Europe’s Journal of Psychology 1/2009 www.ejop.org Emotional Intelligence and Work Performance among Executives

Preset study explains the performance of executives on different levels of emotional intelligence and provides a link between emotional intelligence and effective work performance. 20 Male executives (out of 200) within the age range of 40 to 55yrs. from BHEL (Haridwar) and THDC (Rishikesh) of Uttarakhand State (India) were selected. Emotional intelligence scale constructed by Dhar, Hyde and Pethe (2001) constructed and standardized on the Indian Population and work Performance rating scale constructed by Prof A. P. Singh and Prof D. M. Pestonje (for the Indian population) were used to measure emotional intelligence and work performance of executives. T-tests for independent groups were used to measure the mean difference between groups. The findings of the study revealed that executives having higher emotional intelligence show better quality of work performance as compared to their counterparts.

Intelligence Quotient (EQ), describes an ability, capacity, or skill to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of one's self, of others, and of groups.As a relatively new area of psychological research, the definition of EI is constantly changing.Goleman (1998, p. 317) defines EI as "the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships."Martinez (1997, p. 72) "refers to emotional intelligence as being: an array of non-cognitive skills, capabilities and competencies that influence a person's ability to cope with environmental demands and pressures" (cited in Dulewicz and Higgs, 2000, p. 342).Mayer and Cobb, 2000 explain that Emotional intelligence consists of these "four branches of mental ability" that is Emotional identification, perception and expression, Emotional facilitation of thought, Emotional understanding and Emotional management.
The high EI individual, relative to others, is less apt to engage in problem behaviors, and avoids self-destructive, negative behaviors.The high EI person is more likely to have possessions of sentimental attachment around the home and to have more positive social interactions, particularly if the individual scored highly on emotional management.Such individuals may also be more adept at describing motivational goals, aims, and missions.(Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2004, p. 210).
Emotional Intelligence is increasingly relevant to organizational development and developing people, because the EQ principles provide a new way to understand and assess people's behaviors, management styles, attitudes, interpersonal skills, and potential.Emotional Intelligence is an important consideration in human resources planning, job profiling, recruitment interviewing and selection, management development, customer relations and customer service, and more.
Goleman's has given an emotional competence framework model.Where emotional Competence is a learned capability based on emotional intelligence that results in outstanding performance at work.It leads to and based on emotional intelligence, a certain level of emotional intelligence is necessary to learn emotional competencies.For predicting the performance these competencies were needed to identify and measure.Emotional Intelligence by itself is probably not a strong predictor of job performance instead it provides a foundation for emotional competencies which are strong predictor of job performance.

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Our emotional intelligence determines our potential for learning the practical skills viz.personal skills and social skills.These skills lead to superior performance in field of work which based on the five elements: self-awareness, motivation, self-regulation, empathy, and adeptness in relationships.Our emotional competence shows how much of that potential we have translated into on-the-job capabilities." Emotional intelligence may contribute to work performance (as reflected in salary, salary increase, and company rank) by enabling people to nurture positive relationships at work, work effectively in teams, and build social capital.Work performance often depends on the support, advice, and other resources provided by others (Seibert, Kraimer & Liden, 2001).Emotional intelligence may also contribute to work performance by enabling people to regulate their emotions so as to cope effectively with stress, perform well under pressure, and adjust to organizational change.
Interpersonal facilitation pertains to interpersonally oriented behaviors that contribute to organizational goal accomplishment (Van Scotter & Motowidlo, 1996, p. 526).Emotional intelligence may contribute to the quality of people's relationships at work because emotions serve communicative and social functions, conveying information about thoughts and intentions, and helping to coordinate social encounters (Keltner & Haidt, 2001).Emotion-related abilities should help people choose the best course of action when navigating social encounters.For example, the ability to decode facial expressions of emotion can help one to evaluate how other people respond to one's words and actions, yielding important information for adjusting one's behavior (Nowicki & Duke, 2001).The ability to use emotions to guide thinking can help one to consider both emotions and technical information when evaluating an interpersonal problem.The ability to manage emotions should help individuals experience and express emotions that contribute to favorable social encounters, in part through emotional contagion (Hatfield, Cacioppo, & Rapson, 1994).
Despite important exceptions (Parrott, 1993), people are usually motivated to seek pleasant feelings and avoid unpleasant emotions.The ability to manage emotions can help people nurture positive affect, avoid being overwhelmed by negative affect, and cope with stress (Mayer & Salovey, 1997).Other emotional abilities, such as perceiving and understanding emotions, also contribute indirectly to the quality of emotional experience by helping people to identify and interpret cues that inform self-regulatory action.Therefore emotional intelligence should contribute to positive affect and attitudes at work.
A very recent and excellent review of the EI literature (Dulewicz and Higgs, 2000) demonstrates clearly that EI impacts on work success.Work success was defined in this review as advancement in one's work organization.Performance rating scale was constructed and standardized for Indian population by A. P. Singh and D. M. Pestonjee.Scale consists of 14 items to be responded at five point rating scale.Reliability of the scale is .99 and the validity of the scale is .84(N=200).

Results
Present study reveals that the level of emotional intelligence in executives relates with work performance.

Discussion
Emotional Intelligence can be beneficial in many areas of life; it calls for the acquisition of certain emotional skills.However, the application of its usefulness has been most frequently documented in the professional workplace.Organizations not only deal with material but also deal with peoples.The trust and credibility of a manager and the organization he or she is working will reflects its emotional intelligence level.Today's workplace emphasizes on better teamwork, flexibility and services.
Emotional intelligence uniquely explained individual work performance (simulated) over and beyond the level attributable to general intelligence (IQ) (Thi Lam & Kirby, 2002).Feist and Barron, 1996 concluded that emotional and social competencies were four times more important than IQ in determining professional success and prestige.
Based on the statistical analysis, the observations and inferences drawn are in favor of highly emotionally intelligent executives as their emotional competency is also high which consists of self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills, considered as the strong predictors of work performance.
Emotional competency gives them a realistic confidence to perceive challenges.As a result of this, they constantly grow and improve their quality, quantity, speed and the capacity of work, which can be illustrated from our results.Also it is found that the executives having high emotional intelligence show better quality, speed in work, more capacity of doing work as compared to their counter parts who are having low emotional intelligence.Study conducted by Goleman (1998) and Mayer, Selovey and Caruso (1998) also supports this result.They emphasize that emotional intelligence by itself is probably not a strong predictor of job performance, instead it provides foundation for emotional competencies which are strong predictor of job performance.They are more creative and practical towards emotional prompts elicited from the inner self and the immediate environment and try to manipulate the ongoing environment to their advantage by reacting appropriately which enhances their ability to handle different jobs, they take much care in handling company, and also have a better planning ability.
As they have developed an accurate and better vision for their task they are less dependable and are able to work properly even without supervision.This finding is supported by Stein, S. ( 2002) in a review article discussed about the EQ factor: The sample group scored slightly higher than average on total EQ.In order from most to least above the norms, the group scored above average on independence, assertiveness, optimism, self-actualization, and self-regard.
Emotional Maturity and Emotional Sensitivity is reflected in the behavioral pattern exhibited by the executives while dealing with the inner self and the immediate environment.Highly emotional intelligent executives have the ability to recognize different feeling.They have an adequate understanding of their own and others emotional make up to move people in the direction of accomplishing the goals.A cheerful executive communicates a message of confidence and self-respect.It's the ability to share and accept another person's feelings which help in having a good inter personal relations and the ability to get along with others.Research has shown that the primary cause of failures among executives was their poor inter-personal relations at the workplace.In a research done by Snarey and Vaillant, (1985) it is found that in determining the success IQ had little relation to workplace and personal success.More important was the ability to handle frustration, control emotions and get along with others.Research done by (Pool and Cotton, 2004) also support our results according to him possessing high level of EI permits individuals have a closer understanding of people and their surroundings.
Highly emotionally intelligent executives are more punctual and take maximum initiatives on the job, they put much amount of efforts to expend their job and have better work performance as compared to their counterparts.Results also favor the same and this finding was also supported by Len Tischler et al (2002) he examined the linking emotional intelligence, spirituality and work place performance and displayed a positive relationship between emotional intelligence and work place success and also by (Cooper and Sawaf, 1997;Gates, 1995;Megerian and Sosik, 1996;Wright and Staw, 1999) according to them Emotional intelligence has also evoked a keen interest among practitioners because of its wide applicability to a host of work place issues including job satisfaction, absenteeism, organizational -A sample200 Male executives within the age range of 40 to 55yrs, having graduation degree in engineering and master's degree in management, were selected from BHEL (Haridwar) and THDC (Rishikesh) of Uttarakhand State (India) on random basis out of which 20 executives ( 10 with High EI and 10 with Low EI executives) were selected.Mean and SD of the present study sample were 141.87and 12.26 respectively.One unit of SD above and below the Mean value set to categorized the executives high and low in EI that were154.12 and 129.61respectively.Tools Emotional intelligence scale constructed by Dhar, Hyde and Pethe (2001) is in Hindi language based on 10 factors having 34 items with reliability of .88 and validity .93standardized on Indian population.It is used to measure the level of emotional intelligence.The items of the scale are directly related to the concept of emotional intelligence.It includes self-awareness, empathy, self motivation, emotional stability, managing relations, integrity, self-development, value-orientation, commitment and altruistic behavior.

TABLE - 1
Mean and SD of high and low emotionally intelligent groups of executives on different dimensions of work performance.The 't' values are significant at .01 level for Quality of work performance, Speed on the job, Quantity of work, Capacity of work, Ability to work without supervision, Ability to handle different jobs, Ability to get along with others, Initiative on the job and Overall work performance dimensions of work performance.'t' value of Amount of effort expended on job, Care in handling company, Attendance and punctuality, Planning Ability dimensions of work performance are significant at .05 level.
**P > .01Difference between the mean scores of high and low emotionally intelligence executive groups on all the dimensions of work performance is in favor of high emotionally intelligence group of executive except for one dimension that is dependability.