The Arguments for Against the Concept of Emotional Intelligence - Coursework Example

ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST THE CONCEPT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE [Name] OB-200 [Due Date] The concept of emotional intelligence is dated back in the early 1920s1. Scholars in the early 1980s started to conceptualize the emotional intelligence idea in a systematic way. The work that was done previously which include conceptualization of interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence as well as work done on emotional literacy served as a building block of what was termed as emotional intelligence by Salovey & Mayer2. On his previous work, Bar-On viewed emotional intelligence generally as a cognitive intelligence where they defined it as an arrangement of social, emotional, personal abilities as well as skills that influence the ability of individuals to cope with environmental pressures and demands in an effective manner3. Salovey & Mayer defined emotional intelligence as a social intelligence subset which involves the ability of an individual to monitor one’s own and the feelings and emotions of others, to discriminate among them and then use this information to the guide the actions and thinking of oneself4. The two later refined emotional intelligence and defined it as the ability of an individual to perceive emotions, to generate and access emotions in order to assist thoughts, to understand emotional knowledge as well as emotions, and to regulate emotions reflectively in order to promote intellectual and emotional growth5. Goleman also defined emotional intelligence at the most general level as the ability to recognize as well as regulate emotions in ourselves and also in others6.Emotions are feelings that are self-referential that an employee or an actor experiences or may claim to experience in relation to the performance that he or she is brining to the social world. The states of feelings are regarded as basic emotions such as love and anger as well as social emotions such as envy, guilt or shame and related constructs such as moods, affect and sentiments7. This article examines the relevance of the concept of emotional intelligence in the context of organisational behaviour by considering the literature that favours and opposes it. In the last few decades, there has been more research in regard to the significance of emotional intelligence for a successful leadership as well as the entire success of organisations. Most scholars view emotional intelligence as one of the factors that has the potential to contribute more positive outcomes, behaviours as well as attitudes. At the same time there is evidence that conceptualize emotional intelligence as either ability8 or a personality trait9. Salovey & Mayer argue that individuals with high competencies of emotional intelligence are more likely to gain success in their places of work. They noted that social skills are crucial for executive leadership as well as for other individuals in order to ascend the hierarchy of the organisation. They added that social intelligence is also becoming relevant in determination of the one that will become successful or not in an organisation10. From their argument, it can be seen that the competency of emotional intelligence is essential and has the potential for performance improvement for personal as well as organizational levels. In addition, individuals who have high emotional intelligence tend to be more valued assets in their organisation as compared to those who are less emotionally intelligent. In the analysis of the importance of emotional intelligence for effective performance in the places of work, Salovey and Mayer argued that there is a set of three mental processes that are conceptually related and need to be considered. These include appraisal as well as expression of emotions in self and also in others, regulation of emotions in self as well as others, and use of emotions in adaptive ways11. They further describe the importance as well as the content of these mental processes in organisations. In appraisal as well as expression of self and others’ emotions, individuals usually differ in the degree of emotion awareness and the degree in which individuals verbally and non-verbally express themselves12. Individuals who are capable of appraising as well as expressing their emotions are better understood by their colleagues in their places of work. In addition, they have the potential to lead and manage people in a better way when they are able to perceive their colleagues’ emotions and to develop empathy, that is, the ability to comprehend the feelings of others and to experience them as self13. In regulation of self and other’s emotion, Salovey and Mayer found out that individuals are different in their ability to manage their emotions and their ability to alter and regulate other’s affective reactions14. When one regulates his or her emotions and moods, it results to positive as well as negative affective states. Individuals that are emotionally intelligent are skilful at placing and putting themselves in positive affective states. It is also worth noting that they also experience negative states but with insignificant destructive consequences. Thus, in the workplace, individuals that are emotionally smart are capable in inducing a positive effect in their colleagues. This results to a powerful social influence such as charisma which is an essential component for leading in an organisation15. Based on the use of emotions in adaptive ways, there is also variation in the ways in which individuals utilize their emotions. Salovey & Mayer argue that emotions help in generation of a flexible planning, and improve the process of decision making as a result of better understanding of your own emotional learning. They add that emotions facilitate cognitive processes such as punctuality on one hand and creativity on the other hand and also enhances persistence in regard to the tasks that are challenging within an organisation16. Various researches have also been done in regard to relationship between emotional intelligence and organisational change. Jordan argues that individuals that are emotionally intelligence are in a better condition of coping with job insecurity which may be the result of organisational change17. In addition, Jordan demonstrates that various components of emotional intelligence are aligned with collaborative techniques of resolution of conflict than with avoidance or competition. Collaboration is linked with a variety of skills that are important for employees and management during change episodes. Such skills include the style of leadership, mediation skills as well as application of social networks at the place of work18. Jordan further describe the advantages of individuals that are emotionally intelligent as being able to cope with workplace stress as well as being able to identify the cause of stress in order to make an organisational change. Emotional reflection is important as a method that is used by individuals to cope with personal change. Thus, emotional intelligence will assist an individual as well as the organisation to adapt to and also facilitate changes in mobilization, receptivity and learning during change19. Individuals who are highly emotionally intelligence and can manage as well as make sense of their own emotions and other’s emotional during the changes in a organisation are capable of influencing the outcomes of social relationships and contribute to the process of change. Due to their ability of their emotions and also their ability to control emotions, individuals encounter less stress during the process of change. As managers in the organisations, emotionally intelligent individuals will be able to read the emotions of other employees and take actions that will manage such emotions. However, the opponents of emotional intelligence regard it as a ‘buzzword’ which holds a little meaning in reality, while others see it as a new word for the already established competencies20. Goleman also claims that stating the significance of emotional intelligence in the prediction of the success of an individual is over and above that of intelligence Quotient. The conflicting evidence in regard to such claims has created doubt in the construct’s legitimacy21. Becker also criticised emotional intelligent on the grounds of two fronts. First, he states that there is lack of reliable and valid measures in the area because the construct is not measurable with reasonable accuracy. Thus, it becomes difficult to know whether it is rooted in imaginations or reality. Secondly, with the fact that emotional intelligence seems to be based on problematic conceptualisation, Becker stipulates that it may be no more that general intelligence which is aimed at emotional phenomena. The theory of development that surrounds emotional intelligence seems to be weak such as the potential for application of emotional intelligence towards the effectiveness of improved leadership as well as performance improvements in human resource among others. He also adds that the problem associated with emotional intelligence is not the concept, but it is lack of consistency in the way the constructs are conceptualised22. Furthermore there has been no much empirical attention as well as support in the argument that state that those individuals with high emotional competencies in an organisation provide unique contribution especially in outcomes, behaviours and attitudes that are related to work23. Conclusion Emotional intelligence can generally be defined as the ability to recognize as well as regulate emotions in ourselves and also in others. Those in favour of the concept of emotional intelligence argue individuals that with high competencies of emotional intelligence are more likely to gain success in their places of work and improve the entire performance of the organisation. Individuals who are capable of appraising as well as expressing their emotions are better understood by their colleagues in their places of work and can manage their colleagues better. Other researchers argue that individuals that are emotionally intelligent are able to cope with workplace stress and are able to identify the cause of stress in order to make an organisational and/or a personal change. Those against emotional intelligence regard it as a ‘buzzword’ that holds a little meaning in reality and others see it as a new word for the already established competencies. They state that there is lack of reliable and valid measures in the area based on the fact that the construct is not measurable with reasonable accuracy. This makes it difficult to know whether it is rooted in imaginations or reality However, more research is required to determine the exact connection of the constructs of personality and emotional intelligence. It will also determine if certain emotional intelligence measures account for additional variance in behaviour or performance of individuals in organisations above personality factors. In addition, there is a need for more research on the validity and reliability of measures of emotional intelligence with consideration of criticism in regard to present measures of the construct and its applicability in the organisations. Bibliography Ashforth, B. E & Humphrey, R. H. “Emotion in the workplace: a reappraisal”, Human relations, vol. 48, no.3 (1995): 97-125. Bar-On, R. & Parker, J.D.A. The handbook of emotional intelligence: theory, development, assessment, and application at home, school, and in the workplace, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, 2000 Becker, T. “Is emotional intelligence a viable concept?” Academy of Management Review, (2003): 192-195 George, J. M. “Emotions and leadership: the role of emotional intelligence”, Human relations, vol. 53, no.8 (2000): 1027-1055 Goleman, D. Emotional intelligence: issues in paradigm building. In C. Cherniss and D. Goleman (ed), The emotionally intelligence workplace. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001. Jordan, P. J. “Dealing with organisational change: can emotional intelligence enhance organisational learning?” International Journal of Organisational behaviour, vol. 8, no. 1 (2004): 456-471 Jordan, P. J., Ashkanasy, N. M. & Hartel, C.E.J. “Emotional intelligence as a moderator of emotional and behavioural emotiona to job insecurity”, Academy of Management Review, vol. 27 (2002): 361-372 Mayer J. D & Salovey, P. What is emotional intelligence? Implications for educators in Salovey, P. & Sluyter, D (ed), Emotional development, Emotional Literacy, and emotional intelligence, Basic Books, New York, NY (1997): 3-31 Mayer, J. D. & Geher, G. “Emotional intelligence and the identification of emotion”, Intelligence, vol. 22 (1996): 89-113 Salovey, P. & Mayer, J. D. “Emotional intelligence”, imagination, cognition, and personality, vol. 9 (1990): 185-211 Schutte, N. S., Malouf, J. M., Simunek, M., McKenley, J. & Hollander, S. “Characteristic emotional intelligence and emotional wellbeing”, Cognition and Emotion, vol. 16, No. 16 (2002): 769-785 Woodruffle C. “Promotional Intelligence”, People Management, vol. 11 (2001): 26-29. Read More