Introduction
In their article, “Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups”, Druskat and Wolff (2001) set out to discuss the concept of emotional intelligence and the role it plays in today’s organizational settings. The authors aim at revealing to readers the relevance of emotional intelligence in facilitating efficient organizational performance.
The authors are accredited scholars with extensive experience in the fields of management and organization behavior. As such, they have used their knowledge to explore the effects of emotional intelligence in group settings.
Throughout the article, the authors have discussed the relevance of emotional intelligence in groups and the implications organizations may face as a result of not acknowledging emotional intelligence within the organization. This paper shall review the ideas the authors purport and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the same.
Article Review
The authors start by stating that emotional intelligence affects all employees and impacts their performance significantly. However, they observe that this concept is viewed by many people as an individual competence rather than a comprehensive concept that affects team settings.
It is from these undertones that the authors have developed their theory, which is based on the assumption that a group’s efficacy is determined by its ability to develop emotionally intelligent attitudes and behaviors that support the creation of trust, identity and efficiency within the group (Druskat & Wolff, 2001).
To reinforce this assumption, the authors state that a group with emotionally intelligent members is not necessarily an emotionally intelligent group. This means that a group must develop norms that facilitate interpersonal understanding among its members in order to realize its full potential (Druskat & Wolff, 2001).
Throughout the article, the authors discuss the creation of emotionally intelligent norms as their core concept. Druskat and Wolff (2001), assert that a team that shares such norms develops trust among the members, a strong group identity and is very efficient. Consequently, the level of participation, collaboration and cooperation is higher, which ultimately leads to better decision making, high productivity and innovativeness.
The central argument of the article is that many groups’ emotional intelligence is founded on tackling issues from the perspective of an individual member instead of considering matters from all perspectives (Druskat & Wolff, 2001).
While most perspective taking techniques help teams build emotional intelligence, they systematically eliminate emotions by combining perspectives in a mechanical manner. As such, the authors suggest that members of a team should be encouraged to address all perspectives in order to create the level of trust required to foster efficient participation.
To support their argument, Druskat and Wolff (2001) state that for a group to be emotionally intelligent, members must acknowledge this concept as multidimensional. This means that teams should view and understand emotional intelligence from an individual, group and cross boundary perspective. They adequately use case studies and scenarios to prove their point.
Considering that most work is done in team settings, Druskat and Wolff (2001) have strongly brought out the value emotional intelligence has on organizations. In addition, they have eloquently and logically presented their facts through their choice of words, visual aids and models.
On the same note, their work comes at a time when organizations and behavioral analysts are focusing their attention on understanding the effects emotional intelligence has on individual and group effectiveness (Druskat & Wolff, 2001).
Conclusion
The article provides organizations and researchers with a foundation from which emotional intelligence can be understood and developed. Not only have the authors managed to produce an educative article, but they have also used a friendly writing style which makes the article an interesting read.
Reference
Druskat, V. U., & Wolff, S. B. (2001). Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups. Harvard Business Review, 79(3): pp. 81 – 90.