Emotions and Emotional Intelligence and the Workplace - Coursework Example

Emotions and Emotional Intelligence and the Workplace Human emotions are complex and interconnected with wide range of outlook, thoughts and deeds. Besides, emotions are individual experiences, habitually linked with one’s atmosphere, temperament, quality of mind, and character. Today, emotional intelligence is identified as an exceptional part of the organization because it improves the self orientation and self awareness of the employees and generate maximum outcome at their work. Emotional intelligence is a cluster of abilities which pilot and manage ones emotions towards job and performance at workplace. The articles namely ‘the emerging role of emotions in work life: an introduction’ by Cynthia D. Fisher and Neal M. Ashkanasy and ‘The four C’s of Emotion: A Framework for Managing Emotions in Organization’ by Jamie L Callahan deals with similar theme and are selected for this reflective essay. Thesis statement: An analysis to explore the importance of emotion and emotional intelligence and how it influences in the organizational setting. Article summary- ‘the emerging role of emotions in work life: an introduction’ Human emotion play vital role in organizational settings and many studies and researches attempt to analyze the role of emotions and emotional intelligence to enhance productivity or output at workplaces. Fisher and Ashkanasy in the article ‘the emerging role of emotions in work life: an introduction’ deal with wide range of issues with various initiatives such as conferences and e-mail discussion on emotions at workplace and how does it influence in management and employees. The Article makes clear that relation between emotion and workplace had extensive history. According to Fisher & Ashkanasy ((2000), “Receptivity to change, job satisfaction, stress, and health were studied as possible consequences of emotional experiences in the work- place.” (p.126) emotional experiences in work-place helps one to improve or badly affect one’s output within the work-place atmosphere. Besides, one can see that ‘Effective events theory’ stated in the article deeply influenced the authors and forces to do more future research on emotion intelligence. Affective events theory suggested that moods and emotions are measured to be an intervening mechanism by which constant characteristics of the working atmosphere impact job attitudes and performance. The Article makes clear that mood and emotions originate from distinctive events and leads to explicit feelings. For instance, certain jobs produce events such as occurrence of positive comment; the target accomplished successfully, etc., leads to short-lived positive feelings like happiness, delight and arrogance. This special issue on Emotions in Organization fascinated 40 submissions from researches around the globe but there are29 researchers provided valuable information of the current and future prospective of the segment. The findings that are pointed out in this article help one to identify the importance of emotions in the workplaces and can be termed as a valuable reference for future studies. Article summary- The four C’s of Emotion: A Framework for Managing Emotions in Organization Nowadays, all over the globe, the concept of emotion and emotional intelligence in the working is acquiring immense recognition. In the article ‘The four C’s of Emotion: A Framework for Managing Emotions in Organization’ Callahan narrates the events and effects in the working environment. Callahan points out that the four C’s of emotion such as context, challenges, communication, and community are the prime factors of one’s emotional responses therefore one can do better deal with one’s emotions. These abilities are important to acquire leadership qualities and can be developed by interacting with others as well as social activities. Callahan makes clear that the leaders should have the skill to control their emotions effectively, and must show keen interest to recognize others. Besides, these skills play the key role in today’s working environment. In the work, Callahan deals with the works of researchers like Salvoy and Mayer, Goleman, and topics like emotional intelligence and social intelligence, emotional intelligence and fundamental abilities etc. He also recommends variety of steps that would help an individual to indoctrinate emotional intelligence in the organization. Callahan makes clear that a strong sense of emotional intelligence assists individuals to extend their skills and to create co-ordination and co-operation in their organization. According to Callahan (2008), “In order to function effectively, all social systems must establish formal and informal means of communication.” (p. 36) the social systems must create all means of communication to enhance productivity. This framework is so helpful to realize the importance of emotional intelligence and organization behavior in workplace atmosphere. Comparison The first article focuses upon emotion and emotional intelligence in the workplace in brief. This article deals with relationship of mood to job distinctiveness, job gratification, expression of anger in different relationships in the organization, apprehensible and effects of emotional employee, emotional intelligence in interview segments, and the results of grief and anger by managers. But the second article deals with the practical application of emotional intelligence by making use of four C’s of emotions such as context, challenges, communication and community as well as how does it influence in the working place. At the same time, the first article gives due importance to the requirements needed to perform ‘emotional labor’ in the workplace. The authors point out that the concept of emotional labor is very difficult to define as numerous unsettled and unsolved issues surrounding this concept. For instance, the organizational variable like job and task characteristics, remuneration systems, performance feedback, and behavior of management or coworkers recognized as major rudiments of experienced emotions in the organization even though every organization needed the display of positive and friendly emotions. But the second article focuses on how individuals control their own emotions as well as others. The emotions like disappointment, fear, and skepticism might be disrupting the further development of organizational efforts. According to Singh (2006), “you tend to suppress your emotions as a method of emotional management.”(p. 40) one of the methods to mange one’s emotion is to suppress the same but it badly affects one’s physical and mental health. The author also point out that emotional intelligence is as same as social intelligence because it helps to observe one’s own emotions as well as others feelings. Therefore, this system helps one to understand the organizational behavior so that one can put effort for the further development of organization. Emotional intelligence also helps individuals to assist their philosophies and actions. The first Article investigates the causes and effects in workplace. The writer points out that how emotion like anger among co workers, managers, and superiors affect the total team in the organization. The author opines that emotion like anger has different types and it is triggered in individuals in different events. For instance, managers become provoked or feel frustration because of law destruction or unprofessionalism from the side of their employees. The second article deals with the importance of context as which is associated with emotional intelligence. It says that any type of data collection and searching, from browsing the internet to chatting social function as considered as part of context activity. The author makes clear that the social responsible community can do better performance in the external organizational environment. Affective event theory suggests that affective experiences are supposed to increase to add to the effective component of job attitudes. The writer also points out the importance of emotional intelligence in interview segment. The second article points out that communication is an exceptional part of emotional intelligence that can trigger or cause or jealousies between subordinates, excitement about cooperating with co workers and so on. This article also describes that the significance of challenges in an organization. Challenges are interconnected with organizations so that the management teams can focus on activities such as training, leadership, and strategic planning to achieve the challenges. For instance, leadership development program helps to provide good leaders who can lead the organization better and to achieve the target. According to Sternberg (2000), “However, there is evidence to suggest that both social & emotional intelligence overlap to some extent with abstract, academic intelligence.” (p.91) one can see that there exists an interconnection among social, emotional and academic intelligence. So, both these articles deal with the same topic but through different ways and angles. Individual opinion: Agreement / disagreement I disagree with the first article because its scope is limited to the sphere of’ emotional labor’ in the workplace settings. I agree with the second article because it deals with core aspects of emotion and emotional intelligence in the work place. Emotion and Emotional intelligence facilitates individuals to know about their own competencies for dealing with emotions within the organizational settings. According to Stein (2007), “Emotional intelligence is concerned with understanding oneself and others, relating to people, and adapting to and coping with immediate surroundings.” (p.61) emotional intelligence is adaptability to cope up with changing circumstances. The second article helps one to understand the workplace environment and recognize the potential triggers that could disrupt their capacity to successfully work with their feelings in their greatest interest. This article totally justifies the topic of emotion and emotional intelligence in the workplace and it incredibly helpful for scholars who are interested in the topic of emotional intelligence. By summing up, one can see that both the articles are helpful to deal with different types of emotions and provide a vivid idea on the importance and relation between emotional intelligence and workplace. In addition, balance in emotional intelligence that one can develop in one’s private life and at workplace leads to success. Moreover, proper communication leads to healthy relations and eventually to success in workplace as a leader. These articles are so valuable to managers and laborers because both the articles deal with almost all areas of emotional intelligence and workplace. So, the articles can be considered as the theoretical and practical application of emotions and emotional intelligence in different situation but within the sphere of workplace settings. Works cited Callahan, J. L. (2008). The Four Cs of Emotion: A Framework for Managing Emotions in Organizations. Organization Development Journal, 26, 33-38. Fisher, C. D., & Ashkanasy, N. M. (2000). The Emerging Role of Emotions in Work Life: An Introduction. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 21, 123-129. Sternberg, R. J. (2000). Practical intelligence in everyday life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Singh, D. (2006). Emotional intelligence at work: a professional guide. California: SAGE. Stein, S. J. (2007). Make Your Workplace Great: The 7 Keys to an Emotionally Intelligent Organization. Canada: John Wiley and Sons. Read More