Impact of emotional intelligence on interpersonal relationships at workplace

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) refers to the ability of the individuals to recognize and manage their own emotions as well as emotions of others. This term was coined by Michael Beldoch in his 1964 paper and Daniel Goleman made it popular in his 1995 book of the same name. Management of emotional intelligence includes the activities of discerning between different types of emotions or feelings and labeling those appropriately, applying the emotion related information to direct the behavior and managing and./or adjusting the emotions for adapting to the circumstances to achieve the individuals as well as organisational goals (Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee 2013). As stated by Zeidner, Matthews and Roberts (2012), emotional intelligence of an individual includes three types of skills, namely, emotional awareness; the capacity to harness the emotions and applying those in thinking and problem solving in the organization; and the capability of managing emotions of his own and of others. Emotional intelligence is thus based on various characteristics of the individuals, such as, empathy, leadership skills, motivation skills, trust and confidence as well as overall intelligence level. This report is aimed to provide an outline of emotional intelligence and its various aspects, such as, its effectiveness on interpersonal relationships at the workplace and on the organizational effectiveness, methods of its development and measurement. It will also provide recommendations on the appropriateness of measuring emotional intelligence for the purposes of recruitment and promotion in an organization like Data Solutions, working with big data analytics. Thus, through this report, the implications of emotional intelligence on improving the organizational performance will be highlighted.

Interpersonal relationship refers to the association among the people working together in the same organization (Ko and Kim 2014). This relationship is essential for establishing a healthy and positive working ambience in an organization. Since, no individual can work alone, and can take all decisions alone, hence, he needs to work in a team, in which there is positive working culture with less amount of misunderstandings. At the same time, motivations, support and coordination are also needed to perform better. Thus, strong interpersonal relationship is a determining factor of the organizational performance and emotional intelligence plays a significant role in influencing the interpersonal relationships in an organization (Khalili 2012). According to Goleman, the fundamentals of emotional intelligence are, self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, social skills or interpersonal skills (Schutte and Loi 2014). High level of emotional intelligence enables an individual to have a better cooperation with other employees in the same organization, manage the work stress in a more balanced way, solve the workplace and work related conflicts in a better manner, and rectify the previous mistakes (Wan, Downey and Stough 2014). As the emotional intelligence includes aspects like understanding and managing the emotions of one’s own and others in the workplace, it helps in identifying and solving problems through communication among the team members and also guides them to manage the stress effectively and take appropriate decisions.

Impact of emotional intelligence on organizational effectiveness

According to a study by Dumbrav? (2011), emotional intelligence improves business communication as a specific form of social interaction or interpersonal relationships. This study showed that non-cognitive aspects of EQ improves the capacity to understand, react and adapt to the working conditions and ambience and thereby contributes positively in career accomplishments. In a firm operating in big data analytics require people with high level of technical and analytical knowledge and skills, and they have to work in teams. Thus, a strong EQ will help in developing strong interpersonal relationships among the team members and thereby ensures a supportive work environment which improves productivity.

According to Farh, Seo and Tesluk (2012), organizational effectiveness refers to the concept of how effectively an organization is producing the output that it expected to produce. EQ influences the organizational effectiveness in the following areas, such as, employee recruitment and retention, talent development, teamwork, innovation, productivity, efficiency, employee commitment, sales, revenues and profits, service quality, and customer loyalty. According to this study, high EQ enables the top management to make good hiring decisions and they can influence the team members to explore their potential to improve the performance. EQ coupled with IQ helps the employees to adapt to the changes faster, develop their skills, drive them for innovation, increases motivation and quality of performance, which in turn have a significant impact on the job satisfaction, production and organizational effectiveness. EQ also affects the mental and physical health of the employees. As per the study of Goleman, EQ emerges primarily through the relationships and it also affects the quality of the relationships (Meisler 2013).

The development of emotional intelligence depends on many components, such as, self-perception, self-expression or body language, interpersonal skills, decision making ability and stress management capacity (Thakrar 2018). To develop EQ, these components must be developed and controlled in the most effective manner. According to the author, one must identify his emotions and understand them well, and then he must learn how to manage those emotions, especially the negative emotions and then develop empathy as per the requirement and ability. It is necessary to have the capability to be assertive about any situation and express the difficult and honest emotions whenever necessary. At the same time, EQ is developed when the individual stays pro-active and not reactive in front of a difficult person in the organization. Lastly, Sadri (2012) describes that one of the major factors of developing EQ is the capability of an individual of bouncing back from the adverse situations. In such situations, an individual can not only assess his EQ level but also gets to understand how to develop his EQ in a better manner.

Development and measurement of emotional intelligence

In regards to the measurement of emotional intelligence, there are many measures that are used for measuring EQ. Some of the tests are BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory, Emotional & Social Competence Inventory, Emotional & Social Competence Inventory – U.S., Genos Emotional Intelligence Inventory, Group Emotional Competency Inventory, Mayer-Salovey-Caruso EI Test (MSCEIT), Schutte Self Report EI Test, Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue), Work Group Emotional Intelligence Profile, and Wong’s Emotional Intelligence Scale (Zeidner, Matthews and Roberts 2012).

Among these scales, Maul (2012) found in his study that performance based measures are most suitable for measuring EQ. In this study, the suitability and validity of the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) was examined to measure the EU. In this test scale, four branches of emotional intelligence are considered, and those are:

• Perceiving emotions:The capacity to perceive the emotions of oneself and others along with in the objects like stories, music, arts etc.
• Facilitating thoughts:Capacity of an individual for generating, using and feeling the emotions as necessary aspects for communicating the feelings or employing them in the cognitive processes
• Understanding the emotions:This represents the ability of the individuals for understanding emotional information, and the ways that those are combined, their progress through transitions of the relationships and appreciating the meanings of those emotions
• Managing emotions:This refers to the ability of the individuals to be open about their feelings and modulate those in oneself and in others to promote the personal understanding and growth.

This test consists of 141 factors and takes around 30-45 minutes for completion. 15 main scores are computed on the areas, namely, Total EI or EQ score, 2 Area scores, 4 Branch scores and 8 Task scores. There are also 3 supplemental scores. This test is mainly ability or performance based (Mayer, Salovey and Caruso 2012). To measure the EQ in Data Solutions, the MSCEIT can be applied. Under 141 items, it will cover all the emotional and performance based aspects of the employees. The scores and performances of the employees will determine the EQ level and its impact on their performances and subsequently on the organizational effectiveness.

Emotional intelligence plays a major role in how the organizations view their executives, managers and employees. Measuring EQ is necessary as that helps the organizations to identify and understand the relationship level and guides them to figure out the ways to improve EQ and employee performance. According to Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee (2013), EQ is an ability to combine the emotions, intelligence, and empathy to enhance the thought process and personal dynamics, which is an influencing factors in problem solving and decision making. Recruitment of right employees for the right position is extremely essential for improving organizational effectiveness and the EQ enables the employers to take the right decision regarding the most suitable employee for their organization. As per the survey by Horton International (hortoninternational.com 2017), it has been found that 71% of the recruitment managers reported that EQ is more important than IQ. 59% of the hiring managers reported that they do not prefer to recruit people with higher IQ and lower EQ. Thus, higher EQ is an essential criterion for getting employment. Intangible qualities are highly important along with the education and technical skills of the professionals in the competitive market. During recruitment, the employers check the ability of the candidate to handle any stressful situation and his decision making ability while considering the interests of the stakeholders. The recruitment managers are now focusing on the EQ through a variety of behavior pattern and qualities rather than the educational qualification of the person. These EQ aspects help an employee to understand the gravity of the business situation and environment and act accordingly to get the maximum productivity.

Similarly, Serrat (2017) states that promotion in an organisation mostly depends on the performance of the employees during the evaluation period. In a data analytics firm, the ability to handle client pressure and to establish coordination among the team is considered as an impressive ability of the employees. In this context, the emotional intelligence of the employees plays a significant role. It helps in establishing strong interpersonal relationships in the organization and thereby improves work culture. This has a positive impact on the individual performance of the employees. The behavioral aspects are often guided by the ability to comprehend and apply the emotions in the productive manner. This helps in improving the emotional intelligence of the employees and also influences the personal and organizational performance. Thus, it is important to measure emotional intelligence for the purpose of promotion.

Data Solutions can implement the measures to evaluate the emotional intelligence of the employees during recruitment and promotions to tap their potential capabilities for accomplishing their personal and organizational goals. By applying the measures, such as, MSCEIT, it can gather information on the capabilities of the employees regarding understanding their own emotions, that is, self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills.

Conclusion 

From the above report it can be concluded that emotional intelligence is a very important aspect of the employees the any organisation should consider while recruiting and promoting the employees. As stated by Mayer and Salovey, EQ is defined as the process of recognizing, using, and understanding and managing one’s own and others emotion based problems and regulating their behavior accordingly. From the previous studies, it has been found that lack of emotional intelligence often results in poor performance and poor interpersonal relationships at workplace while employees with high emotional intelligence have performed well. Data Solutions is a firm that deals with employees with higher IQ. However, by applying the techniques for measuring the EQ of the employees, it can have an idea of how to improve their performance through their emotional development and by ensuring the supportive work environment, it can implement a foundation for strong interpersonal relationships. Ability to interact, understanding the emotions and needs of others will enable the employees to adapt to the dynamic situations in a more effective manner. This would generate a more productive and high quality output. Thus, emotional intelligence is a necessary factor that should be considered by Data Solutions during the recruitment and promotion as that would guide the organization to understand the individual dynamics and ways to improve those.

References 

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