Emotional Intelligence in Organisational Behavior: A Critical Review

This essay critically examines the concept of emotional intelligence (EI) within organisational behavior, exploring arguments for and against its existence and impact. It highlights EI as an individual's ability to perceive and manage emotions, linking it to leadership effectiveness and performance. The essay references studies supporting EI's biological basis and correlation with personality traits, while also addressing criticisms regarding its vague definition, unreliable measurement, and potential overlap with general intelligence. It concludes that EI remains a contested concept, with ongoing debate about its validity and significance in organisational settings. Desklib provides access to similar essays and study resources for students.

Running Head: ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOR 0
2019
Student name
3/25/2019
ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOR

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOR 1
Emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence is an individual’s ability to identify and sense their and other
emotions in order to manage that emotional information and clues. This has been considered as
one of the important traits for being a good leader, which can help them influencing others
emotions and can control or possess their emotions. There have been various studies or research
for critically analyzing the emotional intelligence and evidence for the same (Duncan, 2015).
Considering the case in favor of emotional intelligence would include the biological basis
of this theory. Some studies say that emotional intelligence is based on social and biological
factors. Moreover there has been various personality test to analyze the level of emotional
intelligence a person could have which will help him or her while working in an organisation or
help in the journey of being a leader (Edelman, 2017). For instance big five personality test or
Myer’s psychology reflect the existence of emotional intelligence among a person. In one of the
study it has been tested that than an individual with damage brain would not score low while
measuring intelligence as a bet the standard measurement; although they would get lower scored
on emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is based on intuitive appeal, where it has been
tested among partners in an organisation who has scored higher on emotional intelligence has
been able to bring and deliver more business in the firm. Moreover, the researches included that
the emotional intelligence predicts the aspects that would matter, for instance the evidence
reflected that the higher level of emotional intelligence among an individual would have an
ability to perform better on the job (Gabriel, 2016).
On the contrary, the case against the existence of emotional intelligence would include
that the researchers study that the concept of emotional intelligence is too vague. This means that

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOR 2
there have been seen different definitions of emotional intelligence and various means of
measuring. There are tests to reflect the level of emotional intelligence of a person, which is not
found to be reliable for the actual world as there, could be a problem of social desirability and
incorrect self-perception among an individual that could result into wrong information as per the
self-report. Another aspect that reflects against the existence of EI would be that it could not be
measured; this means that there has no proven study until now which could measure the accurate
results of the tests and that could only reflect the personality of an individual or general
intelligence. Another study says that it is a personality that has been given a different name that
is emotional intelligence. It has been observed that emotional intelligence is correlated to
emotional stability with the measure of personality (McCleskey, 2014).
Therefore, it can be concluded that emotional intelligence is a contradictory study where
some believe it exists and is one of the major aspects of the study of leadership effectiveness in
an organisation. While some studies believe that the concept is too vague, the test cannot be
reliable, and it is wholly based on behaviors and social factors and no scientific proof as IQ has
been found out yet for emotional intelligence.

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOR 3
Reference
Duncan, P. (2015). Emotional intelligence and personality predict conflict management style:
examining relationships and factor structures. Journal of Behavioral Studies in Business
Volume.
Edelman, P. (2017). Training leader emotion regulation and leadership effectiveness,. Journal of
Business and Psychology, 32(6), 747-757.
Gabriel, A. (2016). Enhancing emotional performance and customer service through human
resources practices: A systems perspective. Human Resource Management Review, 26(1),
14-24.
McCleskey, J. (2014). Emotional Intelligence: A review of the progress, controversy and
criticism. International Journal of Organisational Analysis, 22, 7693.