Emotional Intelligence: Is It Inherent and Can It Be Taught?

Emotional Intelligence: Is It Inherent and Can It Be Taught?

Daisy Phillips
University College University of Denver
MOTM 4901: Capstone Project
June 9, 2006



______________________________
Greg Giesen
Capstone Advisor


______________________________
Evans Mehew
Academic Director of Masters of Technology Management


Upon the Recommendation of the Program:

_____________________________
James R. Davis
Dean

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Abstract

Much has been written regarding emotional intelligence over the last
twenty years. Research has been undertaken with case studies to show the
benefits of Emotional Intelligence in the workplace and a number of
assessment tools have appeared in both do-it-yourself and managed testing
environments. There are numerous management books and personal
development material available which promote the need for Emotional
Intelligence in organizations but do these programs work? This paper
attempted to answer the question if Emotional Intelligence was something
that could be taught or whether these behaviors were inherent to the
individual. The results of the research performed did suggest that there are
innate qualities, or behavior formed early in life, with regard to emotional
intelligence. In addition, the results also confirmed that changing behavior
to increase emotional intelligence competencies was also possible.

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Introduction
Statement of the Problem

Effective leadership is said to be one of the key factors to the
organizational success of a company. If companies want to keep their
employees, today’s leaders must be able to create cultural climates that
foster not only performance, but also pride and purpose. One study
conducted by Spherion, a staffing and consulting firm, and Lou Harris
Associates, found that only 11 percent of the employees who rated their
bosses as excellent said that they were likely to look for a different job in the
next year; however, 40 percent of those who rated their bosses as poor said
they were likely to leave their job (Zipkin, 2000). This study suggests how
important it is for companies to have effective leaders.
So what does it take to become an effective manager and leader?
Many psychologists suggest that corporations should focus on enhancing
self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and social skills of their
leaders. In other words, it takes more than traditional cognitive intelligence
to be successful at work. This type of leadership, also called emotional
intelligence (EI), which is defined by psychologists Salovey and Mayer as
“the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to
assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to
reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual
growth”, claims an emerging school of behavioral thought (1993). In

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support of this theory, Daniel Goleman writes that research indicates
conventional measures of intelligence, or IQ, only account for 20% of a
person’s success in life. Goleman ascertains that some of the missing 80%
of this success factor comes in the form of emotional intelligence or the
emotional quotient (EQ), the capacity to acquire and apply emotional
information (Goleman, 1995).
However, there is still a lot that is unclear about the nature of
emotional intelligence, the way by which it should be measured, and its
impact on individual performance and organizational effectiveness. In some
cases, this lack of clarity has led to controversy among researchers. One of
the most basic controversies involves the relative predictive power of EI and
IQ on an individual’s success in life. Part of the problem is that these
abilities are not mutually exclusive: emotional intelligence by any definition
is really a combination of cognitive and emotional abilities. Because of the
inherent combination, measuring the predictive life success factors as well as
effectiveness from EI alone is difficult. And due to this difficulty, emotional
intelligence and it’s relationship to the business world has become a topic of
debate. However, this debate focuses less on how emotional intelligence
training is being performed and the success rates of the training which is
why this capstone project will focus on answering two questions: first, are
qualities of EI innate, similar to those characteristics of IQ? And second, can
emotional intelligence qualities be taught?

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Goals and Objectives

The goal of this Capstone project is to review and analyze the
effectiveness of emotional intelligence training using statistics, surveys and
qualitative data from a variety of sources that have measured the impact of
utilizing EI in the workplace. This analysis will be used to understand
whether these emotional soft skills can be taught or whether they are innate
to an individual. This outcome will help provide answers to the question that
businesses that utilize leadership strategies involving EI are asking: Is
emotional intelligence training effective or should more emphasis be placed
on hiring individuals with naturally high EI qualities? Further research will
be completed on leaders who have attended emotional intelligence training.
This study will begin to examine the effectiveness of the training these
individuals received over time. Finally, a proposed strategy to propose how
businesses can most effectively utilize emotional intelligence within their
company will be offered.
Benefits
The results of the information gathered in this study will show the
effectiveness of leadership training as it pertains to emotional intelligence
and will compare these results to individuals with a naturally high EI scores
without training. This data will help clarify whether EI leadership training is
an effective method for increasing emotional intelligence in individuals with
lower EI scores or if emotional intelligence is an inherent quality. The

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conclusion of this project could become a reference for businesses that are
interested in understanding the effectiveness of EI trained leaders compared
to leaders with an innate EI skillset. Ultimately, this study could also
provide a useful resource to many students working toward a Masters
degree with a leadership concentration at the University College, by
providing an understanding of the areas to spend time and money when
attempting to build a leadership team or enhance their own abilities.
Literature Review
Workers are typically conditioned to believe that emotions are not
welcome in the workplace and that work decisions should be based upon
logical reason and nothing else. Leadership research tells us that the lack of
interpersonal skills and the inability to adapt to changing environments are
the two factors that typically can derail a career (Bagshaw, 2000). Today,
however, there is a growing body of science in the emerging field of
Emotional Intelligence (EI), indicating that proper understanding of and use
of emotions can be critical in helping workers become more effective
leaders. According to psychologists Salovey and Mayer, emotional
intelligence is defined as “the ability to perceive emotions, to access and
generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and
emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote
emotional and intellectual growth” (1993). There is still much about EI that
is unclear, even though for decades psychologists have been studying

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aspects of emotional intelligence (without using that term) in organizations.
Since the concept is relatively new and still somewhat unclear in definition,
emotional intelligence has led to controversy among some researchers with
regard to how it is measured, how it is taught and even how it is defined. It
is also unclear, due to incomplete research, whether emotional intelligence
training is effective and can help create better leaders or if EI can even be
taught.
Support for Emotional Intelligence
Daniel Goleman popularized his view of emotional intelligence in his
1995 best-selling book, Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more
than IQ (1995). Goleman believes that emotional intelligence can be
generalized as “a set of acquired skills and competencies that predict
positive outcomes at home with one’s family, in school, and at work” and
suggests that almost any factor that influences organizational effectiveness
can be tied to EI (1995).
Many researchers agree with Goleman’s view and have taken the
concept a step further. In his paper, Emotional Intelligence: What it is and
Why it Matters, presented at the 2000 annual meeting of the society for
industrial and organizational psychology, Cary Cherniss states that “even
though the term has been misused and abused by many popularizers, I
believe it rests on a firm scientific foundation” (2000). Cherniss was also
one of the founding members of an organization called the Consortium for

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Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations that was created in
1996. Emotional intelligence had gained such popularity that eight
researchers, of which Cherniss was one, who were all individuals with
impressive accomplishments as applied researchers in the field, started a
group that made it their mandate to “study all that is known about emotional
intelligence in the workplace” (Consortium, 2006). The members not only
produced reports on EI but they have also worked with companies to provide
research statistics and white papers on the subject. One of the studies that
was conducted by the Consortium was performed with American Express.
They studied a group of financial advisors at the company whose managers
completed an emotional intelligence training program and compared them to
an equal number of advisors whose managers had not attended training. The
year following training, the advisors of trained managers grew their
businesses by 18.1% compared to 16.2% for those whose managers were
untrained (Cherniss, 2002).
Criticisms of Emotional Intelligence
Although there is data that tends to highlight the use and need for EI
in the workplace, a significant criticism about the subject is that emotional
intelligence has no "benchmark" against which to set itself. While IQ tests
are designed to correlate as closely as possible with school grades,
emotional intelligence seems to have no similar objective quantity on which
it can be based. Without a benchmark to measure EI, it is difficult to

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determine the effectiveness as it relates to life success predictors as well as
training program success. The measurement issues surrounding EI are
highlighted in a study by Roberts et.al in which they warn that EQ may
actually be a measurement of conformity rather than of any characteristic of
the individual (2001). In their journal article, Does emotional intelligence
meet traditional standards for an intelligence? Some new data and
conclusions, Roberts et.al go on to say that a “conformity construct is of
real-world relevance, but it is highly misleading to label it as an intelligence”
(2001). Even though Mayer et.al provide further verification for their
theories, many psychological researchers do not accept emotional
intelligence to be a part of "standard" intelligence, like IQ. Goleman's work is
also criticized in the psychological community. Hans Eysenck, a psychologist
in the area of intelligence and personality, for example, commentes in the
book, Intelligence: A new look, that Goleman
…exemplifies more clearly than most the fundamental absurdity of the
tendency to class almost any type of behavior as an “intelligence”. . . .
If these five “abilities” [identify, name and understand one's
emotional states, capacity to manage one's emotional states, the
ability to enter into emotional states, the capacity to read, be sensitive
to, and influence other people's emotions and the ability to enter and
sustain satisfactory interpersoanl relationships] define “emotional
intelligence”, we would expect some evidence that they are highly

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correlated; Goleman admits that they might be quite uncorrelated, and
in any case if we cannot measure them, how do we know they are
related? So the whole theory is built on quicksand; there is no sound
scientific basis (2000).
Along with benchmarking there are also criticisms of EI with regard to
proving the effectiveness of training. In the report, Learning Effectiveness
Measurement: A New Approach for Measuring and Managing Learning to
Achieve Business Results, published by Dean Spitzer, the central issue is the
failure to show that investing in emotional intelligence training and
leadership development produces demonstrable business results. Despite
the fact that US companies spend more than $50 billion dollars on training
for Emotional Intelligence annually, there is limited data to show the training
has demonstrated any positive results (Spitzer, 2005).
Project Design

This Capstone Project will first introduce the concept of
Emotional Intelligence and examine the latest studies done with respect to
effects EI has on leadership and company success. Since the effectiveness
of EI has both proponents and opponents, both sides of the debate will be
reviewed and evaluated.


The project will examine the question of whether emotional
intelligence can be taught. It will review the different programs currently
available that claim to teach leaders how to incorporate EI into their

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Document Outline

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