Emotional Intelligence and Organizational Change

Emotional Intelligence and Organizational Change
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Emotional Intelligence and Organizational Change
In today's competitive market, organizations are under pressure to keep up with the change regarding leadership and strategies of operation. Consequently, the leaders in the 21st century are faced with an enormous responsibility to guide their respective organizations through transitions successfully. Emotional intelligence is central to effective decision-making during the change to ensure desired goals are timely met. The process of change involves a lot of emotion; therefore, an emotionally intelligent leader can discerning people's moods and level of enthusiasm towards the proposed change. Therefore, this essay focuses on two hypotheses; A leader with a higher level of emotional intelligence is more willing to adapt to organizational structure changes than a leader with lower levels, and an employee with a higher level of emotional intelligence is more willing to adapt to job responsibility changes than an employee with lower levels.
Hypothesis 1
Change in organizational structure is complex, and it is bound to elicit mixed reactions and resistance from departments that feel aggrieved. The types of resistance can manifest themselves in the form of rational and irrational categories. Rational resistance refers to the feeling of noninvolvement by the followers CITATION Iss18 \l 1033 (Issah, 2018). Resistance from members is likely to derail change and foster resentment and fears that their contributions are not recognized. Irrational resistance, on the other hand, refers to followers who bring up contentious discussions to interfere with change just for its sake.
According to Gardner, an effective leader analyzes tempers, motivations and desires to determine the best means to respond. In his theory, he believes that emotional intelligence is critical in perpetuating self-knowledge, allowing one to access their emotions and use them to guide behaviour CITATION Ken19 \l 1033 (Cherry & Morin, 2019). A leader with high emotional intelligence is best suited to inspire and persuade followers with rational resistance into adopting the proposed changes. Also, individuals with irrational intelligence can be reasoned with to find out the root of the problems. Irrational resistance can originate from fears and feelings of threat to one's identity, the unknown, competence and skills. Therefore, emotionally intelligent leaders are capable of managing individuals that lack self-confidence. Managing such emotions entails making decisions that change or satisfy the emotional reactions.
Mayer and Salovey's theory on emotional intelligence is composed of sixteen developmental models divided into four branches. Two of the branches applies to employees and their ability to influence organizational operations and structure. Employers need to be competent in perception, appraisal and expression of emotion. Therefore, the leaders can identify their emotions, physical state, thoughts and feelings. The same skill is projected onto other people whose feelings can be deducted from behaviour patterns, language, sound and physical appearance. Thus, employers are aware of how mood swings influe...