What is Emotional Intelligence

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

Emotional Intelligence and Relationships Human Resource Management

“Anyone can become angry – that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way – this is not easy.”

~ By Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics ~

Traditionally, management were only interested on return on investment (ROI) and shareholder value, not the neurobiology of emotions doing business. However, in modern days, there is probably nothing as important as having good human relationships in the workplace. Whether one is a chief executive officer, a consultant, a manager or team member, achieving results requires a productive working relationship with others. As such, having positive and sustainable human relationships is the bedrock for business effectiveness. According to Goleman, “Emotional Quotient (EQ) defines our capacity for relationship (Goldmen 1995)” and added, “Rational intelligence only contributes about 20% to the factors that determine success in life. Some extraneous factors such as luck, and particularly the characteristics of EQ, constitute the other 80% (Goldmen 1995).”

WHAT IS EMOTIONAL QUOTIENT?

By themselves, the discoveries in Emotional Quotient (EQ) are not new. Over the centuries, there have been numerous studies conducted to understand the workings ‘emotions’ and its practical importance. One of the earliest historical literature recordings dates back to 1st century B.C by Publilius Syrus, a Latin writer of mimes. Syrus states, ‘Rule your feelings, lest your feelings rule you’ (Hang 1999). In other words, people should take control of their feelings and emotions rather then allowing it to control their intellect and values (also known as emotional-hijacking). Today’s contemporary authors have since further expanded Syrus’ definition, which subsequently lead to the development of the EQ concept. EQ can be simply defined as:

Hence, it could be concluded that EQ could be referred to a person’s emotional intelligence (also known as EI). It should be noted that the term ‘emotional intelligence’ was created by Peter Salovey and John Mayer in 1990 and then popularised by Daniel Goldmen in 1995 in his ground-breaking bestseller, ‘Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ?’ (Goldmen 1995). According to Goldmen, EQ consists of 5 major qualities or characteristics (Goldmen 1995, p 43; Caudron, Shari 1999).

Knowing one’s emotions (self-awareness)
Managing emotions (mood management)
Motivating oneself (self-motivation)
Recognising emotions in others (empathy)
Handling Relationships (interpersonal skills)

Notably, the first 4 characteristics can be broadly classified under the umbrella of intrapersonal intelligence. According to Gardner, intrapersonal intelligence, also known as self-smart, refers to one’s cognitive ability to understand and sense one’s ‘self’ (Goldmen 1995, p.39). This intelligence enables a person to have an accurate picture of their capabilities (i.e. strengths and limitations); awareness of inner moods, intentions, motivations, temperaments and desires, as well as self-esteem also the capacity for self-discipline (Goldmen 1995, p.39). In other words, intrapersonal intelligence can influence the development of an individual’s courage, perseverance, enthusiasm and passion (Hang 1999). It harnesses innovative and creative thinking (‘open to new ideas’) that allows a person to formulate creative and radically new approaches, which could be considered illogical based on conventional wisdom (Goldmen 1995). As such, these qualities embedded in a person are vital breakthrough scientific research, inventions, entrepreneurship and extraordinary achievements (Hang 1999).

Intrapersonal EQ qualities are crucial in personal daily and business interacts with people. Self-awareness refers to one’s own conscious of one’s feelings and can deal with them better (Goldmen 1995, p. 47). This personal trait helps individuals to be aware of any worrisome episode as soon as possible (Goldmen 1995, p. 47). Through mood management, one can act to overcome any negativity (i.e. being angry or depressed) that prevents one from accomplishing one’s goals (Goldmen 1995, p. 57). This personal attributes helps a person to think positively, which inturn boosts their morale during those challenging-times or difficult setbacks. Self-motivation refers one’s personal drive (internal locus of control) to achieve success, overcome obstacles, disappointments and frustrations as well to search proactively for opportunities (Dubrin 2004). It also prompts the individual to initiate conflict management, building bonds, teamwork and collaboration (Caudron, July 1999).

Lastly, empathy refers to a person’s ‘people skills’, which enables a person to know how another person is feeling (i.e. reading other people’s feeling). It allows individuals to place themselves in other people’s situation so to identify and conceptualise the other people’s problems and feelings. Notably, intuition plays a key role in empathy as helps in interpreting the non-verbal communication of people such as tone of voice, gesture and facial expression (Goldmen 1995, p. 96).

Handling relationship can be categories as interpersonal intelligence (‘people smart’). According to Gardner, interpersonal intelligence is seen in how one ‘notices distinction among others; in particular, contrasts in their moods, temperaments motivations and intentions’ (Goldmen 1995, p.39). It creates the ability to understand other people in terms of what motivates them, how they work, how to work co-operatively with them (Hang 1999). Note that interpersonal intelligence fundamental requires the empathy skill mention earlier, which is, to identifying oneself mentally with a person and understanding his/her feelings. According to Hatch and Gardner of Harvard University, empathy combined with the four intrapersonal ...

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Organising groups
Negotiating solutions
Personal connection
Social analysis

IMPORTANCE OF EI IN TODAY’S NEW ENVIRONMENT

Management of organisations and Human Resource department today are faced with enormous challenges because businesses do not just compete in terms of its product offering alone. The pace of technical innovations, global competition and the pressures from investors is forcing that compel change. As such organisations are force to implement efficiency-orientated programs to ensure efficiency, productivity and/or competitiveness, for example ‘restructuring’ to a lean and flat organisation structure. This subsequently weakens people’s job security, which in turn reduces their loyalty and commitment levels towards organisations. However, employees whom remain are made to be more visible and more accountable. Notably, it is evidently clear that the success of an organisation will solely depend on how well it manages its current human talent. To quote John P Kotter, the well-known expert on leadership from Harvard Business School, he said:

SCENERIO # 1: BECOMING A HIGH-TECH WORLD

In this knowledge-based economy of the 21st century, technological revolution has fundamentality change the way people work. Knowledge creation, knowledge transmission, and knowledge application involves the complex process of collaboration and cooperation between intellects of several human beings (Dev September 6th, 2004). As such, it is becoming very important to harness effective teamwork in a flat organisation of empowered knowledge workers in order to gain this competitive advantage (Dev September 6th, 2004). There is an increasing need to develop such skills, particularly as life is becoming potentially more impersonal particularly with the rapid advancement in telecommunication technology such as the Internet, wireless voice and data and distance deliveries becoming increasingly pervasive (Dev September 6th, 2004). Shakti Sagar, managing director of ADP explains, “The benefit of EI to managers in organisations is self-evident. Teamwork, empowerment, diversity, communication are all typified in the ‘learning organisation’, in which people and emotions play a fundamental part (Dev September 6th, 2004)”.

The movie ‘The Matrix’ (1999) provides a metaphorical representation of the modern-day world of organisations. It candidly illustrates the intense need for EI leadership style in a world of cyber intelligence. Keanu Reeves’ character Neo, the hero, the leader, succeeds in the leadership role that is enforced upon him, by virtue of his own journey of self-discovery, and thus revealing to us that if we truly believe in ourselves, then virtually anything is possible.

SCENERIO # 2: GLOBALISATION

The term ‘globalisation’ refers to the increasing integration of economies and societies around the world (International 2002). Globalisation has become common sine the 1980s due to the rapid technological advancement that enables organisations to complete international transactions easier and quicker (International 2002). As more and more people engage in business transactions with other people who are in distant time zones and different nations, there is a going to be a greater need for understanding so to leverage from cross-cultural differences (i.e. diversity in terms of value, belief and ethnic culture). To build effective relationships across these differences requires people to respect and relate well to other people from varied backgrounds.

Individuals need high self-awareness, meaning they have to honestly look at themselves to identify attitudes and behaviour that stands in the way of accepting differences and building productive working relationships (Goldmen 1995). According to Griggs Productions, the source of its creativity, effectiveness, and ultimate survival solely depends on the quality of its relationships across cultural differences (DeBare October 29, 1998). Brown Griggs, President and Executive Producer of Griggs Productions said, “When performance-related energy is wasted on depleting patterns such as diversity noise (i.e. racism, sexism, bias, discrimination), depleting work relationships (i.e. control, lying, manipulation) or cultural misunderstandings (due to different cultural dictates, realities and experiences), the potential of people is lost and the organisation loses as well” (DeBare October 29, 1998).

SCENERIO # 3: THE DOWNSIZING PHENOMENON

In the quest to meet pressing competitive demands, many organisations have sur-come to the 1990’s fad of downsizing, a voluntary in action to decrease expenses (Cameron, 1994). To gain a deeper understanding of the affects of downsizing on employee relationships, I interviewed then-Human Resource (HR) Manager of Australian-owned Hamilton Oil Corporation. In 1999, Swiss-owned Lundin Oil bought over Hamilton Oil. Due to the violate industry and the markets inability to suppose the acquisition as well as the need to change organisational culture, an independent change agent was brought to execute downsizing plans. The processes included:

Objective:
- To change organisational culture
- To re-structure the management team and to instil loyalty to Lundin Oil
Stage 1: Elimination of Senior Management
- Chief Executive Officer was the first to leave, which lead to employee insecurities

Stage 2: Elimination of Mid-Management
- 45% of management staff remained

Stage 3: Reduction of Lower Management

She said, “This downsizing exercise has led the remaining employees feeling confused and having mixed emotion.” She added, “On one hand, they were glad to have a steady income and that Lundin Oil’s apparent high regard for them gave some comfort. However, their trust and loyalty has been undermined by the displacement of fellow employees.” To reduce these negative emotional reactions, management decided to focus more on the emotional impact of the change rather then the cognitive issues. Management were highly compassioned and sensitive to the layoff victims’ needs as such they provided outplacement counselling and substantially increase the severance pay. Consequently, Lundin Oil’s downsizing activity received a positive outcome. Management was able to cut cost, change the inefficient management style and rebuild layoff survivors’ loyalty. Lundin Oil is one of the few restructuring success story because it is estimated that 70-80% of major rightsizing and reengineering activities fail over the long-term (Wieand 2003). Research finding indicates that the primary reason for failure is the destruction of social relationship between people in the working environment (Wieand 2003).

CAN EI BE TRAINED?

Can emotional intelligence be taught, can it be learnt, and does it make a difference to stress and performance? Yes, of course it. Unlike IQ which is deemed to be fixed for life, one’s EQ characteristic, EI, can be continuously harness over one’s lifetime. Data from a growing list of studies in corporations have adopted emotional intelligence training documents have shown that EI can be trained and it is effective.

In order to prove that EI ca can be taught, a group of 60 managers from a large supermarket chain were trained for 1 day per week for 4 weeks (Slaski & Cartwright 2002). Measures were taken prior to the training that included 2 measures of EQ, general-health, stress, distress, quality of working life and morale (Slaski & Cartwright 2002). The programme was created to help managers understand their own emotional responses and how they relate to their own thoughts and behaviour (Slaski & Cartwright 2002). 6 months after the completion of the training, results showed that managers on the training course significantly increased their EQ, general health, morale, quality of working life and performance; and significantly reduced stress and distress over and above those who did not take part (Slaski & Cartwright 2002).

CASE STUDY: SKANSKA

Using the Bar-on EQi emotional intelligence assessment, leaders at Skanska, the global construction services organization were tested before and after participating in emotional intelligence training (Liberti 2004). The pre and post-training test comparison showed significant increases in scores in the categories of Total EI, Self-awareness, Empathy, Interpersonal relationship, Stress management and Social responsibility (Liberti 2004).

CASE STUDY: AMERICAN EXPRESS

American Express conducted a study to examine the effectiveness of its EI training programs on their sales personnel (Centre 2004). For research purposes, control and experimental groups were established. The experimental group underwent a 20 hour training on the managing emotion skills (only one aspect of EI), and the control group was not given any extra training at all (Centre 2004). After 6 months they measured the sales of the sales people in these 2 groups. The results indicated that the trained group had outperformed the control group by 10%, subsequently adding significantly to the American Express’ productivity and profitability (Centre 2004).

CASE STUDY: A LARGE BRAZILAN CONSUMER RETAIL ORGANISATION

A recent study was carried out on a large Brazilian consumer retail organisation by Hay McBer, a Boston research company that specialises in EI behaviours. The research team used an emotional intelligence inventory known as ECI, a multi-rater instrument that provides self, manager, direct report and peer ratings on a series of behavioural indicators of emotional intelligence, based on the emotional competencies identified by Goleman (1995) (Sala 2004). The ECI encompasses 20 competencies, organized into 4 groupings, which are Self-awareness, Social-awareness, Self-management and Social skills (view Appendix A).

Overall findings indicated that participants’ ECI scores were higher after the participating in the EI training workshops, hence suggesting that EI levels improved (view Appendix A) (Sala 2004). On average, participants’ EI levels improved by approximately 11% after partaking in the workshops (view Appendix A) (Sala 2004). Result also showed a significant improvement on the following 8 out of 20 EI competencies: Self-confidence, Organizational awareness, Service orientation, Conscientiousness, adaptability, Initiative, Communication, and Conflict management (view Appendix A) (Sala 2004). Marginal levels of improvement were also noted in the Empathy and Change catalyst competencies (view Appendix A) (Sala 2004).

ISSUES IN THE EI APPLICATION

“The neocortex masters didactic information, but the limbic (emotional) brain takes mountains of repetition. No one expects to play the flute in six lessons or to become fluent in Italian in ten.”

~ A General Theory of Love ~

(Source: Lewis, Amini & Lannon 2000)

At the EQ conference in October 2004, Dr. Cary Cherniss, Chairman of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations and co-editor with Daniel Goleman of ‘The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace’, suggested that the current most favoured EI training methods are unlikely to succeed (Liberti 2004). His latest research findings indicate that for a successful shift in paradigm only occurs if the brain extinguished unproductive behaviour patterns and is reprogrammed through the support of a repetitive and reinforce learning process (Liberti 2004). Also, research suggests that stand-alone workshops may be more effective in imparting knowledge associated to enhancing technical skills and it is not realistic to expect the same results with EI skills (Liberti 2004). Research conducted by J. Prochaska, J. Norcross and C. DiClemente, authors of ‘Changing for Good’, also supports Dr. Cherniss findings. Their research shows that only 1 in 5 people whom decide to make a change are likely to succeed the first time (Liberti 2004). To quote Dr. Cherniss, “It takes time and effort to change (Liberti 2004).”

To assure a successful development of EI skill-set, Dr. Cherniss suggest the subsequent practices to be followed (Liberti 2004):

Link EI development to a business need: efficiency, change, conflict and management.
Set clear goals.
Link goals to personal values.
Break goals into manageable steps.
Put the learner in charge of the change process.
Foster a positive relationship between trainer and learner.
Use experiential methods.
Reinforce learning with coaching.
Provide opportunities for practice and give frequent feedback.
Build-in follow-up support and reinforcement.

EQ IS A CRITICAL SKILL

The success of an organisational depends on people. People have multiple responsibilities, diverse needs, and often, conflicting priorities. As such, EQ characteristics are really invaluable skill-sets to have as it helps motivate oneself despite the frustrations one might face; controls impulse and delays gratification; manages overwhelming thoughts and it ease oneself to empathise others. Notably, higher levels of EQ characteristics are associated with better performance as well as individual and organisational success. However, typically there is no immediate and easy process to improve one’s competency in EQ. One must be determine to conduct critical self-evaluation and make a commitment to improvement.

Exceptional organizations have to create a working environment that supports repetitive and reinforce learning process. Management should be aware that unmanaged emotional reactions or the lack of EI skills by employees at all levels can lead to:

Lack of innovation and creativity
Decreased productivity
Decreased customer satisfaction and customer loyalty
High turnover
Declines in revenue
Negative aura in the workplace

(2,985 words)

BILIOGRAPHY

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APPENDIX A

Participants participated in a 2-day training program, which included a ‘Building Awareness’, ‘Deciding to Change’ and ‘Practicing and Mastering’ workshops (Sala 2004). However, before the participants were exposed to these EI training workshops, their baseline EI levels were firstly assessed through the ECI (indicated as T1 in Appendix A) (Sala 2004). During the workshops, participants were encouraged to collaborate so to improve their EI skills. After the completion of the workshops, participants’ progress was remeasured with the ECI instrument again (indicated as T2 in Appendix A) (Sala 2004). Table 1 below summarises the ECI results.

(Source: Sala 2004)

Table 1

Differences between EI Levels of the Total Participants Prior (T1) and After (T2) participating in the EI workshops

* Note:

Differences were considered meaningful, or significant, if effect sizes were moderate or large and if paired-samples t-tests statistically significant (p < .05).

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