Human Resources Management

Abstract

There has long been interest in other inteliigences than the 'traditionai' iQ, but the term 'emotionai intelligence', first coined by Salovey and Mayer [1] and subsequently popularised by Daniel Goleman [2], has particularly captured the imagination of many researchers and practitioners. This probably reflects increased interest in the role of emotions within organizations, and the widespread view that personality and IQ alone are not sufficient to explain variations in employees' performance. Yet, simultaneously, the construct of El also generates an equal measure of disdain from some researchers. This Manager Update will consider recent research into the emerging construct of El and will address key issues including whetherthere is a need forthe construct, whether it can be measured adequately, whether it is useful for understanding or predicting performance and leadership effectiveness and, finally, can it be developed?