The Need for Emotional Intelligence in Teams: Awareness, Perception of Importance, and Intention to Practice
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Date
2018-04
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ohio State University. Office of Outreach and Engagement
Abstract
Society is filled with many complex problems that often require knowledge and practice from more than one discipline (Stokols et al., 2008). Scientific researchers now have increased their focus to collaborative work in teams rather than individually to solve these problems (Fiore, 2008). Levi (2014) states it best by saying, "A successful team completes its task, maintains good social relations and promotes its members' personal and professional development" (p.19). Teams need an interpersonal understanding (emotional intelligence) and division of tasks to get the work done. The purpose of this study was to describe the change in awareness, perception of importance and intention to practice new skills of team emotional intelligence (EQ) with selected OSU Extension teams by implementing a team assessment and a group coaching/feedback session. Two program teams and one county Extension office team participated in this quasi-experimental research study.
Description
Society is filled with many complex problems that often require knowledge and practice from more than one discipline (Stokols et al., 2008). Scientific researchers now have increased their focus to collaborative work in teams rather than individually to solve these problems (Fiore, 2008). "Teams outperform individuals acting alone or in larger organizational groupings, especially when performance requires multiple skills, judgements, and experiences" (Katzenback & Smith, 1993, p. 9). We cannot individually meet the demands of the workforce, and therefore teams are now the method to get it done. In the research examined by Guzzo and Dickson (1996), implementation of work teams in several studies have been shown to improve organizational effectiveness and performance. Levi (2014) states it best by saying, "A successful team completes its task, maintains good social relations and promotes its members' personal and professional development" (p.19). Teams are not truly effective if only a few members are doing all the work. Teams need an interpersonal understanding (emotional intelligence) and division of tasks to get the work done. Salovey and Mayer (1990) define emotional intelligence (EQ) as the "subset of social 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). Although teams are a collection of individuals, their emotional intelligence must be assessed as an entire unit. According to Druskat & Wolff (2001), "a team with emotionally intelligent members does not necessarily make for an emotionally intelligent group. A team, like any social group, takes on its own character" (p. 82). The purpose of this research study was to describe the change in awareness, perception of importance, and intention to practice new skills of team emotional intelligence (EQ) with selected OSU Extension teams by implementing a team assessment and a group coaching/feedback session. Two programmatic teams and one county Extension office team participated in this quasi-experimental research study. Participants completed a pre-test, TESI® 2.0 Assessment, coaching/feedback session and a post-test. Analysis revealed an overall increase in awareness for all three teams. This implies that it is possible to increase the awareness of team EQ by assessment and workshop. Results were more mixed for perception of importance of team EQ, although participants generally showed a positive change in this area as well. The findings suggest that it will take more than just the two-hour workshop to make significant change. Finally, all team members showed some intention to practice new EQ skills, but only 71 percent (team A), 86 percent (team B) and 45 percent (team C) could provide a specific item they planned to change. This implies that a more concentrated coaching workshop will be needed to strengthen results.
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Crystal Ott, Program Coordinator, 4-H Youth Development, The Ohio State University Extension, ott.109@osu.edu (Corresponding Author); Jeff King, Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Communication, Education, and Leadership; Graham Cochran, Professor and Senior Administrative Officer, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Crystal Ott, Program Coordinator, 4-H Youth Development, The Ohio State University Extension, ott.109@osu.edu (Corresponding Author); Jeff King, Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Communication, Education, and Leadership; Graham Cochran, Professor and Senior Administrative Officer, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.
Keywords
complex problems, effective teams, emotional intelligence
Citation
Engaged Scholars, v. 6 (2018).