Emotional Intelligence and Personal Power in Occupational Therapy
This paper examines the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and personal power within the context of occupational therapy in a nursing home setting. Drawing on research by Akerjordet and Severinsson, Barbuto and Burbach, Abraham, and Cherniss, the paper argues that specific emotional competencies — including stress management, optimism, social skills, and resilience — are critical predictors of professional performance and leadership in long-term care environments. The paper then applies Boyatzis' Five Discoveries framework to construct a self-directed learning plan, guiding the author through an honest self-assessment of emotional strengths and gaps, and charting a path toward greater emotional competence in a professionally demanding healthcare context.
- Introduction: Emotional Intelligence and Personal Power: EI origins, nursing home context, leadership connection
- Emotional Intelligence in Healthcare Contexts: EI competencies, job performance, occupational therapy
- Emotional Competencies and Job Performance: Research evidence linking EI to professional outcomes
- Self-Directed Learning Plan: Boyatzis Five Discoveries applied to personal growth
- Conclusion: EI development as ongoing professional commitment
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper integrates peer-reviewed research with first-person professional reflection, giving abstract concepts like emotional intelligence immediate clinical relevance.
- It applies a named theoretical framework — Boyatzis' Five Discoveries — systematically and concretely, moving from theory to personal self-assessment in a structured way.
- The author grounds each research finding in the specific demands of the nursing home setting, making the argument contextually coherent throughout.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates the technique of theoretical application: it surveys a body of literature on emotional intelligence, identifies its most relevant findings for a specific professional context, and then applies a practitioner-focused framework (self-directed learning) to translate that research into actionable professional growth. This approach bridges the gap between academic theory and practical healthcare competence.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a literature-grounded overview of emotional intelligence and its connection to personal power and leadership. A second section focuses specifically on emotional competencies and their measurable impact on job performance. The third major section applies Boyatzis' Five Discoveries step by step as a self-directed learning exercise. A brief concluding summary ties the self-assessment back to the broader argument about EI in healthcare. The structure moves logically from theory, to evidence, to personal application.
Introduction: Emotional Intelligence and Personal Power
The current field of discussion on emotional intelligence is an evolving one. Akerjordet and Severinsson (2007) place its initiation at around 1990, when a host of personality traits, behavioral patterns, and emotional response mechanisms previously considered unrelated were examined in relation to one another. This revelation promoted discussion on the catch-all construct we now call emotional intelligence. However, our empirical understanding of this concept still remains uncertain, subject to debate, and vulnerable to criticism. It is not entirely clear, in particular, how emotional intelligence relates to the concept of personal power.
From my position as an occupational therapist in a nursing home, there is a distinct interest in helping to redress the scarcity of available research on this subject by demonstrating the manner in which the emotional intelligence/personal power dynamic applies to my field of work. The nursing home is a working context where employees and patients alike are vulnerable to great psychological strain, and where such strain can have identifiably harmful effects on the quality of treatment and morale alike. This denotes the serious responsibility incumbent upon the occupational therapist to act upon the connection between emotional intelligence and personal power in order to influence positive performance outcomes. The discussion here therefore proceeds to assess personal power as a function of emotional intelligence, with the intention of validating the centrality of high emotional intelligence for competent work in the nursing home context.
This proposition is challenged by the relative newness of the subject matter. As Akerjordet and Severinsson explain, consensus on the value of emotional intelligence as a valid social or psychological construct has not been forthcoming. They report that "there is no agreement as to whether emotional intelligence is an individual ability, non-cognitive skill, capability or competence. One important finding is that, regardless of the theoretical framework used, researchers agree that emotional intelligence embraces emotional awareness in relation to self and others, professional efficiency and emotional management" (Akerjordet & Severinsson, 2007, p. 1405).
It strikes the healthcare worker as particularly important that a single construct can be used to correlate these various facets of human social competency. Considered in light of the compassion, ethical integrity, and selflessness which must enter into healthcare provision, there is a critical value in further elaborating on how these traits tie into professional qualification. Only those possessing certain emotional traits will be able to handle the rigors of regular exposure to the physical, psychological, intellectual, and functional deterioration of human beings. Within the scope of the long-term care setting, these emotional traits comprise the "personal power" to positively affect the experience of others. Akerjordet and Severinsson report that "there have been some interesting theoretical frameworks that relate emotional intelligence to stress and mental health within different contexts. Emotional learning and maturation processes, i.e. personal growth and development in the area of emotional intelligence, are central to professional competence" (p. 1405).
Beyond professional competence, the notion of personal power connects to the leadership implications of high emotional intelligence. Barbuto and Burbach (2006) conducted a survey of 388 respondents — comprised of 80 public officials and three to six staffers for each official — to draw a connection between leadership qualities during transformation and leadership emotional intelligence. According to the researchers, "the present results showed that the emotional intelligence of the leaders shared significant variance with self-perceptions and rater-perceptions of transformational leadership" (p. 51).
This suggests that, in the perception of both the leader and his or her followers, there was a connection between a positive capacity for transformational leadership and high emotional intelligence. Personal power, as manifested in leadership, may therefore be implicated by the shared perception of leader and follower alike. Barbuto and Burbach also concluded that emotional intelligence could be used as a predictive indicator for leadership outcomes.
This is a compelling concept as it relates to occupational therapy in the nursing home context. We can see a connection between the emotional acuity of leadership and its capacity to sustain the morale, culture, and environmental needs of residents and personnel. The long-term care setting offers an example of how a broad spectrum of ailments can be addressed under this theoretical framework, suggesting that emotional consistency helps the healthcare professional contend with the different challenges facing different patients. Consistent with the importance of genuine bedside attentiveness, it can be noted that the nursing home patient may experience a significantly higher quality of life when engaged socially, emotionally, and personally by the healthcare worker. This illuminates the centrality of a well-developed emotional intelligence on the part of the occupational therapist in helping to improve patients' quality of life.
There is an empirically demonstrated relevance to the presence of a strong support system in building and maintaining hope. In terms of the relationships which the patient is able to engage with those around them — whether with healthcare providers, family, friends, or some combination — there is an unquestionable benefit that reflects a determined interest in connecting with the world around the patient. This desire to resist isolation, even in the face of likely insurmountable medical conditions, is likely to have a positive impact on the physiological experience of the patient and, certainly, where a cure is not a reasonable expectation, this connection to the world demonstrates an interest in comfort even upon the approach of death. The mounting evidence that certain competencies within the scope of emotional intelligence may relate to job performance applies directly to this emotionally taxing context. The ability to manifest the personal power to meet the daily emotional challenges of this work is likely to distinguish the lifelong healthcare provider from one susceptible to job-related burnout.
References
6 Seconds. (2004). Benefits of emotional intelligence on life, education, business, and health. 6seconds.org.
Abraham, R. (2004). Emotional competence as antecedent to performance: A contingency framework. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 130(2), 117–143.
Akerjordet, K., & Severinsson, E. (2007). Emotional intelligence: A review of the literature with specific focus on empirical and epistemological perspectives. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 16(8), 1405–1416.
Barbuto, J. E., Jr., & Burbach, M. E. (2006). The emotional intelligence of transformational leaders: A field study of elected officials. Journal of Social Psychology, 146(1), 51–64.
Cartwright, S., Pappas, C., & West, B. S. (2008). Emotional intelligence, its measurement and implications for the workplace. International Journal of Management Reviews, 10(2), 149–171.
Caruso, D. R., Mayer, J. D., & Salovey, P. (2002). Relation of an ability measure of emotional intelligence to personality. Journal of Personality Assessment, 79(2), 306–320.
Cherniss, C. (1999). The business case for emotional intelligence. Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations.
Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2004). Primal leadership: Learning to lead with emotional intelligence. Harvard Business School Press.
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