“Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Teamwork – A Comparative Study of Self Managed and Cross Functional Teams”
–Dr. Harminder Kaur Gujral & Jaya Ahuja. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (Vol.1 Issue 6, October 2011, issn 2231 5780)
This study of teams in Information Technology examined the relationship between emotional intelligence and team effectiveness. Both Emotional Intelligence (Genos Short EI inventory) and Team Effectiveness (Team Effectiveness Scale) were measured and a strong correlation was found between EQ and Team Effectiveness. The researchers argue that “Emotional intelligence is important among team members to carry out their roles and tasks in a cooperative and collaborative manner. It helps in reducing conflicts and can create a more comfortable and cooperative work environment….Effective team members are self-confident, which is reflective of their own emotional self-awareness, and ability to control their emotions. The skill of regulating emotions during work stress and conflict would help on smoothening the project and enhance working relationships effectively with other members. Team members are not only responsible for their own motivation but also play a key role in motivating the team and colleagues. Empathic team members think from various points of views and they accept the diversity of people.
A study on emotions and team processes by Peslak (2005) is beneficial in understanding the impact and evolution of emotions in teams. He found that team emotions at the beginning of the project were more positive and negative, however, they increased in intensity over the project life with negative emotions grew more than positive emotions. He also found that the initial emotions did not significantly affect overall team processes but the final emotions did. Studies have shown that EI affects team or group performance. Goleman (1998) demonstrated how teams with higher collective EI outperform teams with lower collective EI.”
“Organizational Engagement, Emotional Intelligence and Performance”
–Lorenzo Fariselli, Joshua Freedman and Massimiliano Ghini in collaboration with Fabio Barnabè and Erika Paci of Gruppo Amadori. White Paper Publication Date: April 3, 2013 www.6seconds.org
This multi-year study focused on AMADORI (a McDonald’s supplier) in Europe, and looked at the relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational engagement to individual/organizational performance. High emotional intelligence accounted for 47% of the effectiveness of a manager’s performance management scores. Emotional intelligence also strongly correlated with increased organizational engagement as “76% of the variation in engagement [was] predicted by manager EQ….Plants with higher organizational engagement achieved higher bottom-line results building a link between EQ>Engagement>Performance. During this period, employee turnover also dropped by 63%.”
The study established the importance of synergy between EQ and engagement. The authors note that “Amadori is subject to intense market pressure which requires constant innovation…and in the words of HR Director Paolo Pampanini, ‘Managers, in particular, considered the renewal a business priority in order to achieve tighter integration among different business areas, better communication processes and sharing of information and mainly support management growth in terms of the development of personnel.’” The 2 major goals were 1) Application of the company’s competencies to be stronger as a learning organization, and 2. Development of a manager-coach perspective where managers guide and support the development of employees with the use of feedback and individual development plans.
Another remarkable outcome was the 63% reduction of personnel turnover of Amadori’s sales force. The company HR director concluded that “investing in the development of emotional intelligence for all key managers is a critical success factor.”
“Emotional Intelligence: Can Companies Really Feel Their Way to Success?”
–Lauren Garris, White Paper, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, 2013
Garris’ white paper argues that there is evidence “that HR and talent management professionals who make increasing emotional intelligence among all employee levels a strategic organizational priority will help boost their organization’s bottom line.” The four components of emotional intelligence can be strengthened through employee and leadership development and ultimately will ensure an organization with greater emotional intelligence. Improved emotional intelligence produces “increased productivity, higher engagement levels, lower turnover and absenteeism rates, and increased market share.”
She cites Freedman’s study (2010) that “found emotional intelligence to be two times more predictive of business performance than employee skills, knowledge, and expertise. Another study of IT professionals found a positive relationship between an IT leader’s emotional intelligence scores and his or her subordinates’ job performance ratings (Beverly et al, 2012). There are numerous other studies showing that increased emotional intelligence improves “career success, entrepreneurial potential, leadership talent, health, relationship satisfaction, humor, and happiness” (Chamorro-Premuzic, 2013). A study by business consulting firm Genos discovered that business leader EQ increased the engagement levels of their direct reports (Genos, 2011).
PepsiCo uses EQ as a selection criteria for executives as they are 10% more productive, and increased EQ led to “an 87% reduction in executive turnover (for $4 million in savings), and $3.75 million in added economic value (Freedman, 2010). L’Oreal found that sales people with high emotional intelligence brought in $2.5 million more in sales, and Sheraton found that its emotional intelligence initiative resulted in a 24 percent increase in market share (Freedman, 2010). When AT&T participated in a study on emotional intelligence, they found that at all management levels, employees with high emotional intelligence were 20 percent more productive. Coca-Cola found that those who had participated in emotional intelligence training exceeded their performance targets by 15 percent. Those who did not have the training missed their performance targets by 15 percent—a 30 percent difference. At pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis, a group of managers who received emotional intelligence training outsold the control group by 12 percent (Freedman, 2010).”
All in all, Garris concludes, the body of EQ studies “make an extremely persuasive argument for HR and talent management professionals as to why their organization should focus on improving emotional intelligence at all employee levels. Good coaching and accurate feedback are key ingredients in improving emotional intelligence (Chamorro-Premuzic, 2013).”
