Working With Emotional Intelligence, Author

¶ … Working with Emotional Intelligence, author Daniel Goleman expands on his groundbreaking work on what it means to be smart published in Emotional Intelligence. In Working with Emotional Intelligence, Goleman focuses on how the concept of emotional intelligence applies to the workplace in the form of what he calls "emotional competence." According to Goleman's theory, in today's rapidly evolving business world, emotional intelligence plays a more and more important role in predicting and achieving performance and success. Goleman even goes as far as to claim that emotional intelligence, at least when applied to the workplace, actually plays a more important role than both one's IQ and technical competence. (Goleman: 2000).

Using this theory, Goleman uses his book to offer the business executive, corporate leaders and individual employees advice on how one can learn to improve their levels of emotional competence. Goleman states that for business leaders, emotional intelligence is ninety percent of what sets one apart from a mediocre individual and thus emotional intelligence is an "essential ingredient for reaching and staying at the top in any field, even high-tech careers." Further, Goleman claims that organizations that "learn to operate in emotionally intelligent ways are the companies that will remain vital and dynamic in the competitive marketplace of today- and the future." (Goleman: 2000).

The book itself is based on Goleman's personal research of over 500 business organizations. His findings show that there are particular human attributes that indicate one's level of emotional intelligence. For example, trustworthiness is considered to be a central display of emotional intelligence. Further, Goleman offers a set of practices that assist with capturing these emotional intelligence traits, including: Act ethically, Respect and relate to well to people from other backgrounds." (Goleman: 2000).

Goleman is qualified to write this book because he is a Harvard Ph.D. graduate with an emphasis on the brain and behavioral sciences. He is the author of numerous best selling books on the topic, including being nominated for the Pulitzer Prize twice. He was previously awarded the American Psychological Association's Lifetime Achievement Award. Currently, he serves as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The overarching theme of Goleman's book is the role that emotional intelligence plays in the workplace. His approach is well researched and well rounded. Not only does he examine the benefits of emotional intelligence, he also examines the potential criticisms of his theory. The result is that the reader comes away with an in-depth understanding of the important and complicated role emotional intelligence plays in the business world. Further, many of the concepts discussed in Goleman's book are also touched upon and discussed, usually in similar ways, in the book entitled Organizational Behavior. (Kreitner: 2005).

According to both Goleman and Kreitner, emotional intelligence describes the skill, capacity or ability to assess, perceive and manage the emotions of one's self, along with those of others and of groups. Many researches believe that emotional intelligence is a cognitive ability and therefore measurable, just like intelligence. (Goleman: 2000; Kreitner: 2005).

To measure emotional intelligence, the researches and studies utilized in both texts talk in terms of an emotional intelligence quotient, or EQ. One form of measuring EQ is the Emotional Intelligence Appraisal, as developed by Bradberry and Greaves. This assessment measures self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management. (Stein: 1999).

On the other hand, the Genos EI model, which is more fully discussed in Goleman's text, measures behavioral components and is used as a workplace-specific emotional intelligence assessment. According to Goleman, this model measures seven dimensions in a 360 assessment, focusing on perceived behavior by self and by others. The seven dimensions include: emotional self-awareness, emotional expression, emotional understanding of others, emotional reasoning, emotional self-management, emotional management of others and emotional self-control. (Goleman: 2000).

In terms of emotional intelligence's use in the business world, Goleman argues that it is highly beneficial when emotional intelligence scores are used for performance appraisals and sales outcomes. Goleman augments this argument with data that demonstrate a solid correlation between emotional intelligence scores and performance levels and sales outcomes. For example, Goleman points to a case study involving Hallmark Communities. In this study it was found that sales staff who developed emotional intelligence were, on average, 25% more productive than their low EQ counterparts. Further, it was found the EQ was more important to executive job performance that character, strategic thinking and overall focus. (Goleman: 2000; Stein: 1999).

In another case study alluded to in Kreitner text that involved a multinational consulting firm, the senior partners with the highest EQ were responsible for $1.2 million more in profit annually. Further, high EQ partners consistently showed a 139% gain in profit. (Kreitner: 2005).

Goleman also bases his argument on the study of an international soft-drink corporation. In this study it was found that division leaders with developed EQ competencies regularly outperform their goals by more than 15%. On the other hand, division leaders who did not develop their EQ regularly missed their targets by 15%. (Goleman: 2000).

Finally, Goleman also points to the results produced by an independently conducted study by L'Oreal. According to this study, L'Oreal realized a $91,370 increase per person for salespeople hired based on EQ skills. The company also experienced a 63% decrease in turnover in their EQ hired sales staff. (Goleman: 2000).

On the other hand, as is clearly argued by the Kreitner text and only briefly touched upon by Goleman, critics point out that business can misuse EI assessments, utilizing the tests as a means of unethical discrimination to applicants and current employees. (Kreitner: 2005). It is found that workers and individuals with introverted personalities, including individuals suffering from depression or abusive backgrounds, are typically discriminated against based on EI. EI assessments and review screenings also create obstacles against people with various disabilities. (Mayer: 1993).

Based on a comprehensive reading and comparison of both texts as they apply to emotional intelligence, it can be seen that emotional intelligence is a power tool and character trait when applied to the professional world. On the one hand, corporate executives and managers, especially human resource directors, can utilize the theory of emotional intelligence when making hiring, evaluation and promotion decisions.

According to the research presented in both texts, emotional intelligence unarguably offers a telling method of both measuring and predicting an employee's performance level and thus success. Since an emotionally intelligent person exhibits certain characteristics, ones that correlate with high performance levels, when an employer is making a hiring, evaluation or promotional decision, they will want to look towards these characteristics. Those employees who exhibit the characteristics most often associated with an emotionally intelligent or emotionally competent individual will be, according to the research presented in the texts, more productive and more successful for the corporation. For these reasons, these emotionally competent employees will be hired, receive higher rates of approval on performance evaluations, and advance up the corporate ladder more quickly.