Development Of Emotional Intelligence In The Context Of Soft-Skills Formation

Abstract

In the article, the authors consider the role of the emotional intelligence development in employees of modern organizations. The development of emotional intelligence is associated with the need to form additional soft-skills that can influence the effectiveness of business activities. The importance of creating soft-skills for modern companies is determined by the high speed of changes occurring in the external environment and the need to adapt to them in a timely and efficient manner. In the framework of this research, the authors suggest that the formation and development of individual skills can help employees to perform their duties most effectively, which will have a positive impact on the company's activities on the whole. The study provides a theoretical analysis of research related to the development of emotional intelligence and soft skills. The results of one experiment in this area are considered in detail. The authors also try to find the answer to the question about the dependence between the development level of emotional intelligence and the age of a person. It is noted that the older people are, the better they can manage their emotional sphere. The conclusion is made about possible consequences for the company caused by the development of such additional skills as emotional intelligence in employees.

Keywords: Emotional intelligencesoft-skillsskillsdevelopment of the company's personnel

Introduction

In the modern world, characterized by a high rate of development, so-called soft-skills are becoming increasingly important for employers – skills that an employee possesses and that are not obligatory related to his main activity. However, these skills can significantly improve the employee's performance. They allow the employee to be more flexible and able to quickly adapt to a specific work situation, as well as interact with various external contractors and establish relationships within and beyond the company. One of the directions for forming soft-skills is the development of an employee's emotional intelligence.

Problem Statement

Emotions, from the point of view of psychophysiology, are natural phenomena that exist objectively in the world and accompany our life, and also make it possible to determine how harmful or useful the internal and external situations that have developed at the moment are. Emotions in humans are usually subjective, so for a long time they were studied by the psychological science.

Emotions are a complex integrated psychophysiological state (system) that consists of specific manifestations of subsystems. Levitov ( 2006) said that the state of an individual is represented both by his internal experiences and by the activity of his various functional systems and subsystems. Thus, we can say that human emotions are an important component of a multi-element, complex structure of abilities, skills, and competences, which was recognized by most scientists as emotional intelligence. In other words, emotions are one of the key components of the emotional intelligence.

Although there different points of view, traditionally it is believed that the concept of "emotional intelligence" was first introduced by Mayer and Salovey in 1990. They argued that "emotional intelligence" is a type of social intelligence that gives an individual the ability to recognize their own emotions and feelings of other people ( Salovey & Mayer, 1990).

Thanks to the work of the American psychologist Goleman ( 1995), the concept of "emotional intelligence" has become widespread. In the work of Goleman ( 1995), "emotional intelligence" is represented in the form of a person's ability to understand feelings and emotions, as well as feelings and emotions of people around. This allows the individual to use information received in such a way in order to achieve all the own goals.

The abbreviation "EQ" was introduced by clinical psychologist R. Bar-On. He said that emotional intelligence ("EQ") is a set of competencies, abilities, and skills ( Bar-On, 1997). It is this set that influences the individual's ability to overcome the pressure coming from the external environment.

"Emotional intelligence" is interpreted differently in different sources, namely as "emotional thinking», «emotional sensitivity», "emotional consciousness», "emotional potential". To sum up, we can say that emotional intelligence is the ability of a person to use emotions, feelings, and a set of competencies and abilities in order to be able to identify and understand himself, manage himself, and understand people around, establish productive relationships with them. Emotional intelligence includes 5 main components ( Goleman, 1995):

  • Understanding yourself (self-awareness);

  • Management of yourself (self-regulation);

  • Motivating yourself (motivation);

  • Understanding others (empathy);

  • Positive influence on the other people (social skills).

Kest de Vries ( 2012) identified 3 main components of emotional intelligence, which in turn form the emotional potential:

  • Ability to listen;

  • Ability to understand non-verbal communication;

  • Ability to adapt to a huge range of emotions.

Self-control comes from self-awareness. If a person is aware of himself and his behavior, he gets the opportunity to explain and manage his feelings, emotions and behavior. Relationship skills are a manifestation of an individual's ability to establish relationships with others in a way that is beneficial to both sides. Empathy is defined as the "embedding" of a person into another person, that is, the ability to feel emotions and experiences of others. Success will be guaranteed if we can "get into the skin" of our communication partner and determine what the other people expect from us.

Research Questions

The main questions posed by the authors in the course of this study were issues concerning the need to develop emotional intelligence of employees, possible directions of its use by employees in organizations, as well as the relation between the employee’s age and the development degree of his emotional intelligence. The answers to these questions will allow determining development opportunities of specific employees and how their skills can be used for the benefit of a company.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this research is to study the role of the emotional intelligence and its development for the formation of additional soft-skills of employees in modern organizations. Formation and development of individual skills can help employees to perform their duties most effectively. This, in turn, can have a positive impact on the activities of an individual department and the company as a whole. A high level of the emotional intelligence development of employees can affect the emotional climate of the organization.

Research Methods

In the course of the study, the authors analyzed the research of foreign and domestic scientists on the development of emotional intelligence, comparing the concepts of this phenomenon proposed by them, as well as its components. The results of the experiment work concerning the relation between the development of employees’ emotional intelligence and their age were also considered by the authors in this article. As a result, it was concluded about the lack of knowledge on this issue and the need for further research.

Findings

Today, there are a lot of studies and approaches to the development of emotional intelligence, since it is scientifically proven that emotional intelligence needs to be developed and improved. American psychological scientists conducted a research and experimentally proved that the emotional qualities of an individual throughout his life are not at the same level, but change. That is, people of different ages have different levels of emotional intelligence.

A group of scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, conducted a study whose results showed that the level of emotional intelligence throughout a person's life increases and reaches its peak at about 60 years. For this experiment, scientists selected people of different ages in order to determine the level of their emotional intelligence. 144 people aged 20-60 were selected; younger people were not included in the sample, as this is a special group with its own specific features.

Then the participants were asked to watch disgusting or heartbreaking videos so that the scientists could see how they would manipulate their emotional state in response to these films. The people demonstrated different behavior types, such as staying indifferent, starting to feel scared, disgusted, or finding a positive side to what they see on the screen ( Abramov, 2018).

So what were the results of this experiment? The most emotionally unstable were 20-year-olds. Since their psyche was just finishing forming. The scientists noticed that the older the subject was, the better he was able to control his perception. Young and middle-aged participants also showed a better ability to ignore their own emotions.

It is worth noting that in order to get more accurate results, it is necessary to conduct research on the same person throughout his life. This should be done in order to determine how the level of the emotional intelligence of this person will change at different ages. Unfortunately, to date, these studies have not been conducted because of their high cost.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can say that emotional intelligence is a set of emotional and cognitive abilities for social and psychological adaptation of an individual. People with a higher level of emotional intelligence have expressed abilities to understand their own emotions and emotions of other people, can manage their emotional sphere, which makes them more adaptable and effective in communication. They are easier to achieve their goals in the interaction with others.

This is why it is easier for employees with a high level of emotional intelligence to interact with other employees, clients, and contractors in the course of their professional activities. A favorable emotional climate at the company can improve the staff efficiency, as well as the efficiency of the organization as a whole.

References

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About this article

Publication Date

01 April 2020

eBook ISBN

978-1-80296-081-5

Publisher

European Publisher

Volume

82

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-

Edition Number

1st Edition

Pages

1-1004

Subjects

Business, innovation, management, management techniques, development studies

Cite this article as:

Troshina, E. P., Savchenko, O. G., & Kozyreva, M. P. (2020). Development Of Emotional Intelligence In The Context Of Soft-Skills Formation. In V. V. Mantulenko (Ed.), Problems of Enterprise Development: Theory and Practice, vol 82. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 982-986). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2020.04.127