Emotional Intelligence (EI) as an integral part in management:

Host of benefits accrue from application of EI in management - S. Chandrasiri,HR Specialist

By Indeewara THILAKARATHNE

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Here S. Chandrasiri, a Senior Management personality in an exclusive interview with Sunday Observer emphasises the importance of Emotional Intelligence in the multi-faceted field of management and host of benefits that organisations can derive from the application of EI (Emotional Intelligence) in management culture of an organisation.

Q: How the concept of EI came into being?

A: Emotional Intelligence is not a recently developed concept. It has been a very old concept existed even during Buddha’s time. Buddha emphasised Emotional Intelligence in a different way. It has helped not only in Buddha’s preaching but also other leader’s preaching in solving problems in social interactions.

Recently it was re-discovered by management experts like Daniel Goleman, Stephen R Coovey, and Fred Luthons who introduced Organisational Behaviour subjects in management. They are the pioneers who brought EI subject to the Management. In fact, in Sri Lankan, this subject came into management arena only few years ago.and This subject is still at its infancy stage . So the people in the top echelons of Management especially in the Government Sector are not even aware of concept of Emotional Intelligence in the Management.

But persons who are well read and conversant in Human Resource Management in the private sector are practising the concept of EI and applying it in their day-to-day management activities. Only About ten years ago, the concepts and practises of human resource Development started developing in Sri Lanka and this was confined mainly to private sector and rarely it has emerged in public sector. We have only three persons with PhDs in Human Resource Management and its related subjects in our country they are prof Gunapala Nanayakkara, Dr. Travis Perera and Dr Ajantha Dharmasiri from PIM (Post Graduate Institute of Management), and Dr. Opatha from University of Sri Jayawardenapura.

The absence of Managerial people equipped with emotional intelligence and other concepts and practises in Human Resource management and the people who are managing the country without the knowledge of emotional intelligence are the main causes for many problems in our society whether it is in public sector or private sector. The absence of problem solving by our managers both in the area of internal and external customers may result in dissatisfaction of both customers and perhaps the stakeholders and this greatly affects the productivity in organisations in not achieving organisational objectives.

Q: when you look at the Government Sector, Mismanagement has been cited as the biggest culprit in its gross inefficiency and unproductive nature precipitated by hostile working environment. Don’t you perceive that the entire management practices and culture in Government Sector need an overhaul?

A: yes absolutely, we have to change the system upside down. We have to gradually train almost all employees from top to bottom how to change their attitudes and acquire required knowledge in the areas of emotional intelligence, empathy, interpersonal relations, Interpersonal skills, PR skills and other competencies and skills. The absence of training and development in the areas of Human Resource Development, strategic Human Resource Management is another barrier and a stumbling block in acquiring knowledge on those areas.

When start to put into practice those concepts in management, automatically the self-awareness, self-consciousness would create among the employees thereby creating self-motivation. You can motivate people for the money and for love but not for work. In order to motivate employees for work, you have to make them aware of what they are engaging in. The self-awareness is one of the principle ingredients of EI. now in Europe mainly UK, Germany, Italy and France adopt not only above practices and concepts in management but also new concepts like Work-life-balance has come in to the management. They do many research on this new concept of work life Balance. Work-life-balance means that we have to balance the employee’s work life and private life in accordance with the work environment, the work load he or she has to do. That is a burden of the Managers. There is a lot of demand for research in this area in European countries.

The work-life-balance will make each and every worker content with improving services and creating conducive atmosphere to work.

Q: Emotional management is an important component of Emotional Intelligence and includes wide range of emotions. Should Managers be able to control emotions within the context of overall organisation?

A: Emotional Management is to control range of emotions. Human Resource Managers or people who manage people should know not only to control emotions among themselves but also among employees. Generally, the emotions include Anger, Sadness, Fear, Enjoyment, Love, Surprise, Disgust and Shame. Management equipped with emotional intelligence has to be developed in every nook and corner of an organisation and it should, ultimately, be a culture. Eventually it becomes a practice of the work ethic.

Q: what are the essential areas in an organisation to be developed to achieve the required level of emotional Management?

A: Training and Development is very important in this regard. The HR Managers should have to mentor, guide and coach employees and also should be in constant touch with all the inner customers circles who are involved in the operations and the workings of the organisation. If the good managerial concepts are practised, recognising talents and due reward would automatically come. Rewards like promotions ia another step in which one can climb the hierarchy are there always in any organisation. The promotion should be done not according to the personal contacts. It should be done considering educational, professional qualifications and the competencies and the skills that applicable. This type of rationale promotions will improve the corporate culture and resulting the achievement of objectives of the corporate body or the company. Then only a company can achieve its mission but giving promotions on personnel influence and those who curry favour will result in organisational collapse in some form.Only few organisations in Sri Lanka like Blue Diamonds, CINEC Maritime Campus, Mass Holdings Slime lines some of the companies in Ceylinco Group and Department of Motor Traffic, Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration (SLIDA) are in the process of developing the required levels of Human Resource Management and total quality management in order improve practices in the management. Employees of these types of organisations work towards achieving organisations’ objectives.

But many Government Organisations, about 95 percent, do not work for any kind of objectives. The employees work for their own benefits and carrying tales to their bosses. It will contribute to the downfall of the organisations. In government organisations, the workload that can be done by one person is done by ten persons. But in private organisations, a person is trained not only to do peon’s job but also to do manager’s job. So any manager in private sector looks after not only the specific area but also from top to the bottom. But in Government sector, no officer would take even a piece of paper from his or her table to another table without the help of two or three peons. These types of practices have contributed to some form of collapse of entire public sector. Some government entities have started training and development programs but these programs are conducted by the people who are closer to the government having influential contacts.

Q: How do you describe the process of developing EI?

A: First one has to recognise one’s emotions. Then one can recognise the feelings of others and then can commence learning to empathise with others.

When EI is developed to the required level, organisation would automatically achieve its objectives.

Management Professionals like Dr Travis perera Dr Uditha Liyanage Deepal Sooriarachchi, Isuru Thilakawardena and Tilakasiri should be brought into Government sector where they can be entrusted with considerable responsibilities in introducing new management Concepts and practises in accordance with organisational development needs. we need people to change our management culture and practises see the changes in Sri Lanka Insurance, Union Assurance and in SLIDA and then at Colombo stock exchange and Securities Exchange Commission.

Ministry of Mass Media and Information, Motor Traffic Department and Castle Maternity Hospital. These institutions are doing well and we should be confident that same kind of management culture can be introduced to other government entities.

Multiple Intelligence

Linguistic Intelligence: Persons who manifest this type of intelligence are good at writing, reading, telling stories and solving crossword puzzles.

Logical Intelligence: Mathematical intelligence, people high on logical intelligence are interested in patterns, categories and relationships. They are attracted to arithmetic problems, strategy games and experiments.

Bodily Intelligence: Kinesthetic intelligence, this type of intelligence includes knowledge through bodily sensations and such persons are athletics, dancers or good at crafts such as sewing and wood work.

Spatial Intelligence: People high on spatial intelligence think in terms of images and pictures. They may be fascinated by magus or jigsaw puzzles or spend free time in drawing or day dreaming.

Musical Intelligence: Typically such persons are always singing or humming to themselves. They are usually quite aware of minute details that others may miss and are discriminating listeners.

Interpersonal Intelligence: These peoples are leaders among their peers and are good at communication. They seem to understand others feelings and motivations.

Intrapersonal Intelligence: Although such persons may be shy, they are aware of their own feelings and they are self-motivated.