Emotional intelligence concepts and applications

Emotions

Managing emotions in an organization is a challenge, for a number of reasons, and many organization prove ineffective at this. There are several possible reasons. One is that the emotions themselves can be quite complex, varying between individuals and even within an individual over time. For a single individual to manage their own emotions is a challenge, much less a third party (like a manager) trying manage the emotions of multiple individuals simultaneously. People typically have multiple emotional roles, and this can affect them in the workplace, especially where there is an element of role confusion, such as being asked to work overtime on a stressful project at a time when they are needed at home (Wharton & Erickson, 1993).

Organizations can also struggle in dealing with emotions in the workplace because they fail to place sufficient emphasis on developing emotional intelligence in the workplace. Managers are often selected, in many companies, for their technical abilities rather than for softer skills such as conflict resolution and emotional intelligence. Compounding the issue is that few companies offer any sort of training on these things. If managers come into their roles on the basis of expertise and systems management, they are ill-equipped to deal with conflict resolution and may have low emotional intelligence, yet most companies lack training programs to upgrade these critical skills. The result is that the organization is unable to handle emotions effectively both at the individual and collective levels (Jordan & Troth, 2009). Thus, the ineffectiveness that some organizations show with respect to managing emotions seems to relate to a lack of emphasis on understanding the roles and manifestations of emotions in the workplace, leaving managers with little understanding of the issue and little latitude to work with emotions in a positive way. They become attached to systems that might not reflect emotions well, and are unable to deal with emotional aspects of decision-making and problem-solving. Organizational emphasis on emotions would help to resolve many of these issues.

2.

The modern workplace is comprised of people from many different cultural backgrounds, which can lead to a high level of differences with respect to the outcomes associated with outward emotional expression. Research has long sought to understand if emotions exist within or without cultural context. Wierzbicka (1986) sought to determine a framework for understanding the different emotions to see if there were universal truths. However, there is a cultural dimension to the outward expression of emotion. Different dimensions of emotional intelligence are affected by culture, in particular the elements of uncertainty avoidance, collectivism and long-term orientation (Gunkel, Schlagel & Engle, 2013). Outward emotional expression is preferred where uncertainty avoidance is high, so that everybody knows what is on the table, so to speak. A long-term orientation is also correlated with outward emotional expression because the costs of outward expression are not high -- it is not risky. In cultures where outward expression can carry high social and professional costs -- North America, Japan, China and northern Europe -- emotions are usually reserved in the workplace. In southern Europe, India, Arab countries and Latin America, the lack of costs of outward emotional expression allow for more such expression.

So for strategic use of emotional expression, this is very culturally-dependent. In most business cultures, emotions are kept to a minimum, and must be read through context. There are very few world-caliber poker players in the boardroom -- most people's emotions are on display in some way, even if they are restrained from direct expression. It simply takes a knowledge of cultural context to understand how somebody feels, and good emotional intelligence to recognize the signs. In that way, covering true emotions does not necessarily cause more problems because most people are pretty easy to read anyway. Overt expression of emotion, on the other hand, can lead to destructive conflict because the issue at hand gets lost in the emotion of the moment, especially when some of the people involved are not accustomed to emotional displays.

3. I have never really worked were emotions were part of the management style. That is really not part of any organizational culture of which I have been a part. I feel that there are advantages to this approach, because you have to take the long-run into consideration. Emotions come and go, but there can be damages from outbursts, and those damages might be long-lasting. There is one big advantage, however, to the use of emotions in management, and that is people with low EQs can still understand what is going on. People who lack emotional intelligence are apt to either misread subtle signs or be oblivious to them. The result is that a workplace with low emotional display can really lay the groundwork for major problems, where something has built up over a long time and things explode. Such a workplace can be toxic for a while, because emotional issues are never really identified, much less resolved.

4. The reason that coworkers and managers are the biggest cause of negative emotions than customers is that there is a long-term relationship there. A bad customer will disappear within minutes or at worst, within days. Coworkers and managers are there long-run. Some workers have been more conditioned to negative emotions from managers, because of the hierarchy, but few are willing to accept negative behavior from co-workers.

Laura's company first needs to recognize the emotional climate but then it needs to remedy things. At this point, people need to put their issues on the table. The caveat being then when the issues are tabled it needs to be in a solution-oriented manner and not in an "airing of the grievances"-type manner. People can be encouraged to talk about their emotional state, but not to get into an emotional state by talking about the things that drove them to that place. The reason for this is that emotions often mask underlying issues, perhaps things like trust and respect, so it is important for all of the issues to be raised by discussing emotions and issues openly and honestly. The discussion needs to be mediated by somebody with a high EQ, however, to ensure that it stays on track.