Zee et al. (2002) also point out that there are no absolute standards to evaluate emotional intelligence and what constitutes emotional intelligence is determined by the environment.
Emotional intelligence is also believed to influence job satisfaction (Abraham, 2000), play a factor in mentor relationships (Bennetts, 2002), moderate job insecurity (Jordan, Ashkanasy & Härtel, 2002) and imbue eavesdropping with positive and negative emotion (Elfenbein & Ambady, 2002).
Emotionally intelligent individuals are capable of setting priorities. When priorities are not imposed externally, the power resides with the individual to redirect effort towards new goals. This leads to increased job satisfaction and commitment (Abraham, 2000). Cooper and Sawaf (1997), in a study of emotional intelligence within an organisation, refer to the need to listen to feelings of 'inner truth' that arise from the link between emotional intelligence and intuition. Abraham's (2000) study of customer service representatives from a diverse range of industries, and a second study of health professionals from the health care, insurance and telecommunications industries in the U.S., found that emotional intelligence has a stronger relationship with organisational commitment than does job satisfaction. The social skill component of emotional intelligence 'led to the building of strong networks with the work group and possibly with supervisors' (Abraham, 2000).
Thi Lam and Kirby (2002) investigated the link between emotional intelligence and cognitive-based performance using U.S. university graduates. They found that, overall, emotional intelligence - perceiving emotions and regulating emotions - contributed positively to individual cognitive-based performance. There was considerable variance in individual cognitive-based performance over and above the level attributable to general intelligence. However, understanding emotions did not contribute to cognitive-based performance over and above the level attributable to general intelligence.
Activity 5
Complete an emotional intelligence test. Reflect on how the insights gained may affect your view of how you mange and leader others.
The test can be located at http://www.queendom.com/tests/iq/emotional_iq_r2_access.html . There is no need to pay any money. Log in as a guest/non-member.
There is also another useful short test - The Emotionally Intelligent Manager - that can make you more aware of your EQ http://www.emotionaliq.org/SelfTest1.htm .
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