WP: Emotional Intelligence, Essay Example

Introduction

Emotional intelligence is a relatively new field of study in psychology that first emerged in the early 1990’s (Fukuda et al, 2011). How emotional intelligence (EI) should be categorized, conceived of and measured has been the subject of debate and varies from study to study. Generally, EI can be broken into four categories: self-evaluation, evaluation of others’ emotions, regulation of emotion and use of emotion. Different levels of emotional intelligence have been proven to affect leadership, high achievement and family life among people of different genders, ages and cultural backgrounds (Margavio et al).

This paper argues that the strong response of high achievers and leaders when counseled in emotional intelligence indicates that it is essential to financial and personal success and further research should be conducted on EI. As previously stated, there is much debate on how EI should be measured. Gender and cultural background have proven highly significant factors of Emotional Intelligence and warrant further study. This paper also argues that further research should be conducted to establish an effective measurement of EI that can be used across cultures and other demographic groups. This will also help to establish more clearly the relationship between EI and different demographics as past studies have been inconclusive.

Benefits of Emotional Intelligence Training

Emotional intelligence training of employees by businesses would result in happier workers and greater productivity and efficiency. We are in an age where work ethic, perseverance and single-mindedness are seen as the key elements of success in life and business. But although being able to understand, read and respond to emotions is rarely included in the list of characteristics attributed to successful persons, research has shown that emotional intelligence not only boosts success but its absence can hinder future prospects. A basic functioning of emotional intelligence is key to both financial and personal satisfaction. The practical application of further research in emotional intelligence could be for businesses to provide emotional intelligence training to their employees.

High achievers often show resistance to emotional intelligence. Sean McCann uses the example of Kevin, a high achieving man in his late 30s who has attained success in athletics, academia and business through his life. Through interviews McCann show Kevin’s resistance to emotional awareness both in himself and others. His control of his own emotions is lacking as well as his ability to gauge the emotions of others. Kevin confesses that he sees admitting his emotional weaknesses as a massive personal failure (McCann, 2009).

Many high performers have issues with personality and emotional factors which they feel should not contribute to decision-making and their professional lives. Instead they rely on micro-management, hostility and single-mindedness. This kind of behavior, while perhaps temporarily successful to attain small goals, ultimately isolates the high performer from his peers and will hinder him in the long-run. Kevin, McCann proves, was highly responsive to emotional intelligence counseling which brought him increased self-confidence and a happier emotional state.

Emotional intelligence is a predictor for transformational leadership (Lopez-Zafra et al, 2012). Transformational leadership is a leadership style built on boosting performance of individuals by raising morale using different motivational techniques. This type of leadership is effective but obviously requires an understanding of the emotions of others and the ability to respond to those emotions in a useful way. If businesses could train their top achievers and leaders in emotional intelligence these men and women could create a happier and more open work environment that would likely improve the productivity of everyone.

Higher emotional intelligence has also been proven to decrease the amount of work-family interference (Cheung & So-kum Tang, 2012). Workers who are not able to express their true emotions in the work place take this stress home with them and the result is a back-logging of negative emotion. The gap between the emotions someone feels and what is expected in a given situation is called emotional dissonance and has been proven to overlap between work and family life for employees. Worker training in emotional intelligence could provide solutions to dealing with emotion successfully in the workplace thus decreasing work-family interference. Whether emotional intelligence is viewed as a personality trait (trait EI) or as an intellectual ability (ability EI) studies have shown that it can be cultivated from a young age in school children (Mavroveli & Sanchez-Ruiz, 2011) to those in the middle of their lives as with Kevin (McCann, 2009). Before EI training strategies can be formed for use by businesses the question remains of how to effectively measure emotional intelligence levels across groups.

Further, Standardized Research Necessary

Emotional intelligence varies greatly by demographic but certain areas lack conclusive results. In particular, further research needs to be conducted on the relationship between emotional intelligence and cultural background and gender. There are several reasons for the inconclusive results of recent studies. First, EI is a broad topic which is defined slightly differently by every research group. Secondly, there are many variables when dealing with emotion such as gender, personal and professional background, age, culture and many others (Margavio et al). It is very important to have a defined categorization and measurement for EI that can be used across all of these groups.

I argue that we need to pay particular attention to the study of emotional intelligence and gender and cultural background. Gender has a strong relationship to emotional intelligence with women generally having higher EI than men. Indeed, EI has even been shown to be coded socially as a feminine trait. The same study also showed a strong relationship between EI and transactional leadership (Lopez et al, 2012).

One study investigates why there are fewer women in leadership roles than men if women possess higher EI. They concluded that first, there exists a glass ceiling enforced by societal norms that men are better suited for leadership roles. Secondly, women expressed less interest in leadership roles and saw it as a man’s position. Spain, where the study was conducted is one of the worst in Europe for womens’ view of themselves. The authors suggest that less traditional societies than Spain would yield less conclusive results. For example, undergraduate men and women in the United States did not distinguish between men and women in leadership roles indicating that this gendering might be cultural in part.

The study points out yet another positive result of emotional intelligence training in employees of both genders. If through training businesses could make clear the link between emotional intelligence and successful leadership it could erode some of the barriers that women face to attaining leadership positions. First it would validate this “feminine trait” allowing male leaders to improve their work by increasing emotional intelligence and second, it would give women the confidence to pursue leadership positions because they would see their own EI as a valid qualification for the position. Whether this would stand across cultures is unclear.

The influence of cultural background on emotional intelligence cannot be overstated. Just as more information is needed on EI and gender so it is needed across cultures. Emotional Intelligence is extremely difficult to define and to measure and even more so across cultures. How we deal with and perceive emotions is a core part of many cultures and changes drastically between them. Culture is defined here not only as the cultures of nations but across the different socioeconomic cultures of a single society. It is just simply not acceptable for men to show emotion in the culture of working class England. In China, outward displays of emotion are discouraged in general and the ideal facial expression is one of complete neutrality. This comes from a cultural heritage of the Confucian ideas of balance and serenity.

In addition to careful study of variables of culture and gender the field of emotional intelligence study needs to develop an effective system for measuring EI across these demographics. Studies of different EI measurements on Japanese subjects showed that some were much more effective than others (Fukuda et al, 2011). If we are going to train employees in emotional intelligence we need to be able to accurately measure their current levels. This means developing a culturally sensitive scale through further research and experimentation that can be used in Eastern as well as Western cultures.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the study of emotional intelligence is an important and relevant field of study that should be developed for use by businesses and individuals. The practical application of EI training for employees is beneficial for several reasons. The first is the link between high EI and personal growth as with McCann’s athlete, Kevin. He proves that EI can be extremely useful especially to high achievers who might have formerly rejected emotions from their professional lives. Second, the relationship between transformational leadership and EI suggests that business leaders could improve performance with EI training. Finally, the relationship between high emotional intelligence and low work-family interference could benefit businesses by improving employee performance outside leadership roles.

I then argued that further study in EI was needed in the field of gender and cultural background. Both of these demographics have large impacts on the differences between emotional intelligence levels and, especially in the case of cultural background, have proved elusive in previous studies. Before these kinds of training programs can be developed, further research needs to be conducted on the variables of gender and cultural background using more standardized methods of measurement.

References

Cheung, F. Y & So-kum Tang, C. (2012) The Effect of Emotional Dissonance and Emotional Intelligence on Work–Family Interference. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science. 44 (1), 50–58.

Fukuda, E.; Saklofske, D.H.; Tamaoka, K.; Fung, T.S.; Miyaoka, Y.; Kiyama, S. (2011). Main Topic: Definitions: Factor Structure of Japanese Versions of Two Emotional Intelligence Scales. International Journal of Testing. Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Lopez-Zafra, E.; Garcia-Ratamero, R. ; Martos, M.P.B. (2012). The relationship between transformational leadership and emotional intelligence from a gendered approach. The Psychological Record. 62, 97-114.

McCann, S. (2009). Emotional Intelligence. In Kate F. Hays (Ed.) Performance Psychology in Action: A Casebook for Working with Athletes, Performing Artists, Business Leaders, and Professionals in High-Risk Occupations (35-56). American Psychological Foundation.

Margavio, T.M.; Margavio, G. ; Hignite, M.A.; Moses, D.R. An Analysis of Chinese Business Students’ Performance on a Test of Emotional Intelligence. College Student Journal.

Mavroveli, S., & Sanchez-Ruiz, M.J. (2011). Trait emotional intelligence influences on academic achievement and school behaviour. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 81, 112-134