The Role of Emotional Intelligence in the Working Groups and the Empowerment of Human Resources in Business
Dimaki Anthoula
PhD candidate. Department of Tourism Management. University of West Attica, Athens, Greece.
Abstract
Nowadays, companies recognize the fact that their human resources, should be efficient and should have social skills. Businesses are looking for working groups that are characterized by cohesion, efficiency and a high level of social intelligence. The harmony between its members and their interpersonal skills is very important for the team of a company as then its members can present their talents and use them for the benefit of the company. Emotional intelligence is a skill of the individual that contributes to his superiority, a fact that is also found in working groups. This paper is a review about the functioning of working groups in business and the role of emotional intelligence in this process. Also, the success of a work group is examined if it is related to the team emotional intelligence and its development in the workplace.
Keywords: business, human resources, work teams, emotional intelligence, team emotional intelligence
Introduction
An important requirement for any business is finding a high performing team. Man since prehistoric times still lived and acted in groups, a fact that significantly helped the survival of the human species. This particular and complex ability of collaboration is nowadays a topic of intense concern in modern organizations (Goleman, 2011). Some scholars of human evolution believe that when our ancestors began to organize themselves into groups and hunt for survival, social coordination greatly helped to achieve this goal. The basic skills for the survival of the human species were transmitted to children until the age of fifteen, since then the human brain matures anatomically. Surviving in a social environment helped the development of man's skills on a mental level as well (Jolly, 1966).
Human survival is due to the "team", whose members make it up and who cooperate in various daily processes for the purpose of survival, such as searching for food, neutralizing predators, raising children. Darwin had recognized that those groups of people whose members cooperate with each other, for the purpose of the common good, make their survival easier and with more offspring. On the contrary, people who live outside the group or with groups that are made up of members who only take care of themselves have difficulties in their survival (Goleman, 2011).
The present has been bequeathed from the past the "radar" for friendliness and willingness to cooperate, a characteristic that most people possess. Each person prefers to associate with people who have these characteristics rather than with people who are characterized by selfishness or untrustworthiness (Bower, 1995). Also, another human characteristic that is due to the past is an important anatomical development of the most superficial layers of the brain, specifically the neocortex , which enable humans to think and, by extension, to have the need for communication and coexistence with other people. To be able to function in a coordinated group, whether it is a group of primitive people or a working group of an organization, the person needs a high level of social intelligence, and in particular skills are required in managing relationships and the ability to "read" others (Cummins, 1997).
The cooperation of the Business Working Groups and its advantages
In modern businesses, and especially scientific ones, the achievements they achieve are the result of collective work. Coordinated and team efforts bring positive results for a business and it has been observed that people, a large part of the knowledge they possess about the subject of their work has been learned from others or in the process of working together with others. However, in order to achieve such a result, the person who belongs to a group within a workplace should have the ability to join it, which requires social intelligence and not only subject knowledge. As has been mentioned above in the field of business administration, to be able to perceive and "read" the human environment in which one works is a great advantage. Team dynamics play an important role in the smooth and successful operation of a business. It is important to have the ideal combination of personalities within a group in order to achieve the goal that has been set and to have communication between its members and the creation of shared experiences (Goleman , 2011).
Nowadays, in the workplace, each person possesses the knowledge, information and experience only for the subject of work with which he is engaged. This has led to a reliance on the mind of groups as we look to the group to gain knowledge, information and expertise. Gardener (1993) notes that the individual's intelligence is not limited to himself but extends, specifically in addition to the means that the individual uses in his work such as the computer and databases, he also relies on the network of colleagues, partners inside and outside the company and anyone else he may contact.
The mind of a group can be more intelligent than the mind of an individual, but the presence of emotional intelligence is also particularly important. The idea of group intelligence quotient has been developed from Wendy M. Williams and Robert J. Sternberg in 1988. In a study they carried out on the IQ of a group, it was shown that for the success of a group, two factors play an important role, the compatibility between the members of the group and interpersonal skills. They also concluded that individuals who lacked social skills and were unable to tune in to the environment and the emotions of other members were a barrier to group success, particularly when those individuals could not successfully communicate or resolve differences. It is important for a team to have at least one member with a high Intelligence Quotient (IQ), but it is not enough, as the team members should also match each other on other levels. In a group, there can be the case of the "worker beaver", which concerns the person who wants to control all the members of the group, with a strong despotic character, not allowing and not giving "space" to the others to contribute (Goleman, 2011).
A factor that plays an important role in the performance of a team, as well as in the performance of an individual, is motivation as if the members of a team were interested in its goals then they would exert more effort resulting in a better result. The performance of a group is safer to be predicted on the basis of its social cohesion and effectiveness than on the individual IQs of its members. When harmony prevails inside a group then the personal talents of each member find the "space" to appear and be used as best as possible and to the maximum extent (Goleman, 2011). In a study conducted on sixty work groups of a large American company active in the field of financial services, they demonstrated many factors which to some extent influenced the degree of effectiveness of the groups. But the factor that had the greatest weight in relation to the effectiveness of the groups was the human factor, specifically the way the members of a group interacted with each other and with those outside the group (Campion et al., 1996).
Those individuals who show the greatest performance within a working group have abilities that come from the main gifts that man has for harmonizing with his social environment. Table 1 shows three basic human abilities that, in the case of the person who possesses them to a developed degree, also show excellent performance within a group (Goleman, 2011):
Table 1: Human Skills related to individual success in a work group
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- CREATE LINKS- Cultivating functional relationships People with this ability:
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-COOPERATION AND TEAMWORK- Working with others toward common goals People with this ability:
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-TEAM SKILLS- Cultivating a spirit of cooperation in the team to achieve collective goals People with this ability
Source: Goleman, 2011: 298, 305, 312 |
Emotional intelligence is the element that contributes to the superiority of the individual and the same happens in groups. Other factors such as experience and intelligence play an important role in a team's success but they are not the factors that will lead a team to distinction. When a group has to make a decision, various issues arise related to the emotional intelligence of the group members. In particular, it has been observed that when a management group is called upon to make a decision and this group consists of people who possess three elements such as expertise, high cognitive abilities and the ability to see from different sides then it is very likely that the results will be very positively. But it is not enough that team members possess these characteristics but they should also be receptive to healthy interaction through open dialogue in the team so that suggestions and opinions of all members are critically examined. It is important to emphasize that in a working group achieving honesty from all team members is a particularly intense emotional issue. That is, if on the one hand all the members of the group quickly come to an agreement then there is a chance that the decision they will make is not the right one, while on the other hand if there are many disagreements then a break in the group can be caused. Having emotional intelligence is the "key" for a management team to be able to disagree, but the outcome of that dialogue is to find the team strongly united. The cohesion of a group and the transformation of a healthy disagreement into aggression are threatened when disagreements are transferred to a personal level, when a member of the group creates an aggressive atmosphere, or when a specific policy of manipulation exists. The conclusion is the handling of a disagreement within the work group depends on the fact, if its members possess emotional skills such as self-awareness, communication and empathy then it will be for the benefit of the group and if not then it will bring about negative results and rift between the members (Goleman, 2011).
High-performing working groups in most cases have at least one member with the ability to promote good cooperation among group members and is valued as a gift. People who possess this skill are especially valuable when the working group has to handle a complex project. Charismatic leaders manage to inspire the members of a group to strive towards a common goal and keep it together even when they experience setbacks. When a leader expresses his opinion first to his team about making a decision, then the rest of the team submits fewer ideas. On the contrary, when the leader of a group does not express his opinion from the beginning in order to impose it and simply helps the group in the process of making a decision and expresses it at the end then the decision that will be made will be better (Anderson & Balzer, 1991). In the case of self-managed teams in a study carried out in a large American company that provided services, it was found that the self-managed teams included in its workforce when they received suggestions or advice from their superiors then the results were not so good (Cohen et al, 1996). In many cases of self-managed groups, it was observed that those who did not have a supervisor performed better in their work than those who did (Beekun, 1989).
The characteristics of a successful Business Team
Daniel Goleman (2011) refers to the dynamics of a team, which when working at a feverish pace, is in a state of creativity to the point of surpassing itself as a "flow state". The characteristics of a working group that is in a state of flux are (Goleman, 2011: 328-329):
- Strong group loyalty: When group members have emotional bonds and interest in each other.
- Trust and unselfish cooperation: The members of a successful team are dominated by the feeling that they can rely on each other. In this case one person helps the other in his work and there is no self-centeredness.
- Wide variety of talent: A team is flexible and produces positive results when it is composed of people who possess a wide range of abilities. These different abilities extend from a technical level to the abilities that require emotional intelligence.
- Focus and passion: When a team focuses on a big goal that is demanding, then the rest of its members' lives are put on the sidelines in front of such challenge.
- View a formidable challenge or a superior mission. When a group works for an ultimate purpose that promotes its ideals and does not serve materialistic purposes.
- Really fun and satisfying work. When team members work with such intensity towards a goal that gives them satisfaction and the belief that they are part of a great success.
For the success of a group, some skills and abilities that may be possessed by its members are important such as persuasion, promoting cooperation, seeking contact, reaching consensus and finally a skill that is an important factor for the successful functioning of a group, empathy. Empathy, also in the case of groups, is a sign of emotional intelligence that promotes understanding and mutual help among members. When someone empathizes others, he can understand their way of acting and thinking and it is easier to cultivate personal relationships with them that lead to a better collaboration (Goleman, 2011).
Vanessa Urch Druskat and Steven B. Wolff developed the theory of Team Emotional Intelligence (TEI, previously called Group Emotional Intelligence – GEI) (Druskat & Wolff, 2001a, 2001b, Wolff, Druskat, Koman, & Messer, 2006). Team intelligence is the result of behavioral patterns or norms created during the performance of the task assigned to the group. Team Emotional Intelligence reflects the group's ability to develop a system of norms on which to frame emotional experience in a constructive way. Team emotional intelligence is structured at the group level and there is a difference with the individual emotional intelligence of the individuals who make up the group. Table 2 shows the nine rules that make up a team's emotional intelligence (the norm names were changed in 2017 and the table represent the old and new names). These rules direct the interaction of members within a group at the individual level, at the group level and finally outside the group. At these three levels there are rules that direct, so that the emotion in the group is perceived as well as the rules that direct its behavior (Vaxevanidou & Rekleitis, 2019; GEI Partners, 2017).
Table 2: Team Emotional Intelligence Norms
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3 LEVELS |
6 DIMENSIONS |
9 NORMS (OLD) |
9 NORMS (NEW) |
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INDIVIDUAL |
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behavior
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TEAM |
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CROSS-BOUNDARY (EXTERNAL) |
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Context
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Source: GEI Partners, 2017:1
The development of Emotional Intelligence in business
Kannaiah and Shanthi (2015) support the fact that the development of emotional intelligence and its abilities can be developed . They do not agree with the opinion of some researchers that emotional intelligence is an ability that a person is born with, otherwise he cannot acquire it in some way. Also, Goleman (2011) supports the fact that emotional abilities can be cultivated by following the right method, unlike IQ, Emotional Intelligence (EI) has the potential to improve as a person grows older. IQ in a person's life usually remains at the same level, unlike Emotional Intelligence it can be acquired and developed as time passes. As far as the two sexes are concerned, they can develop their emotional capacity to the same degree without being affected by the level they start at. However, a person may possess high emotional intelligence without necessarily having trained or mastered the emotional skills that are considered important for the workplace (Goleman 2011).
The development of emotional intelligence is a more complex process than technical training as it is a different case for the person to receive intellectual learning than to change behavior, so the training methods for each case are different. In the case of the person who seeks to acquire mental abilities, the educational process in a classroom is the appropriate way, as the theoretical approach to a subject and studying it once may be enough for one to learn it. Schooling is a process of accumulating knowledge and information. However, in the event that a person wishes to change behavior, then experientially he can achieve it, but it is a process that requires time and practice. In the case of learning an emotional skill, the individual's old habits should be abandoned and feedback from the experiences of the environment should take place, not just adding new information. A prerequisite for the cultivation of emotional intelligence is that the person can perceive and understand the basic rules that apply to behavior change. Otherwise, the effort to cultivate the emotional capacity will fail, which will cost the company time and money (Goleman, 2011). The studies that have been carried out on training for the development of emotional intelligence began to be carried out some years ago and there are examples that this training can be particularly useful and particularly for the development of groups (Vaxevanidou & Rekleitis, 2019).
Conclusion
The teams in a company are its operational base, their orderly and successful operation determines the success of the company itself. A particularly important characteristic of a working group that manages to work and carry out the tasks assigned to it successfully is that the personalities of its members create the ideal combination to achieve the best communication and harmonious cooperation between them. The person who belongs to a working group and has emotional intelligence possesses a set of abilities that contribute to a positive degree for the person himself and for the work group he participates in. The emotional intelligence of each person who is a member of a working group operates at a personal level and differs from team emotional intelligence which is formed at the group level. Emotional Intelligence of a team presents the capacity of self-awareness and self-management possessed by a working group and to what extent. A high level of group emotional intelligence results in a constructive functioning of the group even when there are disagreements among its members.
We therefore conclude from the above, that working group with high emotional intelligence have the ability to manage in a better way the emotional challenges and issues that appear between its members during their collaboration. Also, working teams with high emotional intelligence have the ability for their members to communicate successfully, develop trust among themselves, and manage conflict. Finally, it is very important for the management and human resources management of a company to develop human resources skills in order to strengthen the emotional intelligence of each employee and by extension the group emotional intelligence as this fact creates conditions for improving performance of the members of a group and the achievement of its goals. A working group with team emotional intelligence is able to create an efficient and healthy working environment, a requirement for any business that wants a successful operation lasting over time and the possibility of further growth of its turnover.
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