Emotional Intelligence a Critical Factor in Organizational Performance

Introduction

Despite the growing interest in recent years in emotional intelligence (EI) within the managerial literature, too little has been written about EI within state-owned or the public sector. This is surprising in light of new public management voices that stress flexibility, responsiveness, and a focus on the needs and demands of citizens (Vigoda‐Gadot & Meisler, 2010) particularly for creating excellence and enhancing performance. Creating a culture of excellence in organizational performance is dependent on several factors, like government policies, organizational culture, effective management, and better human resources management which necessitate dealing with EI. EI or individual emotional quotient has a direct relationship to work and organizational effectiveness and in particular to excellence in jobs of all kinds (Goleman, 1985). Wider areas of intelligence enable or dictate how successful employees are toughness, determination, and vision help. But emotional intelligence, often measured as an emotional intelligence quotient, or EQ, is more and more relevant to important work-related outcomes such as individual performance, organizational productivity (Serrat, 2017). EI therefore is an increasingly important consideration in human resource planning, job profiling, recruitment interviewing and selection, learning and development, and client relations and customer service, among others. Further, EI has been identified as a key competency for successful organizational performance in life as well as in the workplace. Other studies also suggest that there is a relationship between high absenteeism, burnout, high turnover, and EI in turn can be linked to organizational performance.

Over the years, researchers have become fully aware that cognitive intelligence is not sufficient to measure organizational performance. They discern another type of intelligence which is called EI. The term “EI” was first coined by Mayer and Salovey (1990) which calls attention to one's capacity to be conscious, process and regulate emotional information correctly and successfully, both within oneself and in others and to use this knowledge to guide one's thinking and actions and to have an effect on those of others. Bar-On (1997) posits that people with higher EI perform better than those with lower EI in life overall, regardless of their cognitive intelligence. Goleman, (1995) also states that. EI has been recognizing as a fundamental competency for successful performance in life as well as in the workplace.

According to Pekaar, Bakker, van der Linden, & Born (2018), in previous research studies EI has been associated with both intrapersonal and interpersonal benefits, including mental and physical health, work organizational performance, and the quality of social interactions. Intrapersonal refers to the emotions of the self and the ability to remain emotionally and physically healthy, productive and fulfilled, while interpersonal relates to understanding how other people's emotions and learning effectively interact to enjoy and benefit from having positive social relationships. Creating a culture of excellence in an organization is dependent on several factors, like government policies, organizational culture, effective management, and better human resources management, which necessitate dealing with EI. Moreover, the work conducted in most organizations has changed dramatically in the last 20 years. Of course, there are now fewer levels of management and management styles are less autocratic. But there has also been a decided move toward knowledge and team-based, client-oriented jobs so that individuals generally have more autonomy, even at the lower levels of organizations. Since modern organizations always look to improve performance, they recognize that objective, measurable benefits can be derived from higher emotional intelligence. To name a few, these include increased sales, better recruitment and retention, and more effective leadership (Serrat, 2017). Because of its impact on job performance, decision-making processes, and interpersonal relations, EI is highly significant for organizational psychology, especially in personnel issues (such as recruitment or promotion) and career counseling.