Emotional intelligence means the capability to comprehend one's personal emotions as well as of the others and regulating them well. Emotional intelligence permits one to function effectively at the workplace. Technical expertise and academic credentials alone are insufficient for people to succeed in their jobs. To accomplish the intended results, it is also critical to have strong interpersonal connections, self-control, and self-management skills. People who possess strong emotional intelligence are able to perform to the best of their abilities. The study aims at understanding the concept and significance of emotional intelligence at workplace. The study is descriptive in nature and is based on secondary data. The study infers that appropriately developed emotional intelligence improves interpersonal relationships at workplace and employee's performance. The study suggests that organisations should understand the importance of emotional intelligence and conduct workshops to enhance emotional intelligence of individuals working in different capacities in the organisations.
Top1. Introduction
Post Covid-19 era, technology and artificial intelligence has resulted in several transformations and challenges in work environment (Sharma et al., 2022). An individual is a part of society and his emotional intelligence has a great role in maintaining social relationships. Emotional intelligence becomes all the more important at the workplace (Bhardwaj et al., 2023b). Emotional intelligence is described as an individual’s ability to recognize, comprehend and manage his emotions in order to have more valuable control over himself and their impact on others (Goleman,1995). Understanding employee's emotions is also important for their retention. If not managed well they may leave the organization or even migrate out of the country as well (Bhardwaj & Sharma, 2022; Bhardwaj, 2021). A person is required to perform a number of job duties under different situations. Emotional intelligence helps in performing them well. Job duties also necessitate a person to have interactions with other people like colleagues, superiors, subordinates and in some cases with customers or clients (Bhardwaj et al., 2023a). For this, his emotional intelligence helps him to analyze and understand the situations and viewpoints of others and consequently, helps him in maintaining good relationships with them.
Academic skill and technical expertise are not sufficient to be successful in professional life. Self- awareness, self-management and control and effective interpersonal relationships are equally important to achieve the desired goals which may be personal or organizational.The impact emotional intelligence can have on work life is potentially huge. It gives one a competitive edge at work and makes work life considerably more enjoyable (Fernandez, 2007).
Emotional Intelligence allows more creative thinking and use of emotions to resolve problems. A person with emotional intelligence is adept in four domains. He is capable of recognizing emotions, using emotions, comprehending emotions, and managing emotions in the best interest of himself and others. Some authors opine that emotional intelligence is an inborn attribute while some other authors advocate that it can be learnt and strengthened. Payne (1985) claimed suppression of emotion is the main cause of many problems in modern civilization and it is possible to learn how to become emotionally intelligent to overcome these problems.