EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Measuring Emotional Intelligence of Managers and the Application of Emotional Intelligence for Individual and Organisation Effectiveness

Table of Content

Introduction3

Discussion4

Measuring Emotional Intelligence5

Emotional Intelligence and Management9

Application of Emotional Intelligence12

Conclusion13

Measuring Emotional Intelligence of Managers and the Application of Emotional Intelligence for Individual and Organisation Effectiveness

Introduction

Keeping employees motivated and committed to the organization has become increasingly difficult for managers in the era of downsizing and outsourcing. In challenging economic times, many companies are forced to lay off workers to remain competitive. Evidence from numerous studies suggests that Organizational Commitment among employees diminishes because of the effects of downsizing (Locke 2005: pp. 425-431). Thus, creating an atmosphere that nourishes OC among employees in an era of growing worker distrust has become more challenging for managers.

Organizations want committed employees who will exert extra effort to accomplish the organization's goals. The benefits of a committed workforce consist of increase in job satisfaction, enhanced performance of work, increase in total return to stakeholders of the company, increase in sales, decreased turnover of employees, decreased intention to leave, and reduced absenteeism. Committed employees, therefore, represent a potential competitive advantage to employers.

Locke (2005) noted that supervisors with high emotional intelligence skills had subordinates with higher levels of organizational commitment. Other researchers have also found positive correlations between the EI and OC constructs, yet research that examines the manager/subordinate Emotional Intelligence relationship is limited. This study will be examining that how emotional intelligence of managers are measured and the application of emotional intelligence for individual and organisation effectiveness

Discussion

Emotional intelligence is a relatively new term in the study of organizational behaviour; however, the most distant roots of the concept can be traced back to 1872 and Charles Darwin's early work on the importance of emotional expression for survival and adaptation. In 1909, educator John Dewey is credited with the first use of the terms social intelligence and social power. Lam & Kirby (2002) proposed that humans possess multiple types of intelligence, one form being called social intelligence, or the ability to understand and manage people and to act wisely in human relations.

Goleman (1998) defined EI 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" (p. 33). Goleman drew upon Higgs' research and expanded the concept of EI from an ability model to a mixed model that includes personality traits, social activities, and self-motivation factors, in addition to competencies. Goleman is largely credited with popularizing the concept of EI as a type of intelligence associated with leadership success and positive organizational outcomes.

Higgs (2004) proposed the first formal definition of emotional intelligence. Higgs has defined, “emotional intelligence as the abilities of monitoring owns and others' feelings for discriminating among them and for using the information for guiding thinking and actions of a person (p. 189).” Higgs (2004) contend that emotions are important and relevant to our everyday lives. They also indicate that emotions are paid little attention in formal education and that in general; ...