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Introduction
Researchers of 21st century from the fields of psychology, education and business are
converging on the concept of Emotional Intelligence , which is deemed as a sure
pathway for success in personal and organisational life. "IQ gets you hired, but EQ gets
you promoted" was the slogan mentioned in TIME magazine cover story on The EQ
factor.(TIME,1995).Emotionally intelligent people can perceive, understand and
regulate the emotions of others, thus making Emotional intelligence a significant factor
in the success of inter personal interaction in work context. Increasingly we will see
employers actively seeking people with high emotional intelligence
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence or EI is "a form of social intelligence that involves the ability to
monitor ones own and others feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and
to use this information to guide one's thinking and action. (Salovey & Mayer, 1990)."
Emotional Intelligence is not being soft- It means being intelligent about emotions.
Daniel Golemen shares his insight on the power of emotional intelligence in his article
in HBR " EI is twice as important as technical skills an IQ." Developing &
using EI skills offers a set of core abilities that impact many business issues important to
individual & organizational success
In other words, how the immediate manager treats the people reporting to him/her,
how the manager takes the success and failures, how he motivates the team, leads the
team, etc form part of the Emotional Intelligence. A manger who has very high
emotional intelligence will be able to perceive himself well in the organization and lead
his team with a sense of purpose and direction.
EI consist of two major competence areas - Personal and Social Competences. The
following grid will help the understand the EI framework better.
EI Framework
Personal Competence
Social Competence
SELF - AWARENESS
Emotional awareness
Accurate self-assessment
Self-confidence
SOCIAL AWARENESS
Empathy
Service orientation
Developing others
Leveraging diversity
Political awareness
SELF - REGULATION
Self-control
Trustworthiness
Conscientiousness
Adaptability
Innovativeness
SOCIAL SKILLS
Influence
Communication
Leadership
Change catalyst
Conflict management
Building bonds
Collaboration and cooperation
Team capabilities
SELF - MOTIVATION
Achievement drive
Commitment
Initiative
Optimism
Immediate compliance
Mobilize others to follow a vision
Create harmony
Build commitment through participation
Perform tasks to a high standard
Build strengths for the future
Impact on Climate
Strongly negative
Most strongly positive
Highly positive
Highly positive
Highly negative
Highly positive
EI
Competencies
Drive to achieve; initiative; emotional self control
Self-confidence; empathy; change catalyst
3.The study
The basic study involves facts drawn from secondary literature survey. Even before
research in the area of E.I. had begun, the Ohio State Leadership Studies reported that
leaders who were able to establish mutual trust, respect, and certain warmth and
rapport with members of their group were more effective (Fleishman and Harris, 1962)
Research work undertaken at national and international level are quoted here.Research
work published by Daniel J. Svyanket and M.Afzlur Rahim, University of Akron in The
international Journal of organisational analysis(2002, Vol -10 No 4 Pg 299-301 , shows
a clear indication of positive relationship between EQ and employees behaviour in the
organisation. It was found that team performance, cohesiveness, empathy etc are
positively correlated to EQ level of employees.
An article was presented by Ioannis Tsaousis, University of Aegena, Greece and Ioannis
Nikolaou, Athens university of Economics and business, Greece in " International
Journal of organisational Analysis, ",2002, Vol .10, No 4, Pg 327-342 , titled, "Emotional
intelligence at work place; Exploring its effect on occupational stress and organisational
commitment" , talks about the research conducted by them by administering EQ
questionnaire and an organisational stress screening tool. The results showed a positive
relation between EQ and organisational commitment
Studies conducted by Jigisha .B. Dholakia & Geethika Kaushal, TAA Communication
Area, IIM, Ahmedbad ( working paperno. 2001-05-01, Pg 2-15), titled" Emotional
Intelligence at work place. A priliminary study of male executives in private and public
sector organisation" reveals a relationship between EQ and work place situations.
During the recent studies conducted at L'Oreal , it was found that when the sales people
were selected on the basis of emotional competence, the turn over was reduced by a
drastic 63% !! Likewise, when Metlife selected sales people on the basis of optimism,
which is one of the emotional intelligence competencies, they out sold other Metlife
people by 37% and showed reduced attrition.
The link between EQ and leadership was clear from the study at PepsiCo. In a pilot
project, executives selected for EQ competencies outperformed their colleagues,
delivering 10% increase in productivity,87% decrease in executive turn over (!) and over
$ 3.75m added economic value. At one of the Motorola's manufacturing facility used
HeartMath's stress and EQ program and realized that 93% of employees showed
increase in productivity.
It is very interesting to note that unlike IQ, which is almost decided at birth, EQ can be
improved by training and nurturing. A study conducted at Case Western University, a
competency building program increased the Emotional Intelligence skills by 40 % to 75
% among the respondents, and that effect lasted at least through the 5- 7 years of the
study.
The US Air Force spends millions on recruitment every year , but their professional
recruiters were only picking up an average of one recruit per month. A $ 10,000
investment in EQ testing helped them to profile top performers and in one year , they
saved $2.7 million. Following this success, The General Accounting Office requested
that the Secretary of Defense order all branches of armed force to adopt this procedure
in recruitment and selection.
Gallup's land mark research of over two million working Americans on" employee
Engagement"( a sense of emotional connection to the organisation) it was identified that
teams with higher engagement showed 50% less turn over and 38% above average
productivity.
4 .Results
These findings appear to add support to the growing body of literature indicating the
constructs of EI and organisational commitment having a great significance.
What is highlighted above appears to be an accurate description of what is happening in
general in most of the organisations across the world. One of the most important and
significant findings from this study is the positive correlation between Organization
commitment and higher emotional intelligence.
5.Conclusion
From the research studies discussed above , we can arrive at the conclusion that we can
definitely reduce the cost of attrition by improving the emotional intelligence of
employees. The primary reasons for an employee to leave the job are relationship based.
So one of the key retention factor is the quality of relationship between employee and
his supervisor. As leadership guru Richard Leider says" People do not Leave companiesThey leave Leaders!!!". When analytical brilliance is coupled with emotional
intelligence, breakthrough achievements can be gained. When many research studies
converge to similar conclusion, we don't need a Mc Kinsey to tell us that, we need to
have Emotionally Intelligent employees to have a stable organisation!!