The Relation between Emotional Intelligence and Employee Performance - Essay Example

UNIVERSITY NAME: CRITICALLY DISCUSS THE RELATION BETWEEN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE DENG MADUOT INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION: DATE ASSIGNMENT IS DUE: Critically Discuss the Relation between Emotional Intelligence and Employee Performance Introduction Understanding emotional intelligence has become a very common topic in the fields and press of business. Gradually, researchers in the field have learned that there is a relationship between leadership skills and certain aspects of emotional intelligence (Center for creative leadership, 2003). On the other hand, career derailment is linked with absence of emotional intelligence. General concepts of intelligence have been revolving over the past hundred years leading to the incorporation of emotional intelligence in business fields. Employees have been the subject of intelligence tests in order to gauge expected performance. The evolution of intelligence concepts can be traced back to Charles Darwin who acknowledged the significance of emotions noting that they provide behavior with energy which keeps it alive (Mackin 2006, 1-7). In the 1900s French school children were given tests to gauge their intelligence. Come 1918, the first US administered large scale IQ (intelligence quotient) testing was done on army recruits. Following this, social intelligence was conceptualized by Thondike in the 1930s, then non-intellective intelligence in the 1940s and Ohio state studies about task versus consideration in the 1950s. David Wechsler developed the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) in 1958 that could be used to measure intelligence then in 1983, Howard Gardner’s ‘frames of mind’ was conceptualized which described the seven intelligence categories. In 1990, Salovey and Mayer came up with the term emotional intelligence with the first publication on the subject, ‘working with emotional intelligence,’ was done by Daniel Coleman in 1998 introducing the importance of the concept in the work context (Parker, James and Reuven 2000, 40-59). Research in the 1990s determined that an emotional brain exists in a person that is separate but connected to the rational brain. Since the two develop and grow at the same time; it can be deduced that people are meant to use their powers of reasoning together with their feelings (Singer and Francisco 2005, 1-3). After Coleman’s book in 1995, the subject gained higher prominence. This is because principles of the concept provide managers and with a fresh perception into the understanding of employees’ behavior, styles and ways of management, interpersonal skills and interaction, attitudes and potential (Singer and Francisco 2005, 1-3). Emotional intelligence is an important part of an organization’s human resources. It will help the organizations plan for effective customer relations and services. The concept capitalizes on promoting the idea that everyone has value and finding out their particular value will yield better results since managers can strategically allocate duties to their workers while considering their particular strengths in emotional intelligence (Singer and Francisco 2005, 1-3). The focus of this essay is to critically analyze the link between emotional intelligence and employee performance by considering all the parameters involved in using emotional intelligence in work contexts with the help of previous literature on the subject and its criticisms. Body One of the definitions of emotional intelligence is that it is a self perceived capability that someone possesses to identify emotions, assess and control them in others, groups and their-selves. However, there have been criticisms about whether the concept refers to a real intelligence and if it has an increasing impact on IQ (Achkanasy and Daus 2002, 76-84). There is also disagreement in terms of defining the construct both when it comes to terminology and functionality. For instance, some researchers have taken issue with the construct being referred to as a perceived ability and instead want it to be thought of as the manifestation of another ability. Other definitions go further to add that the abilities possessed should be complemented by the ability to utilize them in socially adaptive ways. People perceive things in different ways depending on their mindset and unique perspectives. However, emotional intelligence is characterized by the added advantage of reading into cues and responding to them in ways that demonstrate accurate understanding of the other people’s perspectives (Singer and Francisco 2005, 1-3). A person with emotional intelligence should have mastered his or her own feelings knowing the kind of result they exhibit in him. In addition, he should know the emotions that work best in every situation and know how to bring them out if need be. In addition, he should know the different feelings that everyone else shows and what they mean and how they can best be used. Some researchers have noted that if IQ and emotional intelligence are compared, the former is a less influential predictor of good leadership than the latter. Emotional intelligence will lead to motivation of workers and enhancement of job satisfaction which leads to higher productivity. Emotional intelligence is different from other types of intelligence in that it deals with the management of emotions thereby describing the complex processes that connect cognition and emotion (Jordan n.d. 456-471). Various models of emotional intelligence have been developed by different researchers. Mayer and Salovey described a model that has emotional awareness, facilitation, regulation and knowledge as its components that make it a multidimensional construct (Jordan n.d. 456-471). The components complement each other and make the overall operation of emotional intelligence better. With emotional awareness, one is able to recognize his and other people’s emotions and discern them in term of true, false, accurate or inaccurate. Emotional facilitation is when one can utilize emotions to prioritize cognitive functions and assess issues from different perspectives. This is particularly important in the context of an organization because one can view matters in both optimistic and pessimistic perspectives. Emotional knowledge involves one’s ability to understand how emotions transition and finally, regulation involves the ability to channel emotions depending on their immediate need and usefulness (Jordan n.d. 456-471). Research that has been done so far suggests that there is a connection between emotional intelligence abilities and job satisfaction in that the former influences the latter (Fatima, Imran and Zaheer 2010, 612-620). Being satisfied at the work place is imperative to maximizing performance of employees. Employees who are not satisfied with their jobs have very little emotional connection to what they are doing are most likely to leave the organization. An employee with positive feelings towards the tasks assigned to them at work will yield better results than one who has negative perception. Employees who have the feeling that work is not imposed upon them have an emotional response to their tasks and therefore they do them better (Fatima, Imran and Zaheer 2010, 612-620). One of the most important pieces of information that concerns an employee is their level of satisfaction with their jobs. It is because of this reason that managers have been looking for ways that they can improve job satisfaction for their employees (Cote and Miners 2006, 1-28). Emotional intelligence is among the factors that determine job satisfaction as it affects the employee’s physical and mental state of health. An emotionally aware employee can be used in a position that requires a lot of interaction and deals with customers in highly emotional states most of the time like provision of customer care services (Fatima, Imran and Zaheer 2010, 612-620). Despite numerous literatures about the many contributions that emotional intelligence makes towards improving working conditions and as a result employee performance, there are some areas of the construct that have been criticized. One of the criticisms is that conclusions from emotional intelligence cannot be trusted completely in making a predictive decision at a workplace. Its main benefits are real time. It lacks validity in this field (Harms and Credé 2010, 154–158). In addition, some of the manifestations of emotional intelligence can be easily faked by someone who knows what they are doing (Harmon 2000, 43-51). Also, Coleman has been criticized greatly for making an assumption that emotional intelligence is a type of intelligence in that in defining and describing the construct, he made assumptions about the nature of intelligence that are contrary to what researchers consider to be accurate. Additional criticisms claim that the whole idea of emotional intelligence is a misinterpretation of the concept of intelligence. Alternative descriptions have been offered in that it is the application of the concept of intelligence to the field of emotions and the construct should then be considered a skill (Locke 2005, 425–431). The major supporting argument of emotional intelligence in employee performance is being able to identify it in them or managers utilizing their own to make conditions of production perfect. However, the predictive ability of emotional intelligence has also been criticized. Research on emotional intelligence and job performance has shown mixed results mostly because the area has not been tapped into by as many researchers as other ones Evaluation Considering other behavioral models, emotional intelligence is a somewhat recent field based on the amount of research and emphasis that has been put on it. This is a similar theme in all the literature since they are mostly recent. One of the similarities that are evident in the research is that more organizations are increasingly realizing the relevance of emotional intelligence to their development and their human resources. The concept will and is mostly utilized to help in the recruitment, profiling, planning, interviewing, selection and relevance in the division of labor. There are however differences in the literature as pertain to the use and definition of someone having emotional intelligence. On the one hand, some of the literature defines emotional intelligence with more emphasis on being able to control emotions within oneself which would not manifest in the workplace as much as the one of being able to read other people’s emotions. This also brings about another similarity which is that emotional intelligence is mostly utilized in reading other people then using the results from the readings to come up with action plans that will best utilize their emotions both in the context of the organization’s relation with its customers and its relation with its employees. Linking the construct and employee performance does not mean ruling out all the other factors that also determine working but, incorporating the construct into the managerial functions that deal with the organization’s human resources. Organizational leaders who possess the ability of emotional intelligence should capitalize on it because when this ability is fine tuned, the benefits to business and managerial functions can be overwhelming. Thus, there is a similarity in the literature about the benefits and knowledge and ability of emotional intelligence being used to enhance job satisfaction with the assumption that it will result in higher levels of productivity. Yet another similarity is that the ability and use of emotional intelligence is emphasized as a tool that can be utilized by managers to improve conditions in the organization but not by employees. All the literature points towards emotional intelligence being utilized with emphasis being on employees being the key ingredient for implementation of the emotional intelligence construct. Employees are a most important and vital part of an organization and a major determining factor to its success. If they are satisfied with their jobs, they do better. Emotional responses to social and physical work constitute job satisfaction. IQ is often considered as the definition of the threshold of an employee’s abilities but once they have been selected, they will be in a group of others with similar IQs. Managers need another distinguishing factor to help them know the skills of their employees more uniquely. Emotional intelligence serves this purpose (Mackin 2006, p. 1-7). Success requires a multifaceted approach that will cover and tap into the abilities of employees wholly. Emotional intelligence covers unique character and behavioral elements that are overlooked by IQ requirements. With this inclusion, success becomes a plausible expectation. It is most likely that the future will see the concept of emotional intelligence being researched on more than it already has especially for application in the workplace and other relevant organizational contexts. This presents a similarity in the literature containing aspects of studying the construct further especially on its use in the workplace to enhance employee performance. It will become more important and more will be done to both understand it and know how to tap into it. Also, it is likely that it will be used most in the recruitment of employees and allocation of tasks while also developing and training them. Theories and definitions surrounding the construct will evolve to scholarly requirements. Conclusion In conclusion, emotional intelligence and employee performance have become agendas in management discussions at this time. Distinguishing between intrapersonal or interpersonal intelligence and mathematical or logical intelligence has opened up a field of study and introduced a new way of perceiving employee performance and the factors influencing it. Basing on the evolving nature of the concept in history, it can be deduced that there will be further advancement in understanding and applying the concept. Emotional input in tasks in the workplace should be encouraged in intelligent ways that will see to it that they are also used to achieve the goal of the company. Managers, acting as leaders, should get adequate information in order to understand emotional intelligence and ways to identify the specific ones that are possessed by their employees while at the same time, managing the critiques of the concept that are relevant to them. 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