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Emotional intelligence: theory and description:A competency model for
interpersonal effectiveness
James Thomas Kunnanatt. Career Development International. Bradford:2008.
Vol. 13, Iss. 7, p. 614-629
Approach/methodology
The field of EI is rich with a plethora of research studies that often report
correlations, co-variations and associations between EI and other variables.
The approach in this paper is not to go extensively into these literatures but
to draw upon relevant updates from academic research so as to create a model of
EI that would provide a comprehensive understanding of the concept. While the
model holds many of the classic components of EI intact, the attempt is to
present a competency-based model of EI that might deviate a little in its
configuration from the popular models.
The paper first reviews the current research link between EI and career
performance and shows how EI contributes to social effectiveness. The concept
of EI is then explained by portraying the psychological configuration, inner
mechanisms, and organization and operation of EI in human beings. Going beyond
the popular literature on EI, the paper explains the role of brain theory in EI
- a dimension often ignored in the discussions on EI. The paper then introduces
the competency-based model of EI and explains in detail the EI competencies -
personal and social competencies - that constitute the model. In particular,
the model introduces a new sub-competence called social influence, but cautions
about the difficulty in acquiring this sub-competence solely through EI
training. Finally, the paper provides an abbreviated coverage of the
progressive stages and the dynamics involved in typical EI training programs
and discusses the implications of EI for HRD and career development.
Before delving into the construct of EI, the role of EI in driving human
performance and career advancements in organizations may be briefly reviewed.
The question pondered here is "Do careers of individuals with high levels of EI
differ from those of individuals with low levels of EI?" Research outputs tend
to show that people possessing superior EI perform better and develop steadier
career paths in organizations ([3] Aydin et al. , 2005; [12] Druskat and Wolff,
2001; [15] Dulewicz and Higgs, 2003; [19] Feist and Barron, 1996; [41] Mandell
and Pherwani, 2003). Studies on career performance of executives reveal that
managers who are aware and have true understanding of their own and other's
emotions, and are able to use that understanding to effectively motivate,
inspire, challenge, and connect with others are far more effective than
traditional managers who actively separate any emotion from the workplace and
promote methodical, detached, micro-managing style of supervision ([24]
Gardner, 1999; [29] Goleman et al. , 2002; [38] Kouzes and Posner, 1995; [74]
Wheatley, 1999). Based on evidences from 121 companies around the world [28]
Goleman (1998) argues that EI abilities are two times more crucial for
performance excellence than technical and cognitive abilities. Recent research
evidences also support EI as a vital element in excellent job performance
profiles in organizations ([52] Morehouse, 2007).
EI can also raise the level of individual and team performance. Perhaps due to
an enhanced ability to recognize and manage emotions and brace against
distracting emotions, EI skills connect both to individual cognitive-based
performance and team task performance skills ([52] Morehouse, 2007). In
research on teams, [34] Jordan and Troth (2004) reported that teams comprised
of members possessing high EI tend to display superior task performance skills
when compared with teams made up of emotionally less intelligent members. [28]
Goleman (1998) had earlier found that for technical and complex positions in
organizations, a lack of EI might lead to diminished cognitive performance and
an inability to accomplish tasks, especially with others.
Though the above research studies do not deal with EI in detail, the findings
are sufficient, perhaps, to believe that EI provides both performance advantage
and career advancement opportunities for executives in organizations.
Realization of this truth regarding the power of EI in augmenting job
performance and career prospects of individuals has resulted in many
organizations aggressively realigning their HR strategies in favor of EI over
the hitherto valued traditional intelligence or IQ, though not as replacement
to the latter but as a supplement to it ([3] Aydin et al. , 2005; [7] Carmeli
and Josman, 2006; [10] Cote and Miners, 2006; [12] Druskat and Wolff, 2001;
[58] Rosete and Ciarrochi, 2005; [62] Sayegh et al. , 2004).
It thus appears that emotionally intelligent people are more effective in the
workplace and enjoy better career advancements. Research ([2] Abraham, 2004;
[7] Carmeli and Josman, 2006; [10] Cote and Miners, 2006) shows that this is
particularly because while interacting with the social environment people
possessing personality patterns with high EI (EI personality) produce win-win
relationships and outcomes for themselves and others. Such people, by virtue of
their positive personality and cordiality of interactions ([1] Abraham, 1999)
develop a magnetic field of "emotional attraction" around them. People with low
EI, on the contrary, happen to enter into counterproductive emotional behaviors
with others, and end up in win-lose or lose-lose type of transactional
outcomes. Their emotional negativism or the neutrality of their social
transactions builds around them, often unknowingly, a field of "emotional
repulsion" because of which their social circles get contracted and distanced
from them. Such people often prove detrimental to their own and others' careers
in organizations (Figure 1 [Figure omitted. See Article Image.]).
EI has its roots in the early works of psychometric researchers like [68], [69]
Thorndike (1920, 1936), [53] Moss and Hunt (1927), [32] Hunt (1928), and [72]
Vernon (1933) but the concept was defined and theoretically sharpened only in
recent years through the works of Drs J.D. Mayer and [59] P. Saarni (1999). The
true merit for popularizing the concept, however, is attributed to [27] Goleman
(1995) who through his classic book published in 1995 took EI from the world of
academics and research to the practical world of business and industry.
When emergencies or critical moments call for intelligent and careful action by
the rational mind, the emotion-biased amygdala might suppresses the rational
processes of the neocortex thereby depriving the individual of his/her
reasoning power to cognitively process and test the reality of the situation (
[11] Davidson et al. , 2000). Moreover, in many situations, the amygdala
interprets and even exaggerates the events as hostile and dangerous and advises
the bodily equipment of the organism to get ready for a fight or flight
situation. In such cases, obeying commands from the amygdala, the person
perceives the situation as threatening and starts engaging in defensive,
emotionalized behavior that takes irrational dimensions, which, in turn, could
harm the person as well as the environment ([31] Holland and Gallagher, 1990).
The person can be depicted as operating in the emotionally less intelligent
mode. At this point, the person becomes emotionally excited and the body shows
symptoms of palpitations, increased blood pressure, and other biological
reactions. All these happen within the flicker of a moment and can be
summarized as the "emotional game" played by the amygdala. Most people
experience many such series of emotional games daily ([11] Davidson et al. ,
2000).
Drawing upon the support from various sources of research and training in EI,
EI theory has tended to take two different approaches to model building.
Academic researchers view EI as an abstract concept whereas training
specialists look at it as a combination of practical competencies acquired by
the individual. This paper, while drawing heavily upon the insights from
academic research, approaches EI from the competency perspective and hence
attempts to present a model that construes EI as a constellation of
competencies.
social competence in knowing and dealing with the "self of others" ([19] Feist
and Barron, 1996; [27] Goleman, 1995; [46] Mayer and Salovey, 1997; [65]
Sternberg, 1996; [71] Van Rooy and Viswesvaran, 2004).
This paper, however, assumes that there are prominent interpersonal skills that
need to be focused and developed in individuals if EI is to produce desirable
effects and impacts on their social environment. While the skills required for
effectively influencing others could be many, a few could be rated as
important, considering the significance attached to these skills in management
development and career counseling circles. Chief among these skills that
contribute to a person's social influence are assertiveness, communication, and
empowering leadership. Assertiveness helps a person in establishing a mutually
respectful, win-win, I am ok-You are ok relationship with others. Communication
skills enable the person to listen carefully to others as well as negotiate
successfully to produce desirable outcomes in social transactions. Empowering
leadership equips the person with the abilities of guiding and motivating
others in situations that involve leadership and group management. Though these
core social influence skills might appear as independent of each other, in
actual use they merge and blend with each other and have to be used in a highly
synchronized manner to be productive and effective in the social environment.
Social influence might appear akin to the so-called political skill but the two
should be viewed as related but different attributes. Political skill is the
ability of a person to influence others and get them to buy into one's own
ideas and objectives ([21] Ferris et al. , 2000). Political skill in itself is
a virtue that is increasingly being advocated today as necessary competency to
be effective in organizations ([22] Ferris et al. , 2007); but, the possibility
exists that it could also be used, at times, for personal gains than for mutual
benefits. Social influence on the other hand uses one's relationships skills in
an empathic manner and focuses on buying others into one's ideas by building
trust and pursuing means that mutually benefit each other. These additional
elements of empathy coupled with mutuality of benefits to each other in social
transactions perhaps demarcate social competence from political skill and
distinctly distinguish it from the latter.
Even though there are conflicting arguments ([9] Ciarrochi et al. , 2000) about
the validity and reliability of the tools used in measuring EI, EQ measurement
is fast becoming an industry in itself. Academic researchers and EI training
agencies have designed and used a plethora of measuring instruments to help
people gain insight into their EI profile. The most common measuring
instruments include Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT;
[49] Mayer et al. , 2002), Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI; [29] Goleman et
al. , 2002), and [4] Bar-On's (1997) EQ-I.
The above two stages of emotional mapping and emotional pattern diagnosis equip
the participants with true and deeper self-knowledge of their emotional world
and give them a true awareness of where they stand in the world of emotions and
management of emotions. Participants then gradually pass onto the next two
phases of training: namely, "emotional authentication" and "emotional
navigation".
Having learned to test the reality and value of one's own emotions, the next
task in EI development is building empathy. An empathic individual recognizes
and responds to other people's emotions. The person has the capacity to
experience the emotions of others in their true spirit. In nature and in
content, empathy is both instinctive and conscious. Certain aspects of empathy
are instinctively gained through heredity. The other dimension is the
consciously built up understanding of the other person - a competency acquired
through learning and socialization in society. In EI programs, participants
pass through a series of empathy workshops that help them diagnose and become
conscious about the inner empathic deficiencies and strengths in their
personality. Though a difficult process, once empathy is developed at the
conscious level, it provides the way for building and sustaining valuable
relationships with others in the social circles. The empathic change in the
personality is visible through the way participants begin to make others feel (
[17] Eisenberg et al. , 2000). They are now more confident and tuned to make
others feel attached to, attended to, listened to, cared for, respected, and
trusted with the result that an emotionally enriched foundation starts building
up in their surrounding social relationships.
Influence building is the last stage in the EI development program. The aim is
to develop the interpersonal influence potential necessary for effective
management of social relationships. Success in this competency area depends on
the level of mastery acquired by a person in such interpersonal skills as
leadership, communication, assertiveness, and negotiation, among others. The
contents of most EI programs generally do not address these interpersonal skill
areas because a variety of highly specialized and sophisticated training
programs are available for developing these skills. What is important from the
EI angle is that a person who has sharpened his/her skills in the other
components of EI need to sequentially develop these people management skills so
as to use them as vital inputs for building productive social relationships and
for managing these relationships successfully.
To sum up, participants who successfully travel through the so-called stages of
emotional mapping, emotional diagnosis, emotional authentication, emotional
navigation, empathy building, and influence building are expected to come out
of the program with meaningful changes in the emotional structure that
influence both their "inside" aspects and the "outside" relationships. The
program acts as an instrument of emotional engineering that restructures the
rational-emotional processes and elevates their capacity to reason about
emotions and regulate emotions in ways that promote emotional and intellectual
growth in life.
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Further Reading
Corresponding author
[Author Affiliation]
[Illustration]
ISSN: 13620436
DOI: 10.1108/13620430810911083
Abstract (Summary)
Emotions in health organisations tend to remain tacit and in need of clarification. Often,
emotions are made invisible in nursing and reduced to part and parcel of 'women's work'
in the domestic sphere. Smith (1992) applied the notion of emotional labour to the study
of student nursing, concluding that further research was required. This means
investigating what is often seen as a tacit and uncodified skill. A follow-up qualitative
study was conducted over a period of twelve months to re-examine the role of the
emotional labour of nursing. Data were collected primarily from 16 in-depth and semi-
structured interviews with nurses. Key themes elicited at interviews touch upon diverse
topics in the emotional labour of nursing. In particular, this article will address nurse
definitions of emotional labour; the routine aspects of emotional labour in nursing;
traditional and modern images of nursing; and gender and professional barriers that
involve emotional labour in health work. This is important in improving nurse training
and best practice; investigating clinical settings of nurses' emotional labour; looking at
changing techniques of patient consultation; and beginning to explore the potential
therapeutic value of emotional labour. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]