Emotional Intelligence and Negotiation - Essay Example

Emotional Intelligence and Negotiation s affiliation Emotional Intelligence and Negotiation Despite Emotional Intelligence, popularly abbreviated as EI having been around for over a decade, its application in Negotiation and subsequent recognition by most senior executives as an important behavioral model and a key contributor to individual and business success has only come to be accepted in the recent past. To this regard, Emotional Intelligence is considered as a new concept that combines emotional awareness and understanding as key abilities. This has made researches on the subject to give most focus to the importance role that Emotional Intelligence plays on leader in general and business education. Emotional intelligence can be defines in various ways. The concept may refer to knowing ones feeling and having the ability to handle the feelings without the feelings swamping. The concept may also be defines as the ability to be able to motivate oneself to ensure that the job gets done while also being able to creative and performing at one’s peak. The concept also implies to one’s ability to be able to sense the feelings of others and being able to handle the relationships effectively. Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………2 Table of contents…………………………………………………………………………….…….3 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………..……4 Theoretical and Empirical Background…………………………………………………….……..5 Emotions………………………………………………………………………….…………6 Emotions in negotiations………………………………………………………….…….…..8 Emotional Intelligence and Negotiation………………………………………..…………..8 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………….….9 References……………………………………………………………………………………….10 Introduction The term emotional intelligence can be traced from Daniel Goleman’s (1995, 1998) concept of social intelligence or non-cognitive factors. In connection with this, Mayer and Salovey (1993) came up with the term emotional intelligence in addition to developing an ability measure of emotional intelligence Mayer, Salovey, Cauruso Emotional Intelligence Test abbreviated as MSCEIT. There studies form the basis for the further developments on the theoretical models of Emotional Intelligence. There refine definition of Emotional Intelligence coined in 1997 was that it refers to the ability of one to perceive emotions while being able to generate emotions in order to assist thought, having an understanding emotions and emotional knowledge in addition to reflectively regulating emotions in a bid to promote emotional and intellectual growth. The recent past has a great expansion moving beyond the early cognition-focused approaches. It is with no doubt that most negotiations are indeed emotional situations which basically make the participants experience a range of emotions in addition to being able to assess the justice of procedures and their outcomes. Other studies on the subject have been instrumental in acknowledging the fact that both emotion and cognition as being quite essential during negotiations. It must however be understood that the key to having successful negotiations lies with being aware of the emotional components while at the same time understanding the roles of the components and managing. This study will therefore be based on Emotional Intelligence and Negotiation. Theoretical and Empirical Background Reviews of early literature on the subject reveal of the early negotiation texts giving much emphasis to the cognitive and rational elements in negotiation. It was evident that most of the actors behaved in a rational manner exemplified with their assessing of the potential outcomes of the process of the process while at the same time focusing at obtaining the best value for either the organizations they work for or for themselves. Greenlaugh & Chapman (1995) attributes impasses or weak outcomes to mistakes or self-defeating biases in the reasoning process, though while controlling and minimizing emotional issues. A further review of the literatures on negotiations discovers that as opposed to earlier publications, the recent publications give much focus and attention to the emotional components. This is informed by the fact that negotiation as an art basically exists in instances where there conflict and it must be understood that conflict can never lack emotion or anxiety. Owing to this, emotions still continue to be regarded as key elements during the negotiation process. Emotion This section will provide us with a brief overview of human emotional experience which will provide a base for understanding the emotional aspects of negotiation. Conflict can be categorized as either identified cognitive, effective or behavioral components. The cognitive aspect of conflict allows humans to not only appraise, but also evaluate a situation which could give an insight on whether the goals are attainable, which results into positive emotions and in situations where the goals are blocked which results into negative emotions while on the other hand total violation of the perceived informal rules of behavior results into anger as there is frustration on the party that follows the rules. In instances where the outcome is attributed to intentional actions, studies have indicated of evoking of a stronger response while in instance where one party believes the other party had intentions of harming a project or adjusted the costs during the bargaining process, most of the studies have indicated of the response evoking more intense emotions as compared to situations when the perception regarding an action are believed to have been accidental and that there was no intention to harm. Identity has also shown a high tendency of intensifying the emotional response. Events challenging one’s identity or self-view has a high likelihood of resulting into a stronger emotional response while instances where negotiations may involve overstepping authority in addition to going over another party’s head or showing animosity may result into anger as they tend to challenge the identity of the other negotiator. To avoid such salient and personal issues it is always advised that personalization of an issue should be avoided during conflict and negotiation. The different ways in which emotional experienced is expressed is the behavioral element of emotion and it could be expressed through raising or lowering voices, perspiration of voices and facial expression amongst many more others. To this regard, it is evident that in instances where the negotiator has the capability to recognize and act on the behavioral elements, then they have more information to bargain compared to those who are unaware. Most studies have postulated about most negotiations having mixed motive and hence involve both the distributive and the integrative aspects which makes goal blockage and conflict being inevitable which commonly result into negative emotions. Emotions in Negotiation Most of the previous studies on this subject fail to adequately take into consideration the various effects of emotion. Despite this, it is postulated that more often than not, negative emotions are not only more complex than the positive emotions, but that also they evolve into anger or agitation and also sadness and depression. On the other hand, positive emotions have shown tendencies of being affiliated with not only happiness, but also empathy or showing a sense of compassion towards another individual. What makes the emotions unique is the fact that the emotions are characterized by being relatively intense and ephemeral. Among other characteristics associated with the emotions are the discernable antecedents and could be differentiated by considering their differentiated moods which are Allred. Additionally, studies like Allred et al (1997) made postulations that discrete and focused emotions show tendencies of having a greater impact on integrative performance as compared to mood. Additionally, negative emotions have exhibit greatest impact then followed by positive emotions. To this extent, we are justified to conclude that in aspects involving emotional regard, then a combination of all emotional valences mediates the influence of the cognitive variable as the influence it has on joint gains on one hand and the willingness to work together on another hand. Therefore, it is a matter of fact that emotional variables of anger and compassion have a greater impact as compared to cognitive variables on integrative outcomes. Emotional Intelligence and Negotiations The study was mainly to focus on demonstrating the value that emotional intelligence plays as a leans for examining individual differences in the outcomes of a negotiation. It is therefore without doubt that the greatest benefit of emotional intelligence is based upon its relevance to the outcomes to the workplace. However, despite emotional intelligence continuing to attract a lot of controversies, it is worth developing a greater empirical base for research within which we have to evaluate the construct. The key aspects that play an important role when studying emotions within the negotiations context is the social functional theoretical perspective on emotions. Additionally, it must be realized that emotions have proved to be not only inherently social, but also the emphasis of psychological traditions on the importance of emotion for interpersonal interactions as opposed to individual activities. The fact that emotions provide a valuable mechanism for individuals with which to coordinate their relationships and interactions with others makes it a valid reason for which to make considerations on the impact of emotional abilities on both focal individuals and those with which they have interactions. A review of the past literature on emotions reveals only the outcomes to one individual. Thus, this basically implies that the understanding of the reciprocal effects of emotions which include the case of negotiation outcomes and for which it has been found that crucial outcomes heavily depend on the emotional intelligence of both parties that are involved in the social influence process. Other aspects of negotiation process that need further examining include both the individual and the dyadic aspects involving objective value and subjective experience as opposed to making assumptions about both the aspects being affected in tandem by any given phenomenon. One major finding that has proved to be not only striking, but also surprising is the finding that negotiator’s own emotional intelligence has a negative impact on the objective outcomes relevant to the negotiation while on the other hand the emotional intelligence of the partner of a negotiator has proved to be of beneficial impact on the same outcomes through the increase in the integrative values that needs to be shared among the negotiating parties. To this regard, it is a challenge for future researches to continue examining emotion as an interpersonal as opposed to an exclusively individual process while at the same time examining not only the objective, but also the subjective outcomes. Conclusion References Parker, J. D. A., Saklofske, D. H., & Stough, C. (2009). Assessing Emotional Intelligence: Theory, Research, and Applications. Boston, MA: Springer-Verlag US. Kite, N., & Kay, F. (2012). Understanding emotional intelligence: Strategies for boosting your EQ and using it in the workplace. London: Kogan Page. Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam Books Goleman, D. (1998). What makes a leader? Harvard Business Review, pp. 90-103. Read More