Assessing Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace

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There are many different positions in an organization that require different knowledge, skills and abilities. Supervisory and management positions encompass more than just technical knowledge, skill and expertise in their given area, but being leaders over others. This is of interest to organizations in having leaders who are able to motivate, understand and get their teams to work together. Many organizations are looking to improve their performance and productivity through finding and placing the right people in leadership positions. How the concept of emotional intelligence and its evolution has come to the forefront in assisting companies about leadership performance and decisions will be discussed along with the debate among researchers and the review of three assessments as to their impact and uses.
Evolution of Emotional Intelligence
In looking at emotional intelligence, this is not a new concept. It can be traced back to Edward Thorndike study of social intelligence (Cartwright & Pappas, 2008). This type of intelligence is defined in “the ability to understand and manage people” along with taking this ability and applying it to oneself (Cartwright & Pappas, 2008, p. 152). The concept of emotions of how one deals with these internally and externally with others was discovered but it was difficult to measure (Bradberry & Su, 2006).
In the early 80s, the concept of social intelligence resurfaces under the theory of multiple intelligences presented by Howard Gardner in which interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences were included. Interpersonal intelligence was defined as having the ability to understand the feelings of others, whereas intrapersonal intelligence focuses on understanding one’s own emotions (Cartwri...

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