Connections between Emotional Intelligence and Workplace Flourishing - Literature review Example

MANAGING PEOPLE: ARTICLE ANALYSIS Name Institution Professor Course Date Introduction Schutte, N.S & Loi, N.M (2014) Connections between emotional intelligence and workplace flourishing. Personality and Individual Differences. 66:134-139. Emotional Intelligence is a set of skills that demonstrate the capacity of an individual to identify his or her conducts, impulses, moods and to manage them effectively. EI is crucial in workplace given that most people fail to control their emotions successfully. This paper critically analyses the validity and logic of information presented in the article through focusing work engagement, perceived mental health, social power and social support. The paper offers a summary of the major findings, a critical analysis of the findings and a coherent conclusion. The paper supports the findings that EI increases work engagement, social power and social support in workplace. Through summarizing and describing major themes of the article and support from relevant journal articles, the paper will try to confirm whether increased emotional intelligence is linked to workplace flourishing and perceived workplace social power and support. Summary of the Key Themes Individual disparity characteristic of EI could be the basis of workplace flourishing (Schutte & Loi (2014: 134). Through responses from a sample of 319 working individuals from Australia and the United States, Schutte & Loi (2014) found that higher emotional intelligence is greatly linked to improved mental health, job satisfaction, workplace social support and increased work engagement. According to Schutte & Loi (2014:134), EI is also linked to perceived power in workplace, and social support satisfaction. Perceived power enhances work performance in organizations. Through an extensive literature review, Schutte & Loi (2014) confirmed that increased levels of EI are linked to diverse positive interpersonal upshots that include a more cooperative behavior in workplace, interpersonal relationships and relationship satisfaction. People with increased emotional intelligence demonstrate improved work performance and perform better in high emotional labor tasks besides demonstrating superior leadership in workplace. Such people hold increased sense of power in their work setting and see their work settings as more supportive. Through reference to theory of positive psychology, Schutte & Loi (2014: 135) claimed that understanding, emotion regulation, core elements of emotional intelligence and better perception facilitates workers’ mastery of workplace occurrences and response to events besides inspiring an increased sense of power. These factors instigate better interpersonal work relationships which in turn strengthens workplace flourishing (Schutte & Loi 2014: 135). The authors ascertained that emotional intelligence is embedded in social and environmental contexts thereby falling into the positive conceptualization of an individual in the context of groups and institutions. Schutte & Loi (2014: 135) confirmed that EI directly promotes workplace flourishing and indirectly affects workplace flourishing via inspiring development of qualities such as job satisfaction and power perception. Social power in workplace entails the measure of impact an individual is capable of asserting over other people (Schutte & Loi (2014: 136). People who hold a sense of control are more engaged, more devoted to their organizations and less probably experience negative upshots such as absenteeism, job turnover, burnout and reduced organizational devotion (Schutte & Loi 2014: 136). Social support helps employees to address potential stressors such as harassment or bullying in their places of work. Schutte & Loi (2014: 136) claimed that social support entails an exchange of resources amid two or more individuals. Social support holds major effects on job satisfaction, burnout, absenteeism and overall work commitment. Schutte & Loi (2014: 136) confirmed that social support is a type of workplace social capital where support from supervisors and colleagues helps in preventing and dealing with negative upshots in the workplace. Schutte & Loi (2014: 138) confirmed that emotional intelligence as a workplace flourishing source can offer promising application means for workplace programs aimed at enhancing the well-being and commitment of employees. Critical Analysis Literature Review and Methodology Schutte & Loi (2014) have accomplished the aims of their study. The study aimed to ascertain whether emotional intelligence is a basis for workplace flourishing. Schutte & Loi (2014) provided four reasonable hypotheses which are evaluated through a live sample comprising of 319 participants that included both males and females drawn from firms in Australia and USA. As a result (Schutte & Loi (2014) employed a quantitative research perspective which is suitable for the research topic. The study sample is adequate and suitable to study the measures of mental health, wok engagement, power perception, social support and EI. The authors through their selected methodology employed achieved their objectives and ascertained gaps in literature a thorough literature review. The authors used a wide range of literature from credible sources. They used their literature review as a guiding concept to their research topic and research objectives. However, the authors did not provide a clear and logical manner of their data collection procedure. Findings: Work Engagement, Perceived mental Health Social Power and Social Support Increased EI is significantly and positively linked to increased work engagement and better mental health besides and increase in social support satisfaction and more perceived power. Perceived power and social support satisfaction were closely connected to better mental health and work involvement (Schutte & Loi 2014: 136). The findings are practical and are supported by a research carried by Yuan, Tan, Huang and Zou (2014). According to Yuan, Tan, Huang and Zou (2014:1057), emotional intelligence is positively correlated with job satisfaction and job satisfaction is positively linked to perceived general health. Yuan, Tan, Huang and Zou (2014:1064) further confirm that EI hold greater influence on job satisfaction. Employees with high levels of emotional intelligence hold a more positive outlook towards work and are more satisfied with their work compared to employees with low emotional intelligence. In addition, EI holds an indirect beneficial impact on perceived good health (Yuan, Tan, Huang and Zou (2014:1064). However, it is imperative to understand that effect of EI on perceive general health is only feasible with job satisfaction. This therefore offers a greater insight into the link amid perceived general and mental health and emotional intelligence. Increased EI in workplace is linked to work engagement and more cooperative behavior (Schutte and Loi 2014:135). This assertion is supported by Singh (2011) who claims that organizations fail to attain organizational productivity and employees’ engagement to their work because they only consider social and material dimensions of human resource instead of the emotional component Singh (2011: 53). Efforts by firms to enrich the emotional dimensions of their human resources can assist in solving issues of burnout, absenteeism, reduced morale to mention but a few. Singh (2011:53) claims that EI attains individual’s goal via the ability of one to control his/her emotions and feelings, be sensitive to and influence other people. While Schutte and Loi (2014) confirmed that EI is crucial in workplaces given its benefits in terms of improving work involvement, social support, perceived power and mental health, the authors fail to paint a clear picture of what comprises of the major characteristics of EI. According to Singh (2011: 54), emotional intelligence encompasses self awareness, self motivation, self regulation, managing relationships and empathy. These characteristics explain why emotional intelligence is closely linked to job involvement. Some of the abilities and aptitudes of EI have been demonstrated to hold potential to influence workplace conducts such as self awareness that contributes to a leader or an employee’s performance. Emotional regulation is a major prerequisite for upholding workplace relationships. It is my contention that Schutte and Loi (2014) should have highlighted the general characteristics of emotional intelligence to allow the leader understands why EI increases work engagement, social support, better mental and perceived power. This is because different elements of emotional intelligence are seen to influence an employee’s capacity to successfully control change and influence employees’ conduct during change. In addition, comprehension of qualities of EI and their effects contributes to enhanced comprehension of organization performance and its determinants (Singh 2011:54). With respect to transactional stress theory, the affective experiences emanating from appraisals of certain stressors affect how an employee handles a given situation and perform her or his task in workplace. Unpleasant and pleasant feelings experienced during job assignment are linked to the potential of employee advancement (Dong, Seo & Bartol 2014: 1061). Developing advancement potential requires employees to actively engage in their present job roles. Pleasant feelings emanating from increased emotional intelligence offer the required motivation for job engagement besides motivation to deal with stressors at workplace. Increased EI help employees to attain their challenging job demands while unpleasant feelings or low emotional intelligence enhance avoidance tendencies which prevent employees engagement with work and others ( Dong, Seo & Bartol 2014:1061). There is a close link between EI and social power in workplace. Social power is the ability to influence others (Schutte and Loi (2014:136). People with higher levels of emotional intelligence hold greater sense of autonomy and decision-making abilities. I concur with the Schutte and Loi (2014) provision that people who hold a feeling of sense of control in their workplace are more involved in their work and more devoted to their organizations. Singh (2011:54) asserts that commitment entails alignment of a person with organizational or group goals. While Schutte and Loi (2014) confirmed that increased emotional intelligence increases social power and a sense of control which in turn instigates work and organizational commitment, Singh (2014:54) confirms that commitment is determined through the quality of relationships people share with others. These findings are also support by Turnipseed and Vandewaa (2012: 900) who confirm that emotional intelligence is connected to good social relations; cultivate effective interpersonal conducts, productive working relations and social competency. Turnipseed and Vandewaa (2012: 900) further asserts that emotional intelligence is connected to comprehending relationships in business settings; predicts firms goal-supportive conduct, leadership and performance ranking and build up of good working relationships. Employees high in EI are high achievers in their firm and crucial contributors to organizational performance (Groves & Vance 2009: 345). Emotional intelligence works via informal paths of social mechanisms to influence firms. As a result, the assertion by Schutte and Loi (2014:136) that EI improves social power that in turn promotes employees productivity and commitment is realistic. Organizational citizenship conducts supported by emotional intelligence promotes efficient and effective organizational functioning. According to Turnipseed and Vandewaa (2012: 900), emotional intelligence is linked to behaviors that support positive social aspects of a given workplace. Lopez-Safra, Gracia-Retamero and Martos (2012:100) confirm that emotional intelligence is a crucial factor in influencing firms to be more profitable and productive. This is with respect to how leaders utilize emotions to supervise employees and how emotions facilitate development of leadership skills. In this regard, the assertion that EI facilities social power is practical given that leadership is an emotion-laden procedure and empathetic leaders who control their own emotions are more productive in their workplace. Competencies of productive leadership entail the capacity to monitor emotions in oneself and others as well as the capacity to control emotions. Social support holds a major impact in workplace in the sense that it helps in dealing with burnout, absenteeism, job satisfaction and work commitment (Schutte and Loi 2014: 136). The authors confirm that social support is a type of social capital in most workplaces. Social support entails aspects of social organizations such as norms, networks and social trust that compel cooperation and coordination for shared benefits. With respect to social bonding theory, people with higher EI hold a greater extent of social bond in their workplace or learning institutions. Individuals with increased ability to perceive emotions, hold a greater sense of bond with colleagues (Han & Johnson 2012: 84). According to Lopes, Brackett and Sellin (2004: 1018), managing emotions is positively linked to perceived quality of interactions. Emotional control or management entails the modulation of emotional expressions and reactions and are essential in social interaction (Ybarra, Kross, and Burks 2014:95). People who are motivated to cooperate attend more to other communal characteristic, hence social support that is essential in improving workplace productivity Conclusion Emotional intelligence is acquiring prevalence in all aspects of professional and personal lives of people and organizations. With augmenting demands of the world of work, these tiny abilities and aptitudes clusters that help a person to adapt better and control a meaningful work life is better ethical standards and values. It is wanting on the part of firms to tap this ability and direct firms towards ethical work setting that in turn instigates effective performance and increased satisfaction. Schutte and Loi (2014) have provided an article that determines the link amid EI and work performance. The authors ascertained that EI increases job satisfaction, greater social power, perceived power, work involvement and better mental health. Their findings are reasonable. Although the authors have underlined that EI is linked to better mental health, mental and general health are only achieved if employees are satisfied in their jobs. This therefore suggests further study on the relationship between perceived mental health and job satisfaction. The findings are feasible and applicable in HRM as they are essential in improving employees’ commitment, motivation, work relationships, interpersonal relationships, and social interaction amid employees and above all, improve organizational productivity. Reference List Dong, Y, Seo, M &Bartrol, K (2014) No pain no gain: An effect-based of developmental job experience and the buffering effects of emotional intelligence. Academy of Management Journal. 57 (4):1056-1077. Groves, K.S & Vance, C.M (2009) Examining managerial thinking style, EQ and organizational commitment. Journal of Management Development. 21 (3): 344-366 Han, H & Johnson, S. D (2012) Relationship between students’ emotional intelligence, social bond, and interactions in online learning. Educational Technology & Society. 15 (1): 78–89. Lopes, P, Brackett, M & Sellin, Ina (2004) Emotional intelligence and social interaction. Personality and Social Psychology Bulleting. 30(8): 1018:1034. Lopez-Zafra, E, Garcia-Ratamero, R and Martos, M (2012) The relationship between transformational leadership and emotional intelligence from a gendered approach. The Psychological Record. 62: 97-114. Schutte, N.S & Loi, N.M (2014) Connections between emotional intelligence and workplace flourishing . Personality ands Individual Differences. 66:134-139. Singh, Kavita (2011) Enhancing ethics at workplace through emotional intelligence: An exploratory study on business organizations in India. International Journal of Business and Management Science. 4 (1): 51-73. Turnipseed, D.L and Vandewaa, E.A (2012) Relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational citizenship behavior. Psychological Reports. 110(3): 899-914. Ybarra, O, Kross, E & Burks, J (2014) The bid idea that is yet to be: Toward a more motivate, contextual and dynamic model of emotional intelligence. The Academy of Management Perspectives. 23 (2): 93-107. Yuan, Tan, Huang and Zou (2014) Mediating effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between emotional intelligence and perceived general health. Social behavior and personality. 42 (7):1057-1068. Read More