The Effect of Emotional Intelligence on Hospitality, Essay Example

This paper focuses on the meaning of social intelligence and emotional intelligence and their effects on the hospitality and tourism industry. This paper explores several published articles that focus on what social and emotional intelligence is, and discuss the relationship with management and hospitality. According to Robert L. Dilenshneider (1997), people who focus solely on their work and exert no effort to improve their people skills will not fulfill their potential.

Keywords: emotional, social, intelligence, communication, hospitality, tourism

When the subject of intelligence comes up, it is often in reference to the “traditional” idea of intelligence. “Traditional intelligence” is the intellectual intelligence—how well can one read, write, spell, count, add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Many people still consider intellectual intelligence to be more important than the other forms of intelligence. While intellectual intelligence is absolutely still important, it may not be as important as it has been considered to be historically. Despite the prevailing opinion that intellectual intelligence is the most important form of intelligence, some people are of the opinion that society emotional and social intelligence is more important to your success (Dilenshneider, 1997). Having a high level of emotional intelligence in the hospitality business is even more valuable than it is for other types of business (Eicher, 2003). In the hospitality and tourism industry, the customer fully expects to be catered to. To achieve the highest level of satisfaction in the hospitality and tourism industry, one needs to be able to intuit what the customer really wants and needs and provide it before the customer has to ask for it.

So, what exactly is emotional and social intelligence? Emotional intelligence is one’s “ability to get along well with others and to get them to cooperate with you” (Salopek, 2004). Social intelligence, while very similar to emotional intelligence is the ability to think and act wisely in social situations (Riggio & Reichard, 2008). Emotional intelligence can be broken down into smaller sub-categories. According to Cherniss (2000), there are five personality characteristics that define the attributes of Emotional Intelligence. These attributes are self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills (Cherniss, 2000).

Self-awareness is the ability to be aware of one’s own emotions and the effect that has on the level of service that is being delivered to the customer. Self-regulation can include being able to control one’s emotions. For example, if one is upset, self-regulation could be smiling and continuing to be polite to a customer that is being extremely rude. Self-regulation may well be one of the hardest personality traits to master in the realm of emotional intelligence, but it is also one of the most important.

Motivation is fairly self-explanatory. If an employee is never excited about work and constantly needs to be prompted to do his job, he is not going to be admired by his colleagues, and he definitely won’t be at the top of the list for a promotion. More importantly, customers will notice a lack of motivation in an employee, and it can turn a customer away from the place of business that would employ such an obviously unsatisfied employee. Although it may not be a fair comparison, customers often think that if the employees are treated so poorly (and they must be if they are that unhappy) that they will be treated poorly as well.

Empathy is an extremely important skill to possess in the hospitality industry as well. Empathy can be displayed by a gesture as simple as saying, “I am so sorry to hear that!” when a customer tells you about a bad experience they have had. A better example would be if an employee at a hotel noticed that a customer had gotten a bad sunburn while they were out sight-seeing, and said, “That looks like it hurts! Is there anything that I could get for you? We have aloe gel available. If you would like, I can have some delivered to your room! Aloe gel always makes my sunburns feel better.” Empathy is about putting one’s self in the customer’s position and intuiting what the customer needs.

Social skills is a broad category of personality traits. Some of the things that social skills includes is the ability to take social cues. If a customer yawns, don’t continue to chatter away. The customer is likely tired and likely wants to retire to his room. On the opposite end of this spectrum, one needs to be able to pick up on the social cues of a customer that is bored and would like to chat. Some customers enjoy a short conversation, while other customers enjoy more in-depth conversations. Being able to pick up on the subtle clues is just one of the aspects of social skills.

When emotional intelligence was first “discovered” in the mid-1990s, it caught on very quickly in the business industry (Anonymous, 2009). Now, it is a well-known fact that individuals that tend to excel in the business industry are often very talented at communicating. Many managers consider oral communication to be the most important skill in the business industry. To truly understand social intelligence, it becomes necessary to understand the interaction between the individual and society (Edmonds & Dautenhahn, 1999). Emotional intelligence in our society is indeed very different from emotional intelligence in other countries. Also, emotional intelligence is never “set in stone,” as it were. As society continues to develop, so does emotional intelligence.

In approximately the last thirty years, there has been an increase in the importance of leisure time for modern families. Because of this increase, the hospitality and tourism has seen a proportionate increase in business. Appropriately, hospitality and tourism consumers have evolved to be more discerning (Bharwani & Jauhari, 2013). If a consumer is going to spend their hard-earned money, they want to get the best experience that they possibly can for the money that they are spending. Consumers are also always on the lookout for a better deal. If one cannot provide a superior experience to the customer, the customer will not want to spend their money at your venue. As discussed earlier, to provide the best experience to the customer, one needs to be able to pick up on small social cues to intuit what the customer really wants. Of course, the hospitality and tourism industry is one of the most difficult industries to predict a customer’s wants and need in because the customer’s wants are constantly changing, even on a day to day basis (Sofiyabadi, Karimi, & Nasab, 2012).

In addition to being service minded and guest oriented, hospitality managers are expected to be capable of handling volatile situations “with finesse and as little disruption as possible for their guests” (Scott-Halsell, Blum, & Huffman, 2011). In the hospitality business, employees must be able to internalize negative comments without an outward reaction. One of the most striking examples of the importance of emotional intelligence can be found with casino high rollers. High rollers are considered clients that spend inordinate amounts of money in casinos. They often play in the Very Important Person (VIP) game rooms. Often, to play in the VIP game rooms, clients must pay money up front to “buy in” to the room. Although “high rollers” may only account for three percent of the players, their games can account for up to ninety percent of the revenue in a casino (Prentice & King, 2011). Because high rollers spend so much money in their chosen casinos, the hospitality professionals that the casino chooses to serve them with are tasked with an extremely important goal. The goal, when it comes to high rollers, is to provide a customer service experience worthy of the money that they are spending. The hospitality professionals that deal with high rollers are often called frontline employees. Although the hospitality industry employs an extremely diverse group of individuals, one trait is common among all frontline employees—they are always easy to get along with and enjoyable to be around. This trait is indicative of a high level of emotional intelligence. Again, emotional intelligence becomes the most important trait when it comes to the “best and brightest” of the hospitality industry.

In conclusion, intellectual intelligence (while convenient) is no longer the most important factor when it comes to the hospitality and tourism industry. Since its introduction in the mid-1990s, emotional intelligence has become the most important trait for employees in the hospitality industry. Emotional intelligence covers a broad range of personality traits, including self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. Because customers are capable of taking their business anywhere, it is of the utmost importance for employees in the hospitality industry to provide the best “bang” for the customer’s “buck.”

References

Anonymous. (2009). Emotional Intelligence: The Next Big HR Investment. Development and Learning in Organizations, 34-35.

Bharwani, S., & Jauhari, V. (2013). An Exploratory Study of Competencies Required to Co-create Memorable Customer Experiences in the Hospitality Industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 823-843.

Cherniss, C. (2000, April 15). Emotional Intelligence: What It Is and Why It Matters. Retrieved from EI Consortium: http://www.eiconsortium.org/research/

Dilenshneider, R. L. (1997). Social Intelligence. Executive Excellence, 8.

Edmonds, B., & Dautenhahn, K. (1999). Social Intelligence. Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, 199.

Eicher, D. (2003). Essential Executive Skills For The Future: Emotional Intelligence. Futurics, 104.

Prentice, C., & King, B. (2011). The Influence of Emotional Intelligence on the Service Performance of Casino Frontline Employees. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 49-66.

Riggio, R. E., & Reichard, R. J. (2008). The Emotional and Social Intelligences of Effective Leadership. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 169-185.

Salopek, J. (2004). Social Intelligence. T + D, 17-19.

Scott-Halsell, S., Blum, S. C., & Huffman, L. (2011). From School Desks to Front Desks: A Comparison of Emotional Intelligence Levels of Hospitality Undergraduate Students to Hospitality Industry Professionals. Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sports, and Tourism Education, 3-13.

Sofiyabadi, J., Karimi, A., & Nasab, S. N. (2012, July 20). Emotional Intelligence: A Critical Factor to Success in Tourist. Tehran, Iran.