Emotional Development And Intelligence Management Are Crucial Aspects Of Personal Growth, As Discussed In The Essay.

Organizational Learning is always related to some type of change during the process and many a times the change could be a continual process. Change could involve emotional aspects which are not addressed in a generic context. In this article, the Author, Peter Jordan has explored four main branches – emotional intelligence, emotional awareness, emotional facilitation and emotional knowledge related to the emotional regulation in order to identify the relation between organizational learning and emotional intelligence.

The aim of the literature review is to produce a report on dealing with Organizational Change with relation to identify the relation between organizational learning and emotional intelligence. The main purpose of this article was also to highlight the importance of taking into account all the emotions which can affect the organizational change and also to offer the Management various methods in which they can address these issues by relating the emotional intelligence abilities (Mayer & Salovey 1997).

In this regard we would analyse whether

• Emotional Intelligence would have an impact on the behaviour of the Employees and Managers during the Organizational Change
• Will there be any implications for the Managers (Mossholder, Settoon,Armenakis & Harris 2000)

The Literature Review was conducted by using the standard practices which are useful for conducting a systematic approach by using various sources of data including the research performed by the various Researchers in the fields of Psychology and Emotional Intelligence.

Peter Jordan has focussed on Organizational Change which has become a constant need for the organizational enhancement in terms of learning. The ability of the Organization to deal with change is also a competitive advantage as per Skinner, Saunder and Thornhill (2002). The Author has conducted an advanced research that change is a process which is emotional and it involves a series of emotions and feelings in the individuals who undergo that specific process. Any type of change requires a micro level management at all stages.

Peter has also combined the works of Ashton – James & Jordan 2004 and Antonacopoulou & Gabriel 2001 in terms of conducting research on emotional aspects of a change process.

From the works considered, Peter, has highlighted that the Writers have identified that there are emotional consequences involved in an Organizational change process however there is not much research available related to the emotional skills which are required to manage the organizational change in a successful way.

There are some writers who have identified ways in which social support could be provided in order to make the change process a lot smoother however it was noticed that this process has seemed like it was a reaction to the issue which existed than a method which could enable the change (Sheehan & Jordan 2003).

The Author made a smooth transition from the fact of highlighting emotions in the context of organizational change to the impact of emotions on organizational behaviour. Peter has supported his views with those of Ashkanasy & Zerbe (2000).

The reason behind choosing the above mentioned fact for the research is that the construct of emotional intelligence has been advanced in the recent years and it has provided a edge to the understanding of various aspects of organizational behaviour (Mayer, Salovey & Caruso 2000).

Emotional intelligence comes from the understanding of the relationships between people in any context where it could be relationships in life and relationships at work. If a person is balanced and portrays a genuine feeling towards the others he tends to develop a greater level of emotional understanding towards the others (Jordan & Troth 2002).

These facts have been proven on the basis of a theoretical understanding which is also in agreement with the other emotional intelligence scholars. Individuals with higher levels of emotional intelligence are more effective in terms of managing change than those individuals with lower levels of emotional intellect.

These facts were not tested on the individuals in an empirical way by the Emotional Scholars however; Peter has proven an advanced level of research by proving the type of skills which an individual will develop as a result of being emotional intellectual at a higher level.

By conducting such a research a thorough empirical investigation is possible in order to conduct an analysis for managing the change in the Organizations.

Peter has treated emotion as a force which has to be managed in any Organization during any type of a change implementation. This could be treated as a psychological and sociological approach. Change is proposed only to go for an innovation of a product or a service in order to target an overall growth of the Organization. If the change proposed is tested at this micro point the effects which it would propose at a later stage can also be assessed a head of time which would in turn motivate the Employees to be prepared for change.

The recent research which was done on the emotions at a work place include emotions related to emotional intelligence, emotional labour, emotional expressions of various aspects at a work place and organizational culture related issues (Morris & Feldman 1996).

The emotions which drive the organizational change were also categorised as impulsive behaviour related decisions, people behavioural issues, continuous efforts which were being placed on changing people’s behaviours and work place ethic related issues.

These issues have contributed to an extensive research on the impact of the organizational change. In order to support this aspect of the research, Peter has considered the viewpoints of Mayer and Salovey (1997), where they have explained various aspects of emotional intelligence can be related to the behavioural types which can support the learning in an organization.

The research was meant to be based on indicating the type of skills which a highly emotional and an intellectual individual would draw and the research was meant to examine the implications for managing change. The disadvantage of the research was it was not streamlined and it did not have a proper structure where it missed out on drawing the skills in specific.

Senge (1992) has emphasized on the fact the Organizations are in strong need to get their Employees improve their skills and abilities which comprise of the emotional awareness, emotional intelligence, emotional policies and emotional knowledge. Such statements have been proved with the basis of an example like responding or reacting to a specific situation involves the individual’s emotions at that point in time. It is at this point where the person tends to improvise himself by controlling his emotions.

By being aware of such emotions the person experiences and expresses the need to be able to speak out his emotions and any of the situations he has been experiencing. There is a thin line of difference which has been highlighted in the journal that a person would be able to be aware of his emotions and would be able to differentiate between the appropriate and inappropriate expressions. Emotional stability is the way in which a person can use his emotions sparingly and can also prioritize on deciding the important of all emotions to exercise.

The concepts were a lot based on emotional knowledge and its components where good focus was given to the original lay out of the research where it has intended to be based on drawing out the relation between organizational learning and emotional intelligence. The writer could have elaborated on the skills which are required for a person to be emotionally strong and decide which of them could be enhanced by applying self – learning in order to be able to transition through the change process.

In spite of most of the research work conducted there are good no. of discussions which take place in order to understand the role of emotions through change. Most of the change processes invite negative outcomes and to curb this type of an experience, the Organizations should empower their employees to participate in more of organizational growth events which can motivate them towards a better performance.

Mayer, J. & Salovey, P. (1997). “What is emotional intelligence”, in P Salovey & D. Sluyter (eds)., Emotional Development and Emotional Intelligence: Implications for Educators, basic Books, New York, PP 3 – 31.

Mayer,J D. Salovey, P. & Caruso, DR. (2000). “Competing Models of Emotional Intelligence”, in R Sternberg (ed)., Handbook of Intelligence, Cambridge, New York, PP 396 – 420

Ashkanasy, NM. Ashton J. CE & Jordan, PJ. (2004). “Performance impacts of appraisal and coping with stress in the workplace settings: The role of affect and emotional intelligence”, in PL Perrewe & DC Ganster (eds), Emotional and Psychological Processes and Positive Intervention Strategies, Vol 3, PP –1 – 43

Floyd, P. (2002). “Organizational Change”, Capstone, Oxford

Senge, P. (1992). “The Fifth Discipline”, Random House, Milsons Print

Sheehan, M. & Jordan, PJ. (2000). “The antecedents and implications of workplace bullying : A bounded emotionality analysis”, paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Association Francophone de Gestion des Resources Humaines Internationalisation  of HRM, Paris, November

Skinner,D. Saunder, MNK. and Thornhill, A. (2002). “Human Resource Management in a changing world”, Strategic Change, 11 (7), 341 – 345

Wong, C. & Law, KS. (2002). “The effects of leader and follower emotional intelligence on performance and attitude : An exploratory study, Leadership Quarterly, 13(3), 243 – 274