ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOR, INDIVIDUAL

ASSIGNMENT
NIHAR GOSALIA (UM14082)
SECTION B | Xavier Institute of Management

Emotional Intelligence

Table of Contents

About Emotional Intelligence..................................................................................

Definitions and Concepts..........................................................................................
Various theories and researches on EI...................................................................
Measuring EI..............................................................................................................
Emerging Trends of EI............................................................................................
EI scenario in India.................................................................................................
Criticisms surrounding EI......................................................................................
Sources....................................................................................................................

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About Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to monitor one's own and other
people's emotions, to discriminate between different emotions and label them
appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behaviour
(Coleman, Andrew (2008)). The roots of the emotional intelligence can be traced
to the Charles Darvin work on the importance of emotional expression for
survival and adaptation. The term emotional intelligence had first appeared in
the german publication Praxis der Kinderpsycologie and Kinderpsychiatrie by
Leuner in the year 1966. In it, Leuner discusses about the women rejecting their
social roles caused because of their early age separation from their mothers. He
suggested that they had low Emotional Intelligence and prescribed a drug for
their treatment. Later in the year 1985, Emotional Intelligence first appeared in
English when Wayne Payne published his doctoral thesis on A Study of Emotion:
Developing Emotional Intelligence This hypothesis was primarily based on the
impression that societys historical repression of emotions is the source of all
sorts of problems such as illness, depression, wars and conflicts, and obsession.
Later in 1989, Stanley Greenspan came up with an EI model and was followed by
Peter Salovey, David Caruso, Jack Mayer and few others in the 1990s. However, it
was Daniel Goleman who popularized the term when he came across their
theories while working for the New York Times and built in various related
concepts in his book Emotional Intelligence in 1995 and then explored function of
it on job later in 1998. This is how Emotional Intelligence evolved around the
years.
Thus Emotional Intelligence becomes:
A general quality possessed by every normal human being.
The Capability to understand ones emotional make-up of others and to
use insight from it to effectively regulate and manage ones own emotions
to make proper and better decisions and to act accordingly.
An area of cognitive ability involving traits and social classes that facilitate
interpersonal behaviour.
A quantitative spectrum of individual differences in which they can be
ranked ordered.
A qualitative, fine-grained account in which there are no comparisons
between people.

Definitions and concepts:

The definitions of the emotional intelligence constructs and performance of
emotion work used in this study are as follows:

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Self-emotional awareness: This latent variable represents a fundamental

factor of emotional intelligence. It refers to recognizing and understanding ones
own emotional state. A sample item is I really understand what I feel. (Lee,
2013)

Others emotional awareness: This variable refers to sensitivity to the

feelings of others and the precise ability to recognize the emotions of others. A
sample item is I always know my friends emotions based on their behavior.
(Lee, 2013)

Self-emotional management: This variable represents the higher-level skill

of emotional intelligence factors. It requires self-emotional awareness to remain
calm and direct ones behavior toward positive outcomes. It refers to the ability
to manage ones own emotions and minimize ones impulsiveness to facilitate
positive changes in ones own emotions. A sample item is I am able to control
my temper and handle difficulties rationally. (Lee, 2013)

Performance of emotion work: This variable represents the nature and

characteristics of emotional labor (Hsieh, Jin, and Guy, 2012). It represents what
an employee must do to complete the job. A sample item is My work requires
me to provide comfort to people who are in crisis. (Lee, 2013)
Primarily there are three models of EI :

EI
models
Ability
model

Mixed
model

Trait
model

Ability model:
This model views emotions as important source of information that help you to
navigate and make sense of the social environment. It suggests that people vary
in their ability to relate emotional processing to a wider cognition and ability to
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process information of an emotional nature. According to this model, EI includes

the following types of abilities:
1. Perceiving emotions the ability to detect and interpret emotions in faces,
voices, pictures, and cultural artefacts, including the ability to identify
your own emotions.
2. Using emotions the ability to make use of emotions to facilitate various
perceptive activities, such as problem solving and decision making.
3. Understanding emotions the ability to interpret emotion language and to
appreciate dense relationships among emotions.
4. Managing emotions the ability to control emotions in both ourselves and
in others. Therefore, the emotionally logical person can fix emotions, even
the negative ones, and manage them to achieve envisioned goals.
This model has been criticized for lacking its projective validity in the workplace.

Mixed model: (Goleman, D., 1998)

This model was introduced by Daniel Golemen which primarily focuses emotional
intelligence as a broad array of skills and competencies that drive the leadership
performance. It outlines five major
Goleman's model outlines five main EI constructs:
1. Self-awareness it is the ability to know one's strengths, weaknesses,
emotions, values, goals and drives and identify their influence on others
while using intuitive feelings to guide decisions.
2. Self-regulation involves redirecting or controlling one's disruptive
impulses and emotions and adjusting to changing circumstances
3. Social skill managing relationships to guide people in the anticipated
direction
4. Empathy - considering other people's feelings while making decisions
5. Motivation - a reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way

Trait model: (Petrides and Furnham, 2000)

K. V. Petrides proposed a theoretical difference between the trait based model
and an ability based model of Emotional Intelligence and has been developing
the former over many years in several scientific publications. Trait model of EI is
a collection of emotional self-perceptions located at the lower levels of
personality. Thus it talk about an individual's self-perceptions of their emotional
abilities.

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Various theories and researches on EI:

R e u v e n B a r - O n : Emotional Quotient Inventory
Reuven Bar-On's definition of Emotional Intelligence is analogous to Goleman's
as it uses bunches of personality traits: an array of non-cognitive capabilities,
competencies, and skills that influence one's ability to succeed in coping with
environmental demands and pressures (Bar-On, 2006). However, this brings in
the question of how it is possible to have a skill that is non-cognitive? Bar-On has
developed an interesting instrument called the Emotional Quotient Inventory
(EQ-i) that assesses five broad subtypes of EI: (Bar-On, 2006)
1. intrapersonal intelligence

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2. interpersonal intelligence
3. adaptability
4. stress management
5. general mood
Thus Bar-On's article seems to be almost a relabeling (marketing) effort rather
than science. Still, there is one aspect of his instrument that is quite interesting.
With IQ, almost every literature/research shows that higher intelligence is related
to a faster speed of information uptake/processing. However, with the EQ-i,
people with high EI take longer to process emotional information. Thus, this
relationship seems counter-intuitive the better one is at EI, the longer one
takes.

M a y e r,
MSCEIT

S a l o v e y,

and

Caruso:

MEIS

and

While Bar-On and Goleman nearly seem to be putting their efforts to take out the
Intelligence out of the Emotional Intelligence, Salovey, Caruso and Mayer
stressed upon the Intelligence part of EI. They used an intelligent system as a
signifier for the EI and created a framework on the same. It represents EI as an
intelligent system for inputting, analysing and processing emotional. Primarily it
has the following divisions:
emotional identification/perception
emotional management
emotional understanding
emotional facilitation of thought
This trio had developed a performance-based instrument that in in-line to those
found in the intelligence literature called the MEIS (Multifactor Emotional
Intelligence Scale) which measures EI as a concept that is unique from existing
personality dimensions. However, even though it has good measurement
properties, it is dependent upon the researcher on how to decide the scores of
the items that are to be recorded. Later, they developed a revised edition of MEIS
called MSCEIT (Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test) (Mayer,
Salovey, Caruso, Sitarenios, 2003). Thus, it can be inferred from their framework
from their framework that EI is composed of skills and mental abilities.

Salovey and
Intelligence

Grewal:

The

Science

of

Emotional

Salovey and Grewal in the previous decade came up with an article called The
Science of Emotional Intelligence. EI sees emotions as useful sources of emotions
that help one to make sense and go through the social milieu (Salovey and
Grewal, 2005). They primarily referred to the work done by Salovey and Mayer in
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the year 1997, which describes emotional intelligence as a set of four linked
abilities: perceive, use, understand and manage emotions (Salovey and Grewal,
2005). It provides a format for studying individual differences in abilities related
to processing emotional information. Perceiving emotions is the ability to sense
and translate emotions on voices, faces, pictures and ethnic artefacts and
identifying your own emotion as well. Perceiving can be considered as the
elementary feature of Emotional Intelligence as it aids all other processing of the
possible emotional information. Managing emotions comprises of the ability to
alter and adjust emotions in both ourselves and others.

Audrey J. Jaeger : Job Competencies and the Curriculum:

An Inquiry into Emotional Intelligence in Graduate
Professional Education
In one of his works, he explains about the effect of emotional intelligence
in graduate professional education and on job competencies. Research shows the
importance of the capability to assess, regulate and utilise emotions on the
performance of workers. Previously institutions would generally look upon
communication and inter-personal skills to identify the right employees for
specialised positions. But the current scenario is not the same. These days some
of the graduate schools are including emotional intelligence in their curriculum
which is a combination of both inter as well as intra personal skills of students. EI
plays a role in the development of competencies critical to success on the job.
The question may arise that is it wise enough to cultivate a students emotional
life and perception but this viewpoint was changed when Elder(1997) articulated
that generally students connect to instructions emotionally. Faculty can assist
them about the importance of EI on various aspects including academics and
their future job role and thus maximize students learning and academic
achievement and prepare students for a better future.

Dalip
Work

Singh:Emotional

Intelligence

at

Dr. Dalip Singh has done Ph.D. in psychology and is also a senior bureaucrat who
joined IAS in 1982. He has the rare distinction of being awarded D. Litt. in
psychology for his work Emotional Intelligence at Work(2005) on EQ. this book
is a collection of personal experiences of the author on personal and interpersonal management, self-satisfaction, emotional management and career
perfection in the fields such as administration, management, etc. taking care of
various psychological as well as social dimensions of Emotional Intelligence. It
also covers the practical exercises through which you can develop your
emotional intelligence and suggestions on how to control anger, manage
emotional upsets, empathise with other and develop high self-esteem. It is a very
practical and informative book as it is derived from real life experiences and
provides plenty of information on the role of emotional intelligence on
management and training development.

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Measuring Emotional Intelligence:

Reuven Bar-On's EQ-I :
As discussed previously,
competencies
including
awareness and happiness

it is a
stress,

self-report test to measure

problem-solving,
tolerance,

Multifactor Emotional Intelligence Scale (MEIS)

It is an ability-based test in which the test-takers perform tasks designed to
assess their ability to identify, perceive, understand, and utilize emotions.
Seligman Attributional Style Questionnaire (SASQ)
Designed by Prof. Martin Seligman, the SASQ questionnaire measures how
optimistic or pessimistic a person is. It can help us to reduce labour
turnover, increase productivity, create more resilient and optimistic work
force and identify more top producers to help your company grow. It was
originally designed as a screening test for Metropolitan Life, an insurance
company.
Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI)
Based on an older instrument known as the Self-Assessment
Questionnaire, the ECI involves having people who know the individual
offer ratings of that persons abilities on a number of different emotional
competencies.

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Emerging trends of Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence or Emotional Quotient (EQ) is increasingly being
recognized as a key determinant to professional success in todays high-stress
environment. Businesses performances are essentially defined by the people and
hence anything that impacts the effectiveness of the peoples mind also impacts
a business performance in which they are innvolved. In fact, many experts now
believe that a persons emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) may be more
important than their IQ and is certainly a better predictor of success, quality of
relationships, and overall happiness (Scuderi, 2013). Its interesting to note how
the concept of emotional intelligence has evolved over the years, from its
inception as something called social intelligence all the way back in the 1930s,
to emotional strength in the mid-20th century, to its current terminology,
emotional intelligence. (Scuderi, 2013).
Even certain companies while recruiting their employees, prefers candidates
with superior emotional quotient. Realising this and the impact of EI on students
life and their future, many under graduate universities and management schools
are making emotional intelligence as a part of their curriculum. To make people
aware about the importance of the EI, annual virtual festival of Emotional
Intelligence are conducted where free online events and fabulous resources on
using emotions as a resource for thriving for managers, coaches, teachers and
trainers are covered.
Public and scientific interest about Emotional Intelligence has been contagious,
quick and intense. Emotional Intelligence has been considered as a sympathetic,
kind and caring form of intelligence that anyone can have. This interest is based
on the assumption that EI, unlike IQ, could be learned, or at least improved.
Moreover, many of the perils that people in the modern world are facing (such as
loneliness, depression, lack of communication and stress) appear to be
connected with emotions.(Neophytou,2013)

Emotional Intelligence scenario in India

Indian leaders are on par or even better than many global leaders in most
aspects of leadership, yet, theres something amiss which make them behave
the way they do centralize decision-making, dont respect others time, hence
dont confirm schedules, among a few. If Indian leaders were to invest in
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acquiring emotional intelligence, they have the opportunity to maximise their

potential. (Ratan Tata, 2014)
According to fresh research conducted by the Hay Group, Indian professionals
need a lot of enhancement when it comes to Emotional Intelligence. The
consulting firm has designed an assessment test which checks individuals'
awareness of their own capabilities and the ability to manage themselves. It then
tests their ability to understand others and build relationships. "Indians generally
have low scores on empathy," says Gaurav Lahiri, GM, Hay Group India. But the
good news is that Indians score high on the 'managing self' parameter, which
means we're motivated to do what it takes to improve. (Dibeyendu, 2010)

Criticisms Surrounding Emotional Intelligence

1- EI researchers do not agree on Definitions : This is because of multiple
definitions of EI developed by various researchers and theorists. Not only
these definitions are different but also the measures used by each
perspective are barely co-related to each other. (Mayer, Roberts and
Barsade, 2005)
2- EI cant be measured: EI, being a form of intelligence, critics argue that
there must be right and wrong answers. But the measurement of EI being
driven by perception, an individuals right answer may not be the same for
another individual. (Conte, 2005)
3- EI is nothing but personality with a different label: Some critics argue that
because EI is so closely linked to personality and intelligence, once you
control these factors, it has nothing to offer. (Decker, 2003)

Sources
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Hyun Jung Lee (2013). An Empirical Analysis of the Relationship between

Emotional Intelligence and Emotion Work: An Examination of Public

Service Employees. University of Colorado at Denver, USA.

Coleman, Andrew (2008). A Dictionary of Psychology (3 ed.). Oxford

University Press.
Petrides, K.V. & Furnham, A. (2000). On the dimensional structure of

emotional intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences.

Ruven Bar-on (2006), The Bar-On model of emotional-social intelligence

(ESI). Psicothema.
Mayer, J.D., Salovey, P., Caruso, D.R., & Sitarenios, G. (2003). Measuring

emotional intelligence with the MSCEIT.

Salovey P and Grewal D (2005) The Science of Emotional Intelligence. Yale

University.
Dalip Singh (2005). Emotional Intelligence at Work. India.
Fabio Sala (2002). Emotional Competency Inventory (ECI), Technical
Manual, Hay Acquisition Company I, Inc.

O'Boyle, E. H., Humphrey, R. H., Pollack, J. M., Hawver, T. H., Story, P. A.

(2010). The relation between emotional intelligence and job performance:
A meta-analysis. Journal of Organizational Behavior.

Ratan Tata (August,2014), Ratan Tata Wants Greater Trust Among Indian
Business Leaders, ManagementNext, 1-2.

Dibeyendu Ganguly (2010, December 10) Emotional intelligence: India

Inc's changing organisational culture, Dec 10, 2010, The Economic Times.
Website

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2010-12-

10/news/27621993_1_ei-senior-managers-organisations
J. D. Mayer, R. D. Roberts and S. G. Barsade (2008), Human Abilities:

Emotional Intelligence, Annual review of psychology 59, pp.507-536.

J. M. Conte (June, 2005), A review and Critique of Emotional Intelligennce

Measures, Journal of Organisational Behaviour 26, no. 4.

T. Decker (April,2003), Is emotional Intelligence a Viable Concept?,

Academy of management review 28 , no. 2.

Lefkios Neophytou (2012), Emotional intelligence and educational reform.

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