Corporate Culture Through Emotional Intelligence, Term Paper Example

Abstract

The present project is dedicated to the analysis of emotional intelligence (EI) role in the formation of a healthy, positive corporate culture in an organization. The theoretical part is dedicated to the analysis of substantial organizational activity components such as vision and mission statement, formation of goals, objectives and strategies, assessment of weak and strong sides of the organization through SWOT analysis etc. The practical part of the paper proceeds to the discussion of corporate culture and philosophy, their constituent elements and their influence on the organizational climate. The literature overview speaks about the current EI-related research held nowadays and the place of EI in the organizational culture and performance.

Introduction

Each and every company has an initial intent to achieve profitability, accomplishment of its organizational goals and strategies and sustenance of high performance levels. Historically, there has emerged a large body of literature dedicated to the ways of achieving organizational success; strategic planning, human resources management, risk management, successful leadership theories etc. are only a tiny part of considerations discussed in connection with organizational success. However, some of the recently-discovered trends in the organizational theory are the concepts of organizational culture and emotional intelligence. Their impact on organizational success has turned out so great that they have attracted intense attention of both theorists and practitioners from the field of management and economy.

Organizational culture is referred to as the “climate and practices that organizations develop around their handling of people, or to the espoused values and credo of an organization” (Schein, 2004, p. 7). Thus, it has become clear that the company is more than just a machine designed to complete the company’s goals and objectives; it is first of all the union of personalities working together and being guided by something more than a set of rules and codes of conduct established by the formal organizational characteristics. People are irrational and emotional, so they treat the values established by the company and create its psycho-emotional climate through their daily interactions and relationships. This sphere of activity has been found out a non-controllable one through formal organizational practices, and the necessity of an alternative way out has been realized.

Here is what emotional intelligence (EI, or EQ) is aimed at; it centers around the concept of emotions and their impact on the individual. Emotions are conventionally viewed as organized responses that involve cooperation of different human systems (physiological, cognitive, motivational, experiential) (Salovey, 1990). Emotions are intense and short, but they represent the adaptive system of an individual to the environment.   The principle of EI dictates that the company success is influenced by personal qualities of people engaged in work and cooperation (including self-control, perseverance, getting along with others) (Cherniss and Goleman, 1998). Thus, through emotion management and emotional intelligence the organization can achieve the optimal working climate and higher productivity as well.

The theory of EI significance has a clear neurological explanation; scientists have found out that the human brain has a limbic system that possesses the open-loop nature. This means that the emotional system of the human being is not isolated from the external environment and is heavily influenced by the surrounding reality, interactions with other people, impact of various events etc. Hence, people have been proven to rely on others for their emotional stability (Goleman et al., 2004). These inferences show how important it is to learn to manage one’s own emotions, other people’s emotions and remain emotionally stable, not only in daily life but at the workplace in particular.

Emotional intelligence is defined in many ways; its main characteristics are the individual’s ability to monitor his/her own emotions and discriminate among them, to use emotions intelligently, to recognize emotions and help others understand them etc. (Chastukhina, 2002). There are some key components of EI that need to be understood on the path of building EI – self-awareness, self-regulation and motivation. Knowing them and educating oneself in the key direction of EI may be of substantial help in building the positive, collaborative climate in an organization, which will surely produce its impact on the organizational culture of an organization.

Hence, the purpose of the present project is to assess the importance of emotional intelligence in the construction of a positive organizational culture that would assist a company in increasing its performance indicators. The measure to which the corporate culture success depends on the EI will be explored on the basis of key organizational structure elements. Achievement of the project’s purpose is planned with the help of proper assessment of all significant organizational segments with the further identification of potential problems the company may encounter on its way to creating a positive corporate culture. Connection of EI with corporate culture and the impact of EI introduction will also be assessed using the existing theoretical findings on the subject.

Background

A particular organization wants to build a positive corporate culture for its employees and stipulates it as a part of its organizational strategy. It is essential to understand the role of corporate culture within an organization to know what measures have to be taken to accomplish the goal. Thus, there emerged a task to identify the essence of corporate culture and its constituent components to address the problem in a comprehensive and effective way. As Johnson and Phillips (2003) suggest:

“In organizations, we call the social and political environment in which people work the ‘corporate culture’. Like the water in the fish tank, corporate culture is the medium in which the business of the company takes place. It is reflected in everything that occurs in the organization – from the way people greet each other in the morning to the way they behave in meetings to the way decisions are made – and it affects every aspect of the business” (p. 24).

As it comes from the quotation, corporate culture is the issue of human relationships in the business area that affect the organization. However, it is possible to suppose that relationships at work cannot be objective, and still there is space for human emotions, both good and bad ones.

The necessity of emotional intelligence introduction as a key component of the corporate culture may arise in case of multiple mergers and acquisitions, when the staff is seriously rotated and employees find themselves in completely new surroundings, become members of strange teams and start to collaborate with completely unknown people. Emotional intelligence may reveal its necessity in case of resistance to change when the company innovates its vision and mission and undergoes a serious transformational change. It also may be necessary in cases when a high level of staff diversity is evident, thus raising the risk of conflict in the team. Anyway, all staff-related situations pertain directly to the necessity of introducing the concept of emotional intelligence.

Vision

The company’s vision actually represents a dream of what a company wants to be. The main characteristics of a vision are clarity, precision and challenge. It must be inspiring and motivating for the whole company staff (McCann, 2000). The vision describes what future awaits the company, taking the future customer into consideration as well (Bizmanualz, 2008).

Mission Statement

The mission statement of a company can be best described as the company’s purpose and reason for existence (Combs and Davis, 2010). It answers the question of what the company’s basic purpose is and what the most important directions of its activities are. The mission statement also underlines the company’s unique strengths and the target customers to which it serves (Combs and Davis, 2010).

Philosophy

Corporate philosophy is a significant element of corporate culture, directly affecting corporate performance. The best definition for the corporate culture may be found in the expression of Matsushita, the founder of Matsushita Electric; he states that corporate philosophy is the firm belief in that the company’s mission is and for what purpose it operates. It performs the basis of utilizing human resources, technologies and financial resources (qtd in Kono and Clegg, 1998).

Corporate Culture

In traditional terms, culture means qualities of particular human groups passed in a hereditary manner from generation to generation (Kotter and Heskett, 1992). Organizational culture is also a set of qualities transmitted among employees and administration of a particular company; it also pertains to values, beliefs, traditions and taboos adopted by the company’s community, i.e. its staff. However, organizational culture is a complex concept that has several dimensions. It consists of external survival values (mission, strategy, goals; means and measurement), internal integration issues (common language and concepts, group boundaries and identity, authority and relationships, rewards and status) and deeper underlying assumptions (the nature of reality, truth, relationships, time and space etc.) (Schein, 2009).

Problems and Opportunities (SWOT)

SWOT analysis is essential for strategic planning (Bohm, 2009)

It analyzes the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, investigates internal and external, positive and negative factors affecting the organization (Bohm, 2009)

Broad information from the company, environment, competitors in the field and the whole market is gathered by means of potential analysis, competitive, market and environmental analysis (Bohm, 2009)

SWOT analysis offers a successful combination of information to see the resources and capacities of the company against the background at which it operates and the general environment of its existence and activities (Bohm, 2009)

Dynamic SWOT analysis helps process information and produce relevant conclusion both for personal development an organizational strategic development (Dealtry, 1992).

Organizational Goals, Objectives, and Overall Strategy

Organizational goals and objectives are the prioritization of strategic intentions; they must be in compliance with the company’s mission and vision. Goals and objectives actually represent the desired accomplishments of the company. The notions of goals and objectives are generally interchangeable, but goals are generalized plans for accomplishment, and objectives are more specific, quantitative plans (Ferrell and Hartline, 2008). Goals and objectives are important because they constitute the core of the company’s strategic planning (Allison and Kaye, 2005).

Establishment of effective, realistic goals is not the only challenge in the process of strategic planning; the more complex and essential process is to identify the measure of goal and objective accomplishment. To do this effectively, managers have to identify the constituents of the goal, focus groups, and criteria for assessment; then they can conduct the analysis (Murphy and Saal, 1990). One of the key measures for assessment is the company’s profit (market objectives) and employee satisfaction, high level of performance (internal company strategies).

Organizational strategy is essential for achievement of high company performance. It may be put into action by various means and tactics at different organizational levels (competitive, crisis, marketing, management, leadership etc.) (Cushman and King, 2001). Actually, the organizational strategy is the way the company chooses to compete in the market; it is formed through purpose, goal and objective establishment, upon competitive environment assessment, evaluation of the company’s strengths and weaknesses, and is aimed at taking the maximum advantage of the company’s structure, policies, leadership etc. available (Rothwell, 2010).

For the achievement of the objective chosen for the present project, i.e. formation of a sound corporate culture through the establishment of emotional intelligence, a particular company will need to form the innovative organizational strategy in the field of human resources management, leadership and communication. It is clear that only through the increased motivation of employees to engage in the change the introduction of EI will be possible; thus, it is essential to involve change management tactics and to ensure employee commitment with the organizational culture goals and objectives. The company may be successful in goal accomplishment only in case all employees are well-informed about the new organizational culture, accept it and realize the clearly-stated objectives for goal achievement. Training courses are also a helpful tool for EI introduction in the corporate culture. The benefits of EI and its contribution to the healthy corporate culture may be assessed from different sides – the profit for the company will be shown by increased staff performance, and the employee satisfaction may be measured by means of surveys or conflict management feedback.

Perceived Management Problem

As it has already been mentioned in the background section, there may be a set of management problems that cause the necessity of building a strong corporate culture with the application of emotional intelligence tools. One such problem may be the transformational stage of the company after a series of mergers and acquisitions (maybe even on the international scale) when the staff needs to get adjusted to working with each other and show tolerance (sometimes racial, religious or linguistic one). Resistance to change is one more management problem in which corporate culture and emotional intelligence may assist; through clear understanding of innovative goals, objectives, mission and mission the employees can develop commitment to them and help each other overcome the change that may be stressful for the majority. Finally, it is clearly the management problem requiring introduction of EI principles in cases when the leadership is not well-organized in the company and provides lack of motivation for employees, or there are some conflicts between the staff and the leader, which causes the decline in performance and lack of compliance with the company’s mission and goals.

Literature Review of Problem

The concept of emotional intelligence is a relatively new one, but nowadays there is extensive research held to identify EI importance and the benefits it is likely to bring for those undergoing EI training. Lantieri and Goleman (2008) state that more than one hundred studies have already been completed with children and show that EI helps them calm down, to get along with others and learn more effectively. The authors also claim that the inclusion of social and emotional competence fundamentals into the schooling curriculum is likely to increase the individuals’ competence to manage life situations and challenges. According to their opinion, emotional intelligence possesses the ability to introduce the following advancements into the human emotional management: “a heightened self-awareness, better ability to manage distressing emotions, increased sensitivity to how others feel, and managing relationships” (Lantieri & Goleman, 2008, p. 2).

Lantieri and Goleman (2008) even worked out a set of procedures and steps that are thought to help people of all ages build emotional intelligence through the academic process. The first indispensible step they offer is to build the inner preparedness for any stressful situations that may occur. It may be done through managing silence and calmness without the visual stressor. The authors have also worked out a set of exercises to calm the body and focus one’s mind in the moment of stress for children of all ages. The findings of Lantieri and Goleman (2008) may also be successfully utilized at the workplace as people are known to be forming emotionally until late twenties, sometimes even longer.

Despite the fact that the role of emotional intelligence throughout one’s life and in various working and routine situations has been recognized and evaluated, it is still essential to realize the reason of such intense attention to human emotions and their effect on the human behavior, decision-making and problem-solving activities. Only recent advances in brain science show how important EI is in effective thought and action (Cherniss and Adler, 2000). The main achievement brought by neurobiological science is the recognition of the fact that cognitive and emotional training and learning differ profoundly and are based on various biological processes, thus being addressed differently. The analysis of these differences is vital before the discussion of biological processes playing a role in making subjective evaluative judgments and emotionality.

The processes of cognitive and emotional learning take place in various parts of the brain: the part responsible for cognitive learning is neocortex, the latest part of the cerebral cortex that appeared in the process of human evolution. Hence, it is easy to teach some cognitive experiences through words and commands (Cherniss and Adler, 2000). In contrast to cognitive learning, emotional learning includes the activity of amygdale, which is an ancient part of the cerebral cortex and can be influenced only by repeated activities, vivid experiences and impressions etc. Deriving the knowledge on cognitive and emotional training from that point, one can clearly define the guidelines for training of both cognitive and emotional competence (Cherniss and Adler, 2000).

Emotional intelligence can hardly be taught because it involves alterations of the brain circuitry on the level of deeply-rooted habits. Motivational factors play a great role in the process of emotional formation because of much resistance and dissatisfaction involved in initiating the emotional training course. It turns out that cognitive learning is much easier to comprehend and get involved in because it does not conceal any abusive factor; people who are told that they are bad listeners or conflict resolvers are apt to contradict the fact and attach their evaluations to their own emotional abilities. This is the ground reason for emotional intelligence training complexity – people are full of preconceptions and old models of behavior that often interfere with their emotional learning process (Cherniss and Adler, 2000).

The reason for such non-acceptance of emotional training is in the neurological processes in the human brain that are involved in the process of information perception. Informational impulses go through the spinal cord and then enter the human brain. The front part of the human brain is responsible for rational thinking, but before the impulse gets there, it goes through the limbic system responsible for emotions. Thus, the limbic system of the human brain has proved to produce a serious impact on the evaluative judgments human beings make in everyday activities (Bradberry and Greaves, 2005). As people make judgments, they form the motivational basis for their choice in life. These judgments actually are emotional reflexes and shape the way individuals react to people and situations in their lives.

Bradberry and Greaves (2005) have produced an extensive research on the impact of emotional intelligence on the everyday life of an individual, not only on the biological processes involved in shaping people’s emotional intelligence on the level of impulses and information transformation in the human brain. The authors claim that emotional intelligence also has a profound influence on the human health:

“By understanding your emotions, you can move adeptly through your current challenges and prevent future ones. When you do the opposite and repress your feelings, they quickly build into the uncomfortable sensations of tension, stress, and anxiety. Unaddressed emotions strain the mind and body” (Bradberry and Greaves, 2005, p. 48).

A conclusion that the authors make from the attempts to repress one’s emotions and to try to solve emotional problems with less productive methods than emotional management and intelligence are not promising: people devoid of EI skills are more likely to be subject to substance abuse and more apt to commit suicide. The higher probability of having cancer or a heart attack is also known as a result of bad emotion management, hence implying the essential role of EI in the ordinary human life, not only at the workplace (Bradberry and Greaves, 2005).

As it comes from findings of many authors and EI researchers, EI training helps manage those neurological reactions, manage stress and promote emotional well-being (Wharam, 2009). More than that, EI is highly important in the problem-solving issues – individuals differs in their ability to harness emotions that affect their problem-solving potential; EI thus helps them address emotional challenges in a constructive way. The findings of Wharam (2009) are based on the connection of emotional intelligence domains with the theory of human needs constructed by Maslow. The bottom of the hierarchy means fundamental needs of any living being such as food, shelter and clothes. The intermediary stages include safety, love and belonging, with the final, highest stage being self-actualization (Wharam, 2009). Self-actualization actually represents the sphere of EI impact on the personality, including such issues as awareness, honesty, trust and freedom.

Among findings of Salovey, Brackett and Mayer (2004) one can see that successful emotional intelligence helps to conduct flexible planning, giving people more opportunities to benefit from future circumstances; it assists in creative thinking and objective prioritization of areas of activity; it motivates persistence in task accomplishment, thus helping people solve tasks more adaptively. Some other achievements of Salovey et al. (2004) in relation to EI include the assessment of emotional expressiveness in terms of its reflection in the EI in actions and interactions with other people.

The emotional system of a human being starts to act when the information achieves the human brain. After that, emotional appraisals are formed; they shape the way emotions are expressed. The first type of emotional expressiveness is reflected through verbal means; learning about human emotions heavily depends on the measure of clarity with which the individual can speak about his/her emotions. Hence, the individual often shapes his or her emotional context with the proper way of introspecting and reflecting those emotional introspections in the language means to create a coherent and appropriate image of the emotional state in which he or she is at that very moment. Such introspections are very important in the EI, but there is too little research in the area that suggests lack of attention to the issue (Salovey et al., 2004).

Nonverbal communication of emotions is also a large part of the EI-related research that supposes that there is a great set of ways to appraise and express feelings through various non-verbal means. The attention to non-verbal emotional expression has become more intense with the recognition of Darwin’s theory of facial expressions. Surely, there are some peculiarities of non-verbal communication and the ability of sending emotional signals; they are usually referred to as ‘nonverbal sending accuracy’ (Salovey et al., 2004). As the authors have concluded, accuracy in appraising and expressing both verbal and non-verbal emotional messages is the essential part of the EI process on the whole. The individual who accurately codes and decodes his/her own emotions is thought to be able to decode others’ emotions with similar accuracy, which gives him/her a benefit in managing emotional states of other people (Salovey et al., 2004).

EI has become an important field of studies because of the current changes in the marketplace, especially technological innovation, global competition and pressures of institutional investors (Cherniss and Adler, 2000). Downsizing of organizations has also made remaining employees more visible, more accountable and more responsible. Thus, EI and cognitive abilities work together for effective action in organizations nowadays, an effective communication is also possible only under the condition of EI skills possession. EI also changes the view of employees on their competencies, promotes critical thinking and self-improvement, so its role cannot be overestimated because of its central importance at the turbulent and modern workplace (Cherniss and Adler, 2000).

Recommendations

There is a set of solutions offered by the theory of EI that would suit the task of forming a more positive corporate culture in an organization.  The beginning of the change process may be initiated through the formation of ability-based EI. It focuses on the mental abilities related to processing emotional information; it may be of sufficient help in understanding what EI is and how it should be acquired. The abilities that can be taught through ability-based EI are as follows: perceiving emotions, using emotions to facilitate thought, understanding emotions and managing them (Cassadt and Eissa, 2008).

Through the acquisition of ability-based EI skills one can proceed with deeper understanding of emotional knowledge and training emotional skills. A more comprehensive model, emotional competence (EC) may be introduced then, as it directly relates to the business workplace. It helps employees manage their emotions to raise their performance at work, which is the key objective of any company within the focus of the present project. EC may give employees the possession of the following competencies that produce a direct positive impact on the business performance: self-awareness, emotional self-awareness, accurate self-assessment, self-confidence, social awareness, empathy, organizational awareness, service orientation, self-management and self-control, trustworthiness, conscientiousness, adaptability, conflict management, teamwork etc. (Cassady and Eissa, 2008).

All these skills may help the individual become an adaptable, collaborative, resourceful employee who will not need management and will possess self-confidence and self-control. Achieving suchlike outcomes is surely a temptation for each organization, but Cherniss and Goleman (1998) underlines that cognitive and emotional learning is a hard, long-term and challenging process. The reason for this is that emotional incompetence forms as a habit from early life, and making new connections in the human brain, making them work is not an easy task to accomplish. Teaching emotional intelligence is about changing human habits and accepting the initial assumption that they cannot cope with their emotions, which is not pleasant for people to understand. Thus, EI training often causes much resistance to change, and it may not be accomplished with the help of one-day seminars. The general guidelines for EI training proposed by Cherniss and Goleman (1998) for comprehensive and effective EI training can be found on Figure 1.

Summary

The present project investigates the role of emotional intelligence in the formation of a healthy, positive corporate culture at the modern workplace. The fact that emotions affect decision-making and problem-solving activities in the human brain is indisputable, so rational thinking and emotional activity have been recently united in theoretical studies. The assistance of EI in the formation of healthy, supportive climate at the workplace and its significance in the establishment of healthy relationships with colleagues in the conditions of modern market turbulence and stress has also been proven. There is a set of organizational problems that may be solved with the help of EI, including conflict reduction, self-management initiation and motivation increase. Through a set of well-combined, thoughtful and comprehensive training guidelines one can master EI and feel the positive impact on every aspect of business activity it produces.

It goes without saying that the role of EI is huge in the modern stressful times of market instability, terrorism intensification, mergers and acquisitions posing employees in stressful situations of diverse staff and complex social relationships. However, EI teaches to manage emotions constructively and to learn how to manage others’ emotions as well. Understanding of self and others will inevitable lead to conflict reduction and will promote a healthy, helpful, empathic atmosphere at the workplace.  

References

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Appendix

Figure 1. Guidelines for Cognitive and Emotional Learning.

Source: from Cherniss and Goleman (1998), p. 7.