Management Assignment: Human Intelligence Essay

Traditionally organisations have concentrated upon the intelligence of individuals and held the point of view that intelligent people in terms of IQ succeeded more. However, these ideas are continually challenged by the idea of emotional intelligence being key indicators of management performance (cited in Khosravi, Manafi, Hojabri, Aghapour and Gheshmi, 2011, pg 3). Emotional intelligence is ones ability to perceive and regulate other people’s emotions (cited in Sadri, 2012, pg 536). In present society, emotional intelligence of management is essential to positive communications in projecting ideas, increasing value of teams through creating common team values and hence increasing the job satisfactions of individuals in workplaces from corporations to sales. Emotional intelligence is consequently directly related to the overall performance of a company and also the efficiency of individual employees. It can also be said that emotional intelligence is much more important then pure intelligence in shaping leadership success (cited in Sadri, 2012, pg 537). Managers use communication as a method to transfer meaning to others for the ultimate purpose of achieving their goals and objectives. The ability to communicate efficiently depends upon the manager’s capability to empathise with his or her peers, that is, the manager’s level of emotional intelligence. Goleman’s study asserts the notions of emotionally intelligent individuals are more successful at communicating their ‘ideas, goals and intentions’ (cited in Zeidner, Matthews, Roberts, 2004, pg 386). Similarly, Wasielewski’ studies suggests emotionally intelligent individuals are able to ‘excite and enthuse’ or make others ‘feel cautious and wary’ (cited in George, 2000, pg 7). This sort of behavior will consequently motivate or demotivate individuals in the workplace. Thus emotional intelligence is crucial as it allows managers to communicate effectively and therefore achieve his or her goals by influencing the mood and emotion of his or her team. Bar On further asserts that managers are also able to use communication to ensure a positive result in environmentally demanding work situations (cited in Zeidner, Matthews, Roberts, 2004, pg 374). Managers will only be able to do this if they understand their employees’ personal feelings, hence emotional intelligence is the tool that lets managers communicate effectively in any sort of situation. Regardless of whether the situation is difficult or not, emotional intelligence will always be significant because it allows the manager to communicate effectively with his or her employees (cited in George, 2000, pg 8). A consequence of managers who communicate with high emotional intelligence creates value adding member interaction, which in turn increases team productivity. Positive emotions of certain individuals such as managers can influence team member mentality and is high likely to increase group cohesion through relationship building, this is also known as positive ‘emotional contagion’ (cited in Ashanasy and Daus, 2002, pg 79). However oppositely, negative emotions of an individual can decrease the efficiency of other team members since negative attitudes can ‘infect’ co-workers and is hard to reverse (cited in Ashanasy and Daus, 2002, pg 79). Consequently due to these polar outcomes the need for emotionally intelligent managers is crucial to the operation of a team to complete tasks efficiently. More importantly, high emotional intelligence can impact a leaders and teams ability to construct team goals and objectives (cited in Ashanasy and Daus, 2002 pg 81). This is asserted by Rosete and Ciarrochi study in which concluded that high emotional intelligent leaders performed more efficiently and was not affected by cognitive ability (cited in Sadri, 2012, pg 538). Apart from leadership highly emotional intelligent team members also increased team efficiency. A Study by Jordan and Troths concluded this through their experiment where they concluded high emotional intelligent team members performed more exceptional then low emotional intelligent teams (cited in Sadri, 2012, pg 538). Thus leadership through high emotional intelligent individuals increases the value of a team, however high emotional intelligent team members also contribute to positive team interaction. Another aspect of high emotional intelligent leaders is improved job satisfaction and hence increased performance. Emotionally intelligent leaders are able to influence ‘shared beliefs’ of groups, allowing them to shape ones abilities and skills to communicate and co-ordinate with each other (cited in Zampetakis and Moustakis, 2011, pg 84 ). These ‘shared beliefs’ allow groups to have high job satisfactions due to improved performance due to positive emotional norms created by the manager (cited in Zampetakis and Moustakis, 2011, pg 84). Henceforth, an increase in group job satisfaction will allow individual satisfaction growth, this will in turn increase overall efficiency. In the studies of Ashkanasy and Daus, we can also view the importance of emotionally related job satisfaction. The study contains scenarios, which stress how negative satisfaction partly due to leadership problems can have adverse affects upon other team members. Research has also exemplified the need for emotionally intelligent managers to heighten positive emotions with employees particularly in the sales industry to increase customer rentention (cited in Ashkanasy and Daus, 2002, pg 77). Hence, job satisfaction is highly correlated with the emotional intelligence of managers. Job satisfaction is clearly an important factor in the workplace as it is able to increase efficiency. As organisations and businesses seek to increase efficiency, the use of emotionally intelligent individuals will be employed to redefine groups and individuals in the workplace. Over time as stronger evidence builds upon that high emotional intelligent individuals make better leaders, companies will undergo a transition to recruit or train emotionally intelligent individuals. As companies continually gain knowledge in this field, competitive strategies will be formed to better firm performance. As they embrace these types of changes, competitive advantages particularly in the sales industry will experience large competitive advantages. Communication from highly emotionally intelligent allows more positively regulated team ambitions and hence allow greater team collaboration, which increases inter-personal relationships. Team collaboration is highly effective in producing superior job satisfactions and consequently job efficiency. Hence, emotional intelligence is essential for leaders to manage successfully in workplaces. References: Sadri, G. , (2012). Emotional intelligence and leadership development, Public Personnel Management, Vol. 41 No. 3, pp. 535-548 Date Viewed – 10 April 2013 <http://web. ebscohost. com. wwwproxy0. library. unsw. edu. au/ehost/detail? vi d=3&sid=7e41ae83-e0b2-455b-ac25-1568e4f33f6f%40sessionmgr110&hid=112&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=buh&AN=79656429> Khosravi, R. D. , Manafi, M. , Hojabri, R. , Aghapour, A. H. , Gheshmi. R. , (2011). The relationship between emotional intelligence and effective delegation. International Journal of Business and Social Science, Vol. 2 No. 19, pp. 223-235 Date Viewed – 10 April 2013 lt;http://search. proquest. com. wwwproxy0. library. unsw. edu. au/abiglobal/docview/904526890/13D5FC8D9CD73AEC7F5/1? accountid=12763> Zeidner, M. , Matthews, G. & Roberts, R. D. , (2004). Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace: A Critical Review. Applied Psychology, 53(3), pp. 371–399. Dated Views – 10 April 2013 <http://online library. wiley. com. wwwproxy0. library. unsw. edu. au/doi/10. 1111/j. 1464-0597. 2004. 00176. x/abstract;jsessionid=BC2DC14C7B9282FD9361B666E034A2C9. d02t02> George, J. M. , (2000). Emotions and Leadership: The Role of Emotional Intelligence. Human Relations, 53(8), pp. 1027–1055. Date viewed – 10 April 2013 <http://search. proquest. com. wwwproxy0. library. unsw. edu. au/docview/231437575/fulltextPDF? accountid=12763> Ashkanasy, N. M. & Daus, C. S. , (2002). Emotion in the workplace: The new challenge for managers. The Academy of Management Executive, 16(1), pp. 76–86. Date viewed – 10 April 2013 <http://www. jstor. org. wwwproxy0. library. unsw. edu. au/stable/4165815> Zampetakis, L. A. & Moustakis, V. , (2011). Managers’ Trait Emotional Intelligence and Group Outcomes: The Case of Group Job Satisfaction. Small  Group  Research, Vol. 42 No. 1, pp. 77-102 Date Viewed – 10 April 2013