Organizational Emotional Intelligence
Does an organization have feelings?
Written in collaboration with DMS Organizational Consulting.
This is a modified version of a post that originally appeared on LinkedIn:
Organizations, much like organisms, can be perceived as complex, living, “breathing” entities, which have their own minds, characters, values, norms, beliefs — and also feelings, wants, and needs. They also have a lifecycle.
Organizational Emotional Intelligence (OEI), a recently rising topic, is an intriguing area, which holds immense potential for further exploration. Its impact resonates across all facets of an organization—from leadership and workforce, to culture and overall performance.
While Emotional Intelligence (EI) has garnered significant attention in the field of psychology, extending this concept to the collective level of organizations opens up new avenues for understanding how emotional awareness and competence can shape workplace dynamics, decision-making processes, and, ultimately, organizational success. Despite its significance, the field of OEI remains largely unexplored, inviting further research, deeper investigation, and stronger methodology to uncover its dynamics, mechanisms, and implications.
OEI peruses the emotional intelligence of the whole organization—as a unique and independent entity—as opposed to EI (specifically, in organizations), which focuses on individuals, mainly those in leadership and managerial positions.
“Emotional Intelligence (EI) involves the ability to recognize, assess, and manage the emotions of oneself, others, and groups” (Ioannidou & Konstantikaki, 2008, cited by Veshne & Munshi, 2020). It is a “set of emotional and social skills that influence the way we perceive and express ourselves, develop and maintain social relationships, cope with challenges, and use emotional information effectively and meaningfully” (Mayer, Caruso & Salovey, 2004 cited by Issah, 2018). Issah (2018) also highlights the different perspectives of emotional intelligence and its five components: self-awareness, self-regulation, self-motivation, empathy, and social skills.
Organizational EI, on the other hand, refers to the collective emotional intelligence of an entire organization, including its leaders, employees, and the overall emotional climate within the workplace. With OEI, the focus goes beyond individual EI, extending to the study of how EI is embedded in the organization’s core elements (vision, mission statement, core values), culture, communication, decision-making processes, and overall functioning. OEI also focuses on how an organization — as a whole — perceives, understands, and manages emotions effectively.
OEI acknowledges the pivotal role emotions play in influencing the workplace dynamics, organizational behavior, relationships, and outcomes. The key components of OEI include, among others:
- Emotionally Intelligent Leadership
- Emotional Climate
- Emotionally Intelligent Decision Making
- Emotional Resilience
- Employee Engagement
OEI in the service of organizational success highlights the significance of fostering a culture that nurtures emotional well-being and accommodates positive interactions among employees and stakeholders. OEI emphasizes the capacity to influence and guide organizations in maintaining a positive work environment, facilitating effective communication, enhancing teamwork, and responding adaptively to challenges and changes. Organizations can be taught to provide an atmosphere wherein employees feel valued, supported, and engaged, leading to higher levels of job satisfaction and commitment.
While the EI of organizational leaders is a well-researched field—with well-established connections to successful organizational outcomes—OEI remains an elusive sphere of exploration. When searching for articles on EI in organizations, one can usually find those pertaining to leadership EI or employee EI, but those exploring the EI of the organization itself—as a collective — are harder to unearth.
Further, while tools for measuring EI have been developed and deployed with relative ease — many of them being individual-centered, self-assessment instruments — assessing OEI introduces an additional layer of complexity; the organizational level presents intricacies that significantly compound the issue. Available tools largely resort to simply focusing on the EI of individuals in the organization.
Some extant measurement tools include:
- Emotionally Intelligent Leadership Assessment (EILA)
- Emotional Culture Index (ECI)
- Team Emotional Intelligence Survey (TEIS)
- Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI)
- Organizational Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (OEIQ)
- Emotional Competency Inventory (ECI) and the Emotional and Social Competency Inventory (ESCI)
- Emotional-Social Intelligence model (ESI)
- Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence model (MSCEIT)
To learn more about these tools, see Organizational Emotional Intelligence (OEI) Key Components and Measurements.
Though not widely explored, OEI holds promising potential in providing new pathways to uncovering an organization’s DNA, and improving both its overall performance — as well as its employees’ well-being.
OEI is a transformative force that can propel organizations toward success!
References
Issah, M. (2018). Change leadership: The role of emotional intelligence. SAGE Open, 8(3).
Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. (2000). Models of emotional intelligence. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of intelligence (pp. 396–420). Cambridge University Press
Veshne, N. A., & Munshi, M. M. (2020). Enhancing Employee Engagement through Emotionally Intelligent Leaders. Srusti Management Review, 13(2), 32–39.
