There are several definitions
of emotional intelligence
and its measurement in the current literature. In this
article, emotional intelligence refers to the set of abilities and capabilities
that individuals possess to feel, control, and manage emotions to achieve
a desired outcome. Emotional intelligence is not a new
discovery. Every parent must have witnessed it at work when a child grows
up, and may have used some other word to explain the
emotional intelligence of the child. It must have existed from the time
human life started on the planet earth (Ahmed, 2010). The growth
in business, global competition, and consumer demand for products
and services has led researchers to focus on identifying and
developing abilities and capabilities to improve performance. The publication
of Goleman's book Emotional Intelligence (1995) highlighted
the value of emotional intelligence in the corporate world. It was
realized that individuals capable of managing their emotions in
order to achieve personal and social targets might perform better in
the workplace. Theoretically, emotional intelligence might
improve performance in the workplace. Practically, it is difficult to
identify or measure the level of change in performance due to
emotional intelligence. This is because (1) emotional intelligence is
an individual human process for achieving desired targets based
on performance and therefore differs from person to person, and
(2) corporate performance is the result of teamwork, and so there is
no empirical evidence to show individual emotional
intelligence (Ahmed, 2010). At this time, the theoretical application
of emotional intelligence is more appropriate for
managerial positions and individual work environments, where a change
in performance can be more easily observed. As the concept
of emotional intelligence is simplified and operationalized, and
better measurement tools are available for measuring
the change in organizational performance, businesses will be able to focus
on the application of emotional intelligence at all levels to
improve performance. Also, understanding emotional intelligence will
help organizations in selecting, training, and motivating employees
to improve performance.
|
