A Study on Emotional Intelligence At Work Place

Abstract

“Emotional Intelligence is the ability to sense, understand, value and effectively apply the power of emotions as a source of human energy, information, trust, creativity and influence”

-DANIEL GOLEMAN

Emotional Intelligence (EI) must somehow combine two of the three states of mind cognition and affect, or intelligence and emotion. Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to perceive, control, and evaluate emotions. Some researchers suggest that emotional intelligence can be learned and strengthened, while other claim it is an inborn characteristic. A number of testing instruments have been developed to measure emotional intelligence, although the content and approach of each test varies. If a worker has high emotional intelligence, he or she is more likely to be able to express his or her emotions in a healthy way, and understand the emotions of those he or she works with, thus enhancing work relationships and performance. Emotional Intelligence is not about being soft! It is a different way of being smart - having the skill to use his or her emotions to help them make choices in the moment and have more effective control over themselves and their impact on others.

Emotional Intelligence allows us to think more creatively and to use our emotions to solve problems. Emotional Intelligence probably overlaps to some extent with general intelligence. The emotionally intelligent person is skilled in four areas: Identifying emotions, using emotions, understanding emotions, and regulating emotions.

The term Emotional Intelligence is only a few years old. It originally developed during the 1970s and 80s by the work and writings of psychologists Howard Gardner, Peter Salovey and John Mayer. EI first appeared in 1985 in a doctoral dissertation by Wayne Leon Payne, which he entitled “A Study of Emotion:  Developing Emotional Intelligence.” His thesis on emotional intelligence included a framework to enable people to develop emotional intelligence. Payne asserted that many of the problems in modern civilization stemmed from a suppression of emotion and that it was possible to learn to become emotionally intelligent. Later it was coined by Daniel Goleman, who wrote the pioneering book on the subject. He actually co-authored it with his wife, Tara, triggered by sitting through many frustrating business meetings with her. Emotional Intelligence then appeared in a series of academic articles authored by John D. Mayer and Peter Salovey (1990, 1993). These publications generated little attention. Two years later, emotional intelligence entered the mainstream with Daniel Goleman's(1995) best-seller Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ and subsequent articles in USA Weekend and Time Magazine (October 2, 1995). More recently, Goleman's latest book, Working with Emotional Intelligence (1998), has caught the attention of human resource practitioners. Although the term ‘emotional intelligence’ was not used,  it is evident that the groundwork for the research was set in  motion long before any official work on emotional  intelligence.