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Supervisor: Frances Jørgensen Aarhus School of Business Master Thesis University of Aarhus August 2008 Emotional Intelligence The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in the Recruitment Process Margrét Grétarsdóttir 280040

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Page 1: Import nce of emotional

Supervisor: Frances Jørgensen

Aarhus School of Business Master Thesis University of Aarhus August 2008 

Emotional Intelligence The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in the Recruitment Process

 

 

Margrét Grétarsdóttir 280040

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Executive Summary The idea with this paper is to investigate the term emotional intelligence and its importance

during the recruitment process. Over the last few decades a continuous growth has been in the

interest in the area of leadership, with both managers and leadership researchers trying to

identify the behaviour which increases a leader’s effectiveness. Despite of research, there

appears to be little emerging consensus regarding what characterises an effective leader. It

also seems to be quite common to recruit managers on the basis of their technical

qualifications rather than their ability to communicate with others which could be prevented,

or at least minimised, by taking so called “soft” management procedures (focus on the

personal aspects in working environment) into considerations during the recruitment process.

Recently, emotional intelligence as a predictor of effective leadership has gained the attention

of researchers and recruiters. Emotional intelligence can be generally defined as a set of non-

cognitive competencies that are linked to interpersonal effectiveness or “people skills” at

work. More specifically, emotional intelligence includes the ability to monitor one’s own and

others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use that information to

guide one’s thinking and actions. Emotional intelligence has become extremely popular

within the fields of management because it is thought to underlie various aspects of workplace

performance and success not accounted for by traditional intelligence measures or personality.

The research question put forward in the paper is: “to what degree are managers recruited

and selected on the basis of emotional characteristics versus technical qualification?” In

order to connect theories of emotional intelligence with reality interviews were conducted

with six HR managers of different companies in Iceland. They were all asked the same ten

questions and the findings indicate that managers are being recruited on the basis of their

emotional intelligence characteristics rather than technical qualifications but that the best

combination would be good people skills as well as good technical qualifications. Grades

were also mentioned in connection to this which contradicts the theories that this paper was

based on. According to researchers David McClelland and Daniel Goleman grades in school

and IQ do not indicate how likely it is that an individual will succeed in life and at a work

place.

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No evaluation measure gives perfect results. Self-evaluations are vulnerable to skews from

people wanting to look good. Therefore, when it comes to assessing emotional competencies,

there is always the danger that a person with low self-esteem does not evaluate accurately his

or her own strengths and weaknesses. Even though self-evaluations can be helpful, if people

really trust that the results will be used for their own good, they can be less reliable without

this trust. Having emotionally intelligent managers does not guarantee that the company gains

more market share or a better bottom line but research throughout the years have indicated

how important the human mind is for the growth of organisations and therefore “soft”

management like emotional intelligence has gained increased popularity.

The outline of this paper is twofold; the first two chapters cover theories of traditional

management and leadership and the main chapters cover the concept of emotional

intelligence, both in theory and practice. It is important to understand the evolution of

management because management problems remain mostly the same over time. While value

systems and perspectives may have changed, experts have gained a better understanding of

what motivates employees.

In the beginning of the twentieth century Mary Parker Follett pointed out in her behavioural

theory that the role of the manager and his influence on employees was becoming more and

more important. Henry Fayol argued that leaders emerged from managers’ authority derived

from their position in the hierarchy but Follett proposed that knowledge and expertise should

decide who would be the leader at any particular moment. Characteristics of managers are

very personal but they are very important for understanding how managers behave, how they

treat and respond to others and how they help contribute to organisational effectiveness

through the four managerial functions; planning, leading, organising and controlling.

When people approach tasks in life with emotional intelligence they should be at an

advantage to solving problems. The kind of problems that people identify and the way they

handle them will probably be more related to internal emotional experience. Such individuals

are more likely to choose a career that will make them happy instead of thinking how much

they will earn and they are also more likely to be more creative and flexible in arriving at

possible alternatives to problems. Individuals who have developed skills related to emotional

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intelligence understand and express their own emotions, recognise the emotions of others and

they also use moods and emotions to motivate adaptive behaviour.

A person with emotional intelligence can be thought of as having attained at least some form

of positive mental health. These individuals are aware of their own feelings and those of

others, are open to positive and negative aspects of internal experience and are able to

communicate them when appropriate. This leads to the fact that an emotionally intelligent

person is often a pleasure to be around, has good influence and makes others feel better. This

person however does not mindlessly seek pleasure, but rather attends to emotions which lead

to growth.

People are being judged by new yardsticks and it is not how smart they are or what kind of

education they have or expertise, more focus is on how people handle themselves and others.

This yardstick is becoming more important and is increasingly applied when choosing whom

to hire. This new measurement focuses on personal qualities but takes for granted peoples

intellectual abilities and technical skills. Emotional intelligence is even more crucial today,

because organisations are shrinking and the people who remain are more accountable and

visible.

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Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 6 

1. Traditional Management ........................................................................................................ 9 1.1 Theoretical Scope of Management ...................................................................................................... 11 1.2 Management Theories ......................................................................................................................... 13 

1.2.1 The Universal Process Approach ................................................................................................. 14 1.2.2 The Operational Approach ........................................................................................................... 16 1.2.3 The Behavioural Approach .......................................................................................................... 18 1.2.4 The Systems Approach ................................................................................................................ 20 1.2.5 The Contingency Approach ......................................................................................................... 21 1.2.6 The Attributes of Excellence Approach ....................................................................................... 22 

2. Leadership ............................................................................................................................ 24 2.1 Models of Leadership .......................................................................................................................... 27 

2.1.1 The Trait Theory .......................................................................................................................... 27 2.1.2 The Behaviour Theory ................................................................................................................. 28 2.1.3 The Contingency Theory ............................................................................................................. 28 2.1.4 The Transformational Theory ...................................................................................................... 29 

2.2. Management vs. Leadership ............................................................................................................... 30 2.3. The Human Side of Managers ............................................................................................................ 32 

3. Emotional Intelligence ......................................................................................................... 35 3.1 Theoretical Scope of Emotional Intelligence ....................................................................................... 37 3.2 Models of Emotional Intelligence ........................................................................................................ 41 

3.2.1 The Abilities Model ..................................................................................................................... 42 3.2.2 The Mixed Model ........................................................................................................................ 43 

3.3 Emotional Intelligence and Its Effect on Leadership ............................................................................ 46 3.4. Emotional Intelligence and the Recruitment Process .......................................................................... 47 

3.4.1. The Selection Process ................................................................................................................. 48 

4. Emotional Intelligence in Reality ......................................................................................... 50 4.1 Business Research Methods ................................................................................................................ 51 4.2 The Research Method .......................................................................................................................... 52 4.3 The Process of the Interviews .............................................................................................................. 54 

4.3.1 Participants .................................................................................................................................. 54 4.3.2 The Interviews ............................................................................................................................. 55 

4.2 Findings of the Interviews ................................................................................................................... 57 4.3 Analysis of Findings ............................................................................................................................ 59 

5. Discussion of Findings ......................................................................................................... 62 5.1 Evaluation of Methods and Findings ................................................................................................... 64 

6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 65 

Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 67 

Appendix 1 ............................................................................................................................... 70 

Appendix 2 ............................................................................................................................... 72 

Appendix 3 ............................................................................................................................... 74 

Appendix 4 ............................................................................................................................... 76 

Appendix 5 ............................................................................................................................... 78 

Appendix 6 ............................................................................................................................... 80 

Appendix 7 ............................................................................................................................... 82 

Appendix 8 ............................................................................................................................... 84 

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Introduction

During the last few decades a continuous growth has been in the interest in the area of

leadership, with both managers and leadership researchers searching to identify the behaviour

which increases a leader’s effectiveness. Despite of research, there appears to be little

emerging consensus regarding what characterises an effective leader. Recently, emotional

intelligence as a predictor of effective leadership has gained the attention of researchers and

recruiters. Emotional intelligence can be generally defined as a set of non-cognitive

competencies that are linked to interpersonal effectiveness or “people skills” at work. More

specifically, emotional intelligence includes the ability to monitor one’s own and others’

feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use that information to guide one’s

thinking and actions.1

Emotional intelligence has become extremely popular within the fields of management

because it is thought to underlie various aspects of workplace performance and success not

accounted for by traditional intelligence measures or personality. Several studies highlight

that traditional forms of intelligence only account for twenty percent of overall success at

work.2 That leaves eighty percent of the variance unaccounted for. With personality and

motivational measures approximately contributing another ten percent to the puzzle, there still

seems to be a lot that is unknown about what makes some individuals perform better or why

some people are always a step ahead. Therefore, measuring emotional intelligence or the

‘softer skills’, as they are often known, could explain what differentiates between who will be

an effective leader and who will not.

In today’s competitive business world, where the “higher education” level of many leaders

and managers is increasing, emotional intelligence has the potential to become a core

differentiator in terms of selecting the best leaders for organisations. Lack of interpersonal

skills can have tremendous influence over the career prospects of highly intelligent, qualified,

and experienced professionals and can easily destroy them. Scoring high on IQ tests and

1 Salovey and Mayer (1990) 2 Goleman (1995)

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getting high grades in school counts for little if the individual has difficulty in dealing with

e.g. uncertainty and pressure at work and handles relationship with others badly.3

This paper is about emotional intelligence and to what degree managers are recruited and

selected on the basis of emotional intelligence characteristics versus technical qualification. It

is important to understand the evolution of management because management problems

remain mostly the same over time. While value systems and perspectives may have changed,

experts have gained a better understanding of what motivates employees. In the first chapter

the concept of management is defined and various theories are covered in order to see how

they have developed, where the human mind was considered valuable and made a difference.

In the beginning of the twentieth century Mary Parker Follett pointed out in her behavioural

theory that the role of the manager and his influence on employees was becoming more and

more important. Henry Fayol argued that leaders emerged from managers’ authority derived

from their position in the hierarchy but Follett proposed that knowledge and expertise should

decide who would be the leader at any particular moment.4 With this in mind the second

chapter is focused on leadership as more and more managers are becoming aware of how

important different leadership styles are and are trying to incorporate them into their personal

leadership style.

Characteristics of managers are very personal but they are very important for understanding

how managers behave, how they treat and respond to others and how they help contribute to

organisational effectiveness through the four managerial functions; planning, leading,

organising and controlling. The third chapter covers the theory of emotional intelligence and

focus is put on the importance of the emotions of managers and to what degree companies

recruit and select managers on the basis of emotional intelligence characteristics versus

technical qualifications. This chapter is mostly based on the theory of David McClelland and

Daniel Goleman.5

In modern management, many words have been written about the value of soft management

(focus on the personal aspects in working environment). It is therefore interesting to find out

3 McClelland (1973) 4 Meyer, et al. (2007) 5 McClelland (1973) and Goleman (1998)

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if this is something that is preached more than practiced, if managers today are really

following the theories that they claim to do and if this is really something that is being used as

a guideline when managers are recruited. Chapter four and five cover this matter with a

description of the research which was conducted in order to connect theory to practice and the

result of that research.

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1. Traditional Management

The world is changing more rapidly than ever before and managers and other employees

throughout an organisation need to perform at higher and higher levels. In the last twenty

years, competition between organisations, both nationally and internationally, has increased

dramatically. Managers need to learn and adapt to changes in the global environment in order

to achieve the goals of the organisations.6

Today, the term competencies is often used to refer to a specific set of skills, abilities and

experiences that gives a manager the ability to perform at a higher level. Developing such

competencies through education and training has become a major priority for managers and

the organisations they work for.

To understand better the role of managers it is necessary to define what management is.

Management is the organizational process that includes strategic planning, managing

resources, deploying the human and financial assets needed to achieve objectives, and

measuring results. Management also includes recording and storing facts and information for

later use or for others within the organization.

Management functions are not limited to managers and supervisors. Every member of the

organization has some management and reporting functions as part of their job. Jones, George

and Hill describe management as:

“Management is the planning, organising, leading and controlling of resources to

achieve organisational goals effectively and efficiently.”7

According to them there are a few key concepts; organisations, goals, resources and

managers. They explain organisations as collections of people who work together and

coordinate actions to be taken to achieve certain goals. These goals, which are to be achieved,

are what are desired in the future. Resources are the company‘s assets such as people,

machines, information, skills and financial capital. The role of the managers is to supervise

6 Meyer et al (2007) 7 Jones, George and Hill (2000)

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the use of the resources so the goals can be achieved.8 Figure one shows the four functions of

management:9

Planning is the process that managers use

to identify and select appropriate goals and

courses of action. There are three steps in

planning: 1) deciding what the goals of the

organisation are, 2) deciding what actions

need to be taken in order to achieve these

goals, and 3) deciding how to allocate

organisational resources to accomplish

them. Planning is a complex activity because normally the goals of an organisation are not

immediately clear. Managers take risks when they commit organisational resources to pursue

a particular strategy.

Organising is a process which managers use to establish a structure of working relationships

so that all members of the organisation interact and co-operate to achieve the goals.

Organising involves grouping people into departments according to the job-specific tasks they

perform. Managers lay out the lines of authority and responsibility between individuals and

groups and decide how organisational resources can be best utilised.

Leading is the process of articulating a clear vision for organisational members to follow. This

should enable the members to understand the role they play in achieving organisational goals.

An ideal outcome of good leadership is a high level of motivation and commitment of

organisational members.

Controlling is the ability to measure performance accurately and regulate organisational

efficiency and effectiveness. Managers evaluate how well an organisation is achieving its

goals and take action to maintain or improve performance. They monitor the performance of

individuals, departments and the organisation as a whole and if standards are not met they

need to take action in order to improve performance.10

8 Jones, George and Hill (2000) 9 Meyer et al. (2007) p. 6 10 Ibid,. p. 6-9

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Management is an organizational function but does not necessarily mean managing people; it

can also be the management of other resources like capital sales areas and marketing.

Management is like an investment. Managers have resources to invest; their time, talent and,

possibly, human resources. The goal (function) of management is to get the best return on

such resources by getting things done efficiently. This doesn't imply being mechanical or

narrowly controlling as some writers on management suggest. The manager's style is a

personal or situational matter and has evolved over time. With highly skilled and self-

motivated knowledge workers, the manager must be very empowering. Where the workforce

is less skilled or not very motivated, the manager may need to monitor output more closely.

Skilled managers know how to vary their style, coach and motivate diverse employees.

Getting things done through people is what they do. By saying that management is a function,

not a type of person or role, it is easier to account for self-managed work teams where no one

is in charge. In a self-managed team, management is a group effort with no one being the

designated manager.11

Improvements in management have taken place because the relevant stakeholders have found

that the current management styles are insufficient in dealing with the problems of the

future.12 The next chapter tells how management theory has developed over time from first

focusing on how to increase the effectiveness of machines to the importance of the human

mind in the organisational process.

1.1 Theoretical Scope of Management

As an area of academic study, management is essentially a product of the twentieth century.

However, the actual practice of management has been around for thousands of years. Tangible

examples can be found throughout history, for example the pyramids of Egypt stand as

evidence of the ancient world’s ability to manage. Even though Egyptian management

techniques were coarse by modern standards, many problems they faced are still around

today. 13 They, like today’s managers, had to make plans, obtain and mobilize human and

material resources, coordinate interdependent jobs, keep records, report their progress and

11 McCrimmon (2007) 12 Meyer et al (2007) 13 Kreitner (2001)

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take corrective action as needed.14 Since the buildings of the pyramids, entire civilizations

have come and gone and management has been practised in each of them. One modern

element has been missing though and that is a systematically record of management

knowledge. In early cultures management was something one learned by word of mouth and

trial and error. It was not something one studied in school or read about in textbooks. 15

The evolution of modern management began at the end of the nineteenth century, after the

industrial revolution had swept through Europe and America. As the economy was changing,

managers in all kinds of organisations, both public and private, were constantly trying to find

better ways to satisfy the needs of customers. Major economic, technical and cultural changes

took place at this time.16 Utilization of steam powered machines was made more efficient and

the development of new machinery and equipment changed the way goods were produced.

This especially applied in the clothing industry as small workshops run by skilled workers,

who produced hand-manufactured products, were being replaced by large factories where

machines were controlled by thousands of unskilled workers who made the products.

Managers and owners of the new factories faced problems as they were often engineers who

had the technical skills to support the machinery but often lacked the craft-specific expertise.

There were also other problems, for example social problems that occurred when people

worked together in large groups. Managers had to search for new techniques to manage their

organisations and soon they began to focus on ways to increase the efficiency of the worker-

task mix.17

Figure 2 The Evolution of Management Theory18

14 Kreitner (2001) 15 Ibid,. 16 Meyer et al. (2007) 17 Ibid,. 18 Ibid,. p. 34

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To begin with, the management theorists were interested in the subject of why the new

machine/factory systems were more efficient and produced greater quantities of goods than

older production operations. In the mid-eighteenth century, Adam Smith was one of the first

writers to investigate the advantages associated with producing in factories. He provided a

theoretical background to resource-allocation, production and pricing issues. Smith found out

that increasing the level of job-specialisation increased efficiency and led to higher

organisational performance.19 This inspired many managers and researchers to investigate

further how job-specialisation could be improved in order to increase performance. The focus

was on how managers should organise and control the work processes to maximise the

advantage of job-specialisation and the division of labour.20 Since that time many theories

have developed throughout the decades and in the next chapter some of these theories will be

discussed.

1.2 Management Theories To be able to study modern management it is necessary to provide a useful historical

perspective of management. It is safe to say that no single theory of management is

universally accepted today. There have been different approaches to management throughout

history and some of them are:

• The universal approach

• The operational approach

• The behavioural approach

• The systems approach

• The contingency approach

• The attributes of excellence approach.

Understanding these general approaches to the theory and practice of management is

necessary to see how management has evolved, where it is today and where it appears to be

headed.21

19 Smith (1982) 20 Meyer et al. (2007) 21 Kreitner (2001)

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1.2.1 The Universal Process Approach

The universal process approach is the oldest and the one of the most popular approaches to

management thoughts. According to this approach, the administration of all organizations

requires the same rational process. One core management process remains the same across all

organisations even though the purpose of the organisations varies. Therefore, successful

managers are equivalent among organisations of different purposes. The universal approach

can also be reduced to a set of separate functions and related principles.22

In 1916, Henry Fayol published his book Administration Industrielle et Générale. Fayol was

first an engineer and later a successful administrator in a large French mining company. He

was a manager who tried to translate his broad administrative experience into practical

guidelines for the successful management of all types of organisations. It was Fayol’s belief

that a manager’s job could be divided into five managerial functions which all were essential

to being a successful manager; planning, organising, command, coordination and control.23

These five elements were Fayol's definition of management roles and actions:24

1. To plan. (Forecast & Plan). Examining the future and drawing up a plan of action. The elements of

strategy.

2. To organize. Build up the structure, both material and human, of the undertaking.

3. To command. Maintain the activity among the personnel.

4. To coordinate. Binding together, unifying and harmonizing all activity and effort.

5. To control. Seeing that everything occurs in conformity with established rule and expressed command.

His fourteen universal principles of management (see table 1) were intended to show

managers how to carry out their functional duties.25 Fayol’s elements and principles have

withstood the test of time because of their widespread applicability. These functions can still

be found in almost all management texts, as Carroll and Gillen put it:

“The classical functions still represent the most useful way of conceptualising the

manager’s job, especially for management education, and perhaps this is why it is still

the most favoured description of managerial work in current management textbooks. The

22 Kreitner (2001) 23 Ibid,. 24 Marino (2008) 25 Kreitner (2001)

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classical functions provide clear and discrete methods of classifying the thousands of

different activities that managers carry out and the techniques they use in terms of the

functions they perform for the achievement of organisational goals.26”

Table 1. The 14 Management Principles from Henri Fayol (1841-1925)27:

1. Division of Work. Specialization allows the individual to build up experience, and to continuously improve his skills. Thereby he can be more productive.

2. Authority. The right to issue commands, along with which must go the balanced responsibility for its function. 3. Discipline. Employees must obey, but this is two-sided: employees will only obey orders if management play their part by

providing good leadership. 4. Unity of Command. Each worker should have only one boss with no other conflicting lines of command. 5. Unity of Direction. People engaged in the same kind of activities must have the same objectives in a single plan. This is essential

to ensure unity and coordination in the enterprise. Unity of command does not exist without unity of direction but does not necessarily flow from it.

6. Subordination of individual interest (to the general interest). Management must see that the goals of the firm are always paramount.

7. Remuneration. Payment is an important motivator although by analyzing a number of possibilities, Fayol points out that there is no such thing as a perfect system.

8. Centralization (or Decentralization). This is a matter of degree depending on the condition of the business and the quality of its personnel.

9. Scalar chain (Line of Authority). A hierarchy is necessary for unity of direction. But lateral communication is also fundamental, as long as superiors know that such communication is taking place. Scalar chain refers to the number of levels in the hierarchy from the ultimate authority to the lowest level in the organization. It should not be over-stretched and consist of too-many levels.

10. Order. Both material order and social order are necessary. The former minimizes lost time and useless handling of materials. The latter is achieved through organization and selection.

11. Equity. In running a business a ‘combination of kindliness and justice’ is needed. Treating employees well is important to achieve equity.

12. Stability of Tenure of Personnel. Employees work better if job security and career progress are assured to them. An insecure tenure and a high rate of employee turnover will affect the organization adversely.

13. Initiative. Allowing all personnel to show their initiative in some way is a source of strength for the organization. Even though it may well involve a sacrifice of ‘personal vanity’ on the part of many managers.

14. Esprit de Corps. Management must foster the morale of its employees. Fayol further suggests that: “real talent is needed to coordinate effort, encourage keenness, use each person’s abilities, and reward each one’s merit without arousing possible jealousies and disturbing harmonious relations.”

Fayol’s main contribution to management thought was to show how the complex process of

management can be separated into interdependent areas of responsibility. His idea was that

management is a continuous process beginning with planning and ending with controlling and

this remains popular today.

The functional approach is useful because it describes what managers should do. However, it

does not help explain why and how something should be done. For that purpose, other

approaches are needed.28 The basic concerns that motivated Fayol continue to motivate

managers today. The principles that he set forward have provided a clear and appropriate set

of guidelines that managers can use to create a work-setting that makes effective and efficient

use of organisational resources. The principles are a foundation for modern management

26 Carroll and Gillen (1987) p. 48 27 Marino (2008) 28 Kreitner (2001)

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theory and other researchers have developed them so that they fit in today. An examples of

this is Fayol‘s thoughts for equity and the links between performance and reward which today

are central themes in modern theories of motivation and leadership.29

1.2.2 The Operational Approach

The operational approach is a convenient description of the production-oriented area of

management dedicated to improving efficiency and cutting waste.30 This is a systematic study

of the relationships between people and tasks for the purpose of re-designing the work process

in order to increase efficiency. Throughout history this approach has been technically and

quantitatively oriented and it has been given many names, such as scientific management,

management science and operations management. The best known protagonist of the

operational approach is Frederick W. Taylor who is best known for defining a set of

principles which have become known as scientific management.31

Taylor was the epitome of the self-made man. In his early life he had problems with his eyes

which prevented him from going to Harvard University so instead he went to work as a

common labourer in a small machine shop. He later became a manufacturing manager and

eventually became a consultant and taught other managers how to use his techniques.

It was Taylor’s believe that the production process would become more efficient if the

amount of time and effort to produce a unit of output could be reduced by increasing job-

specialisation. Based on his findings, Taylor developed four principles to increase efficiency

in the workplace (the four principles are shown on next page).32

29 Meyer et al. (2007) 30 Kreitner (2001) 31 Meyer et al. (2007) 32 Ibid,. p. 36-37

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Table 2. The Four Principles of Taylor

Principle 1: Study the way workers perform their tasks, gather all the informal job knowledge that workers

possess, and experiment with ways of improving how tasks are performed. Taylor studied and measured in great

deal the way different workers went about performing their tasks to discover the best method of completing a

task. One of the main tools he used was a time-and-motion study, which involves the careful timing and

recording of the actions taken to perform particular tasks. Once Taylor understood the existing methods of

performing a task, he made experiments in order to increase specialisation.

Principle 2: Codify the new methods of performing tasks into written rules and standard operating procedures.

Once the best method of performing a task was determined, Taylor specified that is should be recorded so that

the procedure could be taught to all workers performing the same task. By standardising and simplifying jobs

further, the efficiency would be increased throughout an organisation.

Principle 3: Carefully select workers who possess skills and abilities that match the needs of the task, and train

them to perform the task according to the established rules and procedures. Taylor believed that workers had to

understand the tasks that were required of them in order to increase specialisation. It was his believe that they

needed to be trained to perform a task at an optimum level. Workers who could not be trained to this level were

to be transferred to a job where they were able to reach the minimum required level.

Principle 4: Establish a fair or acceptable level of performance for a task, and then develop a pay system that

provides a reward for performance above the acceptable level. To encourage workers to perform at a higher

level of efficiency, Taylor wanted workers to benefit from any gains in performance. He provided them with an

incentive to reveal the most efficient techniques for performing a task. They should receive bonuses and some

percentage of the performance gains achieved through the more efficient work process.

By 1910, the system of scientific management had become nationally known in the United

States and was fully practised. Among the many that followed in Taylor’s footsteps, Frank

and Lillian Gilbreth and Henry L. Gantt stand out. Frank and Lillian Gilbreth were really

inspired by Taylor’s time-and-motion studies. They turned motion studies into an exact

science. In doing so they pioneered the use of motion pictures for studying and streamlining

work motions. Henry L. Gantt contributed to scientific management by refining production

control and cost-control techniques. He also humanised Taylor’s differential piece-rate system

by combining a guaranteed day rate, or a minimum wage, with an above-standard bonus.

Gantt was ahead of his time in emphasising the importance of the human factor and in urging

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management to concentrate on service rather than profits.33 Here is where the researchers first

started to think of the importance of the human mind

1.2.3 The Behavioural Approach

The behavioural approach originates from American management theorists who began their

studies and research when Taylorist theories were at the height of their influence. Even

though the approach of these theorists differed, they all focused on behavioural management;

how managers should behave to motivate their employees and encourage them to perform at a

higher level so that the goals of organisations could be reached.34 The advocates of the

behavioural approach believed that people deserved to be the central focus of organised

activity. According to them, successful management depends on the manager’s ability to

understand and work with people who have a variety of backgrounds, needs and perception.

Mary Parker Follett was one of the theorists, in the beginning of the twentieth century, who

focused their work on the way managers should behave towards their employees. She

criticised Taylor’s approach because it didn’t take into account the difference between

individuals and ignored the human side of the organisation. It was her opinion that

management often overlooked the multitude of ways in which employees could contribute to

the organisations if their managers would allow them to participate and use their initiatives in

their every day work lives.35 What made the procedures of Follett and Taylor different was

that Taylor used time-and-motion experts to analyse the jobs of the workers while Follett

thought that the workers should be involved in the job analysis process. It was her opinion

that the workers were the most qualified to analyse their own jobs and therefore they should

participate in the process. The managers should behave as coaches or guides rather than

supervisors. Follett anticipated the emergence of self-managed teams and employee

empowerment which is so popular today. She also saw the importance of different

departments working together or, as it is called today, “cross-functioning”.36

33 Kreitner (2001) 34 Meyer et al. (2007) 35 Graham (1995) 36 Follett (1924)

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While acknowledging Fayol’s opinion of acknowledged expertise as an important source of a

managers’ authority, Follett went even further. Fayol argued that leaders emerged from

managers’ authority derived from their position in the hierarchy but Follett proposed that

knowledge and expertise should decide who would be the leader at any particular moment. It

was her belief that power is fluid and should flow to the person who could do the most for the

organisation and help it achieve set goals. She looked at the organisation horizontally instead

of Fayol’s hierarchical, bureaucratic view and believed that effective management came from

the way people interacted and reinforced each other. This approach was very radical at that

time but is well recognised today.37

As the socio-political climate changed, behavioural scientists from prestigious universities

began to conduct on-the-job behaviour studies. Instead of studying tools and techniques in the

scientific management tradition, they focused on people.38 One of these studies was

conducted from 1924 to 1932 at the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Company.

The Hawthorne studies were a small-scale scientific management study of the relationship

between light intensity and productivity. The performance of a selected group of employees

tended to improve no matter how the physical surroundings were manipulated. Even when the

lights were dimmed to moonlight intensity, productivity continued to grow. As scientists

could not figure out why this happened, a team of behavioural science researchers from

Harvard, headed by Elton Mayo, was asked to conduct a more thorough study. The

Hawthorne studies ended in 1932 and by then over twenty thousand employees had

participated in it. After extensive interviewing with the employees, it became clear that

productivity was much less affected by changes in the work environment than by the attitudes

of the workers themselves. The relationship between the worker and his supervisor and

between members of a group was found to be more significant. This finding influenced many

researchers to turn their attention to managerial behaviour and leadership. If managers could

be taught how to behave and how to motivate their employees then productivity could be

increased.39 From this view emerged the human relations movement, which advocated that

managers should be behaviourally trained to manage their employees in order to increase their

co-operation and as a consequence productivity would also increase.

37 Meyer et al. (2007) 38 Mayo (1933) 39 Kreitner (2001)

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One of the main assumptions of the Hawthorne studies was that the behaviour of managers

and workers in the work place is as important in explaining the level of performance as the

technical aspects of the task. It is very important for managers to understand how the informal

organisations works, i.e. the system of behavioural rules and norms that emerges in a group

when they try to change behaviour in an organisation. The Hawthorne studies demonstrated

the importance of understanding how feelings, thoughts and behaviour of group members and

managers affected performance. With these studies it was becoming clear to researchers that

understanding behaviour in organisations was critical so that performance could be

increased.40

The increasing interest in the management style known as organisational behaviour dates back

to these early studies. Organisational behaviour is a modern approach to management that

attempts to determine the causes of human work behaviour and translate the results into

effective management techniques. It has had a significant impact on modern management

thoughts by helping to explain why employees behave as they do. Above all else, the

behavioural approach has made it clear that people are the key to productivity. Technology,

work rules and standards do not guarantee good job performance; instead success depends on

motivated and skilled individuals who are committed to organisational goals.41

1.2.4 The Systems Approach

An important milestone in the history of management development occurred when researchers

went beyond the study of how managers could influence behaviour within organisations to

consider how managers control the organisation’s relationship with its external environment.

Universal process, scientific management and human relations theorists studied management

by taking things apart. They assumed that a whole was equal to the sum of its parts and could

be explained in terms of its parts. Systems theorists thought differently, they studied

management by putting things together and assumed that the whole was greater than the sum

of its parts. System thinking presented the field of management with a huge challenge which

was to identify all relevant parts of organised activity and to discover how they interacted.

According to Chester I. Barnard, willingness to serve, common purpose and communication

40 Carey (1967) 41 Kreitner (2001)

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are the principal elements in an organisation.42 His opinion was that organisations could not

function if these three elements did not exist interdependently. Barnard’s systems perspective

has encouraged management and theorists to study organisations as complex and dynamic

wholes instead of piece by piece. 43

One of the most influential views on how an organisation is affected by its external

environment was developed by three theorists, Katz, Kahn and Thompson in the 1960s. They

viewed the organisation as an open system; a system that takes resources from its external

environment and transforms them into products and services which are then sent back to the

environment and bought and consumed be customers.44 The system is said to be open because

the organisation draws from and interacts with the external environment to survive, i.e. the

organisation is open to its environment. A closed system, on the other hand, is a self-

contained system that is not affected by changes in the external environment.45 Due to the

systems approach, managers now understand the importance of seeing the whole picture.

Open-systems thinking does not permit the manager to become preoccupied with one aspect

of the organisation while ignoring other internal and external angles. Another positive point is

that the approach tries to integrate various management theories, for example both operations

management and organisational behaviour have been strongly influenced by systems

thinking.46

1.2.5 The Contingency Approach

The contingency theory was developed in the 1960s by several researchers both in United

Kingdom and the United States. This approach is an effort to determine, through research,

which managerial practises and techniques are appropriate in specific situations. The crucial

message of this theory is that there is no one best way to organise; managers choose the

organisational structure and the control systems which depend on characteristics of the

external environment in which the organisation operates.47 Contingency has become

synonymous with situational management. According to Shetty, a contingency theorist, the 42 Barnard (1938) 43 Kreitner (2001) 44 Katz and Kahn (1966) Thompson (1967) 45 Meyer et al.(2007) 46 Kreitner (2001) 47 Meyer et al. (2007)

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effectiveness of a given managerial pattern is contingent on numerous factors and how they

interact in certain situations.48 The appropriate use of a management concept or theory is thus

contingent or dependent on a set of variables that allows the user to fit the theory to the

situation and particular problems. It also allows for management theory to be applied to an

intercultural context where customs and culture must be taken into consideration.49

An important characteristic of the external environment which affects an organisation‘s ability

to obtain resources is the degree to which the environment is changing. These changes can be

for example technological, entry of new competitors or unstable economic conditions. The

more rapidly the environment changes the more important it is for managers to find new ways

to respond to these changes. The contingency theory was an extension of the systems

approach but it added more practical directions.

1.2.6 The Attributes of Excellence Approach

In 1982, Peters and Waterman wrote a book that took the management world by storm. In

their book, “In Search of Excellence” they attempted to explain what made the best-run

companies in America successful. Their approach to management was unconventional for

several reasons. They criticised conventional management theory for being too conservative,

analytical, inflexible and negative. They replaced conventional management terms with catch

phrases and they made their key points with stories and anecdotes rather than with quantified

data and facts. Their aim was to take a fresh look at management.50 Peters and Waterman

conducted a research where they isolated eight attributes of excellence after studying many of

the best-managed and most successful companies in America. The eight attributes where are

shown on the next page.51

48 Shetty (1974) 49 Kreitner (2001) 50 Ibid,. 51 Peters and Waterman (1982)

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Table 3. The Eight Attributes of Excellence

1. A bias for action: Small scale, easily managed experiments to build knowledge, interest and commitment.

2. Close to the customer: Learning from the people served by the business. 3. Autonomy and entrepreneurship: Fostering innovation and nurturing 'champions'. 4. Productivity through people: Individuals are treated with respect and dignity. 5. Hands-on, value-driven: Management philosophy that guides everyday practice - management showing

its commitment. 6. Stick to the knitting: Stay with the business that you know. 7. Simple form, lean staff: Authority is decentralised as much as possible. 8. Simultaneous loose-tight properties: Tight overall strategic and financial control is counterbalanced by

decentralised authority, autonomy and opportunities for creativity.

Peters and Waterman pointed out and reminded managers that they should pay closer

attention to the basics such as customers, employees and new ideas.

It is important to understand the evolution of management because management problems

remain mostly the same over time. While value systems and perspectives may have changed,

experts have gained a better understanding of what motivates employees. Peter Drucker, a

writer and management consultant, was under the impression that management had to do with

empowerment; he saw employees as resources rather than simply costs. He argued that

management had to move from the influence of Taylorism, where people are treated as cogs

in a machine, and start to treat them as if the employees had brain. Knowledge and education

was the single most important resource for any advanced society.52  During the twentieth

century managers received more respect and proved their importance. Practitioners of the

science of management also received a certain amount of prestige and that opened the way for

popularised systems of management ideas. At the end of the twentieth century, management

consisted of six separate branches; human resource management, operation management,

strategic management, marketing management, financial management and information

technology management. The role of the manager and his influence on employees was

becoming more and more important as Mary Parker Follett pointed out. Henry Fayol argued

that leaders emerged from managers’ authority derived from their position in the hierarchy

but Follett proposed that knowledge and expertise should decide who would be the leader at

any particular moment. In the next chapter the role of a leader will be discussed.

52 Drucker (1990)

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2. Leadership

There are almost as many definitions of what leadership is as there are commentators. Many

associate leadership with one person leading but four things stand out in this respect. First of

all, to lead involves influencing others; secondly where there are leaders there are followers.

Third, leaders seem to step forward when there is a crisis or special problem and fourthly,

leaders are people who have a clear idea of what they want to achieve and why. It can be said

that leaders are people who are able to think and act creatively in non-routine situations and

who set out to influence the actions, beliefs and feelings of others. In this sense, being a leader

is personal; it flows from an individual’s qualities and actions. However, it is also often linked

to some other role such as manager or expert but it is important to remember that not all

managers are leaders and not all leaders are managers.53 One of the four primary tasks of

managers is leading and leadership is a key ingredient in effective management. Effective

leaders make people highly motivated and committed but when they are ineffective it is likely

that their subordinates do not perform up to their capabilities and become dissatisfied.54 The

concept of leadership is about getting people to do things willingly and influencing others to

follow you. It can also be seen as a behavioural category. Leadership can be defined as:

“A process in which leader and follower interact in a way that enables the leader to

influence the actions of the follower in a non-coercive way, towards the achievements of

certain aims or objectives.55”

Definitions of leadership often suppose that leadership is a one-way process but other factors

should be considered. Being non-coercive means that it is possible to influence all members.

The nature of leadership should always be goal-directed so that the subordinates know what

they should achieve and they also have to approve of being influenced by the leader.56 The

personal leadership style of a manager, i.e. how he chooses to influence the employees,

shapes the way the manager approaches planning, organising and controlling. All managers

have their own leadership style that determine how they lead their employees and perform

their management tasks. Even though leading is one of the four principal tasks of managing, a

distinction is often made between managers and leaders. Managers are more likely to have

53 Doyle and Smith (2001) 54 Meyer et al. (2007) 55 Ibid,. p. 460 56 Ibid,.

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formal authority to direct their employees; this may be seen as a “top-down” approach. On the

other hand leaders have to earn their authority through influence and that is more a “bottom-

up” approach.57

There are many different leadership styles in traditional leadership and many ways of defining

a good leader. There are also different leadership styles across cultures, which suggests that

leadership styles do not only differ from person to person but also between countries and

cultures. Leaders in Europe are said to be more humanistic or people oriented than leaders in

America and Japan. American leaders are also thought to be short-term and focused on profits

while in Japan they are thinking of profits in a long term perspective.58

It is stated in classical leadership that the key to effective leadership is found in the power the

leader has to affect other people’s behaviour or getting them to act in a fixed manner.59 There

are several types of power a leader must have: legitimate, coercive, expert, reward and

referent power (see figure 3).60 Effective leaders should make sure that they have sufficient

levels of each type and that they use the power they have in a beneficial way.

Figure 3 Sources of Managerial Power

• Legitimate power is the authority that a manager has by virtue of his position in the

organisation and gives him the power to hire new employees, assign projects, monitor

their work and appraise their performance.

57 Meyer et al. (2007) 58 Calori and Dufour (1995) 59 Mintzberg (1983). 60 French and Raven (1960)

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• Reward power is the ability to withhold or give tangible (e.g. pay-rises and bonuses)

and intangible (e.g. verbal praise and respect) rewards. Being able to give or withhold

rewards based on performance is a major source of power that allows managers to

have a highly motivated workforce. Effective managers use their reward power to let

their employees know that their work is appreciated. Ineffective managers on the other

hand, use reward power in a more controlling manner.

• Coercive power is the ability to punish others. Punishments can range from verbal

reminders to reduction in pay or actual dismissal. Excessive use of coercive power

seldom results in high performance and is questionable ethically, but may at times be

useful.

• Expert power is based in some special skills or knowledge that the leader has. First-

level and middle managers often have technical expertise relevant to the tasks of their

employees. Their expert power gives them considerable influence. Effective leaders

take steps to make sure that they have an adequate amount of expert power to perform

their leadership roles. They can do that by obtaining additional training or education

and make sure that they are well informed about latest developments and changes in

technology. Expert power tends to be best used in a guiding or coaching manner rather

than in an arrogant way.

• Referent power is more informal than the other kinds of power; it is more a function

of the personal characteristics of a leader. It is a power that comes from subordinates’

and co-workers’ respect, admiration and loyalty. Here it is vital that the leader has the

charisma needed to motivate his employees. Leaders who are likable and whom

employees consider a role model are especially likely to possess referent power.61

More and more managers today are becoming aware of how important different leadership

styles are and are trying to incorporate them into their personal leadership style.

Empowerment, which is the process of giving employees at all levels in the organisation the

authority to make decisions and making them more responsible for their tasks, is very popular

today. This might seem to be the opposite of effective leadership because managers are

allowing their employees to take more active role in leading but actually, empowerment can

contribute to effective leadership for several reasons. Empowerment increases a manager’s

ability to get things done because he has the help of the employees who might have special 61 Meyer et al. (2007)

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knowledge needed to complete the tasks. Empowerment also increases motivation and

commitment of the employees and they are working toward organisational goals. It also gives

managers more time to concentrate on the tasks they need to complete because they don’t

have to spend all their time on day-to-day supervisory activities.62

2.1 Models of Leadership

Leading has become very important process in all kinds of organisations. Early approaches to

leadership were to determine what effective leaders were like as people and what they did that

made them so effective. In recent literature of leadership the focus has been on four main

theories of leadership; trait theory, behavioural theory, contingency theory and

transformational theory. The next sub-chapters go into more details about each theory.

2.1.1 The Trait Theory The Trait model of leadership focused on identifying the personal characteristics that cause

effective leadership. It was assumed that effective leaders must have certain personal

qualities, or traits, which made them different from ineffective leaders and from people who

never became leaders. This research started in the 1930s where hundreds of studies were

conducted. The results indicated that there were in fact some personal characteristics which

seemed to be associated with effective leadership. Some of those characteristics were related

to intelligence, knowledge, integrity and self-confidence of the leaders. However, these

characteristics are insufficient in explaining a do not alone explain leader’s effectiveness as

some effective leaders do not possess all of them and some leaders who do possess them are

not effective.63 Since there seemed to be a lack of consistency between the characteristics of

leaders and their effectiveness researchers needed a new focus. Rather than focusing on what

leaders are like, they began to look at what effective leaders actually do, i.e. their behaviour.

62 Meyer et al. (2007) 63 Ibid,.

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2.1.2 The Behaviour Theory The Behaviour model describes two kinds of behaviour that most leaders are supposedly

engaging in; consideration and initiating structure. Leaders engage in consideration when they

show their subordinates that they trust, respect and care about them. When leaders engage in

initiating structure they make sure that the work gets done and that the workers perform their

work acceptably and that the organisation is efficient and effective. Examples of initiating

structure are assigning tasks to workers, letting employees know what is expected of them,

deciding how the work should be done and motivating people to perform well.64 The

relationship between performance of consideration and initiating structure behaviour and

leaders effectiveness is not clear. Some leaders are ineffective when they perform both and

some are effective even though they do not perform consideration or initiating structure. Like

the Trait model, this behaviour model does not alone explain why some leaders are effective.

What was researched next and added to the picture were the situations in which leadership

occurs.

2.1.3 The Contingency Theory Managers lead in a wide variety of situations and have various kinds of employees performing

diverse tasks in many kinds of environmental context. The Contingency models of leadership

take into account the situation which leadership occurs in. According to these model, what

makes a manager effective is combined with what the manager is like as a person, what he

does and the situation in which the leadership takes place.65 The Contingency models cover

few different styles. One of them is the contingency model of Fred E. Fiedler which helps

explain why a manager may be an effective leader in one situation and ineffective in another.

According to Fiedler, all managers can be described as having either of two leadership styles;

relationship-oriented (managers want to develop a good relationship with employees and be

liked by them) or task-oriented (managers focus on task accomplishment and making sure that

each job gets done).66 Another contingency theory is House’s path-goal theory which

describes how leaders can motivate their subordinates by four different kinds of behaviour:

directive, supportive, participative and achievement - oriented.67 A directive leader sets goals,

assigns tasks and shows the employees how to complete tasks. A leader which is supportive

64 Meyer et al. (2007) 65 Ibid,. 66 Fiedler (1967) 67 Evans (1970)

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expresses his concern for subordinates and looks out for their interests. Those who show

participative behaviours give workers the opportunity to say what they think and be involved

in decision making. Achievement-oriented behaviours motivate employees to perform at the

highest level possible by e.g. setting goals, expecting that they will be met and believing in

the capabilities of the workers.

2.1.4 The Transformational Theory Transformational leadership is a leadership style where people follow the leader because they

are inspired by him, a leader with a vision and passion that can achieve great things.68

Transformational leadership starts with the development of a vision, a view of the future that

will excite and convert potential followers. This vision may be developed by the leader, by the

senior management team or may emerge from a broad series of discussions. The next step,

which in fact never stops, is to constantly sell the vision. The transformational leader thus

takes every opportunity and will use whatever method that works to convince others to climb

on board.69 In order to create followers, the transformational leader has to be very careful in

creating trust, and their personal integrity is a critical part. In effect, they are selling

themselves as well as the vision. The route forward may not be obvious, but with a clear

vision, the direction will always be known. Transformational leaders are always visible and

will stand up to be counted rather than hide behind their troops and they show by their

attitudes and actions how everyone else should behave. They also make a continuous effort to

motivate their followers, constantly listening, soothing and keeping up the enthusiasm. They

are people-oriented and believe that success comes first and last through deep and sustained

commitment. Transformational leaders are often charismatic, but are not as narcissistic as

pure charismatic leaders, who succeed by believing in themselves rather than believing in

others. One of the traps of transformational leadership is that passion and confidence can

easily be mistaken for truth and reality, they tend to see the big picture, but not the details,

which can be a problem if they don’t have people to take care of this level of information.

Working for a transformational leader can be great and very inspiring, they put passion and

energy into everything they care about and want you to succeed70.

68 Changing Minds (Year unknown) 69 Ibid,. 70 Ibid,.

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According to Bass, transformational leadership occurs when managers change their

subordinates in three ways:71

• Transformational managers make their employees aware of how important their jobs

are for the organisation and that it is very important that those jobs will be done in a

best way possible so that the organisational goals can be achieved.

• Transformational managers make sure that every need of their employees is met and

that they are aware of what their needs are themselves. Those needs can be personal

growth, development and accomplishment.

• Transformational managers motivate their employees to think of the organisations as a

whole, not just for their own personal gain or benefit.

When managers affect employees in these three ways, it is more likely that the employees

trust the manager and are highly motivated and that helps the organisations in achieving its

goals.72

Now both management and leadership have been defined, but what is it that differs between

them? The next chapter will focus on this difference.

2.2. Management vs. Leadership

An important question is how management differs from leadership. For some, there is no

difference. Due to increasing complexity there is even more need for specialization so it is

really necessary to recognize that leadership and management are two different functions.73

According to Mitch McCrimmon “...a clear way of differentiating the two is to say that

leadership promotes new directions while management executes existing directions as

efficiently as possible.74” The manager’s job is not just to make sure that tasks are completed

on a daily bases, it involves more complex projects. Often, management is mistakenly seen as

task-oriented, controlling and insensitive to people's needs. By contrast, leaders are portrayed

as emotionally engaging, visionary and inspiring. Separating leadership from management is

71 Bass (1985) 72 Meyer et al. (2007 73 McCrimmon (2007) 74 Ibid,.

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difficult as leading is one of the four functions of management.75 The best managers are very

strategic about themselves because they know that time and other resources are scarce and

that they have to work efficiently and effectively if the organisational goals are to be met.

Working efficiently is however not enough, it is essential to do the right things. Management

is primarily a decision-making role and managers are responsible for making a profit. This

requires them to make wise decisions.76 By contrast, leadership is strictly an informal

influence and what leaders do is to convince people of changing directions. The main

difference between managers and leaders is that “leadership is an occasional act;

management is an ongoing role.”77 Table four shows the main difference between managers

and leaders:78

Table 4. The Difference between Leaders and Managers

Subject Leader Manager

Essence Change Stability

Focus Leading people Managing work

Have Followers Subordinates

Horizon Long-term Short-term

Seeks Vision Objectives

Approach Sets direction Plans detail

Decision Facilitates Makes

Power Personal charisma Formal authority

Appeal to Heart Head

Energy Passion Control

Dynamic Proactive Reactive

Persuasion Sell Tell

Style Transformational Transactional

Concern What is right Being right

Like people everywhere, managers have their own personalities, values, ways of viewing

things and personal challenges and disappointments. In the next chapter the focus is on the

manager as a person with feelings.

75 Meyer et al. (2007) 76 McCrimmon (2007) 77 Ibid,. 78 Changing Minds (Year unknown)

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2.3. The Human Side of Managers

All people have certain characteristics that influence how they think, feel and behave. These

characteristics are personality traits which according to Meyer et al. are “...particular

tendencies to feel, think and act in certain ways that can be used to describe personality of

every individual.79” It is important to understand the personalities of managers because they

influence their behaviour and what approach they use to manage people and resources. Some

managers are demanding and difficult to get along with but others easy to get along with and

are likeable yet may be demanding as well. Both styles may turn out to be successful but the

way it affects employees is quite different. Research has been conducted and the results

indicate that the way people react to different conditions depends partly on personalities.80

There are several psychological theories that try to explain whether personalities are innate or

develop from socialisation. In these theories there is a distinction between the traits that

people hold (a predisposition towards an enduring behaviour that occurs over time) and the

type of personality they fit into (fits people into categories e.g. extrovert or neurotic). One of

the most influential type theories come from Carl Jung and was developed during the 1950s.81

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was developed from this approach. According to

Jung’s theory both types and traits are inborn to a degree but traits can be improved in a

similar way to skills. Types on the other hand evolve naturally over a lifetime.82 The MBTI

categories are four and are based on people’s preferences; extroversion/introversion,

sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling, judging/perceiving. People are given one of sixteen four

letter acronyms such as ESTJ or INFP. This indicates what their preferences are. For example

a person whose category is ENFP is open when dealing with other people as the categories are

extroversion, intuition, feeling and perceiving.83 The MBTI is used in many organisations and

for all kinds of reasons, e.g. the training of employees, personal development and recruitment.

In connection to this it is possible to think of an individual’s personality as being made of five

general traits (characteristics); extroversion, negative affectivity, agreeableness,

conscientiousness and openness to experience.84 Each of these traits can be viewed as a

continuum along which every individual falls. Managers may be at the high end, low end or in

the middle of the continuum. 79 Meyer et al. (2007) p. 68 80 Carpenter (2001) 81 Jung 82 Myers et al (1998) 83 Meyer et al. (2007) 84 Digman (1990)

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• Extroversion is the tendency to

experience positive emotions and feel good

about oneself and others. People who score

high on extroversion tend to be affectionate

and outgoing. Managers who have a job

which requires a lot of social interactions

benefit if they are high on extroversion.

• Negative affectivity is the tendency

to experience negative emotions and be

critical of oneself and other people. People

who score high on this trait are often angry

and dissatisfied.

• Agreeableness is the tendency to get along well with others. People who score high

on this trait are likely to be affectionate and care about other people. If a manager has

the responsibility of developing close relationships with others than he could benefit

from scoring high on this trait.

• Conscientiousness is the tendency to be careful and preserving. People who score

high on this trait are organised and self-disciplined.

• Openness to experience is the tendency to be original, have broad interests, be open

to a range of stimuli and take risks. People who score high on this trait may be very

likely to take risks and be innovative in their planning and decision making.85

Members of an organisation should understand these differences among managers because

they can explain why managers behave in certain ways. Managers should also be aware of

their own personality traits and of others.

In addition to this there are other traits which also describe people’s personalities. Some of

them are: locus of control, self-esteem and the need for achievement, affiliation and power.86

Locus of control is about how people differ in their view of how much control they have over

what happens to and around them. This can be put into to two categories, internal locus of

control (those who belief that they are responsible for their own fate) and external locus of

control (those who belief that outside factors are responsible for what happens to them). Self-

85 Meyer et at. (2007) p. 72 86 Ibid,.

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esteem is the degree to which individuals feel about themselves and their capabilities. The

need for achievement is how strongly an individual desires to perform challenging tasks well

and to meet personal standards for excellence. The need for affiliation is about how concerned

a person is about establishing and maintaining good interpersonal relations. The need for

power is how much a person desires to control or influence others.87 These three

characteristics suggest that managers need to be assertive and not only believe that their own

actions determine their own and their organisation’s fates but also believe in their own

capabilities.

Other things can be explored in order to try to explain how managers actually feel at work and

what they think about their jobs. Values, attitudes, moods and emotions capture how

managers and other employees experience their jobs as individuals. Values tend to be deeply

rooted in a person’s socialisation and learning but attitudes emerge through personal

development and social interaction. Values describe what managers are trying to achieve

through work and how they think they should behave, attitudes capture their thoughts and

feelings about their job, moods and emotions encompass how managers actually feel in their

job. These characteristics of a manager are very personal but they are very important for

understanding how managers behave, how they treat and respond to others and how they help

contribute to organisational effectiveness through the four managerial functions; planning,

leading, organising and controlling.88 As the topic of this paper is emotional intelligence, a

focus will be put on the importance of mood and emotions of managers and to what degree

companies recruit and select managers on the basis of emotional intelligence characteristics

versus technical qualifications.

87 Meyer et al. (2007) p. 74-5 88 Ibid,.

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3. Emotional Intelligence

In order to understand the effects of managers’ and all employees’ moods and emotions, it is

important to take into account their level of emotional intelligence. The concept of emotional

intelligence has its roots from the work of two American psychologists, John Mayer and Peter

Salovey. They defined emotional intelligence as a subset of social intelligence. Social

intelligence is the ability to understand and manage people, but might also be directed inwards

and therefore could be the ability to understand and manage oneself.89 According to them

emotional intelligence is the ability to know, understand and have influence over one‘s own

emotions, “...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. “90

It does not include the general sense of self and appraisal of others, rather it is more about the

recognition and use of one‘s own and others emotional states to solve problems and regulate

behaviour.

When people approach tasks in life with emotional intelligence they should be at an

advantage to solving problems. The kind of problems that people identify and the way they

handle them will probably be more related to internal emotional experience. Such individuals

are more likely to choose a career that will make them happy instead of thinking how much

they will earn and they are also more likely to be more creative and flexible in arriving at

possible alternatives to problems. Individuals who have developed skills related to emotional

intelligence understand and express their own emotions, recognise the emotions of others and

they also use moods and emotions to motivate adaptive behaviour.91

A person with emotional intelligence can be thought of as having attained at least some form

of positive mental health. These individuals are aware of their own feelings and those of

others, are open to positive and negative aspects of internal experience and are able to

communicate them when appropriate. This leads to the fact that an emotionally intelligent

person is often a pleasure to be around, has good influence and makes others feel better. This

person however does not mindlessly seek pleasure, but rather attends to emotions which lead

to growth. Salovey and Mayer say that:

89 Salovey and Mayer (1990) 90 Ibid,. p. 189 91 Ibid,.

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“...emotional intelligence involves self-regulation appreciative of the fact that temporarily

hurt feelings or emotional restraint is often necessary in the service to greater

objective....thus emotionally intelligent individuals accurately perceive their emotions and

use integrated, sophisticated approaches to regulate them as they proceed toward

important goals. ”92

Mayer and Salovey published their theory in 1990 but at that time it did not receive much

attention from the public or scholars. This however did catch the attention of a psychologist

named Daniel Goleman. He took the concept further and published two books about the

concept which became very popular.

Goleman defines emotional intelligence as the ability to understand and manage one’s own

moods and emotions, and the moods and emotions of other people:

“...abilities such as being able to motivate oneself and persist in the face of frustrations;

to control impulse and delay gratification; to regulate one’s moods and keep distress

from swamping the ability to think; to empathize and hope.”93

People are being judged by new yardsticks and it is not how smart they are or what kind of

education they have or expertise, more focus is on how people handle themselves and others.

This yardstick is becoming more important and is increasingly applied when choosing whom

to hire. This new measurement focuses on personal qualities but takes for granted peoples

intellectual abilities and technical skills.94 Emotional intelligence is even more crucial today,

according to Goleman, because organisations are shrinking and the people who remain are

more accountable and visible, as Goleman puts it:

“Where earlier a midlevel employee might easily hide a hot temper or shyness, now

competencies such as managing one’s emotions, handling encounters well, teamwork,

and leadership show, and count, more than ever.”95

The corporate world is changing and no one is guaranteed a job anymore. For many older

workers who were taught that education and technical skills were a permanent ticket to

success this new landscape is quite shocking. People are beginning to realise that to be

successful another type of skills are necessary to survive as Goleman puts it: “Internal

qualities such as resilience, initiative, optimism and adaptability are taking on a new 92 Salovey and Mayer (1990) p. 201 93 Goleman (1995) p. 36 94 Goleman (1999) 95 Ibid,. p. 9

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valuation.96” All too often, in the context of reviewing competences of leaders or managers

for development purposes, they are told that they need to improve their “people skills”. That

means that these persons are having difficulties in the interpersonal aspects of their

relationships with supervisors, peers and their employees. The problem may be that the

managers are not communicating enough to maintain effective work relationship or there may

be problems at the emotional level, i.e. not connecting emotionally with others.97

According to Goleman, emotional intelligence is more important than traditional intelligence

tests. Goleman pointed out that results of intelligence tests would not predict completely how

well people would do in school, in a job or in life in general. It is his opinion that emotional

intelligence can predict better how well people will actually do, rather than their intelligence

quotient (IQ). Intelligence tests are not a good yardstick on how well people communicate. A

simple job where a person has to be agreeable and be able to communicate well with others

but where understanding, reasoning and judgement is not as important, could be an example

of where emotional intelligence would predict better than their IQ how well a person would

perform on the job.98

3.1 Theoretical Scope of Emotional Intelligence

In the 1930s there was no published research on methods of developing a leader’s

interpersonal skill and very few empirical studies were done prior to 1950 that dealt with any

sort of leadership or managerial development.99 In 1973 David McClelland wrote an article

called “Testing for Competences rather than for Intelligence”. In exploring the ingredients of

a superb job performance, McClelland was joining an enterprise that got its first scientific

footing at the beginning of the twentieth century with the work of Frederick Taylor. Taylorist

efficiency experts analysed the most mechanically efficient moves a worker´s body could

make, the measure of human work was the machine. The next step was another standard of

evaluation, the intelligence quotient (IQ) test and the thought was that the correct measure of

excellence was the capacities of the human mind. By the 1960s personality tests and

typologies were a part of the standard measures of work potential. The tests were used to

96 Goleman (1999) p. 11 97 Riggio and Lee (2007) 98 Goleman (1995) 99 Riggio and Lee (2007)

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indicate whether an individual was outgoing or introverted or a “feeling” or “thinking” type.

The problem with these kinds of measurements was that they did not predict how well people

actually performed on the job. People with a high IQ often performed poorly at work while

those with a moderate IQ did extremely well.100

McClelland shifted the terms of the debate. He argued that traditional academic talents and

grades did not predict how well people would perform on the job or whether they would

succeed in life. McClelland proposed that a set of specific competencies including empathy,

self-discipline and initiative distinguished the most successful from those who were merely

good enough to keep their jobs.101 With his paper, he came forward with an entirely new

approach to the measure of excellence, one that assesses people’s competencies in terms of

the specific job they are doing. The competences he refers to are the personal traits or set of

habits that lead to more effective or superior job performance; the ability that adds economic

value to the efforts of a person on the job.102 McClelland questions intelligence tests and the

power they have over who is considered to be more qualified than the other, as he puts it: “Its

tests have tremendous power over the lives of young people by stamping some of them

“qualified” and others “less qualified” for college work”.103 He also wonders in his articles

how valid grades are as predictors. Researchers have had great difficulties showing that the

grades which people get in school are related to any other behaviour on importance other than

doing well on e.g. intelligence tests. Despite that, the general public seems to look at

intelligence tests as a way of saying how talented people actually are, that those who do well

in school must do better in life than others.104 McClelland tested this himself with the class he

taught in college. He took the top eight students in his class in the late 1940s who all were top

level students and compared what they were doing in 1960s to eight really poor students from

his class, those who barely passed their exams. To his surprise he could not distinguish the

two lists of men fifteen to eighteen years later. There were doctors, lawyers, research

scientists and college teachers in both groups. The only difference that he noted was that those

with better grades got into better law or medical schools but despite of that they did not have

notably more successful careers than the poorer students who were only capable of going to

100 Goleman (1999) 101 McClelland (1973) 102 Goleman (1999) 103 McClelland (1973), p. 1 104 Ibid,.

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mediocre medical or law schools.105 The findings of McClelland are thus that neither the

amount of education nor grades are related to how successful people become in their jobs.

The main points of McClelland’s article can be summarized into five major themes; a) grades

in school did not predict occupational success, b) intelligence tests and aptitude tests did not

predict occupational success or other important life outcomes, c) tests and academic

performance only predicted job performance because of an underlying relationship with social

status, d) such tests were unfair to minorities and e) personal competencies would be better

able to predict important behaviours that would more traditional tests.106 It was his belief that

intelligence tests would be replaced by competency-based testing as intelligence tests have

been correlated with each other and with grades in school but not with other life outcomes.

Barrett and Depinet (1991) questioned the findings of McClelland that top level students

could not be distinguished from barely passing students in later occupational success. They

pointed out that McClelland findings differed greatly from the result of a study done by

Nicholson in 1915.107 Nicholson study showed that academically exceptional students were

much more likely to achieve distinction in later life. According to Barrett and Depinet the

fundamental problem with McClelland’s research was his failure to define the concept of

competency. They’re opinion was that the evidence which McClelland put forward did not

show that competencies can surpass cognitive ability tests in predicting any important

occupational behaviour.

Decades of leadership research suggest that “people skills” are crucial for leader

effectiveness. Over the last years there has been an explosion of interest in emotional

intelligence and emotions in the workplace.108 There are a number of leader and manager

development programs that focus on improving the interpersonal skills but there seem to be

no agreed-upon models that focus on emotional skills and general communication abilities of

managers and leaders.109 According to Riggio and Lee (2007) there are many leadership

development programs, offered by independent consulting groups, which involve developing

emotional and interpersonal competences of leaders. They point out that theoretical models

and research basis for developing these kinds of leader competences are very recent as the

105 McClelland (1973), p. 2 106 Barrett and Depinet (1991) 107 Ibid,. 108 Riggio and Lee (2007) 109 Ibid,.

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term “emotional intelligence” only entered the research literature when Salovey and Mayer

published their article “Emotional Intelligence” in 1990.

Programs intended to develop interpersonal skills date back to Dale Carnegie guidebooks for

people, as he published his book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” in 1936.110

Like many of the programs intended to develop managerial and leader interpersonal

competences, the program of Carnegie was mostly based on methods that relied on the

experience and insights of the trainers. This is because in the 1930s there was no published

research on methods of how interpersonal skills of mangers or leaders could be developed and

research as shown that only one empirical study was made prior to 1950 that dealt with any

sort of managerial development.111 Models in clinical and social psychology literatures

influence the construction of models for guiding the development of interpersonal skills of

leaders and managers. Even though these models are rarely mentioned by leadership trainers

or in leadership development literature, they have had an indirect impact on how many

leadership programs develop social skills. Despite the popularity of interpersonal training for

managers and leaders, there has been almost no systematic evaluation of the effectiveness of

these programs.112 One exception from this is a research done by Hunt and Baruch in 2003,

who evaluated an intensive, five day interpersonal skill training program for 252 managers

and leaders. The evaluation of the training was based on pre- and post-training assessments.

Skills trained included such things as motivation, coaching, giving direction and providing

positive and negative feedback. Participants were evaluated by their direct reports who rated

their leader’s interpersonal skills. The training proved to be successful in some parts but not

in others. Gains were greatest in skills which were specifically targeted with direct exercises

or step-by-step instructions, such as providing feedback. 113

As mentioned earlier there are very few models which have been constructed for development

of how managers and leaders could improve their interpersonal skills or emotional

intelligence and that has only happened within the recent years. In the next chapters these

models will be addressed.

110 Dale Carnegie (Year unknown) 111 Avolio et al (2005) 112 Riggio and Lee (2007) 113 Hunt and Baruch (2003)

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3.2 Models of Emotional Intelligence There is no doubt that the popularity of the new construct of emotional intelligence has had

great influence when it comes to development in leader emotional competencies.114 Despite

the popularity there are still only two types of theories which guide research on emotional

intelligence. The first type was presented by Salovey and Mayer in 1997 and is referred to as

the abilities model. This model views emotional intelligence as an actual domain of

intelligence which is made of specific emotional and mental abilities. The abilities model is

the original version of the emotional intelligence which is based on people’s ability to sense,

analyse and utilise emotions. This model is more theoretical as the followers of this model

want to be able to use measurements in order to verify the definition. The second type of

model is referred to as the mixed model and was presented by Goleman in 1998. The

definition of the mixed model is wider than the definition of the abilities model. The mixed

model takes into consideration feelings and mixes it together with social capabilities and

personal characteristics. Table five shows the comparison of these two models.115 Table 5. Comparison of the two theories of emotional intelligence Salovey and Mayer’s ability model of EI Goleman’s mixed model of EI Perceiving Emotion – The capacity to accurately identify one’s own and other’s emotions and feelings, as well as the ability to express them.

Self-awareness – The ability to identify and recognize one’s emotional state and to understand the link between emotions and performance.

Utilizing Emotions – The capacity to enhance the thinking process by using emotions.

Relationship Management – The ability to utilize social skills to build interpersonal relationships.

Understanding Emotions – The capacity to comprehend complex emotions and how they operate in the social world.

Social-awareness – The capacity to read, be sensitive to other people’s emotions, in order to achieve results in service and organisational contexts.

Managing Emotions – The capacity to manage and control one’s emotions

Self-management – The capacity to manage emotions, to control one’s emotions or to shift negative emotions to more positive emotions.

If the four parts of Salovey and Mayer’s model are compared to Goleman’s model there are

basically two parts of Goleman’s model, self-awareness and self-management, which cover

the four parts of the abilities model. The last two parts of the mixed model, relationship

management and social-awareness, cover more aspects than the abilities model does but there

is though something in common. Being able to sense the feelings of others is covered in

Salovey and Mayer’s model but not the part about being able to utilise this in order to achieve

result in an organisational context.

114 Riggio and Lee (2007) 115 Ibid,.

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The model of Daniel Goleman has received substantial criticism and among the critics are

Salovey and Mayer. According to them, Goleman mixes together the original meaning of

emotional intelligence (the ability to know and have influence over one’s own emotions) and

other personality aspects (the will to succeed and the ability to acknowledge other people’s

feelings) as well as the having good people skills. Other critique has been that Goleman’s

model is not something new; rather that he has put old concepts together into a model.

Goleman has also been criticised for not testing his theories properly.116

The next two subchapters will be cover the abilities model and the mixed model but more

emphasis will be put on Goleman’s mixed model as the focus in this paper is on the practical

side i.e. emotional intelligence in organisations and the model of Goleman emphasis more on

how important emotional intelligence is for organisations.

3.2.1 The Abilities Model The model of Salovey and Meyer focuses on four core abilities which are identifying, using,

understanding and managing emotions. Some of these abilities are considered necessary for

the development of the other abilities e.g. an individual cannot effectively use emotions

unless having first learned the skills involved in identifying them. Each of the four core

abilities are discussed here below:117

Identifying emotions is the ability to identify one’s own and others’ emotions and feelings

but it is also the ability to express them. This identification is composed of specific skills

including emotional awareness (the individual is able to distinguish different emotions),

expression of emotions (the individual is able to communicate his feelings properly), reading

other people’s emotions (being able to read facial expressions and other behavioural cues),

and reading between the lines (being able to identify when a person expresses one emotion

but is feeling another).

Using emotions is the ability to improve the thinking process by using emotions to inform

decisions. The specific skills needed include paying attention (emotions used to facilitate

decision making, planning and problem solving), taking another’s perspective (understanding

116 Orri Smárason (2006) 117 Riggio and Lee (2007), Salovey and Mayer (1997)

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other’s opinions), thinking differently and using emotions to solve problems (using feelings to

change the thinking process like being able to motivate oneself to solve a dilemma)

Understanding emotions is the ability to understand complex emotions and how they

operate in society. A foundation of understanding emotions involves possessing an accurate

vocabulary of emotions and being able to distinguish among them. It also includes the

knowledge that different emotions can occur at the same time and the ability to differentiate

them and also being able to understand the progression of emotions over time.

Managing emotions is the self-awareness of the emotions one is experiencing. It is also the

ability to control the emotions so that they don’t overwhelm the individual and being able to

integrate feelings and actions.

3.2.2 The Mixed Model The model of Goleman, the mixed model of emotional intelligence, includes emotional

abilities, but also a number of elements that are best described as personality dimensions, as

well as some aspects that may have little to do with emotions or personality (e.g. recognising

the need for change, challenging the status quo and choosing team members based on

expertise). According to Goleman an emotional competence is a learned capability based on

emotional intelligence. There are two abilities in this model; personal skills, which

determines how individuals manage themselves and social skills, which determine how

individuals handle relationships.118 The emotional intelligence of a person determines the

potential for learning the practical skills that are based on five elements: self-awareness,

motivation, self-regulation, empathy and social skills. Goleman says that “simply being high

in emotional intelligence does not guarantee a person will have learned the emotional

competencies that matter for work; it means only that they have excellent potential to learn

them.”119 Emotional competencies cluster into groups and each competence is based on

underlying emotional intelligence capacity. These capacities are necessary for people if they

want to learn the competencies in order to perform better at their job.

118 Goleman (1998) 119 Ibid,. p. 25

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In order to try to understand Goleman’s mixed model better it is necessary to look at it in

more detail. In the personal competence part of the model there are three dimensions. Self-

awareness is the ability to know one’s internal state, preferences, resources and intuitions. It

is the ability to recognise one’s own feelings and how they influence performance, awareness

of one’s abilities and limitations and self-confidence and efficacy. Self-regulation allows

people to manage their internal states, impulses and resources. It is the ability to control one’s

negative emotions, being trustworthy and conscientious, adaptable, taking initiative and

having a drive to achieve. Motivation is the emotional tendencies that guide or facilitate

individuals in reaching their goals. It is the ability to improve or meet standards of excellence,

aligning with the goals of the organisations, readiness to act on opportunities and the

persistence in pursuing goals despite obstacles.

On the social competence side of the model there are two dimensions. Empathy is the

awareness of others’ feelings, needs and concerns. It is the ability to see the other perspective,

developing the needs of others, anticipating and meeting customer’s needs, cultivating

opportunities through different kinds of people and being able to read a group’s emotional

currents and power relationships. A social skill (relationship management) is the adeptness at

inducing desirable responses in others. It consists of levels of social skills such as general

communication, the ability to influence others, manage conflict, inspire others, recognise

change, collaborate with others and promote teamwork. 120 To be successful at a workplace

requires that individuals have strengths in a given number of these competencies, at least six,

and that the strengths are spread across all five dimensions of emotional intelligence, or as

Goleman puts it: “none of us is perfect on this scale; we inevitably have a profile of strengths

and limits” and he keeps on saying that therefore “there are many paths to excellence.”121

The same competences can make people excel in different jobs. The competencies an

individual needs for success may change as he rises up the hierarchy e.g. in most large

organisations, senior executives need a greater degree of political awareness than middle

managers. Certain positions also require specific competencies. Goleman takes as examples

nurses, bankers and school principals. In order to succeed a nurse needs a sense of humour, a

banker needs to respect customer confidentiality and school principals need to be good at

finding ways to get feedback from teachers and parents.122 Furthermore, key competences

120 Goleman (1998) p. 26-27 121 Ibid,. p. 25 122 Ibid,.

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match a given organisation’s reality and each company and industry has its own emotional

ecology. Goleman says that even though emotional competences are necessary for e.g.

salespeople, as they have to deal with other people every day, it is also necessary for scientists

as Goleman puts it:

“Brilliance alone will not propel a scientist to the top unless she also has the ability to

influence and persuade others, and the inner discipline to strive for challenging goals. A

lazy or reticent genius may have all the answers in his head, but they amount to little if no

one knows or cares!”123

In his book about emotional intelligence in a workplace, Goleman talks about an

analysis which he conducted. He had access to a competence model for 181 different

positions drawn from 121 organisations worldwide. This competence model consists

of two levels of threshold competencies which people need in order to get a job done.

One level is about the minimal skills needed to carry out assignments with a given

position and the other level is distinguishing competencies, the capabilities that set

star performers apart from average ones. These are the competencies people need in

order to perform superbly.124 Goleman gives an example of a person working in

information technology. A high level of technical expertise is necessary simply to get

the job done which is an example of a threshold competence. The two competencies

that carry most weight in making the person outstanding in that field are the drive to

improve and being able to persuade and influence others. These can be classified as

emotional competencies. In the analysis which Goleman conducted, the model

showed what management in each organisation agreed captured the particular profile

of excellence for a given job. In the best of the competence model, average

performers are compared with those who rank in the top of their field. The pool of top

performers is usually chosen on the basis of sales or other hard criteria of excellence,

or on the basis of 360 degree ratings, where bosses, peers, employees and customers

all rate the performance of a given person. 125 What Goleman did was to compare

which competences listed as essential for a given job could be classed as purely

cognitive or technical skills and which were emotional competences. The findings

were that 67 percent, or two out of three of the abilities deemed essential for effective

123 Goleman (1998) p. 29 124 Ibid,. p. 319 125 Ibid,. p. 335

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performance, were emotional competencies. Compared to IQ and expertise, emotional

competencies mattered twice as much. This was the case across all categories of jobs

and in all kinds of organisations.126

Emotional competence is particularly central to leadership. Interpersonal disability in

leaders has an effect on everyone’s performance; it wastes time and destroys

motivation. The next chapter delves deeper into this.

3.3 Emotional Intelligence and Its Effect on Leadership Managers and leaders have to be able to handle emotional situations, they have to be

able to establish trust and rapport quickly, to listen well and to persuade and sell a

recommendation. Capacities like self-awareness, perspective and a sense of presence

are important and employees have to be able to rely on the manager. The higher the

level of the job, the less important are technical and cognitive abilities and emotional

competences become more important. 127 Goleman gives an example of a company

where the CEO was stepping down and six top managers had the possibility to be

promoted. A consultant was hired to sort out the strengths and weaknesses of the six

managers and help the top management decide which one to choose. There were three

who were the strongest candidates:

• Manager #1 had the most experience and was the smartest and he probably

would have been the choice by traditional standards. However, he had a big

fault which was that he was known to lack the personal and social qualities of

emotional intelligence.

• Manager #2 looked like a strong candidate, fairly high in experience and

emotional intelligence and was very bright too.

• Manager #3 was highest in emotional intelligence but slightly behind the other

two leading candidates in IQ and experience.

Manager #3 got the promotion. The key reason was that one chief task of the new CEO was to

head the management team and make it work again, a job that demanded a high degree of

126 Goleman (1998), p. 31 127 Ibid,.

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interpersonal effectiveness. At the higher levels of job complexity, in executive or managerial

ranks or among scientists, IQ and expertise do not predict who will be the standout performers

but in the lower reaches of job complexity there is a more or less direct ratio between a

person’s cognitive ability and performance, a smarter clerk or machine operator will do better

than the one who is not so bright.128

Emotional intelligence is thought to lie beneath various aspects of workplace performance and

success not accounted for by traditional intelligence measures or personality. Numerous

studies highlight that traditional forms of intelligence only account for twenty percent of

overall success at work.129 That leaves eighty percent unaccounted for. Personality and

motivation measures contribute about ten percent to the puzzle, but there still seems too much

that is not known about what makes some individuals perform better or why some people are

always a step ahead. Measuring emotional intelligence may give important information that

differentiates between who will be an effective leader or distinguishes high from low

performers across differing work roles.130 When managers are hired it can be useful for

companies to have some tools to help them evaluate which candidates are more emotional

intelligent than the others and are, according to Goleman’s mixed model, therefore more

likely to be successful. The next chapter is about the part of emotional intelligence in the

recruitment process.

3.4. Emotional Intelligence and the Recruitment Process The importance of ensuring the selection of the right people to join the workforce has become

increasingly apparent as the emphasis on people as the prime source of competitive advantage

has grown. The recruitment and selection process is concerned with identifying, attracting and

choosing suitable people in order to meet an organisation’s human resource requirements.131

There are two main types of recruiting, external and internal. When managers recruit

externally to fill positions, they look outside the organisation for people who have not worked

for it previously. External recruiting has both advantages and disadvantages for managers.

The advantages include having access to a large pool of applicants, being able to attract

people who have the skills, knowledge and abilities which the organisation needs to achieve

128 Goleman (1998), p. 35-36 129 Goleman (1995) 130 Lixivium Consulting (Year unknown) 131 Beardwell, Holden &Claydon (2004)

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its goals, and being able to bring in newcomers who may have a fresh approach to problems

and who are up-to-date on the latest technology. These advantages have to be weighed against

the disadvantages, chief of which is the relatively high costs of external recruitment. Another

disadvantage is that the newly hired are lacking in knowledge about the inner workings of the

organisation and may need extra training. Finally, when employees are recruited externally,

there is always uncertainty concerning whether they will actually perform well.132 When

recruiting internally, managers turn to employees within the company to fill positions.

Internal recruiting has several advantages. The applicants are already known the organisation

and its goals, structure, culture, rules and norms. The managers already know the candidates

and they have information about their skills and abilities and actual behaviour on the job.

3.4.1. The Selection Process

Once managers develop a pool of applicants they need to find out whether each candidate is

qualified for the position and likely to be a good performer. Often there are several candidates

who meet the criteria and managers must further determine who is likely to be a better

performer than the others. In order to do so, they can use selection tools e.g. background

information (biographical data), interviews, personality tests, physical tests, work sample test,

performance tests and references.133 There are many ways to select and recruit the right

person. The key issue in the recruitment process is to use the best method possible which will

help to find the individual who is most likely to meet all the criteria and perform well on the

job. It is therefore very important to choose wisely because if the wrong candidate is hired it

will be very expensive for the organisation. Right people in the right positions will result in

less employee turnover, which leads to more employee satisfaction and happier customers and

ultimately an increase in the bottom line.134 Appendix eight shows an example of a

recruitment process which Capacent, a consultancy company in Iceland, uses.135 This

recruitment process is also in accordance with how Milkovich and Boudreau put it forward in

their book Human Resource Management.136 In order for organisations to find out if the

candidates for a mangers position are emotionally intelligent they can make them take a

personality test. There are many personality tests available today which measure emotional

132 Meyer et al (2007) 133 Ibid,. 134 Beardwell, Holden and Claydon (2004) 135 Capacent.is 136 Milkovich and Boudreau (1997)

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intelligence. The personality tests are usually used at a later stage of the recruitment process

when perhaps only two or three candidates are left in the pool.

Capacent in Iceland is a leading company in the field of consulting, research, and recruitment

and their mission is to help their customers improve their business.137 Capacent uses

internationally acknowledged personality tests from an international consultant company

called SHL. SHL is a company which specialises in making personality tests which are used

in recruitment processes. These tests are supposed to help with the decision making process

involved with the hiring the right person for the job. The SHL tests are not meant to evaluate

ability and knowledge, but are meant to be used as self-assessment tools with no right or

wrong answers. The point of these tests is to predict the likely behaviour of an individual at

the work and if he will be able to work under certain conditions.138 One of the tests which

Capacent uses is QPQ32 (Occupational Personality Questionnaire 32). This kind of test is

used to evaluate thirty two characteristics of the job and is suitable for evaluating managers

and professionals. It is a rich and powerful development application which helps people to see

how well they understand their own feelings and emotions, as well as those of others, and

how well they manage their relationships with others.139 This test is in accordance with

Goleman´s mixed model of emotional intelligence and its empahsis is on:

Managing Feelings: the competencies which have to do with how individuals manage their

thoughts, emotions and feelings. There are two competency scores:

• Feelings and Emotions: describes how well they tend to handle their feelings about

themselves and others.

• Personal Insight: describes how well they understand relationships and patterns in

their own thoughts, feelings and actions.

Managing Relationships: The competencies which have to do with how individuals manage

their relationships with other people. There are two competency scores:

• Empathy: describes how well they appreciate the perspectives of other people and the

way others may feel about things and events.

137 Capacent.is 138 Shl.com (2008) 139 Ibid,.

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• Social Ease: describes how well they are able to adapt their approach and style to

different work and social situations.

As can be seen the personality test which is used in reality is really in accordance with the

theory of emotional intelligence. Goleman‘s mixed model emphasizes the same

competencies, personal (the ablity to manage and know ones owen emotions) and social

competencies (the ability to handle relationship with others).

Now as few theories of emotional intelligence have been covered it is interesting to compare

them to what is actually being done in reality. Daniel Goleman covers this matter in his book

about working with emotional intelligence. His opinion is that there seems to be a certain

misunderstanding about what emotional intelligence is all about. First of all people tend to

think that this concept is all about being nice but that is not the case. Secondly, people often

think that it means giving free rein to feelings or letting it all hang out. In fact it means being

able to manage feelings so that they can be expressed in a good way and enables people to

work together towards a certain goal. Finally emotional intelligence is not fixed genetically,

nor is it something that people only learns in early childhood. Unlike IQ, which changes little

after the teen years, emotional intelligence continues to develop as life goes by and experience

is a good teacher.140

4. Emotional Intelligence in Reality

In modern management, many words have been written about the value of soft management

(focus on the personal aspects in working environment). As emotional intelligence focuses on

the human aspect in management it can be called a feature of soft management. It is therefore

interesting to find out if this is something that is preached more than practiced, if managers

today are really following the theory of emotional intelligent, as many of them claim to do,

and if this is really something that is being used as a guideline when managers are recruited.

The idea of this paper is to get an insight into the importance of emotional intelligence versus

technical skills for managers in the recruitment process.

140 Goleman (1998)

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4.1 Business Research Methods The design of a study starts with the selection of a topic and a research methodology. There

are different approaches available and two of them are widely recognized; qualitative research

and quantitative research.

Quantitative research can be constructed as a strategy that emphasises quantification in the

collection and analysis of data. This kind of research generates statistics through the use of

large-scale survey research, using methods such as questionnaires or structured interviews. It

reaches many people, but the contact with those people is much shallower than it is in

qualitative research. It can be said that this kind of study embodies a view of social reality as

an external, objective reality. There are three general types of quantitative methods: 1)

experiments which are characterised by random assignments of subjects, 2) quasi-

experimental studies which are almost the same as experiments except that they involve non-

randomised assignments of subjects and 3) surveys where questionnaires or interviews for

data collection with the intent of estimating characteristics of a large population.141

Qualitative research, on the other hand, emphasises words rather than quantification in the

collection and analysis of data. This kind of study explores attitudes, behaviour and

experiences through such methods as interviews or focus groups. It attempts to get an in-depth

opinion from participants. As it is attitudes, behaviour and experiences which are important,

fewer people take part in the research, but the contact with these people tends to last longer.

Under the umbrella of qualitative research there are many different methodologies. The

methods of qualitative research reject the practises and norms of the scientific models.142

There are three general types of qualitative methods: 1) case study where the researcher

explores a single entity bounded by time and activity and gathers detailed information through

a variety of data over a certain period of time, 2) ethnographic studies where the researcher

studies an intact cultural group in a natural setting over a period of time and 3)

phenomenological studies where human experiences are examined through a detailed

description of the company or people being studied. 143

141 University of Nevada 142 Bryman and Bell (2007) 143 University of Nevada

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Over the years there has been a large amount of complex discussion and argument

surrounding the topic of research methodology and the theory of how inquiry should proceed.

Much of this debate has centred on the issue of qualitative versus quantitative inquiry – which

might be the best and which is more ‘scientific’. Different methodologies become popular at

different social, political, historical and cultural times in our developments. When choosing

which research methods to use it should be based on problems of interest, resources available

and also the skills and training of the researcher.144

4.2 The Research Method In this report the study was based on a qualitative method using interviews, which are

probably the most widely employed method in qualitative research. The method of interviews

is an attractive option for the collection of data. Qualitative interviewing is different from

quantitative interviewing in a number of ways. It tends to be less structured and there is much

more emphasis on the point of view of the respondent. Qualitative interviewing tends to be

flexible, responding to the direction in which the respondent takes the interview and this kind

of interview generates answers which can be processed quickly.145

There can also be some problems with this method. One of the criticisms with interviews and

other kinds of qualitative research methods is that it is too subjective and relies too much on

the view of the researcher of what is significant and important. This kind of study can be

difficult to replicate as it is often unstructured and has hardly any standard procedures. The

researcher is the main instrument of data collection and what is observed and how the data is

interpreted depends on what the researcher favours and decides to focus on. There can also be

problems with generalization.146 When observation of participants is used or when interviews

are conducted with a small number of individuals, it can be very difficult to generalise the

findings to other settings.

There are two major types of interviewing, unstructured and semi-structured. In the

unstructured interview there may be just a single question and the respondent is allowed to

answer freely. The interviewer can then respond to points that seem worthy of being followed 144 Bryman and Bell (2007) 145 Ibid,. 146 Ibid,.

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up on. This kind of interviewing tends to be similar to a conversation. In the semi-structured

interview the researcher has a list of questions on specific topics to be covered, often referred

to as an interview guide. Questions that are not included in the guide are sometimes asked as

the interviewer picks up on things which seem relevant during the interview.147 In both case

the interview process is flexible and it is important that the emphasis is put on how the

respondent understands the topic. The interviews conducted for this paper were semi-

structured.

There are often some issues which have to be dealt with when managers are interviewed.

Gaining access to this group can be extremely difficult and arranging a mutually convenient

time in which to conduct the interviews can be troublesome. It is very important to ask for an

interview in a way which is most likely to lead to a favourable response. The request for an

interview can be made either by mail or telephone. In the request it may be appropriate to

state the purpose of the project and an indication of how the findings might be useful to the

respondent.148

The idea of an interview guide is to have a brief list of memory prompts of areas to be

covered during the interview. This kind of a guide often comprises written words but can also

be visual prompts which are related to the subject. Some basic elements in the making of an

interview guideline could be to create a certain amount of order on the topic areas so that the

flow of the questions is good. It is also important to formulate questions which will help

answering the research question and to use language which is easy to understand and not too

theoretical. It is also good to keep in mind e.g. the job title of the person being interviewed or

how many years of employment he/she has.149 These elements were kept in mind during the

development of the questions to be asked in the interviews conducted for this paper.

Ten questions were formulated, based on the theory of emotional intelligence and the

recruitment process which has been covered previously in this paper. The questions and the

interviews are shown in appendices one to seven at the end of the paper. Question one is

based on the theory of Milkovich and Boudreau and covers the recruitment process.150 The

idea was to find out if the companies were using a standard process when recruiting new 147 Bryman and Bell (2007) 148 Ibid,. 149 Ibid,. 150 Milkovich and Boudreau (1997)

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employees. Questions two and three were based on the theory of David McClelland about if

grades indicate how qualified and emotionally intelligent a person is.151 According to Daniel

Goleman personality tests are important when emotional intelligent is measured and they

were the basis for questions four and five. Goleman’s mixed model of emotional intelligence

was the basis for questions six to ten.152

4.3 The Process of the Interviews

4.3.1 Participants Ten companies in Iceland were chosen at random from a list of companies which have a

hundred employees or more. The reason for conducting interviews with Icelandic companies

was that the researcher is familiar with the Icelandic market and also to avoid language

barriers during the interviews. First, an email was sent to the HR managers of these

companies asking if they would be willing to participate in this study. The HR managers are

all responsible for the recruitment process in their companies. The questions were also sent to

them so they could have a look at what the interview would be about. In order to make sure

that the HR managers would understand the concept of emotional intelligence as the theory

explains it, the concept was explained in the email. They were given three days to prepare for

the interviews. Six out of those ten companies replied and were willing to participate. Below

is a description of the six companies which will remain nameless and will therefore be

referred to as company A-F.153

• Company A is one of the world's leaders in the development, manufacture, and sale of

first-class generic pharmaceuticals and was founded in 1956. About two hundred and

fifty employees work for this company.

• Company B is a bank offering integrated financial services to companies, institutional

investors and individuals. These services include corporate and retail banking,

investment banking, capital markets services, treasury services, asset management and

comprehensive wealth management for private banking clients.

151 McClelland (1973) 152 Goleman (1998) 153 Information about the companies was taken from their webpages.

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• Company C is a leading Icelandic financial institution. It offers full range financial

services and is the market leader in all major segments of the Icelandic financial

centres of Europe, as well as North American representation in New York, Halifax and

Winnipeg.

• Company D has been providing the business community with office furniture since

1932 and has decades of experience and liaisons with the largest international

suppliers. It has a wide selection of household brands in office furniture, has designed

its own lines of furniture in Iceland and offers tailor-made solutions as well.

• Company E offers full insurance coverage for organisations and individuals and is one

the leading companies in the insurance market in Iceland.

• Company F was founded in the summer of 1997 with the goal of becoming a leading

massively multiplayer game company. It is dedicated to the development of cutting

edge massively multiplayer games. With the launch of a popular online computer

game, the company has established itself as one of the leading companies in the field,

winning numerous awards and receiving critical acclaim worldwide.

4.3.2 The Interviews Three days after the emails were sent the interviews took place. As the researcher was in

Denmark at that time the interviews were conducted over telephone. Telephone interviewing

is quite common in market research but less common in business research. The opinion of

telephone interviews has changed in recent years from the perception that face-to-face

interviews are more representative towards thinking that telephone interviews are either more

or at least as representative as face-to-face interviews.154 There are several advantages to

telephone interviews over personal interviews. They are cheaper and quicker to conduct as

less time and money has to be spent in travelling. This factor will be even more important

when the respondents are geographically dispersed. The telephone interview is easier to

supervise than the personal interview. This especially applies when the interviewers are many

as it is easier to check on the transgression of the interviewers. Telephone interviewing has an

advantage which has to do with the fact that during personal interviews the respondent’s

answers are often affected by the characteristics of the interviewer.155 There are also some

limitations when it comes to telephone interviewing. Telephone interviewers are not able to

154 Bryman and Bell (2007) 155 Ibid,.

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engage in observation i.e. they are not in a position to respond to signs of puzzlement on the

faces of respondents when they ask the questions. The telephone interviewer is also not able

to use visual prompts during the interview.156

First of all the researcher asked if the respondents had read through the questions and if they

were sure of what the concept of emotional intelligence is all about. Not all of them had read

through the questions so an introduction to the subject was necessary in some cases. When

asked if they were familiar with the concept they all said they were. Some managers were

quite busy and were only willing to participate if the interview took a short time. Therefore

each interview lasted about ten to fifteen minutes. The interviews were not recorded due to

the lack of technology but notes were taken during the interviews. There are some

disadvantages with the procedure of taking notes as it is easy to lose the phrases and language

used.157 Therefore, in order to try to prevent that, these notes were put into text right after

each interview in order to get all the answers as accurately as possible from the respondents.

Reliability and validity are important criteria in establishing and assessing the quality of

research for the quantitative researchers. However, there has been some discussion among

qualitative researchers concerning their relevance for qualitative research.158 Qualitative

research often entails a study of a small group or of individuals sharing certain characteristics

or as the individuals in the study of this paper, sharing the same type of job position in their

companies. Reliability is the extent to which an experiment, test, or any measuring procedure

yields the same result on repeated trials. If the results are the same from all the respondents

then the reliability is high. Validity on the other hand, refers to the degree to which a study

accurately reflects or assesses the specific concept that the researcher is attempting to

measure. While reliability is concerned with the accuracy of the actual measuring instrument

or procedure, validity is concerned with the study's success at measuring what the researchers

set out to measure.159 This was kept in mind while conducting the research.

156 Bryman and Bell (2007) 157 Ibid,. 158 Ibid,. 159 Ibid,.

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4.2 Findings of the Interviews

In question one the HR managers were asked how the recruitment process was when

managers are hired and if they took care of it themselves or if the process was outsourced.

Five companies said that they did both and that it depended on the position. Company B said

that they took care of the process themselves in Iceland and that it was done through the HR

department in each subsidiary but in a bigger market like in the UK the recruitment process

was always outsourced.160 Company C was the only company which answered differently

than the others; they always take care of this process themselves and never outsource it.161

In question two the HR managers were asked if the school grades of applicants were checked

out during the recruitment process. Most of the companies answered that it was usually not

done or very seldom but companies B and C answered quite differently. They said that they

always checked grades as the grades matter, especially if a person does not have much

experience.162

Question three also covered grades and now the question was if a person with mediocre

grades would be less likely to be successful than a person with top grades. Most of the

companies answered that a mediocre graded person would be able to as successful as a person

with top grades. Some of them mentioned though that grades could indicate how well a

person works, how ambitious and motivated the person was. There was one company which

answered quite differently than the others and that was company F. For them grades do not

matter at all as many of their best employees never finished school and were self-educated. 163

The use of personality tests is the subject in questions four and five. All of the companies

use interviews and background checks i.e. check references. Some of them have standardised

questionnaires which are used during the interviews. Few of the companies mentioned that for

top positions they always used personality tests. Company A said that they use behavioural

type questions with real past experience and dilemma situations and solutions to determine the

personality of a person.164 Here again companies B and C differ in their answers from the

160 See appendix 2 161 See appendix 3 162 See appendices 2 and 3 163 See appendix 6 164 See appendix 1

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other participants. They never use personality tests on the Icelandic market but might do it in

other subsidiaries where the market is bigger. The HR manager of company C said that the

Icelandic market was too small; it was easy to find out the personality of a person because you

always know someone who knows someone etc.165

In question six the problem formulation of this paper was used as a question: to what degree

do the companies recruit and select managers on the basis of emotional intelligence versus

technical skills. Most of the HR managers said that it was about equally important, but that it

was perhaps more important to be emotionally intelligent as technical skills could easily be

trained most of the time. Company C kept mentioning the grades and said that even though

emotional intelligence was perhaps most important, there has to be a good combination of

emotional intelligence, grades and technical skills.166 Company F answered quite differently

as most of their managers are hired on the basis of the technical skills but they are starting to

separate this and have one technical manager and another people manager.167

In question seven the respondents were asked to keep emotional intelligence in mind and say

if managers were hired on basis of their personal competences or their social competences and

if the same applied for middle as well as top managers. According to all of them, both

competencies were equally important as managers have to be able to motivate themselves as

well as others. There were though two companies (companies C and D) which mentioned that

they considered social skills to be more important for managers.168

Question eight is about if they thought that a person could succeed as a manager without

being emotionally intelligent. Most of them agreed that it would not be possible, at least very

difficult. One said that at one point something would break, either the manager, the

department or the company (depends on the position the manager is in).169 The HR manager

of company F said that he personally did not think it was possible but they did however have

managers within the company which have been successful without having good people skills

but they were given all the support they needed in their relation with their employees.170

Company C also said that they had the experience of having promoted employees to become 165 See appendix 3 166 Ibid,. 167 See appendix 6 168 See appendices 3 and 4 169 See appendix 1 170 See appendix 6

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managers who were highly technically skilled but after the promotion it became obvious that

they were having problems in relations with their employees. These managers then had two

options, either to be downgraded, becoming a professional again, or receive help and be

trained in developing people skills. They do have examples of managers who were able to

learn and develop emotional intelligence but in order to succeed in that the managers had to

be willing to learn new procedures.171

Question nine is about which one the HR managers considered to be more important; having

good people skills or technical skills. All of them agreed that people skills were more

important but two of them mentioned that a combination of both was the best solution.172

In question ten the HR managers were asked about if they thought that a very technically

competent person could learn to be emotionally intelligent and also the other way around if

they thought that the technical skills could be achieved. They all agreed that both skills could

be learned but that emotional intelligence was much more difficult to learn. One HR manager

said that he actually believed that good people skills were something that a person is born

with but could be learned to some degree. He also said that it is something which is difficult

to teach.173 Another HR manager said that people could learn any kind of skills. It just

depended on the personality; how far people would be willing to reach with the people

skills.174 The HR managers did agree that even though it is possible to learn emotional

intelligence it is very difficult and the individual has to be willing and open-minded to be able

to learn it.

4.3 Analysis of Findings Question 1: The findings in the first question about the recruitment process of the companies

are that this is pretty much in accordance with theory. Five out of six companies often

outsource the recruitment process to consultant companies that use standard procedures

during this process. There is a difference when the companies take care of the process

171 See appendix 3 172 See appendices 3 and 6 173 See appendix 6 174 See appendix 1

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themselves as then they often do not go through all the steps in the recruitment process as

shown in appendix eight.

Question 2 and 3: There is a difference between theory and practise in the second and third

question. In question two, two out of six companies say that grades do matter and that they

check the grades of the applicants during the recruitment process. This is quite the opposite of

what David McClelland says in his theory. He argued that traditional academic talents and

grades do not matter and do not indicate how bright and emotionally intelligent a person

really is and how likely it is that this person will become a good employee175. He even

conducted an experiment showing that mediocre graded students had all the potential to be as

successful as high graded students. In question three some of the HR managers mention that

grades could be an indicator of the performance of a potential employee.

Question 4 and 5: Not all the companies use personality tests to determine how emotionally

intelligent a person is. All of them use interviews and background checks i.e. check

references. Those who outsource the recruitment process use personality tests as they are

usually a part of the standardised process of consultant companies. There is quite a difference

between what Capacent uses to evaluate how emotional intelligent a person is and what some

of the companies do. Two companies out of six said that they never used personality tests in

Iceland as they considered the market to be too small yet the consultant company uses this

kind of test on the same market. Goleman’s opinion in regards to this is that it is necessary to

measure in order to find out if a person is emotionally intelligent.176

Question 6 - 10: According to Daniel Goleman it is difficult for one person to be good in all

areas of the mixed model of emotional intelligence but being good in some areas more than

others is fine. One person can be better in some parts and another one in other parts. All the

HR managers of the companies said that a good manager would have to be equally competent

in both personal and social skills but perhaps the social part was more important. This is in

accordance with Goleman’s model as a mix of both parts is the best solution.

There is a difference between theory and practise when it comes to one of the companies as

they recruit managers on the basis of technical skills rather than people skills. This contradicts

175 McClelland (1973) 176 Goleman (1998)

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the theory of Goleman because according to him a person is not capable of succeeding as a

manager without being emotionally intelligent. Goleman also says in his book “Working with

Emotional Intelligence” that the higher the position the more important emotional intelligence

is. It is fine to be technically qualified and work as a professional and not having to be

responsible for other people but as this person reaches higher in the ladder then it becomes

more important to have people skills. This is exactly the kind of problem which one of the

respondents described as a recurrent theme in his company. They have promoted employees

to a management position on the basis of their technical qualifications but some of them did

not succeed as they lacked the social skills.

Most of the companies did not believe that a person could become successful without being

emotionally competent but that it could be learned. That is in accordance with Goleman’s

theory; it can in fact be learned. Every individual should be able to add the skills of emotional

intelligence to their tool kit for survival as Goleman puts it:

“The good news is that emotional intelligence can be learned. Individually, we can add

these skills to our tool kit for survival at a time when job stability seems like quaint

oxymoron. For businesses of all kinds, the fact emotional competencies can be assessed

and improved suggests another area in which performance – and so competitiveness –

can be upgraded.”177

Most of the HR managers did agree that even though it is possible to learn emotional

intelligence it is very difficult and that the individual has to be willing and open-minded to be

able to learn it. That is why most of the companies try to hire managers who have good people

skills as they all consider technical skills to be easier to learn.

177 Goleman (1998) p. 315

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5. Discussion of Findings

In today´s rapidly changing organisational environment the only certainty is the uncertainty.

Employees do not stay as long in their jobs as was the norm about twenty years ago. The

competition for each position is growing and now it is more important than ever for people to

get a good education if they want to get good positions. The importance of management

abilities is even greater nowadays. Newer theories in management have taken over traditional

management theories and now, if a person is going to succeed as a manager, it is necessary

that he/she possesses good people skills, i.e. is emotionally intelligent.178 As has been

discussed in this paper this is what many theorists have been preaching and according to the

findings of the research in this paper, HR managers are aware of this and emphasis are put on

recruiting managers which have good people skills.

The findings of this study, which indicate that managers are rather recruited on the basis of

their emotional intelligence than their technical skills, support the theories of McClelland and

Goleman. The HR managers say that they are well aware of how important emotional

intelligence of managers is and that it is easier to learn technical skills than the skills of

emotional intelligence. However, the findings of the study in this paper leave several gaps

between theories and practise. What in advance was considered to be in accordance with

theory turned out to be the opposite. Both David McClelland and Daniel Goleman emphasis

that IQ and good academic grades do not indicate how well a person is likely to perform in

the work place. However, two companies out of six recruit employees, among other things, on

the basis of their grades in school. There are other researchers who have criticised the theory

of McClelland. Barrett and Depinet questioned the findings of McClelland by saying that he

did not put forward strong enough evidence to support his theory.179 They pointed out that a

study conducted in 1915 indicated that top graded students were more likely to succeed in

reality. If this point of view is compared to the findings of questions two and three in the

study then grades do matter and companies should take them into consideration during the

recruitment process.

The ability to measure emotional intelligence is unclear and some of the respondents in the

research say they never use personality tests in order to find the best qualified person for the 178 Goleman (1998) 179 Barrett and Depinet (1991)

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job. However, consultant companies like Capacent are using personality tests in their

recruitment process to ensure that standardised methods are used.180 Personality tests are not

the only, or necessarily the best way, to measure emotional intelligence of people. There are

number of tools on the market which can be used as well as the one which Capacent uses and

was covered in this paper. In principle, the tools are similar as they measure how intelligent

an individual is and often provide useful information to help the person to improve.181

Emotional intelligence has benefits beyond the fields of management and leadership. It also

has a useful purpose for positions where a high degree of interpersonal effectiveness is

required, such as in customer service and sales roles. Emotional intelligence assessment is one

of the techniques which can be used to differentiate between candidates in the recruitment

process.182 Given the limitations of purely using intelligence or ability testing, a recruitment

process which incorporates both cognitive and emotional intelligence assessments is likely to

be a stronger predictor of successful occupational performance. It is therefore a more reliable

way in which to select the most appropriate and highest performing personnel.183 The bottom

line is that there are many tools to find out how emotionally intelligent a person is and

therefore the use of one method (whether it is a personality test or other techniques) is not

better or worse than the use of others.

When the answers of the respondents are compared there is not a great difference between

which methods the companies are using in their recruitment process. All of them are using

some kind of technique whether they outsource the whole process or take care of it

themselves. The HR managers all agreed that emotional intelligence is something that can be

learned even though it can be difficult. Researchers have either said that leaders or managers

are born with the ability to lead and others have said that this ability is made.184 Five of the six

HR managers said that when recruiting managers, emphasis was put on both emotional

competences and technical skills but more on the emotional part. This is understandable given

that the recruitment process is expensive as well as the training of the new employee and

having to fire a person shortly after he/she is hired is not attractive for companies. Researches

also indicate a relationship between the emotional intelligence of managers and job

180 Capacent.is 181 Palethorpe (2006) 182 Ibid,. 183 Ibid,. 184 Ibid,.

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satisfaction and performance. A study was conducted by researchers Sy, Tram and O’Hara in

2005 to examine the relationship among employees’ and manager’s emotional intelligence,

employee job satisfaction and job performance. The results were that manager’s emotional

intelligence had a more positive correlation with job satisfaction for employees with low

emotional intelligence than for those with high emotional intelligence.185 With this in mind it

is even more important to recruit the right person for the job.

5.1 Evaluation of Methods and Findings The choice of the research method was based on the problem of interest and the availability of

resources. As the researcher is familiar with the Icelandic market and there were no language

barriers this was an obvious choice, interviewing HR managers in Iceland. Beforehand

conducting telephone interviews was not considered to be a problem. However, when the

interviews were actually taken, there were some technical problems as it was not possible to

record the interviews. This is an obvious weakness of the study because even though notes

were taken during the interviews and they put into a text right after each interview, some

phrases were missing and the interviews were not as precise as if they had been taken face-to-

face. Another weakness of this method was that it was not possible to read the respondents

facial expression and gestures. Therefore, the interviews were more standardised than face-to-

face interviews as the researches was not able to evaluate if the respondents actually

understood what was being asked even though they said they did. Due to the short time which

each interview took the answers became too similar as the researcher did not have enough

time to ask questions which could have been possible in face-to-face interviews.

To be able to answer the research question more precisely, more depth would have been good

in the questions e.g. that second part of the questions (questions 6-10) which focus more on

emotional intelligence and the mixed model of Goleman. What could have been done

differently was to use the model better and ask more detailed questions to find out which

characteristics of emotional intelligence are the most important when managers are hired.

185 Sy, Tram and O‘Hara (2005)

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6. Conclusion

The assignment set up for this paper was to find out what emotional intelligence is all about

and to answer the question put forward “to what degree are managers recruited and selected

on the basis of emotional characteristics versus technical qualification?” First the evolution

of management was discussed to find out when the human mind became important in the

process of managing organisations. That was in the beginning of the twentieth century when

Mary Parker Follett came forward with her behavioural theory. Next the focus was put on

theories in leadership and what characterises good leaders and managers. Many models have

been developed in leadership and one of them is the trait model of leadership which focuses

on identifying the personal characteristics that cause effective leadership. It was assumed that

effective leaders must have certain personal qualities, or traits, which made them different

from ineffective leaders and from people who never became leaders. Some of those

characteristics were related to intelligence, knowledge, integrity and self-confidence of the

leaders. Thereafter the focus was put on these characteristics with the emphasis on theories of

emotional intelligence and how important it is for managers to be emotionally intelligent in

the workplace. Managers and leaders, in particular, need high emotional intelligence because

they represent the organization to the public, they interact with a number of people within and

outside the organization and they set the tone for employee morale. Leaders with empathy are

able to understand their employees’ needs and provide them with constructive feedback.

Different jobs also call for different types of emotional intelligences.186 For example, success

in sales requires the empathic ability to estimate the moods of the customers. By comparison,

success in painting or professional tennis requires a more individual form of self-discipline

and motivation.

In order to connect theories of emotional intelligence with reality interviews were conducted

with six HR managers of different companies in Iceland. They were all asked the same ten

questions and the findings indicate that managers are being recruited on the basis of their

emotional intelligence characteristics rather than technical qualifications but that the best

combination would be good people skills as well as good technical qualifications. Two of the

companies mentioned good grades also. The research was not big enough to show some real

results, the findings rather give some hints as to what is being done in reality. The method of

186 Goleman (1998)

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how the interviews were conducted can be criticised and perhaps by conducting telephone

interviews the researcher doesn‘t get deep enough answers.

The results of the study could though be looked at in other context e.g. by digging deeper into

the Icelandic market and investigate if that small market is any different from other bigger

markets, if the importance of emotional intelligence is as important elsewhere and what

foreign companies do and what kind of tools are being used during the recruitment process to

evaluate the emotional intelligence of potential managers. Other things which could be

interesting to research are if the same methods apply within the same industries. Two of the

six companies are banks and their answers were quite similar to each other and a bit different

than what the other companies are doing. As a further study it could therefore be quite

interesting to find out what other banks and financial institutes are doing in this field.

No evaluation measure gives perfect results. Self-evaluations are vulnerable to skews from

people wanting to look good. Therefore, when it comes to assessing emotional competencies,

there is always the danger that a person with low self-esteem does not evaluate accurately his

or her own strengths and weaknesses. Even though self-evaluations can be helpful, if people

really trust that the results will be used for their own good, they can be less reliable without

this trust. Having emotionally intelligent managers does not guarantee that the company gains

more market share or a better bottom line but research throughout the years have indicated

how important the human mind is for the growth of organisations and therefore soft

management like emotional intelligence has gained increased popularity, as Daniel Goleman

puts it:

“... it’s all done with people and if the human ingredient is ignored, then nothing else will

work as well as it might. In the years to come, companies in which people collaborate

best will have a competitive edge, and so to that extent emotional intelligence will be

more vital.”187

187 Goleman (1998) p. 315

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Milkovich, G.T. and Boudreau, J.W. (1997) Human Resource Management (8th ed). Chicago: Times Mirror Higher Education Group, Inc. Mintzberg, H. (1983) Power in and Around Organisations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Myers, I.B., McCaulley, M.H., Quenk, N.L. and Hammer, A.L. MBTI Manual (A Guide to the Development and Use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator), 3rd ed. Mountain View, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press. Orri Smárason (2006) Hvað er tilfinningagreind? Er hún mikilvæg? Vísindavefurinn. Retrieved 20.April 2008 at 13:50 from http://www.visindavefur.hi.is/svar.asp?id=5550 Palethorpe, M. (2006) “Are You Emotional but Intelligent...or are you Emotionally Intelligent?” IEE Engineering Management, February/March 2006, 11-13 Peters. T.J. and Waterman, R.H. (1982) In Search of Excellence. New York: Harper & Row. Riggio, R.E. and Lee, J. (2007) Emotional and Interpersonal Competences and Leader Development. Human Resource Management Review 17, 418-426 Rollinson, D., Broadfield, A., and Edwards, D. (1998) Organisational Analysis and Behaviour: An Intergrated Approach. Harlow: Addison-Wesley. Salovey, P. and Mayer, J.D. (1990) Emotional Intelligence. Baywood Publishing Co., Inc. Salovey, P. and Meyer, J.D. (1997). “What is Emotional Intelligence?” In P. Salovey and D. Sluyter (Eds.) Emotional Development and Emotional Intelligence: Implications for educators (p. 3-31). New York: Basic Books Sanches, A. (2006) “The Difference between Qualitative and Quantitative Research.” Retrieved 7. July 2008 at 22:17 from http://e-articles.info/e/a/title/THE-DIFFERENCE-BETWEEN-QUALITATIVE-AND-QUANTITATIVE-RESEARCH/ Shetty, Y.K. (1974) “Contingency Management: Current Perspective for Managing Organisations”, Management International Review, 14, no 6:27. SHL Group Limited (2008). Retrieved 25. June 2008 at 14:34 from http://www.shl.com/shl/en-int Smith, Adam (1982). The Wealth of Nations. London, Penguin Sy, T., Tram, S and O’Hara, L.A.(2005) “Relation of Employee and Manager Emotional Intelligence to Job Satisfaction and Performance.” Journal of Vocational Behaviour 68(2006) 461-473. Thompson, J.D. (1967) Organisations in Action. New York: McGraw-Hill. University of Nevada, Reno (Year unknown) “Quantitative and Qualitative Research” Retrieved 7.July 2008 at 21:30 from http://www.unr.edu/bench/chap04.pdf

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Appendix 1

Company A Questions for Human resource departments concerning recruitment process, with emphasis on emotional intelligence. To what degree does the company recruit and select managers on the basis of emotional intelligence characteristics versus technical qualifications. This applies for the process when managers (both middle managers and top managers) are hired. Emotional intelligence is 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. The emotional Competence Framework: Personal competence Social Competence Self-awareness (knowing one’s emotions) Empathy (Awareness of others’ feelings and needs Self-regulation (managing one’s internal state Social skills (Ability to induce desirable responses in others) Motivation (ability to meet standard of excellence)

Questions:

1. How is the recruitment process when managers are hired? (The company itself or outsourced) - It depends of the position and the market. Sometimes it is advertised inside the company when we are sure we have a person in-house that is eligible. Otherwise it is advertised in newspapers sometimes with assistant from agency and sometimes we screen and interview ourselves.

2. Do you check the grades of the person? - We do usually not check the grades especially. We look at experience and education.

3. Do you think that a person with mediocre grades is less likely to be successful than a person with top grades? - Can be either way if we are thinking of the managers role per se. Being good with managing people does not necessarily mean high grades from school

4. How is the character of a person evaluated, how do you evaluate if a person has

good people skills? - We use behavioural type of questions with real past experience also dilemma situation and solutions and sometimes a special test or questionnaire

5. Do you use personality tests to find out e.g. how emotional intelligent a person is?

- Very rarely do except when we are hiring externally and in a big position

6. To what degree do you recruit and select managers on the basis of emotional intelligence versus technical skills? - We usually do not separate these skills totally but technical skills are easier to learn than emotional skills, in that sense we take a stronger look at the emotional intelligence.

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7. Having emotional intelligence in mind, are managers hired on the basis of their a) Personal competencies (their ability to manage themselves) or their social

competencies (their ability to handle relationship with others)? - A bit of both, it cannot separate one from the other if you are looking for a good manager.

b) Does the same apply for middle managers as well as top managers? - Basically yes, for top managers we would look more into the experience.

8. Do you think that a person can succeed as a manager without emotional

intelligence (good people skills)? - No I do not think so. By one point something will break, the person itself, the department or the company, it depends on the position.

9. What do you consider to be more important for a manger to succeed: having

good technical skills OR having good people skills? - Having good people skills

10. If you say technical skills, do you then think that people skills can be achieved (and vice versa) - A person can learn any kind of skills but it depends on the personality how far you reach with the people skills.

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Appendix 2

Company B Questions for Human resource departments concerning recruitment process, with emphasis on emotional intelligence. To what degree does the company recruit and select managers on the basis of emotional intelligence characteristics versus technical qualifications. This applies for the process when managers (both middle managers and top managers) are hired. Emotional intelligence is 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. The emotional Competence Framework: Personal competence Social Competence Self-awareness (knowing one’s emotions) Empathy (Awareness of others’ feelings and needs Self-regulation (managing one’s internal state Social skills (Ability to induce desirable responses in others) Motivation (ability to meet standard of excellence)

Questions:

1. How is the recruitment process when managers are hired? (The company itself or outsourced) - First of all we review our application database and transfer requests from current employees. If there aren´t any candidates in the database nor internally then we look externally. That is either through an advertisement that we post on our website and in the paper, or we go through a hiring agency. Most of the recruitments are through the HR departments in each subsidiary. Hiring agency is used in some instances. Our subsidiary in the UK outsources all recruitments.

2. Do you check the grades of the person? - Yes we do and we find it more important when the person is less experienced.

3. Do you think that a person with mediocre grades is less likely to be successful than a person with top grades? - Good grades give a certain indication about a person, as far as personal competence (ambition, motivation etc.).Grades should not be a sole indicator whether a person is right for a position or not. Other factors need to be taken into consideration as well, i.e. communication skills, integrity etc. Grades have less to due with social competence.

4. How is the character of a person evaluated, how do you evaluate if a person has

good people skills? In Iceland we do not have our candidates take personality tests. Questions are asked during the interview process that are supposed to be indicating people skills. These questions are open questions where people give an example of

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behaviour both regarding personal competences and social competences based on their personal experience.

5. Do you use personality tests to find out e.g. how emotional intelligent a person is?

- This differs between our subsidiaries. Candidates in Denmark do have to take a personality test. In Iceland when candidates go through a hiring agency they might have to go through a personality test. Since the hiring is outsourced in the UK it is used.

6. To what degree do you recruit and select managers on the basis of emotional

intelligence versus technical skills? - The essence of the job plays a certain role. If a job is highly technical then the focus might be higher on technical skills and then it might be 50/50. For a position that is more general, emotional intelligence is more important. We believe that great communication skills are highly important when it comes down to managing people. Technical skills are easier to train.

7. Having emotional intelligence in mind, are managers hired on the basis of their a) Personal competencies (their ability to manage themselves) or their social competencies (their ability to handle relationship with others)? - Both competencies are highly important. A manager needs to have the ability to react in the proper manner when managing a group of people; just as important is his ability to manage himself (anger, frustration, disappointment).

b) Does the same apply for middle managers as well as top managers? – Same goes for both.

8. Do you think that a person can succeed as a manager without emotional

intelligence (good people skills)? - Someone that doesn´t have good people skills is less likely to succeed.

9. What do you consider to be more important for a manger to succeed: having

good technical skills OR having good people skills? - This again depends on the position and the essence of the job. But in most cases good people skills are most important.

10. If you say technical skills, do you then think that people skills can be achieved

(and vice versa) - Technical skills are easier to train than people skills and therefore having good or great people skills is important.

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Appendix 3

Company C Questions for Human resource departments concerning recruitment process, with emphasis on emotional intelligence. To what degree does the company recruit and select managers on the basis of emotional intelligence characteristics versus technical qualifications. This applies for the process when managers (both middle managers and top managers) are hired. Emotional intelligence is 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. The emotional Competence Framework: Personal competence Social Competence Self-awareness (knowing one’s emotions) Empathy (Awareness of others’ feelings and needs Self-regulation (managing one’s internal state Social skills (Ability to induce desirable responses in others) Motivation (ability to meet standard of excellence)

Questions:

1. How is the recruitment process when managers are hired? (The company itself or outsourced) - The company takes care of it

2. Do you check the grades of the person? - Yes grades matter

3. Do you think that a person with mediocre grades is less likely to be successful than a person with top grades? - No not necessarily

4. How is the character of a person evaluated, how do you evaluate if a person has

good people skills? - By using interviews, checking references and check what people have been doing in the past

5. Do you use personality tests to find out e.g. how emotional intelligent a person is?

- No never. The Icelandic market is so small and you always know someone who knows someone etc. And it is therefore easy to find out how what kind of personality a person has.

6. To what degree do you recruit and select managers on the basis of emotional

intelligence versus technical skills? - Both are very important but being emotionally intelligent is even more important and when recruiting managers we check out the people skills of the person, but there has to be a combination of people skills, good grades and technical skills

7. Having emotional intelligence in mind, are managers hired on the basis of their

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a) Personal competencies (their ability to manage themselves) or their social

competencies (their ability to handle relationship with others)? - They are more hired on the basis of their social skills.

b) Does the same apply for middle managers as well as top managers? Yes

8. Do you think that a person can succeed as a manager without emotional intelligence (good people skills)? - It is possible but it is difficult. We have many examples of persons who had really good technical skills and were promoted to be a manager but did not succeed as they lacked the social skills. These persons then either had to be downgraded and take care of other projects but having no human recourses or they had to leave the company.

9. What do you consider to be more important for a manger to succeed: having

good technical skills OR having good people skills? - It is more important to having good social skills because the technical skills can be learned but our managers of course have to have good education and good grades and the ability to learn the technical parts of the job. The best managers are those who have good social skills and are able to recruit people with a better technical knowledge without feeling intimidated by them.

10. If you say technical skills, do you then think that people skills can be achieved

(and vice versa). - We do believe that people skills can be learned. Once a year we evaluate our managers (the employees, peers and supervisors answer some questionnaires) and bring in an outside consultancy company to take care of that. When we get the result we can see which managers are not meeting standards when it comes to people skills. We then send them to training courses so that can improve what is lacking. This often works and we have many examples of managers who have really improved their social skills but the manager has to be open to acquiring new knowledge.

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Appendix 4

Company D Questions for Human resource departments concerning recruitment process, with emphasis on emotional intelligence. To what degree does the company recruit and select managers on the basis of emotional intelligence characteristics versus technical qualifications. This applies for the process when managers (both middle managers and top managers) are hired. Emotional intelligence is 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. The emotional Competence Framework: Personal competence Social Competence Self-awareness (knowing one’s emotions) Empathy (Awareness of others’ feelings and needs Self-regulation (managing one’s internal state Social skills (Ability to induce desirable responses in others) Motivation (ability to meet standard of excellence)

Questions:

1. How is the recruitment process when managers are hired? (The company itself or outsourced) - Most of the time managers are hired in co-operation with recruitment companies. We usually advertise open positions, the recruitment company takes the first interviews and then the HR manager or other managers from our company take the next interview. When it is time to choose who will be hired two - three applicants take a personality test and we take the conclusion from them into consideration when the most qualified person is hired. This mostly applies when middle managers are hired but when we are looking for top managers then we often use “headhunting”.

2. Do you check the grades of the person? - Usually not

3. Do you think that a person with mediocre grades is less likely to be successful than a person with top grades? - No not necessarily

4. How is the character of a person evaluated, how do you evaluate if a person has

good people skills? - We try to evaluate it in an interview. We use rather standardised questions in the interview, we use among other things AHA question technique and with this we try to get a glimps of the personality of the applicants, we evaluate his reaction to the questions and can see his behaviour. References and background checks are also useful and we check for references from two – three referees where we ask standardised questions and also questions about things which have caught our attention during the interviews. When we hire middle and top managers we mostly use QPQ personality tests before the final decision is made.

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5. Do you use personality tests to find out e.g. how emotional intelligent a person is?

- We use QPQ

6. To what degree do you recruit and select managers on the basis of emotional intelligence versus technical skills? - Personality is the basis for hiring in most positions, but if the applicant has the appropriate background which matches our requirements then we consider his personality to be more important than technical skills which can be learned.

7. Having emotional intelligence in mind, are managers hired on the basis of their

a) Personal competencies (their ability to manage themselves) or their social

competencies (their ability to handle relationship with others)? - It is difficult to choose one over the other as both abilities are important. I can’t see that a person who doesn’t have the ability to control own emotions is capable of controlling others. But it is very important that it is easy for managers to communicate with others.

b) Does the same apply for middle managers as well as top managers? - Yes but often we expect middle managers to have more technical skills than the top manager while it is most important for top managers to have good people skills.

8. Do you think that a person can succeed as a manager without emotional

intelligence (good people skills)? - No

9. What do you consider to be more important for a manger to succeed: having good technical skills OR having good people skills? - Good people skills

10. If you say technical skills, do you then think that people skills can be achieved

(and vice versa) - I don’t know if I should answer this but I think that it is more difficult to learn people skills than technical skills but it can be learned though to some degree at least.

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Appendix 5

Company E Questions for Human resource departments concerning recruitment process, with emphasis on emotional intelligence. To what degree does the company recruit and select managers on the basis of emotional intelligence characteristics versus technical qualifications. This applies for the process when managers (both middle managers and top managers) are hired. Emotional intelligence is 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. The emotional Competence Framework: Personal competence Social Competence Self-awareness (knowing one’s emotions) Empathy (Awareness of others’ feelings and needs Self-regulation (managing one’s internal state Social skills (Ability to induce desirable responses in others) Motivation (ability to meet standard of excellence)

Questions:

1. How is the recruitment process when managers are hired? (The company itself or outsourced) - We do both

2. Do you check the grades of the person? - Not necessarily, we of course look at the grades if the applicants put them on the application, but mostly we check grades and subject of final papers (BSc./BA or MSc./MA degrees)

3. Do you think that a person with mediocre grades is less likely to be successful

than a person with top grades? - No not necessarily. Grades can though give some idea of how a person works and how ambitious the person is. Other things have to be taken into consideration e.g. if a person was also working while studying etc.

4. How is the character of a person evaluated, how do you evaluate if a person has

good people skills? - We use interviews and various employees in the company participate in them to help us evaluate the applicant. We also sometimes use personality tests.

5. Do you use personality tests to find out e.g. how emotional intelligent a person is?

- Yes

6. To what degree do you recruit and select managers on the basis of emotional intelligence versus technical skills? - We try really hard to find the right person with the right personality i.e. a personality which we would like to see in our employees.

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People skills are very important for our managers as we want them to be leaders of their group and are able to motivate and encourage their employees.

7. Having emotional intelligence in mind, are managers hired on the basis of their

a) Personal competencies (their ability to manage themselves) or their social

competencies (their ability to handle relationship with others)? - Both b) Does the same apply for middle managers as well as top managers? - Yes but

it is even more important for them.

8. Do you think that a person can succeed as a manager without emotional intelligence (good people skills)? - It is possible. We all know managers who are not really emotionally intelligent but have still managed to succeed. I think though that employees today make more demands to their managers and expect that they show compassion, dedication and personal interest when it comes to their employees.

9. What do you consider to be more important for a manger to succeed: having good technical skills OR having good people skills? - I would have to say people skills.

10. If you say technical skills, do you then think that people skills can be achieved

(and vice versa). - Yes I think it can be learned.

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Appendix 6

Company F Questions for Human resource departments concerning recruitment process, with emphasis on emotional intelligence. To what degree does the company recruit and select managers on the basis of emotional intelligence characteristics versus technical qualifications. This applies for the process when managers (both middle managers and top managers) are hired. Emotional intelligence is 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. The emotional Competence Framework: Personal competence Social Competence Self-awareness (knowing one’s emotions) Empathy (Awareness of others’ feelings and needs Self-regulation (managing one’s internal state Social skills (Ability to induce desirable responses in others) Motivation (ability to meet standard of excellence)

Questions:

1. How is the recruitment process when managers are hired? (The company itself or outsourced) - Both.

2. Do you check the grades of the person? - Very seldom.

3. Do you think that a person with mediocre grades is less likely to be successful than a person with top grades? - No, some of the best people we have, have never finished school.

4. How is the character of a person evaluated, how do you evaluate if a person has

good people skills? - We use set of similar or same questions asked again and again. Different people are asked to ask certain questions to determine different skills.

5. Do you use personality tests to find out e.g. how emotional intelligent a person is -

No

6. To what degree do you recruit and select managers on the basis of emotional intelligence versus technical skills? - We don’t. Most of our managers are highly technical, but we’re starting to focus more and more on hiring one technical manager and another people manager. We need a recruiting model that could help us determine emotional intelligence, especially for that group.

7. Having emotional intelligence in mind, are managers hired on the basis of their

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a) Personal competencies (their ability to manage themselves) or their social competencies (their ability to handle relationship with others)? - More focus on their ability to handle relationship with others.

b) Does the same apply for middle managers as well as top managers? - Yes

8. Do you think that a person can succeed as a manager without emotional

intelligence (good people skills)? – I personally don’t, but we have cases like that. We know about them and in those cases, we support the manager as much as we can.

9. What do you consider to be more important for a manger to succeed: having

good technical skills OR having good people skills? – A mix of both is needed, and since that is not always possible we’re going the path, I mention before; one technical part and another managerial path. There is a good book on this matter, written by somebody from Microsoft, I think.

10. If you say technical skills, do you then think that people skills can be achieved

(and vice versa) – People skills can certainly be achieved, it’s going to take some time, training etc. But E.I. is hard to learn, I believe it’s something you’re born with. It’s also, somewhat difficult to teach.

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Appendix 7

Questions for Human resource departments concerning recruitment process, with emphasis on emotional intelligence. To what degree does the company recruit and select managers on the basis of emotional intelligence characteristics versus technical qualifications. This applies for the process when managers (both middle managers and top managers) are hired. Emotional intelligence is 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. The emotional Competence Framework: Personal competence Social Competence Self-awareness (knowing one’s emotions) Empathy (Awareness of others’ feelings and needs Self-regulation (managing one’s internal state Social skills (Ability to induce desirable responses in others) Motivation (ability to meet standard of excellence)

Questions:

1. How is the recruitment process when managers are hired? (The company itself or outsourced)

2. Do you check the grades of the person?

3. Do you think that a person with mediocre grades is less likely to be successful than a person with top grades?

4. How is the character of a person evaluated, how do you evaluate if a person has good

people skills?

5. Do you use personality tests to find out e.g. how emotional intelligent a person is?

6. To what degree do you recruit and select managers on the basis of emotional intelligence versus technical skills?

7. Having emotional intelligence in mind, are managers hired on the basis of their a) Personal competencies (their ability to manage themselves) or their social

competencies (their ability to handle relationship with others)? b) Does the same apply for middle managers as well as top managers?

8. Do you think that a person can succeed as a manager without emotional intelligence

(good people skills)?

9. What do you consider to be more important for a manger to succeed: having good technical skills OR having good people skills?

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10. If you say technical skills, do you then think that people skills can be achieved (and

vice versa)

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Appendix 8

The Recruitment Process

All the applicants receive an email/letter regarding that the position has been filled

A company needs an employee

Analyses of abilities required for the job

Advertising of the job position

Inquiries regarding the position answered

Search in databases

Consultant checks out the applicants

Headhunt

Consultant interviews applicants

References checked out

A person is recruited

Consultants display the applications to the

company

Personality test and/or ability test