Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

ASSIGNMENT COVER PAGE

Course Number and Name: Admn 672

Submitted to: Ray Venero
(Faculty’s name):
Submitted by: Barbara Smith Price
(Student’s name):
Phone number: 540-341-7250
Date of Submission: July 10, 2009
Title of Assignment: Emotional Intelligence in
the New Workplace

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I certify that I am the author of this paper/assignment and that any assistance I received in its
preparation, if permitted, is fully acknowledged and disclosed in the paper. I have also cited any
sources from which I used data, ideas or words, either quoted directly or paraphrased. I have
added quotes whenever I used more than three consecutive words from another writer. I also
certify that this paper was prepared by me specifically for this course.

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abide by the rules and regulations of this community. I also affirm my intention to live according
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Student’s Signature: _________Barbara Smith Price_____________

Instructor’s Grade on Assignment:

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 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

Introduction:

Developing and retaining a functioning workforce is the core of successful business.

Making intelligent hiring decisions allows an organization to add the talent it needs while

reaping the benefits of increased productivity and higher morale. The hiring process is not simple

but hiring bad employees often hinders an organizations development and productivity. By

developing and encouraging emotional intelligence within the organization, many businesses

will be able to avoid many if the problems associated with a poorly functioning, unmotivated and

non-committed labor force.

Developing an organization that embraces the idea of emotional intelligence is becoming

more and more important in the new work place. Hiring using emotional intelligence increases

an organization potential for selecting not only technically savvy employees, but also of building

a workforce that promotes emotional intelligence.

Using ideas developed and researched by experts in the field of emotional intelligence

including Reuven BarOn1 , Daniel Goleman2, Howard Gardner3, Jack Mayer4, and Peter

Salovey5, this paper will provide an explanation of what emotional intelligence is and why it is

important for success in today’s business world. Additionally, I will outline the cost and risk

involved in hiring new employees; review suggested steps for conducting an emotional

1
Reuven Bar-On is an internationally acknowledged expert and pioneer in emotional intelligence and has been
instrumental in defining, measuring and applying various aspects of the concept since 1980. He coined the term
“EQ” (“emotional quotient”) in 1985 to describe his approach to assessing emotional and social competence and
created the EQ-i, which was the first test of emotional intelligence to be published by a psychological test publisher.
2
Daniel Goleman is the author of Social Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence. He received his Ph.D. from,
Harvard and reported on the brain and behavioral sciences for the New York Times.
3
Howard Earl Gardner (born July 11, 1943 in Scranton, Pennsylvania) is an American psychologist who is based at
Harvard University. He is best known for his theory of multiple intelligences.
4
John (Jack) Mayer, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychology at the University of New Hampshire. He was a post-
doctoral scholar at Stanford University. He received his B.A. from the University of Michigan, and his M.A. and
Ph.D. in psychology at Case Western Reserve University.
5
Peter Salovey, Dean of Yale College at Yale University, is the Chris Argyris Professor of Psychology and a
Professor of Management and of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale. He directs the Health, Emotion and
Behavior Laboratory. He also has affiliations with the Yale Cancer Center and the Institution for Social and Policy
Studies.

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 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

intelligence interview, attempt to explain the importance of developing an emotionally intelligent

organization, and ways of promoting emotional intelligence within existing organizations.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional Intelligence or “EQ/EI” is a relatively new behavioral model that came into

prominence mainly through the works of Daniel Goleman in his 1995 book entitled “Emotional

Intelligence”. Psychologists Howard Gardner, Peter Salovey and John Mayer developed the

early theory during the ‘70s and ‘80s. Emotional Intelligence is increasingly relevant to

organizational development and developing people. The EQ principles provide a new way to

understand and assess people’s behavior, management styles, attitudes, interpersonal skills, and

potential. Emotional Intelligence is an important consideration in human resources planning, job

profiling, recruitment, interviewing and selection, along with management development,

customer relations and customer service, just to name a few. (Goleman, 2000)

IQ, which is a number used to express the apparent relative intelligence of a person that is

the ratio multiplied by 100 of the mental age as reported on a standardized test to the

chronological age. IQ is the measure of cognitive abilities, such as the ability to learn or

understand or to deal with new situations; the skilled use of reason; the ability to apply

knowledge to manipulate one's environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective

criteria (as tests); mental acuteness; logic and analytical skills. EQ, on the other hand, is a

measure of your emotional intelligence, or your ability to use both your emotions and cognitive

skills in your life. Emotional intelligence competencies include but are not limited to empathy,

intuition, creativity, flexibility, resilience, coping, stress management, leadership, integrity,

authenticity, and interpersonal skills. Unlike IQ, which levels out sometime in your teens, EQ

continues to develop and in fact, most EQ skills become better as we mature. (Goleman, 2000)

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 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

The essential premise of EQ is that to be successful one must possess the effective

awareness; control and management of one own emotions and at the same time have the ability

to react appropriately to the emotions of the people around you. The two main aspects of

emotional intelligence are:

• Understanding yourself, your goals, intentions, responses, behavior and all; and
• Understanding others, and their feelings.

Emotional intelligence embraces and draws from numerous branches of behavioral,

emotional and communications theories. Some of those are NLP (Neuro-Linguistic

Programming)6, Transactional Analysis and empathy. Developing our emotional intelligence in

these areas along with the five domains identified by Goleman provide the foundation of an

emotionally intelligence organization. The five domains are:

• Knowing your emotions

• Managing your emotions
• Motivating yourself
• Recognizing and understanding other peoples emotions
• Managing relationships and the emotions of others (Goleman, 2000)

Cost of Recruiting and Hiring a New Employee:

It is an understatement to say that hiring a new employee for your business is a large

financial investment. Considering the high cost involved in recruiting, interviewing and

deploying a new employee, it becomes paramount for companies to be able to hire employees

who will remain with the company for more than a few months. Employees need to exhibit an

appropriate level of emotional intelligence to be a strong contributor to the organization. They

should be able to understand and support the vision and mission of the organization while at the

6
Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "a model of interpersonal
communication chiefly concerned with the relationship between successful patterns of behavior and the subjective
experiences (esp. patterns of thought) underlying them" and "a system of alternative therapy based on this which
seeks to educate people in self-awareness and effective communication, and to change their patterns of mental and
emotional behavior"

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 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

same time be willing to become an involved member of the organization and it culture. (Hodges,

2009)

In a report by Saratoga Institute Human Capital Report for 2000 (compiled from

calendar 1999 data), the total cost per hire (external and internal hires) for all 991 participants

surveyed averaged $4,588. The exempt cost per hire averaged $12,032 and nonexempt $989.

Exempt external cost per hire averaged $8,676 while exempt internal cost per hire hit an average

of $15,008. Exempt internal costs are greatly influenced by relocation expenses while the exempt

external costs are highly swayed by both relocation costs and agency fees. The total costs to hire

are only one element in an effective and efficient recruiting function. A breakdown of the 1999

total hiring costs shows that on average 18.4% of the total hiring cost was allocated to

advertising and 19.9% was paid to agencies and search firms; only 1.8% was for referral

bonuses, 2.7% for travel costs, 32.9% was paid out for relocation expenses, and 24.3% was for

recruiter pay and benefits. (Davidson)

This is a reflection of the high cost of hiring a new employee under the best conditions.

However, what does it cost an organization when the work person is hired to a position?

Making a poor hiring decision not only costs your organization the typical cost per hire

figure, but also it can also cost the company in other less tangible ways. There is productivity

losses in the shape of low employee morale and extra time spent on performance management,

lost business relationships and goodwill, as well as other potential costs that include

unemployment compensation, severance pay or maybe even legal fees. When you make a hiring

decision, you want it to be the right person and match the first time. In a struggling economy, we

all want to avoid wasted resources on repeating the hiring process when it can be avoided by

simple changes to our hiring criteria. It is possible to limit, reduce or even eliminate your risk by

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 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

making a conscious effort to hire staff that is not only technically qualified for the position but

also have the emotional intelligence necessary to become a productive member of the

organization.

It is widely known that the primary cause of performance problems is the lack of well-

developed emotional intelligence. This is true whether on the individual level, teams, or

organization wide. The core principles of self-reflection, self-regulation, and empathy are the

foundational building blocks of emotional intelligence and fuel essential competencies like

flexibility, adaptability, resilience, tolerance, and the ability to remain highly effective under

challenging situations. Research continues to document the impact highly developed or

underdeveloped emotional intelligence has on the bottom-line performance of the individual and

the organization. This is particularly true for leaders and anyone who manages people.

(Goleman, 2000)

Developing an Emotional Intelligent Organization

Developing emotional intelligence in the workplace simply means acknowledging that

emotions are always present, and doing something intelligent with them. We cannot deny that

when human beings are brought together to complete task, emotions will play a role in the

interactions. This is seen on the personal level as well as on the business level. Contrary to the

belief that emotions are inappropriate for the workplace, it is a fact that emotions cannot be

checked at the door.

Organizations are beginning to realize that accept that emotional intelligence in daily

activities such as teambuilding and training programs, among the senior management and human

resources activities, they will increase their ability to improve decision-making, and problem

solving will be a benefit for them. Emotional Intelligent organizations are better equipped to

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 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

handle everyday emotional issues in a professional manner. In short, emotionally intelligent

organizations increase their chances to maximize their potential for business success and increase

their productivity because people in these organizations share connections that are more

powerful.

A poorly functioning workforce not only affects the current conditions of the business but

also the future profits, moral and productivity of other employees. Poorly trained and/or

unmotivated employees can lead to the ultimate failure of a business.

In the traditional vertical organization, it was easy to determine the players and therefore

know whom you needed to please. As the horizontal approach to leadership gains ground, we

see a new game with new rules that has increased the need for employees to exercise more

emotional intelligence in their daily activities.

In the new work force, you will find more organization vying to bring services together.

The process of bringing people, activities and other things together to perform will be the new

norm for many businesses. Alliances are beginning to displace firms as the competitive entity in

the global marketplace. In this new workplace, we will find that the degree to which others

accept or reject our behaviors will be the based on our interpersonal communications skills. The

better our interpersonal and other soft skills become, the easier it will be for a business to earn

respect and trust.

Many companies today are teetering on the edge of disaster. Excessive downsizing due to

a faltering economy along with the poor economic outlook of our country has created employees

who find themselves overworked, underappreciated and constantly seesawing between

exhaustion and fear. Competition in the workplace is fierce and many new recruits feel a need to

turn to aggressive tactics to get ahead of their peers or risk falling behind. Many business leaders

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 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

are beginning to realize that such negative emotions among their employees are not healthy for

the organization and its prospects for success.

In the same way many organizations have relied on IQ or the intelligence quotient as a

valid and reliable indicator of a person’s mental strength and capability, today we have the EQ or

Emotional intelligence as a valid and reliable indicator of a person’s emotional strength and

capability. EQ reflects an individual’s ability to deal with daily environmental challenges and

helps predict success in life, both in professional and personal pursuits. EQ is used as a predictor

of a person’s emotional strength and capability. EQ tells a person how emotionally smart they

are. In the new workplace, EQ beats IQ every time. We demonstrate IQ when we speak, write,

solve mental challenges; we demonstrate EQ each and every moment of our lives. (Goleman,

2009).

We wear our EQ for the entire world to see and experience. This is done through our

attitudes, which include our thoughts, feelings and behavior. EQ competencies include empathy,

intuition, creativity, flexibility, resilience, stress management, leadership, integrity, happiness

and optimism, as well as intrapersonal and interpersonal communication skills. Emotional

intelligence is based on a long history of research and theory in personality and social

psychology. Reuven BarOn, Daniel Goleman, and Jack Mayer, Peter Salovey and David Caruso

developed the three most widely used approaches to emotional intelligence.

Emotional Intelligence explains why, despite equal intellectual capacity, training, or

experience, some people excel while others of the same caliber lag behind. Certain competencies

are found repeatedly in high performers at all levels, from customer service representatives to

CEOs. (Goleman, 2000)

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 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

Organizational identity is an important cognitive variable that not only affects how one

feels about his or her membership in the organization but also determines the participant's

behavior within the organizational environment. (Prati, 2009)

Recognizing that the traditional measurement of IQ only cannot continue to be the

measuring stick for business success, how can we assist in transition organizations to the new

emotional intelligent organizations that are required to succeed in the new global market?

Through training session and by having the managers be more hands-on in their management

roles.

Gone are the days when poor interpersonal skills are overlooked because of technical

merit. To be successful in the new global workforce, all employees need to develop emotional

intelligence skills.

Once thought of as something to be managed, controlled, or avoided in pursuit of rational

management, we now understand that emotions play a vital role in many facets of leadership.

New discoveries in neuroscience, medicine, and psychology underscore the notion that emotions

are the pathway to more effective decision-making, stronger interpersonal relationships,

resilience in the face of stress, and enhanced creativity. (Egan, 2007)

Many of us have an impoverished understanding of the range of human emotions and

their impact on the productivity of our organizations. We understand mad, sad, and happy, are

perhaps only able to report, and feel comfortable with those basic emotions. However, to be an

effective employee or leader, we must be able to access hundreds of emotions beyond the six

primary emotions of happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust. (Chastukhina, 2002)

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 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

Range of Leadership Emotions (Chastukhina, 2002)

Our emotional range is the ability to discern a wide range of emotions in both oneself and

others and to be intentional about the expression of those emotions. By accessing our full range

of emotions, we obtain valuable information about ourselves and the world in which we operate.

Compassion and empathy require that we identify with the emotions of others. If we are

uncomfortable with particular emotions, we tend to avoid or deny them in ourselves, thus

denying access to important information about the particular set of events, circumstances, or

people that gave rise to those emotions. In addition, we cannot identify with or may seek to avoid

emotions in others that we are not comfortable acknowledging within ourselves. It is difficult to

be compassionate or have empathy if we cannot "see" certain emotions. (Egan, 2007).

According to a seminar presented at the 2nd Annual Non-profit Human Resources

Conference in Portland, Oregon, research shows that no more than 25% of one’s overall success

if attributable to general intelligence, which leaves 75% as emotional intelligence. (Lee, 2004)

Historically, emotions in organizations have been undervalued in favor of rationality,

both by practitioners and researchers. While an increasing number of scholarly works have

begun to explore emotions in organizations (Fineman, 2000b), there is little evidence of a similar

evolution by organizational practitioners. In fact, scholars suggest that dualistic assumptions

regarding rationality and emotionality in organizations continue to be enforced. For example,

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 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

Fiebig and Kramer (1998) reported that respondents in their study "resorted to rational or logical

descriptors to describe how they expressed emotions" further indicating the dominance of

rationality in organizations.

The privileging of rationality over emotionality in organizations reflects the tendency

toward dualities in Western culture (Putnam, 1993). The English language reflects and

perpetuates these dualities through its creation of meaning within bipolar terms such as black and

white, mind and body, rationality and emotionality (Cirksena & Cuklanz, 1992). "Critics have

observed that this assumption of dualism generally includes a hierarchical relationship between

the terms, valuing one and devaluing the other" (Cirksena & Cuklanz, 1992, p. 20).

Organizations tend to adhere to the duality of rationality/emotionality, where rationality is

privileged over its binary opposite emotionality. The practice of this duality can be seen in the

organizational appropriation of worker emotions for rationalized and commodified ends

(Fineman, 2000a). The rationality/emotionality distinction is, however, a false dichotomy given

that "many rational organizational strategies are pursued on highly emotional grounds and much

of what we describe as rational is in fact emotional" (Fineman, 1996, p. 550).

Indeed, the rationality/emotionality duality is likely a peculiarity of Western business

culture and does not extend to non-Western organizations where emotionality and rationality are

viewed as intertwined and inseparable (Krone, 2000). Consequently, despite the privileging of

rationality in Western organizations, organizational members certainly do not stop experiencing

emotions when they think about, talk about, and do work (Fineman, 1993). To the contrary, the

process of organizing is itself highly emotional (Weick, 1995). Workers, then, must tread a

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treacherous path between the emotions they experience and the socialized expectations of

rationality in the workplace.

Organizations around the world spend billions of dollars annually on training programs

for managers and leaders, yet few, if any, address the important skill of how to recognize,

acknowledge, and manage personal feelings. In the past several years, a number of social

scientists have begun to explore what is now known as emotional intelligence. In their new

book, Promoting Emotional Intelligence in Organizations: Making Training in Emotional

Intelligence Effective, Cary Cherniss and Mitchel Adler define emotional intelligence as "the

ability to accurately identify and understand one's own emotional reactions and those of others. It

also involves the ability to regulate one's emotions, to use them to make good decisions, and to

act effectively." They go on to say that "emotional intelligence is the basis for personal qualities

such as realistic self-confidence, personal integrity, knowledge of personal strengths and

weaknesses, resilience in times of change or adversity, self-motivation, perseverance, and the

knack for getting along well with others." (Weise, 2000)

The link between EQ strengths in a leader and the organization’s climate is important for

EQ theory. A Hey/McBer analysis of data on 3,781 executives, correlated with climate surveys

filled out by those who worked with them, suggests that 50 to 70 percent of employees’

perception of working climate is linked to the EQ characteristics of the leader (Goleman, 2000).

Research drawing on that same database sheds light on the role of EQ competencies in

leadership effectiveness. It identifies how six distinct styles of EQ-based leadership affect

climate. Four styles – the visionary (sometimes called the “authoritative), the affiliative, the

democratic, and the coaching – generally drive climate in a positive direction. Two styles – the

coercive and the pacesetting – tend to drive climate downward, particularly when leaders overuse

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 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

them (though each of these two can have positive impact if applied in appropriate situations.

The table below summarizes these attributions and effects.

Leadership Styles (Chastukhina, 2002)

Coercive Authoritative Affiliative Democratic Pacesetting Coach

Visionary
When In crisis, to kick- When change To heal rifts To build buy-in To get quick To help
Appropriate start a turn requires a new in a team or to or consensus, or results from a employee
around or with vision, or when a motivate to get valuable highly improve
problem clear direction is during input from motivated and performance
employees needed stressful times employees competent team or develop
long-term
strengths
Objective Immediate Mobilize others to Create Build Perform tasks to Build
compliance follow a vision harmony commitment a high standard strengths for
through the future
participation
Impact on Strongly Mostly strongly Highly Highly positive Highly negative Highly
Climate negative positive positive positive
EQ Drive to Self-confidence, Empathy Collaboration; Conscientiousne Developing
Competencies achieve, empathy, change building team leadership; ss drive to others
emotional-self catalyst bonds; communication achieve emotional self
control conflict initiative awareness
management

Now that the need for embracing an emotional intelligent organization has been accepted

by main business professionals, the task a hand is how best to change the mind frame of the

tradition business.

In order to increase the level of employees’ performance, morale, and enthusiasm, many

organizations today want to promote an emotionally intelligent culture. To succeed in that,

organizations must foster the following attributes (Book, 2000):

• The organization “promotes a culture in which openness and transparency are the norm”.
• Respectful assertiveness must exist in the organization.
• The organization encourages diversity.
• The organization tolerates constructive disagreement.
• The organization values flexibility and communication among its various departments.

By having these attributes, an emotionally intelligent organization can plan several years

in advance, and its employees can work with each other more effectively. In addition to having

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 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

these characteristics, an emotionally intelligent organization should understand and possess the

“3 R’s”. That is, the “capacity to recruit, retain and rouse its workforce” (Books, 2000). Being

able to retain its workforce is an advantage to an organization because of the expense of hiring

and training new employees. In addition, high turnover can result in low employee morale.

Therefore, it is best if a company has an ability to retain its current workforce. Rousing its

workforce is also an important attribute of emotionally intelligent organizations. Motivated

employees will work harder for the company and will likely be the most satisfied. To rouse their

employees, companies should include them in the decision making process and recognize their

contributions (Book, 2000). It is necessary to have all three attributes present in the company in

order for it to develop emotional intelligence. However, two factors that are even more important

influence the level of emotional intelligence of the company. In addition to having these

characteristics, an emotionally intelligent organization should understand and possess the “3

R’s”. That is, the “capacity to recruit, retain and rouse its workforce” (Books, 2000). Being able

to retain its workforce is an advantage to an organization because of the expense of hiring and

training new employees. In addition, high turnover can result in low employee morale.

Therefore, it is best if a company has an ability to retain its current workforce. Rousing its

workforce is also an important attribute of emotionally intelligent organizations. Motivated

employees will work harder for the company and will likely be the most satisfied. To rouse their

employees, companies should include them in the decision making process and recognize their

contributions (Book, 2000).

Emotional intelligence plays an important part in every aspect of people’s lives. In

everyday life, having a high EQ may help us develop stable and trusting relationships,

understand others better, and interpret actions of others more clearly. In today’s corporate world,

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 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

the issue of emotional intelligence is widely emphasized. Researchers study its effects on

employee productivity, commitment, leadership style, organizational success,

and well-being in general. The emotionally intelligent leader promotes qualities that are

instrumental in guiding an organization to success. Emotionally intelligent leaders foster

selfregulation, self- awareness, motivation, empathy and social skills and effectively guide

employees using these skills. Leaders who display these qualities promote working environments

in which employees feel comfortable voicing their opinions, thereby promoting an environment

that is successful and stable.

Guidelines for Promotion Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace, a paper constructed

by Cary Cherniss and Daniel Goleman featured 22 guidelines, which are thought to represent the

best current knowledge relating to the promotion of EQ in the workplace.

These are:

• Paving the way

• Assess the organization’s needs
• Assessing the individual
• Delivering assessments with care
• Maximizing learning choice
• Encouraging participation
• Linking goals and personal values
• Adjusting individual expectations
• Assessing readiness and motivation for EQ development

• Doing the work of change

• Foster relationships between EQ trainers and learners
• Self-directed change and learning
• Setting goals
• Breaking goals down into achievable steps
• Providing opportunities for practice
• Give feedback
• Using experiential methods
• Build in support
• Use models and examples
• Encourage insight and self-awareness

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 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

• Encourage transfer and maintenance of change (sustainable change)

• Encourage application of new learning in jobs
• Develop organizational culture that supports learning

• Evaluating the change – did it work?

• Evaluate individual and organizational effect

The above list is based on the research and work performed by Dr. Daniel Goleman, but

as mentioned earlier in this paper, there are other academics that have also done substantial

research in the field of EQ.

Why include Emotional Intelligence analysis in the hiring process:

In the old workplace, employees expected the work they did to stay the same. The only

time our duties changed was when we changed our jobs. In the new workplace, we can expect

the work we do to continuously change in an ongoing effort to offer better products, expand the

customer base and better serve the customers.

In the traditional workplace, employers recruited employees based on technical ability

alone. The emotional development of employees was not taken into consideration because in our

society, emotions were to be left outside of the office. Employee tended to perform task alone

and the lack of ability to interact with others was not considered a big deal.

In the new work environment, many routine tasks are performed in teams. Most

employees find that they must continually interact with not only peers, but also customers.

Because of this, we have seen many promising candidates turn out to be a disaster, leaving in

their wake frustrated colleagues and tattered client relationships in the dust of their rapid

departure.

When you hire the wrong person for the job, the individual and the organization usually

end up parting ways with the failed employee and the organization paying the cost. For

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 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

Companies interested in recruiting, selecting, hiring, harnessing, and growing their most valuable

assets, which are its employees, it is becoming more and more important that soft skills or

emotional intelligence skills be identified, tested and integrated into their culture. Most

employees who leave a position or lose their jobs do so not because of inadequate skill levels,

but because they lack the ability to manage themselves appropriately in the workplace and/or

have difficulty getting along with coworkers and clients. (Brodt, 2005)

As our economy continues to change from production driven workforce to a service

driven economy, businesses are faced with many new challenges and find themselves

questioning how they will be able to cope with a radically new environment. This new

workplace environment includes new ideas such as globalization and the information revolution.

Because all of the changes that have been occurring in a relatively short period, most companies

are recognizing that the old way of doing business does not fit into the new structure of the

business world. The reality is that we live and work in a fast pace world. We all are increasingly

familiar with modern business terms such as total quality management, just-in-time production,

e-business, lean manufacturing and teleworking. However, are we aware of what lies behind

these terms and the effect these and other practices have on productivity and performance and

crucially, their social and psychological impact in on the employee’s moral and stability?

Availability of products and services are no longer limited due to location. Because of

this when a need arises, either personal or business, if our business is not equipped to rise to the

need immediately, someone else will. Businesses must work to develop an employee base that

has the ability to cope with the new demands that come with the world being our customer.

Many business owners find that this has lead to disruption to business as usual. By developing

an emotional intelligent organization, accommodating these changes and navigating the new

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 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

global economy is possible. This is not to imply that companies should accept disorder to stay

competitive, but to encourage our businesses to develop ways to work with the disorder while

developing ways to introduce order. (Rock, 2008) Today’s businesses need a workforce that has

the ability, both mentally and emotionally, to handle the turbulence generated by the global

partnerships, mergers, diversity and the other changes that result from innovation.

The new workplace demands high emotionally intelligence employees who are adaptable,

assertive, independent, skillful in interpersonal relationships, problem solvers, flexible, able to

manage stress, in charge of their own emotions, who can withstand frustration and

disappointment, and who demonstrate an optimistic side of life, even in the face of adverse

situations. In this age of the knowledge worker, intellectual capital, connecting learning across

the organization and leveraging human capital, the seemingly simple yet most profound act of

emotional intelligence provides us a major clue to competitiveness. (Rock, 2007).

For any organization to survive and flourish in the 21st century there has to be a strategic

and sustainable link to its vision, missions, operational objective. This link is the critical piece in

the new economy. Not only will lead to hiring the people, it will lead to hiring employees that

stay with the organization. Businesses are only cheating themselves when they concentrate on

the strategic plan of the organization and hiring for technical merit only ignoring the emotional

side and ignoring signals that the potential employee may not have the ability to adapt to the

culture of the organization. To be successful, there must be a sustainability plan also. That can

only be done with human capital profiling that links the vision and emotional intelligence to the

bottom line of strategy and IQ and technical competencies. (Rock, 2008)

Conducting an Emotional Intelligence based Interview

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 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

Behavior based interviewing is a fairly new method of interviewing that analyzes

candidates’ potential abilities by examining skills used in past job performance. Candidates are

asked to give specific examples of how they have acted in the past, instead of being asked to

share their opinions or ideals. The key to getting the most detailed responses to one’s queries

and flushing out the skills of a candidate is developing the right questions for the position and

probing for the most detailed responses. (Half, 1993)

Many organizations including the United States Air Force have conducted studies

regarding the value of assessing job applicants’ emotional intelligence and using these results as

indicators of how well a potential employee will match an organization. (Brodt, 2005) In the

case of the Air Force, they found that when selecting emotional intelligence to select recruiters,

they increased their ability to predict successful recruiters by nearly threefold, with an immediate

gain being the savings of $3 million dollars.7

During the hiring process, employers will find that the challenge will to be their ability to

weed out people who will be disruptive to the organization and to recognize the people who have

the skills to help things run smoothly. (Brodt, 2005)

There are two levels of screening to consider when evaluating a job applicant for

emotional intelligence. During the interview process, you may be able to watch for certain red

flags that suggest a person will be a match to the organizations culture and if they will clash with

the values and goals of the organizations. The seasoned interviewer recognizes that most people

fall into some of these traps at some time or another. What is important is to determine how

frequently that happens and the intensity and inflexibility in the position and the potential

employee. Keeping these cautions in mind, here are some of the red flags that should be

watched for during the interview process:

7
The Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations at www.eiconsortium.com

19
 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

• Does the person seem argumentative?

• When you talk, do you think the applicant is listening carefully?
• Is the applicant overly competitive?
• Is the applicant defensive?
• How does the applicant deal with criticism?
• Does the applicant seem to “own” mistakes or blame others?
• Does the applicant take things too personally?
• Do you sense negativity, anger or impatience?
• Are the applicants comments and observations realistic
• Is this person so emotionally flat that you end up feeling as if you have no sense
of them at all?

According to Adele B. Lynn, author of The EQ Interview: Find Employees with High

Emotional Intelligence, Emotional intelligence accounts for anywhere from 24% to 69% of

performance success. (DuVernay, 2008) This high percentage of emotional maturity is seen as a

requirement for success in the workplace.

While the interview may give some light on the applicant’s emotional intelligent levels,

and even with some employers utilizing standardized testing as an essential part of the evaluation

process, such as the Bar-on Eqi8 or the MSCEIT9, many organizations will that they need

develop a better interview process. The new format for Interviews should provide a means to

evaluate the candidates’ emotional intelligence along with technical and situational competence.

Such assessments will provide insightful information regarding the applicant’s self-awareness

and self-control, along with a picture of how motivated they are for the mission of the

organization along with if the applicant’s ability to interact effectively with other employees and

clients. (Brodt, 2005)

8
The Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i®) is the first scientifically validated and most widely used Emotional
Intelligence assessment in the world. Based on more than 20 years of research worldwide, the EQ-i examines an
individual’s social and emotional strengths and weaknesses.
9
The MSCEIT™ test uses a variety of interesting and creative tasks to measure a person's capacity for reasoning
with emotional information.

20
 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

There are multiple aspects to emotional intelligence, Tree them that have been identified

by some experts as useful in predicting a potential employees emotional intelligence status are:

• Self-awareness and self-regulation: Does the candidate appear to understand what

drives them and how these driving forces affect their behavior. Is the candidate able to
control reactions to fear, anger or anxiety in a manner that it will not spread to colleagues
or cause them to lose control?

All employees of an organization need to be cognizant of their moods, emotions

and the deeper emotional needs that drive them. Generally, people are competent at

labeling their moods, but few exhibit the ability to articulate the strong emotional desires

that shape much of their behavior and identity including a longing for validation, a

hunger for power and status, and/or a strong need to be liked.

Reading others and recognizing the impact their behavior on them:

• Does the candidate appear to have well-developed emotional and social radar and
show the ability to sense how their words and actions influence colleagues.

Since most employees work in conjunction with others, the ability to read other people, to

notice their emotions and discern their opinions, an employee that is lacking the ability to relate

to others can determine the success or failure of an organization or an employee. Additional,

lacking the ability to recognize the emotional needs of others can lead to a fatal relationship with

customers.

The ability to learn from ones mistakes:

• Does the candidate acknowledge past mistakes, reflect critically upon them, and learn
from them.
Mistakes and outright failure offer opportunities for growth. Emotional

intelligent employees are able to learn from them and grow both professionally and emotionally.

Being aware of these emotional intelligence indicators is just the beginning for an

organization. Knowing how identify them and introduction a line of questioning that is

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 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

consistent it is important to ensure that the organization exhibits uniformity to all applicants,

both internal and external. (DuVernay, 2008)

Adele B. Lynn10 developed sample questions that could be used to gather emotional

intelligence data in her book, The EQ Interview: Finding Employees with High Emotional

Intelligence.

To assess a candidate’s self-awareness and ability to self regulate ask these questions:

• Can you tell me about a time when your mood affected your performance, either
negatively or positively?
• Tell me about a conflict you had with a peer, direct report, or boss—who did it start and
how did it get resolved?

A manager has to maintain a product, positive tone even when they are anxious about a business

threat. How have you been able to do this in a previous position?

To assess candidate’s skill level in the aspect of emotional intelligence ask questions such

as:

• Tell me about a time when you did or said something that had a negative impact on a
customer, peer, or direct report. How did you know the impact was negative?
• Have you ever been in a business situation where you thought you needed to adjust your
behavior? How did you know and what did you do?

To assess the candidates ability to learn from their mistakes use questions similar to

these:

• Have you ever been in a situation where you felt you needed to modify or change your
behavior? How did you know? How have you been able to take lessons learned from that
and apply them to another?
• Tell me about a situation when you discovered that you were on the wrong course. How
did you know? What did you do? What, if anything, did you learn from the experience?
(DuVerney, 2008)

Utilizing these and similar questions will help the organization assess the emotional

intelligence of the candidates therefore developing an employee base that centers on the EQ

10

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 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

framework. For this technique to be successful, it is necessary for the organization and managers

to t adopted the emotional intelligence pattern for everyday interactions and make it part of the

company norms. Making such a transition may be difficult, but not impossible. It will be

difficult if not impossible to initiate the necessary changes to promote an emotionally

intelligence drive culture.

Conclusion:

Intelligence continues to be one of the most hotly debated topics in psychology. One

recurring question in this debate is whether there are multiple types of intelligence and if so, how

are they related. Models that emphasize a general factor are better supported by data but lead to

the unpalatable conclusion that some people are simply more intelligent than others are. People

who support this idea believe that IQ test show an individuals potential. This idea to them is

supported by how well an individual does in school, at work and in many other contexts. Models

that focus on multiple distinct intelligences are less clearly supported by the data, but are

preferred by many researchers and practitioners in part because they lead to the conclusion that

everyone is intelligent in his or her own way and that it is not appropriate to rank order people by

describing some as smart and others as less intelligent. (Massario, 2009)

Many people rise to the top of their professions because they have a passion and an innate

talent. They appear to be what is referred to as a born leader, but fail because they don’t have the

emotional ability to relate to the people around them. The question is can you teach emotional

intelligence to someone who just can’t relate to others? They love their jobs, but do not care

what co-workers or clients think of them. The good news is that EQ, unlike IQ, is an ability that

is measureable, diagnosable, and most importantly, improvable. Emotional intelligence is

learned on the job. There must be real-life involvement that includes coaching and feedback.

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 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

Emotional intelligence links the concepts of love and spiritually, bringing compassion

and humanity to the work place. I also helps provides a mean by which to illustrate and measure

the range of capability people possess and reinforce the idea that all employees add value to the

organization.

The modern workplace should be one that promotes thinking and discussion in all areas.

If an organization is undergoing changes due to new technological advances, global

competitions, downsizing and/or a stronger focus on meeting customer needs, it will find that

using the components established by the experts in the field of emotional intelligence will go a

long way in helping them advance and keep up with the competition.

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 Emotional Intelligence in the New Workplace

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