Emotional Quotient

Running head: The effects of EQ The effects of Emotional Quotient on our life By Phan Thi Ngoc 20136125 TA1.05 – K58 School of Foreign Languages Hanoi University of Science and Technology The effects of Emotional Quotient on our life In recent years, the study of Emotion Quotient (EQ) has been a popular topic in many fields of life such as sociology and psychology. The concept of EQ began to be explored in academic articles in the early 1990s, and was popularized in 1995 by Daniel Goleman’s book, Emotional Intelligence: Why It can matter more than IQ. EQ is defined as the ability to monitor, and control one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions. It also refers to how we manage ourselves, our relationships; how motivated we are; how we can handle stress feelings effectively and so on. Akers and Porter (2007) stated that “IQ alone is not enough; EQ also matters. In fact, psychologists generally agree that among the ingredients for success, IQ counts for roughly 10% (at best 25%); the rest depends on everything else—including EQ.” Then, EQ has significantly effects on every area of our life. EQ predicts good achievements at school because it moderates the relationship between academic performance and cognitive skills which refer to the abilities to gain knowledge from experience, think about new information, process and then apply it to others. It is more than learning from books. In a study conducted by Shipley, Jackson, and Segrest (2010), it was thought that EQ had the close connection to academic performance for two reasons. First, academic performance includes uncertainty of meaning, which cannot defined clearly. At university, students have to manage many subjects with a lot of assignments, create the harmonization for activities both inside and outside the classroom. They are also required to adapt to environment demands such as different teaching styles, expectations of instructors, and work on their own to accomplish the goals. Most aspects of academic work can make them feel stressful, especially taking exams. Second, the majority of academic work is self-directed, and it is necessary for students to have ability of self-management about plan, time (as cited in Rode et al., 2007). As a result, understanding the causes and effects of various emotions plays an important role of EQ. Individuals with high level of EQ have self-awareness (understanding their current mood, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses, recognizing their interests and preferences), and they will use these skills effectively in regulating their own academic work as well as life. Besides, they are able to keep positive emotions and put away negative emotions, which can help them have an optimistic outlook. That is why they are always highly energetic to have excellent performances at school over long periods of time. There is also an interplay of EQ with some soft skills in academic work such as public speaking, group behavior effectiveness, building relationships with other people. Seal, Naumann, Scott, and Royce-Davis stated that it refers to the abilities “ to understand the intensions, motivations, and desires of other people and, consequently, to work effectively with others.”(as cited in Gardner, 1983, p.43) and “ the propensity to influence others by seeking leadership opportunities and motivating others to change.”(2011). The college campus provides environment for social interactions, and being successful, students need to be completely engaged emotionally and socially with their peers, teachers, and other members of campus. Thus, emotional development is a vital element of value to academic performance. About ninety percent of issues we discuss involve self-awareness, connection to others, consideration of others – or more exactly, a skill has close bond with EQ which also has enormous impacts on job performance (Cooper, 2013). In the workplace, mood is one of the most important elements. Moods describe how people feel about their daily lives, such as communication with others; and inform to people about experiences and general state of being. McLaughlin (n.d.) identify that “moods have an independent and incremental effect on performance – even when incorporating well-known and researched variables such as team cohesion, task conflict, and interpersonal conflict; in addition, they demonstrated that moods have a strong impact on these group processes”(as cited in Humphrey 2006, p. 180). Moods have been found to have impacts on job performance in both positive and negative way. McLaughlin (n.d.) indicated positive moods led to more positive judgment and vice versa, which explained how individuals’ emotions can change decision making and judgment (as cited in Forgas, 1990). As a result, mood potentially mediates the relationship between EQ and job performance. In reality, especially, business world requires widely interaction people have adjust in the right way. For instance, in the salemanship, the salepeople are required a high level of emotional labor, they have to stay polite and friendly to customers even if they are in a bad mood. According to Cooper (2013), in a survey about national insurance company, sale agents who were lack of emotional competencies such as creativeness, self-confident, friendliness sold policies worth an average of $54,000 while agents who had high level of that achieved up to $114,000. Thus, it is necessary for managers to recognize employees’ moods and obtain a more positive state to perform the job in an efficient and effective way, which is called “leadership”. “Emotional intelligence has become an increasingly popular measure for identifying potentially effective leaders and as a tool for developing effective leadership skills.” (McLaughlin, n.d.). Goleman researched and analyzed many famous personalities (McClelland, Claudio Fernanez Araoz,...) and organizations to show that leaders driving outstanding performance possess high level of EQ. He listed five elements of EQ that an excellent leader displays: self-awareness , motivation (passion to work for reasons that go beyond money or status), self-regulation (to think before acting), empathy (understanding the emotional makeup of others, and social skill (being proficiency in managing relationships and building networks). For example, if leaders do not know how to treat employees according to their emotional reactions, they will make their work less effective, namely, wasting of time, reducing energy, causing conflict...(1998). Overall, “EQ is the single biggest predictor in the workplace and the strongest driver of leadership and personal excellence.” (“ About Emotional Intelligence”, 2013, para. 3). Different cultures have distinct features that drive how emotions should be displayed properly in any situation and to any people. Therefore, it is necessary for sojourners crossing cultures to understand and adjust the emotion of others for successful intercultural development. The study in EQ and students studying abroad mentioned similar recommendations. Tucker, Esmond-Kiger, and Gullekson (2014) pointed out that students with high level of EQ adjusted better to their host culture than their peers who were weak in emotional competencies (as cited in Harrison & Voelker, 2006). At international environment, students have to cope with “culture shock” problem. They feel stressful, confusing, fearful when being in strange location and communicating with others of different cultural norms. Tucker et al. (2014) suggest EQ pre- training is recommended to provide students with competitive skills including cultural awareness, interpersonal development, cross-cultural skills and global understanding so that they can adjust these feelings to build up manner in the right way and increase their result of study abroad experience. Students who can control their emotions are less likely to embarrass themselves and easily accept criticism when they do something wrong (as cited in Ornstein & Nelson, 2006, p.45). For instance, Vietnamese students feel uncomfortable when being kissed or embraced as greeting in Western countries. Also, with the rapid globalization in today’s business world, the keys to success are intercultural sensitivity, knowledge, and skills of a global market. Distinct features of each culture play an important part in deciding the selection of management and leadership method. Leadership style is effective in one cultural attribute, but it may be ineffective in another. Organizations become more and more developed when they are competent to identify and support the suitable leader behaviors for every local culture. For example, Reilly and Karounos (2009) illustrate that “Some cultures, such as India, may display a long-term orientation in terms of employee rewards and career development, compared to others, such as the United States, which focus on short-term recognition and reinforcement.” (as cited in Ilangovan, Scroggins, & Rozell, 2007). As a result, EQ training is consider as a way to improve interpersonal skills in organizations. Besides, according to Tucker et al. (2014), big firms, such as Deloitte, PwC, and KPMB, use EQ as a tool to choose company representatives who will travel abroad and also a position announcement (as cited in Cook et al., 2011). It would follow, that mastering EQ is a predictor of greater success in intercultural experiences for not only students but also employers. Our emotions supply a wide range of purpose. It is like a guidance showing us to act in particular ways and giving us the source of inspiration to communicating meaningfully in our social world. Indeed, EQ is a predictor of students’ success and satisfaction in business world. Thus, people who possess high EQ, namely, understand themselves, the world around them, and cultivate positive mind will have bright future. Unlike general intelligence, EQ can be strengthened through our experiences so that everyone should raise EQ higher and higher to be successful and happy in all walks of life. References About Emotional Intelligence. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.talentsmart.com/about/emotional-intelligence.php Akers, M., & Porter, G. (2007). What is Emotional Intelligence (EQ)?. Psych Central. Retrieved from http://psychcentral.com/lib/what-is-emotional-intelligence-eq/0001037 Cooper, S. (2013, March 18). Look for employees with high EQ over IQ. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevecooper/2013/03/18/look-for-employees-with-high-eq- over-iq/ Goleman, D. (1998). Working with Emotional Intelligence [trans]. San Francisco, USA: Berrett- Koehler. McLaughlin, E. (n.d.). An explication of Emotional Intelligence. Retrieved from http://aabri.com/journals.html Reilly, A. H., & Karounos, T. J. (2009, February). Exploring the link between Emotional Intelligence and cross-cultural leadership effectiveness. Journal of International Business and Cultural Studies. Retrieved from http://aabri.com/jibcs.html Seal, C. R., Naumann, S. E., Scott, A. N., & Royce-Davis, J. (2011, March). Social emotional development: a new model of student learning in higher education. Research in Higher Education Journal. Retrieved from http://aabri.com/rhej.html Shipley, N. L., Jackson, M. J., & Segrest, S. L. (2010, October). The effects of emotional intelligence, age, work experience, and academic performance. Research in Higher Education Journal. Retrieved from http://aabri.com/rhej.html Tucker, M. L., Esmond-Kiger, C., & Gullekson, N. L. (2014, June). Accounting for EI: Does Emotional Intelligence predict greater intercultural growth?. Journal of International Business and Cultural Studies. Retrieved from http://aabri.com/jibcs.html EQ – Why does it matter? 7