Five Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence

Modern view for Intelligence is not only limited on cognitive ability, but also on social intelligence, emotional intelligence, or practical intelligence or what scholars refer to as "street smarts" which indicates that an individual is not limited simply because he or she has a below average academic intelligence or IQ.

Researchers define the Emotional Intelligence as intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences for the basis to make a conceptualization of EQ. Whereas intrapersonal intelligence is the ability to understand one's own emotions, interpersonal intelligence is one's ability to understand the emotions of others.
Goleman (1998) in his book Working with emotional intelligence. (New York: Bantum Books), found that EQ is twice as important than technical skills and IQ for jobs at all levels. He also reported that emotional intelligence plays an increasingly important role at the highest levels of a company. When he compared "Star performers with average ones in senior leadership positions, nearly 90% of the difference in their profiles was attributable to emotional intelligence factors rather than cognitive abilities".

Emotional intelligence refers to one's ability to be aware of one's own feelings, be aware of others' feelings, to differentiate among them, and to use the information to guide one's thinking and behavior. This definition consists of three categories of abilities: evaluation and expression of emotion, regulation of emotion, and using emotions in decision making. Other definition of EQ is "the capacity for organizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships".
It appears that EQ relates to a number of non-cognitive skills, abilities, or competencies that influence an individual's capacity to deal with environmental demands and pressures.

EQ at work is a multidimensional construct consisting of five components, such as self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.

1. Self-Awareness is associated with the ability to be aware of which emotions, moods, and impulses one is experiencing and why. This also includes one's awareness of the effects of his or her feelings on others.
2. Self-Regulation refers to the ability to keep one's own emotions and impulses in check, to remain calm in potentially volatile situations, and to maintain composure irrespective of one's emotions.
3. Motivation represents the ability to remain focused on goals despite setbacks, to operate from hope of success rather than fear of failure, delaying gratification, and to accept change to attain goals.
4. Empathy refers to one's ability to understand the feelings transmitted through verbal and nonverbal messages, to provide emotional support to people when needed, and to understand the links between others' emotions and behavior.
5. Social Skills is associated with one's ability to deal with problems without demeaning those who work with him or her, to not allow own or others' negative feelings to inhibit collaboration, and to handle affective conflict with tact and diplomacy.

There are significant inter-correlations among the dimensions of EQ. These interrelationships should be explained so that leaders and managers can improve and use appropriate dimensions of EQ to increase their subordinates’ conflict management strategies and performance. It is possible that a change in one of the dimensions of EQ may affect other dimensions of EQ. Knowing how the various dimensions of EQ influence each other is important as each dimension may influence outcomes, not only directly but also through the mediation of its effects on other dimensions of EQ.


Source : The International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 2002, Vol. 10, No. 4, pp. 302–326
A MODEL OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES: A STUDY IN SEVEN COUNTRIES, M. Afzalur Rahim, Center for Advanced Studies in Management, Clement Psenicka, Youngstown State University



In order to understand the emotional processes and deal with them effectively, we can review the model of emotional intelligence and conflict management strategies. From the model, one needs to have self-awareness and self-regulation. Empathy and social skills involve one's ability to perceive others' emotions, feelings, and needs and help others to regulate their emotions to achieve desirable goals. Motivation is needed to help an individual to remain focused for attaining goals. Several studies reported that self-awareness is an essential ability for enhancing managerial effectiveness.
Self-awareness is also a prerequisite for self-regulation, empathy, and social skills.
In workplace self-awareness positively influences self-regulation, empathy, and social skills; and self-regulation, in turn, influences empathy and social skills. Motivation is necessary for attaining goals so that social competence, such as empathy and social skills, help an individual to remain focused and attain goals.

But in some cases, negative relations among these dimensions are possible. For example, self-awareness may decrease motivation in situations where one realizes that goal attainment is difficult or impossible.

Supervisory Power

It is often that employee leave the job not because they do not like the job, but merely because they do not like the boss/ supervisor. Their intention to leave the job is increasing as they have unavoidable conflict with the supervisor, or maybe because the managers act bossy and forgetting to strike a balance between reward and punishment. This article discuss on the supervisory power, conflict/ problem solving and intention to leave the job.
Power is defined as the ability of a party to modify or control the behavior, attitudes, opinions, objectives, needs, preferences, and values of another party. Several classifications of leader or supervisory power have been set forth, but the bases of power taxonomy suggested by French and Raven (1959) in their writing on The bases of social power. In D. Cartwright (Ed.), Studies in social power (pp. 150–167. Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research).

The French–Raven power bases can be classified as Position and Personal Power Bases.
Position Power Bases:

1. Coercive power is based on subordinates' perception that a superior has the ability to punish them if they fail to conform to his or her influence attempt.
2. Reward power is based on the perception of subordinates that a superior can reward them for desired behavior.
3. Legitimate power is based on the belief of the subordinates that a superior has the right to prescribe and control their behavior.

Personal Power Bases:

1. Expert power is based on subordinates' belief that a superior has job experience and special knowledge or expertise in a given area.
2. Referent power is based on subordinates' interpersonal attraction to and identification with a superior because of their admiration or personal liking of the superior.

Position Power. Managers may be encouraged to provide various kinds of performance contingent rewards to their subordinates. This can be done by granting managers for the power they need to reward subordinates for their contributions to the organization. In order to use this power effectively, the supervisors will require appropriate training. Supervisors can increase their legitimate power if they follow policies and procedures consistently and provide instructions, guidance, and advice unambiguously.

Personal Power. The challenge of the contemporary organizations is to enhance managers'
personal power base. Unfortunately, there is no easy way of achieving good results in this
respect. In order to obtain desired results, there have to be changes at the individual and
organizational levels. Improving managers' expert power would involve basic education and
specific job-related training. Managers should also be encouraged to enhance their skills through continuous self-learning. They may also need appropriate job experience to build on this power base. Supervisors who are deficient on referent power base may be provided human relations training so that they learn to be empathetic to the subordinates' needs and feelings, treat them fairly and ethically, and present their interests to higher level managers when there is a need to do so. Organizations should provide appropriate reinforcements for learning and improving their referent and expert power bases. Education and training may be of limited value when it comes to improving referent power base. Organizations may have to adapt the policy of recruiting managers with vision and charisma who are likely to bring an adequate referent power base. The challenge of the contemporary organization is also to encourage the use of the problem solving strategy of handling conflict with supervisors. Employees should also be trained not to engage in win−lose or bargaining strategy of managing conflict. This can be done by strengthening the integrating conflict-management style and discouraging the use of an avoiding style. To attain this goal, training in conflict management of employees and supervisors and
appropriate changes in organization design and culture would be needed.

Researchers suggested ways of using power bases in combination because it is believed that one power source may evolve into another. A change in the perception of one power base may affect the perceptions of other power bases. Knowing how power bases influence each other is important as each power base may influence outcomes, not only directly but also through the mediation of its effects on other power bases. The position power base influences the personal power base, which in turn, influences criterion variables. Supervisors who use a performance-contingent reward power base as well as the legitimate power base may be perceived by their subordinates as competent as well as friendly, considerate, and fair.

Managers with referent power make meaning for others and give them a sense of purpose. They are able to generate trust, openness and respect by using these same qualities in their interactions with others. Without these, leadership qualities associated with referent
power, other power bases may not be very effective in changing the behaviors of subordinates. In general, managers should be discouraged from using coercive power except under special circumstances. Guidelines for the use of performance-contingent coercive power by supervisors should be clearly spelled out by an organization. Failed in implementing this coercive power properly may increase the intention of the employees to leave the organization. The perception of subordinates of their supervisors' use of reward, legitimate, expert, and referent power bases may have a positive impact on the subordinates' problem solving conflict-management strategy and may reduce the intention of the employees to leave a job.

Therefore, the challenge of a contemporary organization is to enhance these power bases of their managers. Managers may be trained to use their position and personal power bases effectively so that their subordinates are encouraged to use more integrating and less avoiding styles (i.e., problem solving strategy) of handling conflict with supervisors and to reduce the intention to leave a job.