Good Example Of Research Paper On The Concept Of Emotional Intelligence And Its Utility For HRM
Type of paper: Research Paper
Topic: Emotions, Skills, Intelligence, Human Resource Management, Emotional Intelligence, Management, Study, Concept
Emotional Intelligence(EI) refers to understanding and regulating one's own feelings and influencing others' feelings as well by being empathetic and caring. In a practical sense, EI is an emotional literacy that teaches a person to remain stable in high-pressure situations. The concept, though not entirely new, has recently been popularized in the corporate world for a holistic approach to problem-solving, strategy, and leadership.
As a leadership philosophy, the approach embraces soft-skills and people-friendly policies. Given dynamic business environment that requires patience and mental toughness, the concept of EI is highly compatible with Human Resource Management, especially for adaptive organizations. Emotions being one of the most difficult aspects of human nature to understand, the utility/relevance of EI in human resource management is obvious and notable. As scholars have defined, important characteristics of EI include:
Self-awareness: Increasing awareness of one's own weaknesses and strengths.
Self-regulation: The ability to regulate personal emotions. Self-regulation mitigates panic and anger and helps producing good working relations.
Empathy: The ability to understand others' emotions and to be able to influence and control them.
Social skills: Facial expressions and gestures are important aspects in EI. A manager with subtle social skills will have a good reputation in the organizations.
If HR managers of an organization imbibe and develop these characteristics, it would result in fewer workplace clashes and improve the job performance of employees. Another important thread that relates HRM with EI is soft skills. Soft skills are pivotal to the success of management, and the concept of emotional intelligence has emerged as one of the necessary measures of soft-skills.
Studies have revealed that EI can be improved by training and counseling sessions. HR managers can incorporate EI trainings and seminars to enhance workers' motivation, job satisfaction, and retention. Thus, HR managers with high EI level can make the workplace a healthy ambience to perform; at the same time they can arrange sessions for the staff to improve EI that results in optimizing one's capabilities and overcoming weaknesses.
The concept of EI is evolving, and recent research studies have focused on three main discussions. First is its relation to academic performance. Studies have revealed that GMA( General Mental Ability) is a stronger predictor of academic performance. However, GMA is not related to the quality of interactions with peers.
Secondly, studies have focused on identifying a correlation between EI and schizophrenia. It has been found that subjects suffering from the disorder performed poorly in EI tests and subtests including identifying, understanding, and managing emotions.
Finally, research has focused on the learning aspect of EI. Initially, there were disagreements with some scholars argued that EI cannot be learned and improved by trainings. However, a recent research highlighted that participants who undergo training showed a significant improvement in emotion management. They retained the enhancement and exhibited high emotional understanding six months later also. It is very important study because EI cannot form an important feature of HR functions if it cannot be improved and learned.
Bradberry, Travis and Jean Greaves. Emotional Intelligence 2.0. TalentSmart, 2009.
Emmerling, Robert J., Vinod K. Shanwal and Manas K. Mandal. Emotional Intelligence: Theoretical and Cultural Prespectives. Nova Publishers, 2008.
Goleman, Daniel. Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More Than IQ. A&C Black, 2009.
Nelis. "Increasing Emotional Intelligence: How is it Possible?" Personality and Individual Differences (2009): 36-41.
Sarkis, Stephanie. Three Recent Studies on Emotional Intelligence. 28 Nov 2011. 5 April 2015 <https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/here-there-and-everywhere/201111/three-recent-studies-emotional-intelligence-ei>.