Managerial Effectiveness Managing the Self and Others

Chapter 5 : Emotional Intelligence in Management

 The Nature of Emotional Intelligence
 Evolution of Emotional Intelligence
 Components of Emotional Intelligence

+Analyzing the Impact of Emotions in the Workplace

+Applications of Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace

 Emotional Intelligence in Indian Organizations

+Improving Emotional Intelligence

Chapter Summary

Dr. Peter Salovey of Yale University and Dr. John Mayer of the University of New Hampshire coined the phrase “emotional intelligence” in 1990. They defined emotional intelligence as “a form 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 action.”

In 1995, Daniel Goleman published a book “Emotional intelligence, why it can matter more than IQ.” With that book, the concept of emotional intelligence got worldwide attention. Goleman defined emotional intelligence as the ‘capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships.’

Emotional intelligence has four major components: Awareness of the self, Management of the self, Social Awareness, Management of Relationships. Emotional intelligence is very important for a person to succeed in modern organizations. A person who is higher in the organizational hierarchy requires greater emotional intelligence than a person in the lower levels of organizational hierarchy.

The nature of emotional intelligence required by persons also depends on the kind of profession they are in. At the workplace, a person who has emotional intelligence would have the abilities – to recognize emotions, to use them to assist the thought process, to be aware of emotions, and to control emotions. At the workplace, emotions play a crucial role. There are both positive and negative emotions at play in the workplace.

Negative emotions create hurdles in the attainment of the goals of the organization, and the managers have to analyze the factors that cause such emotions in order to do away with them. Positive emotions at the workplace are conducive to the better functioning of the organization as it can lead to better productivity. Such emotions are to be identified and steps taken to retain them.

Emotional intelligence is imperative for the success of a person in an organization. Emotional intelligence can be learned at any age, and many organizations provide emotional intelligence training for their employees. Organizational training for providing emotional intelligence mainly involves four stages; preparation, training, application, and evaluation.

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