Essay Undergraduate 374 words

Emotional Intelligence in Business: Models and Key Components

~2 min read

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of the emotional intelligence model, tracing its theoretical origins from early conceptions of general intelligence through Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences framework to the interpersonal and intrapersonal dimensions that underpin emotional intelligence. The paper examines how emotional intelligence has been adopted in academic and organizational settings, then argues that self-awareness — specifically, recognition of one's own cultural and psychological biases — remains the component most lacking among business professionals. The analysis highlights recruitment, performance reviews, and career development as contexts where this deficit is especially consequential.

📝 How to Write This Type of Paper Writing guide — click to expand

▼

What makes this paper effective

The paper builds its argument logically, moving from historical context (general intelligence and the g-factor) through Gardner's theory to emotional intelligence, creating a coherent intellectual lineage before making its central claim.
It distinguishes clearly between outward-facing applications of emotional intelligence in business ("getting to know colleagues") and the more demanding inward-facing practice of examining one's own biases, giving the argument a precise and defensible focus.
Concrete workplace contexts — recruitment, performance reviews, and career development — are cited to ground the abstract concept of self-awareness in recognizable professional situations.

Key academic technique demonstrated

The paper demonstrates synthesis and application: it draws on a cited theoretical source (Gardner, 1980) to establish a conceptual foundation, then applies that framework to a real-world professional context to support an original evaluative claim. This moves the writing beyond mere summary into analytical argument.

Structure breakdown

The paper opens by tracing the evolution of intelligence theory, introduces emotional intelligence as an extension of Gardner's interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences, then transitions to a critique of how business culture applies — or fails to apply — these ideas. The conclusion focuses the argument on self-awareness as the critical missing component, supported by specific workplace scenarios. The progression from theory to critique to recommendation is characteristic of a short analytical essay.

From General Intelligence to Multiple Intelligences

Emotional intelligence is an added component to Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences theory of human intelligence. Before Gardner, human intelligence was conceived of as a g-factor, or general intelligence factor. In other words, it was assumed that every person possessed a certain degree of intelligence that was equally applicable to all areas of his or her performance, whether verbal, quantitative, or otherwise. Howard Gardner, an educational theorist, proposed in 1980 his theory of multiple intelligences — the idea that someone could be highly gifted in one domain, such as music, while being less gifted in another, such as verbal expression.

Emotional Intelligence and Its Foundations

Emotional intelligence expands upon Gardner's concepts of interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence — the ability to understand how others think and the ability to understand oneself, respectively. Intrapersonal intelligence means that one understands how and why one thinks as one does, including an awareness of one's own biases. The theory of emotional intelligence holds that such intuitive and emotional intelligences are equally important as traditional "book smarts" — verbal, spatial, or quantitative ability — for success in life.

Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace

Although the theory of emotional intelligence has made inroads into academia — particularly in moral education at the primary level — adult professionals in competitive organizational environments are often judged by rigid criteria that bear little relation to their ability to relate to, work well with, or objectively evaluate their colleagues. Even when emotional intelligence is assessed in the workforce, it is rarely connected to self-examination or used to encourage workers to become aware of their own biases.

1 Locked Section · 80 words remaining

The Missing Component: Self-Awareness in Business · 80 words

"Self-awareness and bias recognition lacking in professional settings"

You’re 66% through this paper. Sign up to read the remaining 1 section.

130,000+ paper examples AI writing assistant Citation generator Cancel anytime

Key Concepts in This Paper

Emotional Intelligence Multiple Intelligences Self-Awareness Intrapersonal Intelligence Interpersonal Intelligence Workplace Bias G-Factor Performance Review Recruitment Career Development