Kreitner and Kinicki (2013) refer to EI as the ability to manage oneself and social relationships in mature and constructive ways. CI is another form of intelligence that represents the experience of common intelligence at work like memory, analytical skills, vocabulary, academic success and multilingual skills (Schaie, 2001).
It has been acknowledged that CI is important for achieving task goals that need individual wisdom, whereas emotional intelligence is a more relevant criterion for effectiveness where social interaction and leadership are required (Antonakis, Ashkanasy & Dasborough, 2009).
This essay will argue that EI is more important than CI for an individual’s success, especially in an organisational environment. Next few paragraphs will support this argument based on the characteristics of EI that directly influence on an individual’s success such as teamwork, job satisfaction, performance and leadership. It is difficult to define success because different people have different meanings for this terminology. Kreitner and Kinicki (2013) claim that it is not possible to define success for everyone because it depends on personal history, expectations, goals, dreams and opportunities.
Therefore, this essay is based on the assumption that in the organisational environment first layer directors, managers and CEOs are considered as the most successful individuals. Collaboration and teamwork are very important for the performance of an organisation as in most, if not all jobs; organisation members interact with supervisors, coworkers, support staff, and outsiders such as customers, clients, or patients. Farh, Seo and Tesluk (2012) conduct a research on a sample of 212 professional from various organisations and find that there is a strong relationship between EI, performance and teamwork.
The easiest way to understand the importance of EI and its relative advantage over CI is to consider an example from a specific industry. The example of Mr X and Ms Y who were working in the same IT department of a company is presented below (Dunn, 2012): “Mr X was brilliant in his field and the best IT person in the office as to technical skills, but his people skills were very low. He was abrasive, arrogant, short-tempered, and a perfectionist. Other people did not like to work with him, and he was unable to explain things in terms other people could understand.
Ms Y, who was also in the IT department, had average technical skills and a good education, though it was less than Mr X. However, her EI more than made up for this. She was able to handle herself and other people well and to explain things calmly and clearly. People loved to work with her and requested her by name. She received promotion after promotion because of her high emotional intelligence”. It can be easily observed from the above example that control over EI can overcome shortage of CI skills in many scenarios.
Therefore, EI skills are required to become a better team player, which is an initial requirement for success in a company. The topic of job satisfaction is very important for the success of an individual. Rue and Byars (2005) show that individuals with high level of job satisfaction have a tendency to exhibit higher level of commitment to their workplace. Self-efficacy (one key dimension of EI) contributes positively to job satisfaction by visualising success. People program themselves for success by enacting their self-efficacy expectations (Kreitner & Kinicki , 2013, p 127).
It is also a known fact (Boyatzis & Saatcioglu, 2008) that even with high levels of job satisfaction but dissatisfaction with the team in which an employee needs to work seriously affects the overall performance and success. EI comprises of those competencies that employees require to overcome such potential negative outcomes to positive organisational outcomes. Furnham, McClelland and Mansi (2012) conducted an interesting research which allows employees of the organisations to select their boss hypothetically on the basis of four factors (age, sex, EI and CI).
Results of this survey show that there is no significant preference for gender or age of a boss but a strong preference for high EI and CI, with EI more powerful that CI. EI helps individuals to achieve job satisfaction by controlling their negative and positive emotions. Furthermore, personal and social competencies can be developed through EI skills such as self-awareness, self-management, social-awareness and relationship-management.
Many researchers (Rao 2006) believe that professions with higher CI scores are not only successful individually but also have traditionally performed at the top level in all areas including business leadership. Colfax, Rivera and Perez (2010) negate this notion and illustrate that not all who have a high CI are successful neither not all those who are successful have a high CI. Bradberry and Grieves (2009) conduct a research and their calculations show that EI is “the single biggest predictor of performance in the workplace and the strongest driver of leadership and personal excellence”.
In addition, EI is a dynamic capability which continuously changing with time, perspective, individual or environment. However, “after the age of fifteen or so, CI changes little over the course of a lifetime. This means that one’s CI is the relatively the same at age fifteen, as it is at fifty” (Bradberry & Greaves, 2009).
Finally, EI is very vital for the professionals where individual performance is important, such as many sports like swimming, tennis, golf and racing.
In sports the influence of emotions are crucial to success, athletes also experience anxiety and stress when they try to reach a high performance (Mellalieu, Neil, Hanton, & Fletcher, 2009).
Eventually, athletes who control their emotions during stress perform better in the ground. Similarly, EI is equally important for the academic performance and real world stressful tasks. Self-awareness (a key EI dimension) is used for training individuals in stressful environment and professional coaches use this trait for better performance in grounds.
In conclusion, success is not easy to define and meaning of success varies individually based on personal history, expectations and dreams. Although, it is clear that teamwork, job satisfaction, commitment and emotional control are necessary characteristics for an individual for a successful career. These characteristics are achievable by learning and improving EI skills. Importantly, EI skills are not only required for group performance but also desirable for individual success. In contrast, CI does not change with age or experience. However, this is not the case with EI. Emotional competencies are learned and can be taught.
The mastery of EI skills evolve over a lifelong growth. The growth of one’s emotional intelligence can be seen as becoming more mature with age, experience and the willingness to change. Hence, based on the literature discussed, it can be easily concluded that EI is more important than CI in influencing an individual success. References Adrian, F, Alistair, M & Angela, M 2012, ‘Selecting your boss: Sex, age, IQ and EQ factors’, Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 53, no. 5, pp. 552-556. Antonakis, J, Ashkanasy, NM & Dasborough TM 2009, ‘Does leadership need emotional intelligence? , The Leadership Quarterly, vol. 20, no 2, pp 247-261. Barchard, KA & Hakstian, AR, 2004, ‘The Nature and Measurement of Emotional Intelligence Abilities: Basic Dimensions and Their Relationships with Other Cognitive Ability and Personality Variables’, Educational and Psychological Measurement, vol. 64, no. 3, pp. 437-462. Bradberry, T & Greaves, J, 2009, ‘Emotional intelligence 2. 0, California’, Talent Smart Brody, N 2004, ‘What Cognitive Intelligence Is and What Emotional Intelligence Is Not’, Psychological Inquiry, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 234-238.
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