1 Introduction
In today’s changing business environment understanding what influence emotion has in organizations, has become increasingly popular in the field of business and organizational research. Leadership style has adjusted in order to meet the crucial challenges and sustain long-term competitive advantage. Emotions have an impact on various work related issues such as dealing with conflict, making sufficient decisions and transferring and receiving feedback in a way it will be adequate. Success in tackling these obstacles defines greater outcomes and performances, especially in the highest levels of organizations. Researchers recently have gathered a wide range of information on the role emotions in leadership which are still negotiable.
1.1 Paper goals and research question
This Bachelor Paper will elaborate on the topic of emotional impact by defining what role emotions play in coping with the contemporary challenges of leadership. Further goal of the paper is to find which leadership practices are influenced and what would be the underlying reasons. The benefits of understanding and managing emotions by leaders are discussed. An answer of what are the further consequences that can occur in case of lack of management is found. Moreover, overview of the concept of emotional intelligence will answer the question of which are the crucial skills leaders should have in order to successfully manage his and others’ emotions.
1.2 Methodology
In order to gather all the relevant information for my Bachelor theses, I have used secondary research data. I have referred to a variety of resources, such as scientific journals and articles, online sources and books with topics on psychology, neuroscience, and leadership. The paper is structured in a logical, clear, and comprehensive manner, suitable for both students and professionals.
2 Contemporary research of emotion
Nowadays researchers try to look deep in the brain structure to indicate how, where and what triggers emotional response. They found two main brain structures responsible for emotions, different types of emotions and the brain pathways through which emotional response is delivered. Leaders in organizations use those findings so they can understand their emotions better and latter their employees in order to manage them effectively.
2.1 Biology of Emotion
According to Merriam-Webster dictionary emotion is’ conscious and subjective mental reaction toward a particular event and is usually accompanied by changes in the physiologic and behavioral aspects of a person’ (Emotion, n.d.).
One of the brain structures linked with emotion is the limbic system and the amygdala as main component (Cherry, 2013). According to Sincero (2012), the areas which are related to recognition of emotion are the brain precisely the autonomic nervous and the limbic system. The nervous system is more knows as the body’s control element, but it also the center of experiencing emotion.
2.1.1 Limbic system and ANS
Limbic system structures are involved in many of an individual’s motivations and emotions, precisely those that are related to survival. The system plays a crucial role in controlling emotional responses, such as anger, fear, and others (Bailey 2013). It is the region of the brain where emotion is recognized and regulated. The amygdala is the part of the limbic system that controls emotions and determines how a person will recognize emotion-triggering events and what will be the response them (Sincero 2012). Fralich (2013) defines the amygdala as the emotional center of the brain. The amygdala as part of the limbic system is responsible for the process the internal emotional state of emotions such as fear, sadness and anger and the external expression of them.
The Autonomic Nervous System or ANS is responsible for regulating instinctive or spontaneous functions of the human’s body such as increase in heart rate, muscle tension and blood pressure which are one of the most frequent used responses connected with measuring emotions (Sincero 2012).
2.1.2 Brain Pathways
After the emotion, an evoking event occurs the information trigger is being conveyed to the thalamus which is the relay center of the brain. From there, the information can be transferred to the amygdala or the brain cortex. It is also known as the fast and slow pathway.
The pathway through the brain cortex slowly processes the information from the thalamus. It is processed in the prefrontal lobes, which is part of the cortex responsible for regulating emotion and emotionally adjusted communications. When the information reaches this region it gives the opportunity for adaptive response and evaluation after considering various options (Fralich 2013).
If the information doesn’t reach the brain cortex it directly goes to the amygdala which is responsible for a person’s express response to an emotion-triggering event, without considering the respond (Sincero 2012). The amygdala triggers the body’s ‘alarm system’ – when an emotion- evoking event occur the information doesn’t pass through the prefrontal lobes, activates the body’s hormonal response and prepares the person to deal with danger. As a result, the unconscious response lacks cognition and evaluation (Fralich 2013).
2.2 Emotion types
Damasio (1994) is one of the first to distinguish between primary and secondary emotions. He argues that there are certain events to which a person responds emotionally first and other that activate corresponding cognitive response.
Robert Plutchik (1980) states, that there are eight basic emotions, which include surprise, disgust, anger, sadness, anticipation, trust, joy fear. However, most recent finding by Jack, Garrod & Schyns (2014) reduces them to four basic emotions -happy, sad, afraid/surprised, and angry/disgusted. LeDoux (1996) states, that the primary emotions are simply behaviors crucial to the survival. The amygdala allows a sudden, thoughtless reaction in the face of a threat. LeDoux (1996) says, ‘When it comes to detecting and responding to danger, the brain just hasn’t changed much’ (p131).
The other types of emotions are those usually causes by beliefs about experiencing a certain emotion. Namely secondary or complex emotions are triggered by thought connected to another emotion (Tull 2014). Mennin, Heimberg, Fresco & Turk (2005) describe the creation of secondary emotional responses, as a result, from lack of acceptance of the initial emotion due to a negative belief about it. Damasio (1994) further explains that secondary emotions change in the course of development and may vary in dependence of the culture and the individual. The problem involved in secondary emotions is that they restricting the information from our primary emotional responses. They often lead to avoidance of our emotions for numerous reasons such as emotional blocks from childhood, family, school, society work or situation in which it is not acceptable or safe to express the primary emotion (Miller 2009).
The two different types of emotion are interconnected with the brain pathways responsible for them: a fast pathway and a slow pathway. Primary emotions such as fear are determined by the fast pathway through the amygdala. Secondary emotions, on the other hand, are more determined by the slow pathway through the prefrontal lobes in the cortex. When the information is transferred from the thalamus to the prefrontal lobes for cognitive analysis it is accompanied by a more complex cognitive appraisal, producing more sophisticated emotions which do not pass quickly (LeDoux, 2000).
3 Contemporary leadership challenges & Emotions in leadership
The consideration of what influence do emotions have in Leadership has become increasingly popular recently. One of the main challenges modern leaders face is the increasing use of virtual teams, the rapid pace of globalization and the growing need to retain talent. Emotion plays a crucial part in overcoming each of them.
3.1 Virtual teams
According to HBR (2010) the focus in leadership has been changed from the individual and what can he or she accomplish alone, to the team and the role of leaders in them. Leaders have become coaches and mentors in order to direct and encourage a team and help it succeed. When globalization stepped in leadership reality was drastically changed. Organizations use technology to connect teams and leaders all across the globe which results in creating virtual teams and sequent emerging challenge for their leader. From one side working with virtual teams provides different perspectives on issues and tasks, propose both -employers and employees flexibility and attracts better employees and increases knowledge allocation. Also global virtual teams allow leaders to collect talent from all over the world, save money from different costs and give the access to resources but on the other hand leader and employees face the challenge of working effectively from a distance. Leading a virtual team can be very challenging and leaders realize the importance of building trust, managing conflicts and the impact of diversity on the team’s performance (Lee, 2012; Lockwood, 2010).
3.1.1 Emotion and trust
Since virtual teams don’t have the chance to have frequent face to face interaction leaders acknowledge difficulties in building trust and develop bond among them and the team members (Lockwood, 2010). By understanding what impact has emotions on trust leaders can stimulate further binding. The studies of Dunn & Schweizer (2005) and Forgas & East (2008) comprise the major developments in studying the impact of emotion on trust. In 2005, Dunn and Schweizer published a paper indicating the effects of emotions on trust. As a result of their study, they concluded that positive emotions increase trust and negative emotions decrease trust. By showing positive emotions team members trust more and develop stronger bond with their leader and as a consequence higher productivity is indicated. On the contrary, negative emotion suggests weaker bond and distrust. More recent study also found that negative emotions decrease judgments of trust. In this study, participants were found to be more likely to judge a person as guilty, and distrust that person, if they were experiencing negative affect than if they were experiencing positive or neutral affect (Forgas & East, 2008). By displaying positive or negative emotions leaders influence the level of efficient collaboration in virtual teams.
3.1.2 Emotion and conflict and negotiation
According to Oetzel (2006), ‘Conflict is a central and unavoidable aspect of social life. Broadly conceptualized conflict is an international dynamic among two or more interdependent parties who perceive incompatibilities and strive to achieve goals.'(p.1)
What leaders of virtual team face is the increased likelihood of a conflict to take place. According to Bodker & Jameson (2001) conflict cannot exist with the absence of emotion due to the reason of conflict being emotionally driven process. Conflicts in virtual teams arise due to numerous reasons main of which lack of face to face interaction and cultural misunderstandings. Leaders can benefit from knowing what the relationship between emotion and conflict is in order to solve conflicts and lead negotiations. There had been little understanding of this relationship until the decade of the 2000 when enhancing interest arose. The research by Kleef, Dijk, Steinel, Harinck & Beest (2008) has shown that emotion plays an important role in conflict management and negotiation. During conflict, one’s emotional expression influences both oneself as well as the counterpart.
Lyubomirsky, King & Diener (2005) suggest that positive emotions shown by the leaders support the resolution of conflicts. By showing positive emotions and mood virtual team leaders not only increase cooperation and trust within the team but also indicate decrease of conflicts, higher motivation for alternative approaches towards problem-solving and reaching ‘win-win’ agreements. Experiencing positive emotions makes easier for the opponents in negotiation to communicate and like each other, which as a result leads to greater flexibility in the negotiation. Furthermore, Forgas (1998) shows that negative emotions shown by leaders in negotiation process leads to poor outcomes.
3.1.3 Emotion and diversity
One of the major challenges virtual team leaders face is the differences in cultural backgrounds among the team members. The global business leader deals with conflict resolutions and negotiations on a regular and ongoing basis, but a crucial role plays the consideration of diversity in the team. The final goal of the virtual team cannot be accomplished if the leader does not take into consideration the individual and cultural difference each team member has and the contribution to the overall diversity of the whole team (Colfax, Rivera, Perez 2010).
Emotional interactions can have serious social consequences that can result in either keeping and improving positive relationships or damaging and injuring them. Miyamoto, Ryff (2011) made a research examining how emotional regulations differ and propose that cultural differences influence emotion regulation approaches. They propose that the culture has an impact on how the emotion will be experienced depending on which emotions are valued in the particular culture the person comes from. Culture affects many aspects of emotions such as distinguishing between good and bad emotion and a way of expression. Leaders should understand those differences in order misunderstandings to be avoided.
Cross cultural misunderstandings may frequently occur. Leaders’ understanding of how cultural differences affect emotions is a key component for the success of virtual teams. One way of reducing misinterpretations is through tracking and reading universal emotional expressions. Furthermore, it is argued that in order ‘to be effective in another culture, people must be interested in other cultures, be sensitive enough to notice cultural differences, and then also be willing to modify their behavior so that they are appropriated in other cultures’ (Bhawuk & Brislin, 1992, p.416).
3.2 Speed of change
Nowadays new products and services are coming to the market in high rate and organizations are more competitive than ever. To achieve advantage in front of others, business leaders adopt creative and innovative practices. New set of leadership skills and traditional leadership competencies need to be readjusted towards the future. Companies are pressured to adjust in order to survive in the face rapid workplace transformation (O’Brien & Robertson, 2009).
Quick decisions must be made and strategies developed quickly by the people who are closest to the action following the changes arising in the business world. Employees at all levels need to be trusted, empowered and prepared to make good decisions. Leaders front the need to embrace changes through fast decision – making, empowering others to make timely decisions and guiding them through the new changes (Hutchins, 2012).
3.2.1 Emotion and decision making
Going back to the brain structure, current theories suggest there are two dominant systems people use to assess risk and make a decision: the ‘analytic system’ and the ‘experiential system.’ The ‘analytic system’ involves conscious and thoughtful cognitive processes and the ‘experiential system’ which uses past experiences, emotion-related associations, and intuitions when making decisions (Epstein 1994).
Leaders use this knowledge and understand that the proportion of emotion in decision making can vary according to which of the two systems is used more. Since a response that passes through the cortex takes more time, pure emotional decisions are faster. They are subconscious and are mostly seen in case of immediate danger when primary emotion is determining the decision. When leaders are aware of the impact of emotion on their decisions they can differentiate conscious and subconscious decisions. Common outcome when emotion is present in decision-making is starting the process with logic, but then the emotion defines the final outcome and choice (Maitlis & Ozcelik, 2004).
Core (2013) supports the statement that most of the decisions are influenced by emotions not connected with the decision by itself. He suggests in order leaders to take the right decision not all of the emotions have to be excluded, but only those that are unrelated. Research done by Isen & Labroo (2003) states that happy leaders are reluctant to take risky decisions and show more efficient decision making, as well as more cautious, organized, and detailed processing. However, Schwarz, Bless, & Bohner (1991) examined the positive relation between negative emotions and decision- making. They support the idea that when leaders experience negative emotions that can lead to effective decision making on the behalf of negative emotions causing a greater concentration and a more detailed and analytic processing while positive emotions can cause the opposite.
3.2.2 Emotion and change
Organizations are constantly going through numerous changes such as merging, acquiring new people, growing and shifting. The ability of leaders to cope with change can also be applied to small changes such as to get to know a new team member or small changes in the organization. (Lowe & Bennett, 2003; Fugate, Kinicki & Prussia; 2008; Fugate, Kinicki,& Scheck 2002).
Garms, (2013) explores what happens in the brain when change arises. He determines that in the brain, change is associated with an error, threats, and fear. Primary emotions step in and change quickly produces a threat response. The incapability to cope with change can also lead to greater pressure, and negative psychological as well as physical effects. Change can bring incredible opportunities, or it can bring loss. It can shift the entire team up, or it can result of people who try to find other employment. Leaders understand the importance of successful transaction through change and acknowledge the importance of it (Lowe & Bennett, 2003; Fugate, Kinicki & Prussia; 2008;Fugate, Kinicki,& Scheck 2002).
Leaders have the goal to link change to opportunity. When it is seen as opportunity positive emotions such as excitement, enthusiasm and creativity are triggered (Goleman & Boyatzis 2002). However, negative emotions such as anger, fear, anxiety and withdrawal can be created (French 2001). According to Lazarus (1993), when change is viewed as an opportunity, positive emotions would make the individual more willing to adapt and could enable him to act positively. On the other side, organizational change is often linked to dysfunctional conflict and is associated with negative outcomes such as job dissatisfaction and expressed grievances (Kirkman, Jones & Shapiro 2000).
3.3 Talent pool
One of the biggest obstacles leadership worldwide faces is the growing gap between the necessary business skill level and the pool of new workers that actually possess them. The existence of a talent gap can significantly limit innovation and progression. In the competitive world, leaders have to be self-confident about their talent pool in order to make strategic and successful investments and to have the self-confidence to step into new markets. Accomplishing a strong confidence level occurs with the ability to attract and retain professional talent within the organization. The success of leaders strongly depend on the detainment of talented employees and they need to do it by using recognition, feedback and engagement since if and when they leave, talents take the company’s knowledge with them (Brudenell 2014). The role of emotion in each of the tools to retain a talent by the leaders is looked further.
3.3.1 Emotion and recognition
Thomas (n.d) states that when leaders recognize their employees for their accomplishments, a meaningful bond between the work and the employee is established. Recognition can connect people to one another and to the organization as a social institution. When leaders deliver it with sincerity and empathy, recognition can generate an emotional response and activate an engagement. Creating a culture of recognition can foster a positive emotional state for the organization and positive emotions among individual employees, leading to increased cooperation and productivity.
Izuma, Saito & Sadato (2008) found that when leaders use extrinsic rewards such as bonuses, this activates the same reward centers of the brain as when the employee gains social approval. Moreover, recognition can be as rewarding as money. Over time, organizations have used mostly extrinsic rewards as a management tool to encourage high employee performance as well as maintain high employee motivation (Ali & Ahmed, 2009). Kaye and Jordan-Evans (2002) report that, despite the importance of extrinsic variables, like compensation, increased pay and bonuses, intrinsic factors such as good supervisors, recognition of the work done and challenging work are more important and go a long way to create good loyalty. Social approval such as respect by the leader may activate reward systems in the brain that promote stronger learning of behaviors (Lieberman & Eisenberger, 2009). Jamrog (2004) explains: ‘The best people are not motivated by and do not stay for the money alone. They stay because they are engaged and challenged by work that makes them better at what they do. They want to work for more than just the paycheck. (p. 11)
Research shows that leadership characterized by fair treatment and cooperation is more likely to increase intrinsic motivation and further better job performance and satisfaction (Kaye & Jordan-Evans 2002,Tabibnia & Lieberman, 2007). Tabibnia & Lieberman (2007) look at fairness as a crucial component for the brain’s perception of reward and recognition. According to them, humans naturally want the world around them to be fair. The perception of fairness generates emotional state that makes people open to new ideas and more willing to connect with other people (Rock, 2009). Similarly, inequity reluctance is so strong that people are willing to sacrifice their personal gain in order to prevent another person from receiving an inequitable better outcome (Tabibnia, Satpute & Lieberman, 2008).
3.3.2 Emotion and feedback
Leaders in some industries still struggle to attract and retain people with critical skills. Retaining a top talent should be on the radar of any organization wanting to sustain long-term competitive advantage. Feedback is a vital instrument which gives employees a complete and accurate picture of their performance. As a result, the annual performance is increased (White, n.d.).
Holt (2013) explains why employees react in a defensive way towards critical feedback on areas for improvement. According to him, the brain unconsciously perceives critical feedback as a threat to their status or personal attack and therefore primary emotions are activated which does not allow the cortex to influence cognitive response. Physiologically it can trigger the amygdala and release adrenalin. The receiver might go into fight or flight mode. It can, therefore, interfere with a person’s ability to learn and respond constructively to feedback (Rostron, & Rensburg 2009). Sprenger (n.d.) gives a solution on how the brain cortex can be involved. Beginning with negativity, the information may never reach the prefrontal lobe and cognitive response will not be achieved since primitive emotional areas will be activated. On the other hand, strengths involve the prefrontal cortex directly and further cognitive response can be expected. Therefore, a negative feedback should be given by the leaders after noticing the strengths. While giving critical criticism people become more motivated to change the problem if they consider the feedback as constructive and accurate and this is accomplished when they trust the person who gives it (Ilgen, Fisher, & Taylor 1979).
3.3.3 Emotion and engagement
Carnegie (2012) determines the key emotions that lead employees to engagement are. According to him, the level of engagement of employees increases with the number of positive emotions they feel. Inspiration, empowerment, confidence are one of the feeling that should come from the leader. The feeling of confidence empowers people to make decisions about their work and creates enthusiasm, which inspires them to work harder. Employees, who are excited and enthusiastic to be at work care more about the organization which further affects their performance and are more willing to learn.
There is a direct connection between negative emotions and an employee’s level of engagement. Engagement is revealed by how connected and how committed the employees feel to the organization they work in. Leaders should acknowledge that employees who feel negative emotions are disconnected approximately ten times more than employees who feel positive ones. There have been discussed three essential negative emotions that determine disengagement irritation, indifference, and discomfort. When there is positive emotional connection the talent is more likely to stay within the company, bringing greater work in less time and reducing business costs (Carnegie 2012; Whamond 2014).
Seibert, Wang, Courtright (2011) suggest empowered employees are less likely to experience stress and think about leaving the organization. In order to make the job more empowered leaders should provide high-performance managerial practices (training, rewards, recognition, participatory decision making), social/political support (access to resources, information sharing, fairness), and work characteristics (interesting work with a variety of different tasks).
4 Managing emotions
The reason behind many of the things that you do is your emotions. What drives your actions on a daily basis is your need to experience positive emotions and avoid negative emotions (Carnegie 2012). Pennington & Haslam (n.d.), argue that the goal is not avoiding negative emotions because that is impossible. Instead of avoiding them they should be recognized faster and reply to them should be quicker.
4.1 Advantages
Keysers & Wickerhave (2003) have shown that one person’s emotions activate another person’s mirror neurons. Emotions being contagious play an important role of influencing other emotions. Bono & Ilies (2006) support the idea that leaders use emotion in order to influence their employees. A series of studies were conducted aiming to examine leaders’ emotional positive expressions effect on employees’ mood and perception and noticed that positive emotions expressed by the leaders have a direct positive influence on mood as well as their emotional answers and attitudes. In addition Carnegie (2012) indicates that leaders who inspire positive emotions grow a higher sense of satisfaction. Consequently when employees feel inspired, enthusiastic and excited the overall level of satisfaction within the organization grows, which is linked to further profitability and productivity.
4.2 Consequences of uncontrolled emotions
Carnegie (2012) states that negative emotions are more contagious than positive ones. Since they are more noticeable, they can extend from the individual employee to impact co-workers and the organization as a whole and spread beyond the workplace to clients, potential clients, and possible future employments. Also, when leaders influence negative emotions in employees, their satisfaction ratings are below average. Leaders whose direct reports are delivered with negative feelings experience further losses.
4.3 Emotional intelligence
The idea of emotional intelligence was introduced by Salovey and Mayer in 1990 and has gained popularity very fast. According to Mayer and Salovey (1990), emotional intelligence represents the emotional abilities to perceive, understand and regulate emotions.
Perceiving emotions comprises of recognizing and interpreting the meaning of numerous emotional states, as well as their relations to other experiences. The first step to developing Emotional intelligence is becoming self-aware of one’s primary emotional response and being able to identify what emotion one is having (Mennin, Heimberg, Turk & Fresco,2005). According to Mennin et al (2005), becoming self- aware is in essential building part for developing emotional intelligence since emotions differ in their experiential, behavioral, and physiological response, tendencies as well as social implications. Mayer and Salovey (1990) clarify that in order to understand emotions knowledge of how basic emotions are blended to form complex ones and how they are affected in given social settings should be understood. Evans (2001) states that since complex emotions require more processing, they are more easily influenced by thoughts and can be managed and leaders can become more competent by being aware of how secondary emotions and expressed and experience.
Leaders cannot effectively manage emotions of someone else without handling their own. After becoming self-aware, the next step of becoming emotionally intelligent is self -management (Goleman, 2004). Pino, Twigg, Parayitam & Olson (2006) detect increase in self-control, trustworthiness, conscientiousness, motivation, adaptability and innovation after using the gathered knowledge in managing one’s own emotions.
In addition, Goleman (2004) explains that self -management is also important for competitive reasons. In the current vague and changing business environment leaders who have mastered their emotions are better able to deal with the changes and help the organization to adjust. Once individuals have worked on self-awareness and self-regulation, they are able to become motivated to act and to work collaboratively with others using empathy and social skills.
Empathy is the most easily recognized out of all dimensions of emotional intelligence. It represents the ability to understand another person’s emotional reaction. This is only possible after achieving self-awareness. It is the capability of reading people according to their emotional reactions with respect to face expression, voice tone, and others (Goleman, 2004, 2001). Empathy is a critical skill for working with diverse teams, employees and virtual teams since cross-cultural differences can easily lead to misunderstandings.
The final emotional intelligence ability is relationship management which is the most practical for leadership. As a component of EI, social skills demand leaders to be aware of their own emotions and attuned with empathy to the people they lead, and its moving people in the right direction. In the fast developing world more and more work is done long distance- by e-mail or by phone and the importance of relationship building becomes more crucial than ever. Finally, as the tasks of leadership and communication within an organization become more complex and collaborative, relationship skills become increasingly pivotal (Goleman, 2004).
An individual’s emotional intelligence is an indication of how he or she perceives, understands, and regulates emotions. To sum up, according to Mayer and Salovey (1990), emotional intelligence is a form of intelligence that involves ‘the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions’ (p.189). However Murphy (2006) in his book criticizes the current research on Emotional Intelligence and its measurement.
5 Conclusion
This bachelor work examined the role of emotions in contemporary leadership challenges which leaders face and pointed out reasons why their leadership would be beneficial for increasing the overall performance. After a research where emotions are generated in the brain, understanding the different pathways an emotional response can be delivered and how basic and complex emotions differ, closer look was taken into the top three challenges modern leaders front where emotion has a great impact.
Virtual teams can provide different perspectives on issues and tasks and allow leaders to gather talent from all parts of the world but on the other hand a leader faces the challenge of working effectively from a distance and sequent difficulties in building trust, increased likelihood of a conflict and collaborating with different cultures occur. Understanding and managing emotions helps leaders to overcome those difficulties.
Another issue of rapid changing world was introduced with the growing pressure leaders feel to make decisions and leading their employees through the upcoming changes. Emotional management plays a crucial role of making more conscious and right decisions while leading smoothly the subordinates successfully through the change.
Finally the problem of growing gap of talents was mentioned in the paper. Being emotionally intelligent raises the chance of talents staying within the organization by teaching leaders how to give recognition, feedback and engage their employees for further productivity.
According to the concept of Emotional intelligence, possessing the crucial skills of self- awareness, self- regulation, empathy and social skills brings feelings of inspiration, enthusiasm and excitement and further profitability and productivity is achieved. Managing and controlling one’s and others’ emotions play in important role of determining the profitability of organizations. On the contrary, the lack of management can cause potential losses. The high sensitivity of organizations toward emotions indicated how important it is to be managed.
In conclusion emotional intelligence as a concept is attracting in organizations more and more attention every day. Organizations try to measure the emotional intelligence of leaders in order to be highly competitive and reach high levels of productivity and efficiency. Unfortunately, this is yet not clear definition and no single accepted measurement.
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