Emotional and Social Intelligence Competencies: Their Nature and Guidelines for Development

Today, speaking about cross-cultural human resources management is hardly possible without mentioning the trendy terms of cultural intelligence (CI), emotional intelligence (EI) and the competencies related to them. This is not surprising given that the increases in mobility and businesses expansion across borders over the last few decades have translated these concepts into organizational applications such as personnel selection, assessment and development.

While some of my previous posts already discussed the topic of cultural intelligence, the current piece is focused on emotional intelligence. The term ‘emotional intelligence’ got popularized at the end of the 20^th century by Dr. Daniel Goleman, who currently serves as co-chair of The Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations (http://www.eiconsortium.org/index.html). Looking through The EI Consortium publications, you will notice that apart from the well-known concept of EI, the scholars also speak of ESC, which stands for emotional and social intelligence competence.

Goleman (1998, p. 24) defined “emotional competence” as a “learned capability based on emotional intelligence which results in outstanding performance at work.” In other words, ESCs are capabilities that can be developed based on the abilities of emotional intelligence. To differentiate between the two constructs, it is worth looking into the difference between the terms of ability and capability. Ability is a word that pertains to being able, whereas capability refers to practical ability. Two other EI Consortium members Emmerling and Boyatzis (2012, p.8) argue that ‘possession of a specific ability is not a guarantee that the ability will be demonstrated with adequate frequency or in appropriate situations which would allow it to enhance performance’. Hence, as EI is commonly seen as an ‘ability-based’ concept, scoring high on the EI ability test of recognizing emotions of others, for example, does not necessarily mean this person has a motivation to apply the skill in conflict situations. On the contrary, defining ESC in terms of capabilities increases its applied utility and reflects the range of behaviors needed for performance enhancement.

The ESC framework comes from Goleman’s (1998) early work and describes five groups of competencies, with 25 underlying items:

a) Self-Awareness: Emotional Awareness, Accurate Self-assessment, and Self-Confidence;
b) Self-Regulation: Self-Control, Trustworthiness, Conscientiousness, Adaptability, and Innovation;
c) Motivation: Achievement Drive, Commitment, Initiative, and Optimism;
d) Empathy: Understanding Others, Developing Others, Service Orientation, Leveraging Diversity, and Political Awareness;
e) Social Skills: Influence, Communication, Conflict Management, Leadership, Change Catalyst, Building Bonds, Collaboration and Cooperation, and Team Capabilities.

Hence, emotional and social intelligence competencies describe the behaviors that help people enhance their performance by effectively dealing with change and diverse challenging situations. Given the diverse and challenging environment faced by international assignees, it is evident that together with cultural intelligence, the competencies of emotional intelligence may help in effectively matching the needs of a particular culture while being abroad. Several researchers have shown that emotional intelligence contributes to expatriate cultural adjustment (e.g. Lii & Wong, 2008).

The development of ESC is a rather complex matter that requires specific training, which would first of all educate a person about the nature of EI and later focus on the particular competencies, by teaching skills such as self-awareness, self-talk, and stress and emotions management. Although companies have made attempts to implement these programs, on the whole the initiatives to develop ESC in the business world are still fairly limited. Hence, the EI Consortium provides some general guidelines that help secure organizational support for efforts of building emotional intelligence.

First, it is highlighted that ESC training should correspond to business needs. For example, an organization that aims to expand its business, and thus needs to engage in several negotiation and relationship building processes, can justify the actual need for such training. As mentioned before, expatriates can be viewed as a separate group of staff that would benefit from such training. Second, as good reasons are not always sufficient for starting unconventional initiatives the support of an influential executive can become vital to succeed.

Apart from a ‘powerful sponsor’, efforts to promote ESC training can also be supported by establishing a self-managed team that develops the actual training concept. The team should have an ‘open ticket’ to innovate, thus should be less formal, more flexible, and should have access to information flows. This guideline is meant to overcome the risks of rigid bureaucracy that can easily serve as ‘creativity killer’.

The EI Consortium members argue that ESC training should be research- and data-driven in order to add confidence and create a sound base for the training being proposed. For example, there is evidence suggesting a positive relationship between ESC and job performance. To counteract potential criticism over such untraditional training, its highest quality should be ensured. As stated by the Consortium members, ‘opponents of such training need few excuses to kill it’.

The development of ESC should also reach beyond the actual training program; it should get infused into the organizational culture. Hence, it is useful to find different ways of positioning and promoting EI in the organization. For example, senior managers can be trained to provide the training to their subordinates, which may increase the credibility of the training and make it more of a ‘lead by example’ matter. Echoing this example, the guidelines highlight that success depends on the emotional intelligence of those who are engaged with implementation.

Finally, the same way that such training should correspond to business needs it should also correspond to the right timing. Not every period is good for initiating such trainings; sometimes it is worth waiting for more favorable conditions. For example, given that management support and engagement can be vital for such an initiative, starting the training straight after changes in the management board may not be the best option.

 

Further reading:

Emmerling, J.R., & Boyatzis, E.R. (2012). Emotional and social intelligence competencies: cross cultural implications. Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, 19, 1, 4-18.

Goleman, D. (1998). Working with Emotional Intelligence. Bantam Books, New York, NY.

Lii, S. Y., & Wong, S. Y. (2008). The antecedents of overseas adjustment and commitment of expatriates. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 19, 2, 296-313