Organisation Business - Essay Example

?Introduction Today businesses and organizations are competing in an extremely competitive environment. Therefore, each is trying to find some competitive advantage to override the rivals. While technology, communications or effective marketing may perform such a role, the importance of human resources cannot be underestimated since success of a business is based on the successes of each separate employee. Consequently, a business should be taking all possible measures for improving employee performance. One of the concepts that is, by some scientists (Goleman 1998; Mayer and Salovey 1997 and others), believed to improve employees’ job performance is emotional intelligence. As such, the idea has found much popularity among managers in their attempts to bring up a successful and efficient workforce. The assumption that emotional intelligence directly influences job performance leads, as a result, to the thought that emotional intelligence might become of the keys to improved business performance and, consequently, higher profits. Though there exists a number of studies on the relation of emotional intelligence to employee effectiveness, many of them present different points of view. Therefore, the purpose of the given work is to review and analyze some of the most recent researches on the topic of emotional intelligence’s relation to employee performance with the purpose of determining whether there is, indeed, a positive correlation between the two. The findings will, therefore, help businesses and organizations to understand whether emotional intelligence should be given some additional attention and incorporated into organizational culture and HR practices. Defining Emotional Intelligence Modern literature provides a number of definitions of emotional intelligence. Among them is that of Goleman (1997 in Dulewicz and Higgs 2000, 342), who defines the term as a set of individual abilities, such as understanding and controlling own feelings, being able to motivate oneself for performing the job at one’s best, as well as understanding the feelings of others for effective handling of the relationships. A simpler, though earlier, definition is provided by Mayer and Salovey (1997, 3). These authors, just like Goleman, view emotional intelligence as a set of psychological and intellectual abilities. Such abilities, according to them, include “the abilities to perceive emotions in the self and in others, use emotions to facilitate performance, understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and regulate emotions in the self and in others” (Mayer and Salovey 1997, 3). The definition has not significantly changed with time. In 2009 Jordan and Lawrence refer to the 1997 work by Mayer & Salovey explaining emotional intelligence as “abilities, emotional awareness (own and others), emotional management (own and others), emotional understanding (understanding emotional cycles and progressions) and emotional facilitation (generating emotions) (Jordan and Lawrence 2009, 453). Therefore, it can be concluded that the term ‘emotional intelligence’ means human ability to realize and understand feelings (both own and those other people), to effective cope with emotions, as well as express own or evoke emotions of others with the purpose of dealing with specific situation in the most efficient way. Literature Review At the same time Stephane Cote and Christopher Miners (2006) of the University of Toronto point out that though the concept of emotional intelligence has raised much interest of businesses and organizations, there is a relatively low number of studies that prove emotional intelligence is really important for managing an organization effectively or that it is directly related to job performance (Cote and Miners 2006, 1). Furthermore, Barrett et al (2001, 1) even argue that the increase in the topic’s population is based on its being advertised rather than on profound scientific evidence. Nevertheless, some studies exist. In 2005 Brett Anthony Hayward, for instance, conducted a research with the purpose of determining the relationship between emotional intelligence, employee performance and leadership. The study was conducted in a South African Parastatal Organization that employs 30,000 people. In particular, 160 employees that hold managerial position took part in the study (Hayward 2005, 52), while their subordinates performed the role of raters (Hayward 2005, 51). Multifactor leadership questionnaires (MLQ), ECP and the Parastatal’s Performance Appraisal Process were used as measuring instruments. The results showed that there exists some relation between emotional intelligence and job performance of transactional leaders. There is also a linear relationship between an emotionally intelligent leader and subordinates’ job performance. However, employee performance has shown to decrease as emotional intelligence and transactional leadership increase (Hayward 2005, 87). Situation with transformation leadership was the same - emotional intelligence and transformational leadership showed no significant effect on employees job performance. In addition, it was determined that emotional intelligence does contribute to the effectiveness of leadership (Hayward 2005, 88) Though these findings suggest that the correlation between manager’s emotional intelligence and employees’ performance is not significant enough statistically, there is a relation between emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness of the manager. Effective leadership, in its turn, motivates employees and, as a result, improves performance levels. At the same time, it should be noted that the research findings being discussed do not give any information on the relationship between employees’ emotional intelligence and performance. In addition, as Hayward notes, the research was “limited to the demographic confines of the sample population” (Hayward 2005, 90). Therefore, what can be concluded in this case is that emotional intelligence contributes to the effectiveness of leadership and management. Emotional intelligence of a manager, therefore, indirectly – through transformational leadership – tends to improve job performance of the employees. Another aspect of the issue has been researched by Stephane Cote in 2006. Cote’s research was aimed at determining a relation between emotional intelligence and job performance taking into account cognitive intelligence. The author defines cognitive intelligence as “specialization of general intelligence in the domain of cognition in ways that reflect experience and learning about cognitive processes such as memory” (Cote 2006, 5). 175 employees who performed different roles in different departments of a large university were chosen as a sample population. The results showed that emotional intelligence and cognitive intelligence were compensatory in relation to task performance. This result contradicts the previous studies conducted by Goleman (1998), who was proving that emotional intelligence and cognitive intelligence influence job performance separately and in totally different ways. Cote’s research has indicated that job performance of an emotionally intelligent individual improves with a decrease in cognitive intelligence. Furthermore, the researcher does not mention whether task performance improves under the influence of emotional intelligence – the statement being made is that if emotional intelligence is accompanied by decreased cognitive intelligence, then a task gets completed correctly (Cote 2006, 19). There also exist limitations: it appeared impossible to measure employees’ performance in a way other than managerial feedback. So the job performance levels are evaluated on the basis of possibly inadequate or subjective evaluation of managers. Furthermore, in regards to the overall concept of emotional intelligence Cote, just like Barrett and his colleagues (2001, 1), questions the importance and significance of emotional intelligence for the performance of businesses and organizations (Cote 2006, 20). The researcher also mentions that emotional intelligence helps people with low cognitive intelligence to cope with their impressions well and, as a result, receive high performance ratings (Cote 2006, 21). So, on the basis of this study results it can be concluded that even if emotional intelligence has some impact on job performance, it is not direct and is influenced by a number of other factors, among which are cognitive intelligence and leader-member exchange. Emotional intelligence, thus, compensates a lack of cognitive intelligence, so hiring emotionally intelligent people is just another approach to building an organization. Similarly, following the traditional ways of doing business and, therefore, hiring the smartest cognitively intelligent people may lead to equal results – cognitive intelligence is what helps employees to work with large amounts of complex data effectively (Michaels, Handfield-Jones and B. Axelrod 2001, 7). At the same time, there exist other points of view. One of them is presented by Afolabi, Awosola and Omole (2010). Their study on the influence of emotional intelligence and gender on job satisfaction among Nigerian Policemen suggests that there is a relation. The researchers used 2x2 factorial design with a number of regressions with emotional intelligence and gender that were used as the independent variables (Afolabi, Awosola and Omole 2010, 147). The sample group consisted of 119 policemen. The results of the research suggest that there is great positive relation between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction. Furthermore, on the basis of their research the authors claim that emotional intelligence contributes to effective team work (Afolabi, Awosola and Omole 2010, 152). Since job satisfaction is directly related to job performance, it can be concluded that emotional intelligence has a direct influence on job performance. However, it should be remembered that this study, just like those of Cote and Hayward described above, uses a rather small population sample. Consequently, the results of either of the studies cannot be said to be statistically significant. In addition, neither of the studies considers such a variable as the level of emotional intelligence, cultural stereotypes or organizational culture. Each of the studies was conducted in one organization only, neither of which is a business entity. Hosseinian, Yazdi, Zahraie and Fathi-Ashtiani conducted another research in 2008. Their goal was to determine whether emotional intelligence increases job satisfaction and job performance (Hosseinian, Yazdi, Zahraie and Fathi-Ashtiani 2008, 903). The researchers worked with 28 employees of Marine Installations and Construction Company. Their job satisfaction and performance were evaluated before the experiment by their supervisors. Then the sample group received 10 sessions of training on emotional intelligence. This was supposed to raise the emotional intelligence levels of the people. Right after the training, as well as four months later, the employees’ job satisfaction and performance were again evaluated by their managers, and it appeared that the education did not change people’s job satisfaction or managers’ evaluation of their performance. At the same time, Hosseinian, Yazdi, Zahraie and Fathi-Ashtiani (2008, 906) note that a positive correlation between an increase in emotional intelligence and job performance can be observed in the long run, after the employees’ training. Conclusion Considering the findings of Hosseinian, Yazdi, Zahraie and Fathi-Ashtiani (2008, 296) it can be concluded that emotional intelligence does have certain influence on employees’ job satisfaction and, consequently, job performance. This idea is also supported by the study of Afolabi, Awosola and Omole (2010). However, the results of other researches (Hayward 2005; Cote 2006) cannot be underestimated as well. Currently, analyzing the latest studies in the area (Hayward 2005; Cote 2006; Hosseinian, Yazdi, Zahraie and Fathi-Ashtiani 2008; Afolabi, Awosola and Omole 2010), it can be said that the results are rather controversial and contradictory. At the same time, neither of the discussed studies was large-scale enough to provide a solid basis for statistically grounded assumptions. Furthermore, each of the studies discussed has a number of limitations, the greatest of which might be even a human factor – manager’s evaluations of employees’ job performance cannot, in any situation, be objective enough since are always based on subjective personal opinion of the supervisors. The same relates to employees’ evaluations of their managers. While Hosseinian, Yazdi, Zahraie and Fathi-Ashtiani (2008, 906) claim that an increase in emotional intelligence has visible influence on job performance in the long run, Afolabi, Awosola and Omole (2010, 152) support this statement and go further, saying that emotional intelligence has a direct influence on job performance. At the same time, on the basis of his research Hayward (2005, 87) argues that employee performance even decreases as emotional intelligence and transactional or transformational leadership increase (Hayward 2005, 87). Though emotional intelligence, according to Hayward (2005, 88), has a positive impact on leadership, it has no significant direct influence on employees performance. In general, it can be said that the presented paper has achieved the aim of the assignment. In this work I have presented some of the different views on the importance of emotional intelligence to businesses and organizations. However, as the research shows, it is not possible to make a clear conclusion as to whether emotional intelligence should be considered by businesses as a critically influential factor for performance. In order to determine whether emotional intelligence has a direct influence on job performance, a wider-scale research that considers a greater number of variables should be conducted. References Afolabi, O.A ., Awosola, R.K. and Omole, S .O. 2010. “Influence of Emotional Intelligence and Gender on Job Performance and Job Satisfaction among Nigerian Policemen.” Current Research Journal of Social Sciences 2(3): 147-154. Barrett, G. V., Miguel, R. F., Tan, J. A. and Hurd, J. M. 2001 “Emotional intelligence: The Madison Avenue approach to science and professional practice.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. San Diego, CA. Cote, Stephane and Miners, Christopher. 2006. “Emotional Intelligence, Cognitive Intelligence, and Job Performance.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 51: 1-28. Dulewicz, V. and Higgs, M. 2000. “Emotional Intelligence – A review and evaluation study.” Journal of Managerial Psychology 15(4): 341-272. Goleman, D. 1998. Working with Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam. Hayward, Brett A. 2005. Relationship between Employee Performance, Leadership and Emotional Intelligence in a South African Parastatal Organizaiton. Rhodes University: Department of Management. Hosseinian, Simin, Yazdi, Seyedeh-Monavar, Zahraie, Shaghayegh and Fathi-Ashtiani, Ali. 2008. “Emotional intelligence and job satisfaction.” Journal of Applied Science 8: 903-906. Jordan, Peter J. and Lawrence, Sandra A. 2009. “Development and initial validation of the short version of the Workgroup Emotional Intelligence Profile (WEIP-S).” Journal of Management & Organization 15(4): 452-469. Mayer J. and Salovey P. 1997. “What is emotional intelligence?” in Salovey, P. and Sluyter, D. (Eds) Emotional development and emotional intelligence: Implications for educators, Basic Books, New York. Michaels, E., Handfield-Jones, H. and Axelrod, B. 2001. The War for Talent. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Read More