Bringing Emotional Intelligence to the Workplace - Term Paper Example

 Introduction This paper examines the role of HR in building and enhancing the emotional intelligence of employees in a company. This is based on the assumption that businesses that adopt innovation as its business strategy should invest in the proper honing of its employees toward becoming leaders in their respective fields. In this regard, this paper will be divided into three parts. The first part will have a brief overview of emotional intelligence by providing its definition, its importance, and related models or frameworks. The second part will discuss emotional intelligence at the heart of innovative business strategy by underscoring its essence and its role in strategy formulation and execution. The last part will highlight proper practices toward enhancing the emotional intelligence of the employees in the company. Overview of Emotional Intelligence The article entitled What is Emotional Intelligence? formally defined emotional intelligence or EI as “Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth” (Mayer 1). In this regard, the article entitled Emotional Intelligence has developed three models to gain a general understanding of EI: the ability-based model, the trait model, and the mixed model (MTD 22). Firstly, the ability-based model is hinged on the assumption that emotions serve as a medium of information that is helpful in social environments and in social relationships. Since not all individuals share the same capabilities on the processing of emotional information, this model presents three common types of emotional abilities: (1) emotional perception highlights the person’s ability to recognize and understand his and other people’s emotions through verbal and non-verbal forms of communication; (2) emotional use banks on the capacity to use emotions to undertake other cognitive abilities; and (3) emotional management looks at the ability to self-regulate emotions of oneself and of other (MTD 23). Secondly, the trait model proposes that people have a set of emotional self-perception and traits that are commonly analyzed and assessed by the same people that experience them. Lastly, the mixed model involved a range of competencies that is broken down into skill sets. These skill sets are comprised of self awareness, self management, social awareness, and social skills. In all of these models, it can be claimed that studying people’s personal and social competencies is crucial in assessing the overall status of their emotional intelligence. These two realms of EI have been used as guide in coming up with an in-depth examination of EI (Dattner 3). In a research document entitled The Emotional Competence Framework, personal competency has been discussed as a combination of: (1) self awareness that stresses on emotional awareness, accurate self-assessment, and self-confidence; (2) self regulation that underscores self control, conscientiousness, adaptability, and innovativeness; and (3) self-motivation that looks at achievement drive, commitment, initiative, and optimism (Emmerling 3). On the other hand, social competency has been defined as a composition of: (1) social awareness that looks at empathy, service orientation, developing others, leveraging diversity, and political awareness; and (2) social skills that highlights influence, communication, leadership, change catalyst, conflict management, building bonds, and collaboration and cooperation (Emmerling 4). In essence, emotional intelligence is important as it equips the person with the right mindset and attitude toward confronting life’s challenges and opportunities. While strong cognitive skills are necessary in creating solutions to problems through an effective integration of theories with experiences, it is emotional intelligence that teaches the person to effectively interact and coordinate with people to solve issues more efficiently. Emotional Intelligence at the Core of Innovative Business Strategy The interpersonal dimension of emotional intelligence has been regarded as a primary reason for its inclusion in leadership development seminars of most companies. As posited in the previous article entitled Emotional Intelligence, companies today have realized that intellectual quotient or IQ alone cannot predict an individual’s performance or success (MTD 15). This is hinged on the fact that since the corporate setting is often faced with various internal and external pressures, corporate success is influenced by the employees’ well-developed emotional intelligence—that which looks at optimism and cooperation as key drivers in the attainment of business objectives and long-term plans. In this regard, the employees’ personal and social competencies help in not only optimizing their knowledge and skills, but in also developing and fostering strategic relationship with each one. In effect, the holistic development of the employees’ emotional intelligence results in a working environment that is marked by: (1) respect of people’s ideas, (2) optimal teamwork; (3) value-based decision making; and (4) emphasis on integrity and other positive attitudes. In a technical report entitled Bringing Emotional Intelligence to the Workplace, it has been claimed that “many business leaders think that success is strongly influenced by personal qualities such as perseverance, self-control, and skill in getting along with others” (Cherniss & Goleman 3). The corporate path towards enhancing its employees’ emotional intelligence has been viewed in relation to two types of learning: cognitive and emotional learning. As such, emotional enhancement has been deemed to be more difficult than cognitive enhancement primary because it points at the person’s identity—his outlook, habits, and characteristics (Cherniss & Goleman 6).This is why training sessions that are geared toward emotional enhancement are more detailed in scope. With this mindset, it can then be said that the development of programs that harness emotional intelligence forms a vital part of the company’s strategic business directions. From a Human Resource perspective, conducting training sessions with employees will help inculcate the proper mindset as regards work attitude—specifically, on how to achieve set goals for oneself and on how to effectively work with others by maintaining respect and unity. This, then, becomes a business investment once the training sessions’ intended benefits are taken into consideration—in terms of productivity and cost-efficiency. Proper Practices toward Enhancing Employees’ Emotional Intelligence Based on the same technical report entitled Bringing Emotional Intelligence to the Workplace, proper practices toward enhancing employees’ emotional intelligence are guided by four basic training phases (Cherniss & Goleman 8). The first phase or initial phase is meant to build effective social and emotional learning through an intense preparation activity at both the organizational and individual levels. As further claimed, the initial phase involves: (1) the assessment of organization’s needs in relation to employees’ career plans; (2) the examination of the personal strengths and weaknesses of the employees in the context of social and emotional domains;(3) the provision of employee feedback with care and motivation; and (4) the maximization of the learner’s choice as regards the training style and circumstance. The second phase involves the actual training that is marked by strong coordination between the trainee and the trainer. As such, “trainers who are empathic, warm, and genuine (attributes of emotional intelligence) develop more positive relationships with participants in behavior change programs, and they are more likely to be successful” (Cherniss & Goleman 8). Furthermore, the maximization of self-directed or self-initiated change makes the development of emotional intelligence more relevant and rewarding. Thus, “training for emotional competence also benefits when the trainer adapts the training to match the person.s needs, goals, and learning style preferences” (Cherniss & Goleman 10). The third phase is defined by transfer and maintenance which is intended to defeat previous bad habits and change them for good. Thus, this phase not only emphasizes on the execution of training programs for the employee, but also on the revamping of the organizational system and environment to suit the set objectives. Such initiative is shaped by the creation and maintenance of organizational culture that supports learning. This is because “participants in a human relations training program who returned to a supportive climate performed better on objective performance measures and were promoted more often than those in an unsupportive climate” (Cherniss & Goleman 24). The last phase looks at use of evaluation tests to gauge the effectiveness of the training program. As clarified in the same article, “by evaluation, we mean a process that focuses on continuous improvement rather than just a "pass-fail" test in which individuals associated with a program win or lose credibility (Cherniss & Goleman 24). Having discussed the four basic training phases, the online article entitled Connecting Emotional Intelligence to Success in the Workplace noted that the goal of training is to attain the full development of five dimensions: Awareness of the Self, Actions of the Self, Awareness of Others, and Interaction with Others (Kerr 3). In all of these areas, it is important that not both the emotional intelligence of groups and of the individual are fostered (Druskat &Wolff 82). List of References Cherniss, Cary & Goleman, Daniel. Bringing Emotional Intelligence to the Workplace. The Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations, Oct. 1998. Web. 9 Apr. 2013. . Dattner, Ben. Succeeding with Emotional Intelligence. Dattner Consulting, LCC, n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2013. . Emmerling, Robert. The Emotional Competence Framework. Consortium for Research on Emotional Research in Organizations, n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2013. . Kerr, Barbara. Connecting Emotional Intelligence to Success in the Workplace. HRDQ, 2009. Web. 9 Apr. 2013. . Mayer, John. What is Emotional Intelligence. Emotional Intelligence Skill Group, n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2013. < http://www.emotionaliq.org/EI.htm>. MTD Training. Emotional Intelligence. MTD Training and Ventus Publishing, 2010. Web. 9 Apr. 2013 . Wolff, Steven & Druskat, Vanessa. Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups. Harvard Business Review, 2001. Web. 9 Apr. 2013 . Read More