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Building the emotional intelligence of groups
1Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA.
Harvard Business Review
|March 15, 2001
Summary
High emotional intelligence (EI) is crucial for individual and team effectiveness in the workplace. Cultivating team EI requires fostering trust, identity, and efficacy, not just assembling intelligent individuals.
Area of Science:
- Organizational Psychology
- Team Dynamics
- Emotional Intelligence Research
Background:
- Individual emotional intelligence (EI) is recognized as vital for workplace effectiveness.
- The role of EI within teams, however, remains less understood.
- Companies like IDEO and Hewlett-Packard demonstrate the link between EI and team success.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the concept of group emotional intelligence (Group EI) and its importance for team effectiveness.
- To identify the key components necessary for developing high Group EI.
- To differentiate Group EI from simply aggregating individual EI.
Main Methods:
- Conceptual analysis drawing on organizational case studies (e.g., IDEO, Hewlett-Packard, Hay Group).
- Examination of team behaviors associated with high EI.
- Identification of essential norms for fostering Group EI.
Main Results:
- High Group EI is central to effective team functioning and relationship building.
- Effective teams with high Group EI exhibit enhanced resilience in facing challenges.
- Achieving high Group EI necessitates establishing norms for mutual trust, group identity, and group efficacy.
Conclusions:
- Group EI is not merely the sum of individual EI; it requires deliberate norm creation.
- Essential norms for Group EI include mutual trust, group identity, and group efficacy, forming the basis for cooperation.
- Effective Group EI involves actively engaging with and utilizing team emotions to enhance work, rather than suppressing them.