Use of Emotional Intelligence in Human Resource Management in Healthcare Organizations for Competitive Advantage: A Systematic Literature Review

Introduction

Since its popularization around three decades back, the concept of Emotional Intelligence (EI) has largely taken the management world by storm. Its value-addition in organizations has been greatly eulogized with claimed benefits ranging from manager competence and employee well-being to enhanced organizational performance (Grossman, 2000). It is surprising then, that the claimed benefits have neither managed to sway more Healthcare (HC) managers into incorporating it within their organizations, nor into making more efforts towards understanding it as a concept (Gilmartin & Aunno, 2007). Healthcare Organizations (HCO) are by nature, steeped in complexity. Critical decisions need to be taken on an evolving basis; interpersonal communication is crucial; the margin for errors is low and there is no room for fatigue and emotional exhaustion. The need for emotional labor only adds to challenges that are faced by HC personnel (Erickson & Grove, 2008). Another noteworthy change that has occurred with time is that patients’ have become more aware and demanding of their rights as ‘consumers’ (Copperman et al., 2012). Not surprisingly then, extant healthcare literature is rich in studies that document the increasing stress levels in personnel and its resultant consequences like burnout, negative attitudes, inappropriate behavior and inharmonious relationships (Magnavita, 2014). However, research exploring the benefits of applying EI to counteract the professional challenges is scarce. Nonetheless, among the studies that do broach this topic, there is a near unanimous agreement that EI significantly impacts HC outcomes like improving the quality of caregiving, reducing medical errors, and improving patients’ perceptions of doctors’ attitudes (Newton, et al., 2016; Rosenstein, 2015). It boosts trust-building and loyalty in the doctor-patient relationship (Nightingale, et al., 2018). It stands to reason that these will result in greater patient-compliances and revisits. Logically, far more attention should have been paid to EI by the HC sector than has been seen hitherto. The motivation behind this study stems from the fact that despite mounting empirical evidence of the benefits of EI application in organizations, the HC sector has still not been adequately studied in this regard (Gilmartin & Aunno, 2007). Further, there has been a skewed representation of HC-related stress in existing literature. The numerous deleterious consequences of stress have been extensively reported but the psychological resources that can overcome these consequences have hardly been discussed. In the current scenario, it appears as if the problem has been paid far more attention as compared to the efforts being made towards finding solutions. This linear representation of medical stress is at odds with various theoretical frameworks that challenge a unidimensional depiction of stress and highlight the role of “individual resources and appraisals” that determine personal and professional outcomes. Some popular theories are: the job-demands-resource theory (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007), Lazarus’ transactional theory of stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), job-demand-control-support theory (Karasek & Theorell, 1990), challenge-hindrance stressor theory (Cavanaugh et al., 2000), Holahan and Moos’s (1987) coping theory, holistic stress theory (Simmons & Nelson, 2007), Hobfall’s (1989) conservation of resources theory, and Fredrickson’s(1998) broaden-and-build-theory (1998).The commonality in all these theories is the emphasis placed on the power of personal resources in dealing with stressors. Stressors themselves are neutral. They can be either advantageous or disadvantageous. This is where emotional intelligence comes into play. Emotional intelligence is the capacity to be aware of one’s own as well as others’ emotions, manage one’s emotions and interpersonal relationships (Salovey& Mayer, 1990). This is a powerful psychological resource that helps individuals overcome professional stressors (Newton et al., 2016). The key operating mechanism through which this occurs is through positive emotion regulation engendered by EI (Szczygiel & Mikolajczak, 2017). In the face of unavoidable job-stressors, it is still possible that employees maintain emotional equilibrium by drawing upon inner psychological resources and deliberately enhancing positive emotions and downplaying negative ones (Gross, 1998). Meta-analyses confirm a positive correlation between EI and intentional modulation of positive emotions (savoring) and suppression of the frequency of negative emotions (dampening) (Quoidbach et al., 2010). In the HC sector, however, the lack of comprehensive studies makes it difficult to reach indubitable conclusions. The purpose of this work is to review and highlight the potential benefits of incorporating EI skills-both from the Human Resource Management (HRM) perspective as well as healthcare-outcomes’ perspective and offer ways in which the EI concept can be disseminated more widely within organizations. The authors assert that such work is essential because stress is inherent to the nature of the HC profession and this cannot be changed. It would be better to devote energies towards finding ways in which employees can build personal resources to combat stress “as a resistance armamentarium” (Hobfall, 2002, p. 312). EI can be one such powerful personal resource. With EI training, personnel can learn to appraise their jobs better, regulate their emotions and enhance their subjective well-being. For managers, it can be a boon in managing employees with the desired empathy and sensitivity. For HCOs as a whole, it can result in greater patient visits, a strengthened workforce and become a competitive advantage. Seeing the multifarious benefits, there is a need to include EI competencies in current HC practices.