Earlier sections defined influencing and the influencing system. Overall, this influencing function of management focuses on guiding people to accomplish goals. Emotional intelligence, a concept developed by Daniel Goleman, is growing in popularity and prominence among both managers and management scholars. Overall, Goleman’s concept enriches a discussion of influencing by focusing on the specific skills that enable managers to become successful in guiding people toward goal accomplishment.⁶

Emotional intelligence is the capacity of people to recognize their own feelings and the feelings of others, to motivate themselves, and to manage their own emotions as well as their emotions in relationships with others. Overall, an individual’s emotional intelligence is characterized by self-awareness, self-motivation, self-regulation, empathy for others, and adeptness in building relationships.

Studies highlight many interesting points regarding emotional intelligence. Some research indicates that managers with high levels of emotional intelligence are likely to be successful because they are likely to create an organization culture that is characterized by trust, learning, information sharing, and desirable risk taking. Other studies reveal that managers with high levels of emotional intelligence are more interpersonally effective than are managers with low levels of emotional intelligence.⁸ Studies have also shown that managers with high levels of emotional intelligence are likely to be more satisfied in their jobs than are other managers, and that employees who work for managers with high levels of emotional intelligence are more satisfied with their jobs than are employees who work for managers with low levels of emotional intelligence. Ongoing studies reveal that a steady, five-year increase in emotional intelligence seems to be leveling off, perhaps implying that more training in this area needs to take place.⁹

In some ways, research in the area of emotional intelligence has produced somewhat puzzling results. On the one hand, emotional intelligence research traditionally seems to indicate that managers with low levels of emotional intelligence are likely to be relatively unsuccessful because they are less likely to produce a positive work culture.¹⁰ On the other hand, another study suggests that the further an individual goes up the corporate ladder, the lower his or her emotional intelligence because some organizations promote employees based on their financial performance rather than their people skills.¹¹

At first glance, the relationship between the traditional influencing function of management and Goleman’s emotional intelligence may be hard to identify. Upon inspecting the skills that Goleman outlines as being necessary to being an emotionally intelligent manager, however, the relationship becomes clearer. Figure 12.3 lists several of the skills of the emotionally intelligent manager. As you can see by inspecting Figure 12.3, the influencing section of this book and the concept of emotional intelligence both emphasize critical management concepts and skills in areas of motivation, communication, leadership, teamwork, creativity, and innovation—all important attributes in building positive psychological capital in an organization.¹²

Communication is discussed further in the rest of this chapter. Leading, motivating, and considering groups and teams, corporate culture, and creativity and innovation are discussed in Chapters 13, 14, 15, and 16 and in Appendix 3, respectively.