Emotional Literacy: Implications for Personal, Social, Academic, and Workplace Success in Management Institutes.

Author: Prof. Sheryl Xavier

Category: Organisational Behaviour and Organisational M

Full Text:

Introduction
Educating the heart is __ampersandsign#39;Emotional Literacy __ampersandsign#39;and its significance can be seen from the fact that the emotional brain responds to an event more quickly than a thinking brain. In words of the Ancient Greek Philosopher and scientist Aristotle __doublequotosingEducating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.__doublequotosingIt is the need of these times as well as it is the new age mantra of most successful individuals and organizations alike. Emotional literacy leads to emotional intelligence, hence the introduction of this subject in most management curriculum. This quote by Warren Gamaliel Bennis, a pioneer of the contemporary field of Leadership and Management studies stated, __doublequotosingEmotional intelligence, more than any other factor, more than IQ, Or expertise, accounts for 85% to 90% of success at work. Intelligence Quotient is a threshold competence. You need it, but it doesn__ampersandsign#39;t make you star, Emotional intelligence can. After several years of emphasis on the cognitive and physical aspects of human development, the focus has now shifted to the emotional and spiritual development cycle. Emotional Intelligence is an utmost important skill for any effective manager or leader, in order to manage self and others, [Mayer __ampersandsign Stevens 1994]. This literacy takes a person towards self awareness and enables him to utilize all his potentials and thereby, fulfill his needs and achieve a state of satisfaction. Emotional literacy leads to Emotional Intelligence. Overall the issue of mental health or emotional health is acknowledged as part of various schemes within the organization.

Review of Literature
Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to monitor one__ampersandsign#39;s own and other people__ampersandsign#39;s emotions, to discriminate between different emotions and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior. There are three models of EI. The ability model, developed by Peter Salovey and John Mayer, focuses on the individual__ampersandsign#39;s ability to process emotional information and use it to navigate the environment. The trait model as developed by Konstantin Vasily Petridis __doublequotosingencompasses behavioral dispositions and self-perceived abilities and is measured through self-report. The final model, the mixed model is a combination of both ability and trait EI. It defines EI as an array of skills and characteristics that drive leadership performance, as proposed by Daniel Goleman. Emotional Intelligence is one of the important human skills which have been neglected over a period of time and not until the late 80?s many psychologist and management gurus startedrecognizing its impact on our work and relationships. The youth of today are targeted toward instant gratification and jump start success, easy money, indecent social interactions. After completion of their management degrees, most students are ready to embark upon a career in the corporate or join existing business and some also initiate their Start up Ventures. What is important is that though they have acquired Technical and Logistical skills, are they equipped enough to bear the impact of the outcomes of their job or work situation? Research shows up to 80 percent of a top performer__ampersandsign#39;s success is attributed to high emotional intelligence, while only 20 percent is attributed to high IQ, as per the Brussels-based group learning and development director at MCI Group, a global events management company. In a study named __doublequotosingHealth Applications in times of Economical Instability__doublequotosing presented in the Fourth National Congress On Management Science and Practice at IIM Ahmadabad, it has been pointed out that Emotional Intelligence is a reason for ones success and happiness in general. Emotions play an extensive role in thought processes (George, 2000). People can and do take steps to recognize and manage their own and others__ampersandsign#39; emotions (Mayer, Salovey, Gomberg- Kaufman, and Blainey, 1991; Salovey and Mayer, 1990; Wang, 2000).Emotional quotient has garnered attention from psychologist, educators, leadership theorists, and business leaders. A rapidly increasing body of knowledge on emotional quotient is emerging. The field of emotional quotient is still in its infancy and its history is still being written. A singular conceptualization has yet to be agreed upon. Still, supporting data for the ability model is growing. Also known as El or EQ, emotional intelligence can be defined in a variety of ways. At its most basic, it is our ability to recognize and manage emotions in ways that allow us to communicate effectively, relate to people better, and be more productive. It is made up of five aspects: selfawareness, self-regulation/monitoring, empathy, motivation and social skills. Groves and McEnrue (2008) have defined emotional quotient as the ability to perceive accurately, appraise, and express emotion; the ability to access and/or generate feelings when they facilitate thought; the ability to understand emotion and emotional knowledge; and the ability to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth.

Origin of research problem

The effect of Emotional illiteracy, sad as that is; inhibits or can inhibit the experience of those around them. At a social level whether at work, in the classroom or in public spaces, the impact of individuals unable to manage their emotional states creates an unhealthy environment. Emotions unregistered, unrecognized and unquarried i.e. emotional illiteracy is costly. In the search to soothe or to find what__ampersandsign#39;s missing, the individual encounters a range of purported solutions which can be painful and damaging. Food, drugs, violence, fundamentalist religion or fundamentalist politics are at one extreme, while lives lived with little reflection and confidence show the corrosive effects of not understanding much about one__ampersandsign#39;s subjective experience. Interdisciplinary relevance Emotional literacy, in its simplest definition, means the capacity to register our emotional responses to the situations we are in and to acknowledge those responses to ourselves so that we recognize the ways in which they influence our thoughts and our actions. Emotional literacy is the attempt to take responsibility for understanding our personal emotions. It is a tool and a potential source of deep creativity just like reading writing and arithmetic. Review of research and development in the subject Scholars tend to view emotional quotient as a factor which has a potential to contribute to more positive attitudes, behaviors and outcomes. Mayer, Salovey and Caruso (2002) stressed that emotional quotient is a learnable ability. Emotional quotient has been positively associated with skill at identifying emotional expressions and life satisfaction (Ciarrochi et al, 2001). It is negatively associated with evidence of depression. Schutte (2002) reported evidence exists that emotional quotient can be conceptualized as either ability (Ciarrochi et al., 2000; Mayer et al., 1999) or a personality trait (Schutte and Malouff, 1999; Schutte, 1998). It has been found that emotional quotient is positively associated with mood management (Ciarrochi, Chan __ampersandsign Caputi, 2000). Ciarrochi, Chan __ampersandsign Caputi, (2000) and Salovey __ampersandsign Mayer (1990) found evidence that emotional quotient moderates the relationship between stress and mental health. Tischler, Biberman __ampersandsign McKeage (2002) showed that emotional quotient is related to healthy social coping styles. Lam __ampersandsign Kirby (2002) found that college students who are emotionally intelligent tend to use an adaptive defense style. King (1999) found practicing elementary and high school administrators scored significantly higher than pre service educational leadership students on perceiving emotions, assimilating emotions and total emotional quotient. Emotionally intelligent individuals performed better under difficult and stressful tasks (Lam __ampersandsign Kirby, 2002). Jordan __ampersandsign Troth (2004) found a significant relationship between emotional quotient and the different level of meaning an individual holds towards work. Abraham (2000) found emotional quotient predicted organizational commitment and job satisfaction, particularly when combined with job control. Jordan and Troth (2004) have found a significantly positive relationship between emotional quotient and collaborative conflict management style. Dr. Steven Stain, a clinical psychologist, founder and CEO of MHS Assessments, a publisher of psychological tests and co-author of The EQ Edge: Emotional Intelligence and Your Success, opines that no matter how keen your hard skills, a lack of emotional intelligence can derail your career. If one lacks the El skills, he will never use his hard skills to the fullest. One may get seen as the __ampersandsign#39;smart__ampersandsign#39; person who doesn__ampersandsign#39;t get his message across, or be seen as arrogant -- someone who doesn__ampersandsign#39;t take other people__ampersandsign#39;s views into account, the __ampersandsign#39;know-it-all,__ampersandsign#39; and generally ineffective at getting buy-in from others in moving the organization forward.

Objective of the study

The present study aims to understand the emotional quotient of a management student at the beginning and at the end of his management studies. Although various past researchers have identified the effects of emotional intelligence on numerous factors and relevant importance has been established between Emotional Intelligence and success in emotional literacy to achieve student, employee outcomes. The relationship between emotional intelligence and creativity factor amongst students studying Management requires much research in achieving well established results. The study draws upon affective information processing theory to explain how two facets of emotional intelligence-- emotion regulation and emotion facilitation--shape students creativity and emotional literacy. The study will have implications for different streams of knowledge including Organizational Behavior, Behavioral Sciences, Psychology, Industrial relations, Health and medicine. It will be useful to the practicing managers and academicians.

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