Emotional Intelligence Help Check Negative Emotions

Divyesh Gulechha
Auro University of Entrepreneurship and Management, Surat, Gujarat
17th March 2013

Abstract: This paper contemplates explaining about negative emotions, how they emerge in an organization, what is emotional intelligence, how it is used to overcome negative emotions for organizational effectiveness and practicing accurate human resource management to maintain a stable and sane environment in the organization as well ones personal life which directly or indirectly effects its work life. Key Words: Negative emotions, Emotional Intelligence, Employees, Environment, Situation

Emotions:
Many a times we see people in an emotional state who afterwards feel guilty and apologize by explaining that they did not intend to do that. One must try to control their emotions because a loss of control often results in a loss of respect by the receiver of the communication. Respect is what an employee tries to build during its time span in an organization. Our past experiences, our present mood, our peers, our attitude and many other factors significantly influence how we interact with others and it is very necessary to levy a control over these factors. Make every attempt to maintain calm, positive and a friendly atmosphere in your interpersonal relationships even if another approaches in a non soothing manner. Equally important in our conversation is that we must not sound others embarrassing or pushed or offending. Emotions normally are associated with specific events or occurrences and are intense enough to disrupt thought processes. (Brief, Weiss, 2002) Moods on the other hand, are more generalized feelings or states that are not typically identified with a particular stimulus and not sufficiently intense to interrupt ongoing thought processes. (Brief, Weiss, 2002). Emotions travel from person to person like a virus. According to V. G. Kondalkar there are essentially six universal emotions which are reflected on one continuum.

Happiness

Surprise

Fear

Sadness

Anger

Disgust

According to him different people express emotions differently. Job makes different intensity demands in terms of emotional labour. These emotions also vary with genders.

Negativism:

Many high achievers are driven by a fear of failure that makes them insecure. One of the unfortunate by-products of some peoples insecurities can be termed negativism, the subconscious resistance to other people or objects. Take for example, the hypothetical case of a supervisor named James Cameron, whose ideas at a particular supervisors meeting had been totally rejected. James originally thought that his proposals were good, but as a result of their rejection, he felt disappointed and frustrated. A reasonably secure and well-adjusted person might have either attempted to analyze the rejection of the ideas or merely dismissed the situation from his or her mind and gone on to other important matters. James, however, returned to his department and for the rest of the day caustically picked apart nearly everything that his subordinates did. At the end of the day, James regretted his actions even though he didnt fully understand the reason s for her negative behaviour. In one sense, James was not only belittling; he also was being little (Drafke, M., 2011)

Negative Emotions:

Lack of rewards, work overload and social relations that appear to be most stressful work related factors forms negative emotions at work. Cynicism is a negative affective reaction to the organization. Cynics feel contempt, distress, shame, and even disgust when they reflect upon their organizations (Abraham, 1999). Negative emotions are caused by a range of workplace issues, including aggression, verbal abuse, sexual harassment, computer flaming, blogging, assertiveness training, grapevines, and non verbal behaviour. (Muir, 2006). Stress is the problem of each person feeling it. Negative emotions can be caused by poor leadership, lack of guidance, lack of support and backup. Employees lack of confidence in their abilities to deal with work demands and their lack of confidence in coworkers can also create prolonged negative stress. (Olofsson, Bengtsson, Brink, 2003). Stress reflects employees weakness which makes them suppress their negative emotions on their family and work. People who continually inhibit their emotions have been found to be more prone to disease than those who are emotionally expressive. (Mann, 1999). Individuals experiencing job insecurity have an increased risk for anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and somatic complaints. (Canaff, Wright, 2004). Family, spouses and children can feel the consequences of negative emotions brought home from the work place. Negative feelings and emotions at work place effects employee morale, turnover rate, commitment to the organization. (Canaff, Wright, 2004). Negative emotions are as strong as five times of positive emotions (Kondalkar, V., 2009).

Types of Negative Emotions:

Abandoned Afraid Alone Angry Annoyed Anxious Ashamed Bad Betrayed Cheated Concerned Confused

Fatigue Fearful Frightened Frustrated Grief Guilty Heartbroken Helpless Hopeless Humiliated Hurt

Pressure Rage Rejected Resentment Sad Scared Shame Trapped Troubled Uncertain

Impatient Deceived Defeated Deprived Disappointed Discouraged Disgusted Drained Dread Manipulated Embarrassed Empty Exhausted Neglected Lonely Loss Inadequate Insecure Intimidated Irritated

Unappreciated Unloved Unmotivated Unsure Unworthy Used Victimized Vulnerable Worried Worthless Worn out

Emotional Intelligence:

Emotional Intelligence is the ability to identify, assess and control the emotions of oneself, of others and of groups. According to V. G. Kondalkar emotional intelligence is the ability to manage feelings and handle stress. Emotional Intelligence is important for success of work and in life. Emotional Intelligence is the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional meanings, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote both better emotions and thought. 2 Martin Seligman developed a construct that he calls learned optimism. It refers to the causal attributions people make when confronted with failure or setbacks. As per the study of Seligman and his colleagues at Met Life they found that the new salesman who was an optimist sold 37% more insurance in their first two years than did the pessimist. When the company hired a special group of individuals who scored high on optimism but failed the
1

List of Emotions. 2013. List of Emotions. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.eft-for-transformation.com/listof-emotions.html. [Accessed 17 March 2013]. 2 Available online at http://www.unh.edu/personalitylab/Assets/reprints-public/RP1997MayerSalovey.pdf, [Accessed on: 17th March, 2013]

normal screening, they outsold the pessimist by 21% in their first year and 57% in the second. They even outsold the average agent by 27%. A study of store managers in a retail chain found that the ability to handle stress predicted net profits, sales per square foot, sales per employee and per dollar of inventory investment. A study carried out at Yales University by Sigdal and Barsade indicated that emotional intelligence has a much to do with knowing when and how to express emotions. Good led to improves cooperation, fairness and overall group performance. Empathy is a particularly important aspect of emotional intelligence and researchers have known for years that it contributes to occupational success. (Kondalkar, V., 2009). Emotional Intelligence helps overcome negative emotions upon which various theories have been written.

Affective Events Theory (AET):

Affective events theory is a model that has significantly helped the study of emotions at work. This model demonstrates clearly that employees react emotionally to things that happens to them at work and that this influences their job performance and satisfaction.

Work Environment
Characteristics of the job Job Demands Requirements of emotional labour

Work Events
Daily Hassels Daily Uplifts

Emotional Reactions
Positive Negativey

Job Satisfaction Job Performance

Personal Dispositions Personality Mood

Employees react to work environment while carrying out a job, employees display positive or negative emotions based on the contents of a job, demand placed on the individual and various administrative hassles that may be associated with the job. Emotion reaction to the job is largely dependent on the personality and the mood of emotion reaction to the job is largely dependent on the personality and the mood of the employee. It is therefore important to design jobs properly, reduce administrative complications and create social environment that is employee friendly to achieve higher job satisfaction.

The Cockroach Theory:3

Someone has tried to coin the term of emotional intelligence by reflecting it with a real life situation which can be termed as the Cockroach Theory for Self-development response Vs Reaction. This theory evolved with an observation at a restaurant whereby a cockroach suddenly flew and sat on a lady, she started screaming out of fear. With a panic stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach. Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got panicky. The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away but it landed on another lady in the group. Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama. The waiter rushed forward to their rescue. In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter. The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behaviour of the cockroach on his shirt. When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant. Was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behaviour? If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed? He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos. It is not the cockroach, but the inability of the ladies to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach that disturbed the ladies. It is not the shouting of the father or the boss or the wife that disturbs the employee, but its his inability to handle the disturbances caused by their shouting that disturbs me. Its not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs him, but his inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that disturbs him. More than the problem, its his reaction to the problem that creates chaos in his life. By this theory one can conclude that one should not react in life, he must respond. The women reacted, whereas the waiter responded. Reactions are always instinctive whereas responses are always well thought of, just and right to save a situation from going out of hands, to avoid cracks in relationship, to avoid taking decisions in anger, anxiety, stress or hurry. This is very much applicable to the organizations as well. Employees when given a task often when they are already loaded with other task the always tend to react in that situation rather than responding to that situation and getting into an evaluation stage whereby they need to evaluate their work again and based upon that prioritize their work without panicking and maintaining an environment of ease. Negative emotions will emerge in many situations but how well you tackle them with your emotional intelligence and emotional stability matters the most in an efficient organization as well as for a happy and successful life.

The Cockroach Theory for Self-development Response Vs Reaction.. 2013. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.smileosmile.com/misc/the-cockroach-theory-for-self-development-response-vs-reaction/. [Accessed 17 March 2013].

Emotional Intelligence a Social Perspective:

Sociologist Dr. Elisabeta Stanciulescu suggests few steps to overcome negative emotions in an organization:4 Use the emotion as a source of information and optimism: Optimism is the buzz word as it is a universal drive to success that applies in every field. Using emotion as a source of information and optimism will inject the courage to tackle the situation that causes that emotion. Learn to observe our own bodies: Observing our own body is kind of meditation which will help to know yourself and calm the situation. Dont try to label your emotions or find out where they are coming from: Avoidance is the best remedy when you know that you are being driven by a negative emotion because avoiding emotions will keep you focused on your work and will also avoid a situation of panic and tiresome. Relax that part of your body which you feel tense: Sociologist also believes that negative emotions can be caused due to physical unrest as well. Hence they suggest giving yourself a short break in such situation and resting your body and then bounce back to your work once you feel relaxed. Institutions like Google makes sure that their employees stay physically fit which is why they also provide a massage parlour for free of cost to their employees for avoiding physical unrest of employees.

Conclusion:
In an organization there arise several situations whereby an employee develops emotions which can be harmful to himself, organization or his family and peer groups. Such Emotions are known as Negative Emotions whereby employee develops unfavourable emotions like anger, guilt, stress, grief, ashamed, betrayed, deceived etc. that reduces his productivity. These emotions can be caused due to work load, personal issues, grudges or past experience. Emotional Intelligence is the ability to identify, understand, evaluate, manipulate and control the situation caused by negative emotions. It is the key that keeps the employee on track and focus on the task, activity, objective and goal whether individual or of organization. Mood and emotion of employee decides the magnitude of negative emotion, hence organizations tries to maintain these two factors of the employees. An employee must be taught not to react to that particular situation that arises before him because panicking will cause a personal as well as organizational unrest because it is contagious. The only freedom an individual possesses is the capacity to discover and unblock the spiritual reality that already exists in him/her according to Sri Aurobindo. Our greatness as human beings does not consist in the fact that we can change world but as Ghandi said that we can change ourselves.

Elisabeta Stanciulescu. 2012. Negative Emotions are Resource: Emotional Intelligence and Sociology by Elisabeta Stanciulescu. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.alisanagnostakis.com/negative-emotions-areresources-emotional-intelligence-and-sociology-by-elisabeta-stanciulescu/. [Accessed 17 March 2013].

Referencing:

Drafke, M, 2011. The Human Side Of Organizations. 10th ed. New Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd, 125) Brief, Arthur P., and Howard M. Weiss. (2002). Organizational Behavior: Affect in the Workplace. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 53, 279-307. Retrieved from PsychINFO database.

Abraham, Rebecca. (1999). Emotional Intelligence in Organizations: A Conceptualization. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 125(2), 209-224. Retrieved from PsychINFO database.

Muir, Clive. (2006). Emotions At Work. Business Communication Quarterly, 69(4). Retrieved from PsychoINFO database. Olofsson, B., Bengtsson, C., Brink, E. (2003). Absence of response: a study of nurses experience of stress in the workplace. Journal of Nursing Management, 11, 351-358. Retrieved from PsychInfo database.

Mann, S. (1999). Emotion at work: to what extent are we expressing, suppressing, or faking it? European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 8(3) 347-369. Retrieved from PsychInfo database.

Canaff, Audrey L., and Wanda Wright. (2004). High Anxiety: Counseling the JobInsecure Client. Journal of Employment Counseling, 41(1), 2-10. Retrieved from PsychINFO database.

Cary, Cherniss, Emotional Intelligence: What it is and Why it Matters, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers University Piscataway, NJ 08854

Weiss, H.M. & Beal, D.J., 2005. Reflections on affective events theory. Emotion, 1(05), p.1-21. Available at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1759746&show=abstract.

Kondalkar, V, 2009. Organization Effectiveness and Change Management. 1st ed. New Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd..p. 365-370 Belu, D, 2009. Emotional Intelligence and Negative Emotions Conversion. Management and Socio-Humanities, p.88.