¶ … Nicholas Clarke, aimed at establishing a correlation between Emotional intelligence and behaviors of individuals during teamwork. In this study, specific stress has been levied on transition, action and interpersonal team processes. The findings of this research further helped in establishing an understanding that group / team effectiveness is dependent on variations in EI level of the team members. The research further stresses that a rather sophisticated model defining correlation between specific cognitive, verbal and behavioral teamwork activities is required to be developed (Clarke, 2010).
Through this literary work, Clarke has made an attempt to explain that assertions made regarding relationship between team performance and EI differentials are of a rather simple nature and a sophisticated model is required to establish a thorough understanding of relationship between two variables.
For this purpose, Clarke has based his argument on the fact that organizations have gone through laborious and extensive transitions over past two decades due to restructuring in models of team building adopted by these enterprises. Therefore, in order to achieve organizational objectives, it is important to gain an understanding of the variables related to team building due to their direct impact on individuals' as well as departmental performance. In order to make his point clear, Clarke has used various models and definitions of Emotional Intelligence such as Mayer et. al 2008, Jordan & Troth etc.
By defining various definitions of this aspect of human intelligence, Clarke has provided an extended view of literature available on this subject. He has also explained how different forms of literary work have lead to development of various tools required for the management of Emotional intelligence. Through these extended definitions, Clarke has also attempted to provide an integral view on this subject. Furthermore, Clarke has used various models for providing an extensive understanding of the literary conceptualizations on this topic. As per him, it is lack of coherence between these models which has lead to confusion regarding the nature of this construct and what it is constituted of.
The article begins by illustrating basic dimensions of EI for which Boyzatis and Goleman's work is used along with Clarke's own contributions. As per him, since there are various models existed related to EI and their lack of overlapping provide considerable variance on the subject. Therefore, due to low inter-correlation between EI and team effectiveness, further need for extensive and unified research emerges. Through this paper, Clarke further attempts to explain the variations between different conceptualizations existing on this subject. Hence, through this article, Clarke has made an attempt to provide a unified view of relationship between team effectiveness and EI; and for this purpose, Salovey and Mayer's (1990) ability model of emotional intelligence is used.
In the structure of the article, initially the summary of theoretical implications on the subject is presented, followed by impacts of EI on team building.
The article further explains the limitations of the earlier studies and provides a new methodology which can act as a substitute model for examining relationship between two variables. For the purpose of examining this relation, impacts of EI differentials, various processes related to team building are discussed along with different stages of team activity. This analysis is further followed by findings related to the emotional intelligence differentials of individual team members and the team building process involving transitional phases and interpersonal interactions.
Through this paper, Clarke has attempted to make a contribution to the literature which will help in delineation of conditions surrounding this subject. Limitations of individual EI models and need for future research has also been discussed in this article.
Question No.2
Major theories involved in this research were based on the work of Salovey and Mayer (1990) and Mayer et al. (2008). As per Clarke (2010), the main dimensions of the cognitive abilities governing EI are related to information processing in emotional context. Clarke predicts that higher levels of cognitive abilities (perceiving emotion; using emotions to facilitate thinking; understanding emotions; and managing emotions in oneself and others) are mainly dependent on simpler abilities such as verbal reasoning, trust, openness, agreement etc. Further predictions related to independence of Emotional intelligence from personality constructs and general intelligence.
The theoretical implications of this article also suggest individual behaviors in a life-time tend to show consistency with the construct's nature (in various domains) as per ability model. This investigation tends to predicts relationship between the construct and dimensions of social functioning, psychological well-being and a number of important work related outcomes, such as decision making and negotiation (Clarke, 2010). Clarke further suggests that simple behavioral dimensions...
provide a strong foundation for emotional dimensions governing relationships between EI and team's effective performance. He also stressed that basic foundations of interpersonal relationships such as trust and commitment also play a vital role in supporting team's effectiveness by enhancing coherence in EI levels of team members.
In order to support his view, Clarke has explained various ways through which the four emotional dimensions (perceiving emotion; using emotions to facilitate thinking; understanding emotions; and managing emotions in oneself and others) help individuals overcome EI differences e.g. knowledge of each other's emotional state will enable individuals to build bonds within the team. Such considerate attitude will further give rise to simpler dimensions such as trust, conflict management and closer cooperation. Clarke used the work of Jordan et al. (2002) to provide evidence that impacts of events on the emotions of team members will help the team predict the outcomes and considering these outcomes, tasks can be assigned accordingly. This is the reason why team members proficient in management and control of their feelings are expected to be suitable for generating motivations in other and managing conflicts.
In order to further predict the theoretical implications, Clarke used the previous researches. He explained how models based on input-process-outputs depict variations in overall teams' effectiveness. He also predicted the impacts of various cognitive, verbal and behavioral activities on team's cumulative objectives. Furthermore, the characteristics of the group itself tend to have an effect on these activities. Due to this assumption, it was emphasized by Clarke that in order to examine a relationship between team's effectiveness and emotional intelligence, impacts of EI on individual team processes should be evaluated.
Clarke further used the work of George (2000) to explain how feelings can affect problem solving, decision making and creative instincts. These personal traits may play a significant role in team processes associated with strategy formulation such as task planning and role allocation and those associated with goal specification.
For the purpose of developing a relation between emotional intelligence and team's performance, relationship between Emotional intelligence, action processes and interpersonal processes are evaluated. This analysis predicts that team monitoring is critically affected by emotional intelligence of the team as the individual needs of the team members will be well-known and understood. Similar consideration also affects the decision making process and assignments of tasks with varying deadlines to different members of the team. Also, it was stressed that Emotional intelligence abilities have been suggested as contributing to relationship oriented behaviors associated with attentiveness, showing consideration to other team members and encouraging them (Feyerherm and Rice, 2002).
Question No.3
In the research of Clarke, it was found that Transition and interpersonal process tend to have a significant impact of group's performance. However, not all the branches of EI were found to be effective in reaching this conclusion. Hence, certain behaviors were instigated by specific emotional abilities acting as the foundation of individual's behavior. In the transitional phase of team management, emotional ability appeared to have significant impact on perceiving emotions in own self and others. This finding is also well supported by previous researches related to this construct which emphasized on proving a relationship between EI and focus on team's objectives. It was also found that this knowledge of emotional intelligence can further affect the planning of team's work and assignment of tasks to the team members if understood in the preliminary phase.
Clarke's research showed that there was no significant relationship between transition processes and other dimensions of EI. This finding lead to a conclusion that other emotional abilities (other than perceiving emotions in one's self and others) has more significant role in overall management and performance of the team as it directly governs team's behavior. Personal ability of evaluating and understanding one's emotional state along with other member's feelings enables the team members to act according to their knowledge of emotional intelligence. Clarke further says that understanding of one's feelings along with other's emotional conditions plays a vital role in effective objective setting and transition planning. Hence, team members with greater ability of sensory awareness are found to be more able of engaging effectively with their teams, with the factor of general mental capabilities remained considered.
Clarke's research helped in reaching a conclusion that utilization of emotions to help in the thinking process and management of emotions in one's self and others are found to play a significant role in team processes. Hence, it was established that variations in emotional abilities tend to have a logical explanation for…
