Emotional intelligence is a human capacity (to perceive, understand, and manage emotions) that has an important impact on individual's personal, professional, and social life, and contributes to their growth, well-being, and success. This chapter examines the specific role of emotional intelligence in the formation of basic and necessary skills and characteristics of leaders and in the exercise of effective leadership, as an element of organizational behavior, which drastically affects the attitudes, perceptions, performance of human resources, diffusing positive results throughout the organization. Its utility in management and in HRM, i.e. in development and cultivation of EI in the managers of organizations, in applying EI-based criteria in the selection of staff and managers, in the design of training and education programs and, overall, in the training of people-centered and qualitative management and leadership that will lead people and organizations to growth and success, was substantiated, as well.
Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management for Complex Work Environments
TopIntroduction
In the late 19th and early 20th century, the interest of management researchers focused exclusively on the scientific organization of work and businesses to ensure maximum productivity, a fact which led to the formation of classical theories of management (Katarahia & Pitoska, 2021). In the classical theories of Taylor, Fayol and Weber, organizations-businesses are seen as machines, as stable and predictable environments that are amenable to standardization and therefore, importance is given to the precision of work organization, specialization, strict hierarchy, discipline, and control, while employees are perceived as tools, as passive beings, without personal will, carrying out instructions and orders (Iordanoglou, 2008; Kefis, 2005). Aptly, Goleman (2000) states that “Taylorist experts on proficiency scanned the world of work analyzing the most mechanically efficient movements a worker's body could make as the measure of human labor was the machine”.
For centuries, science has praised only cognitive processes and maintained a negative attitude towards emotion, believing it to have a negative effect on making the right decisions (Dimitriadis & Psychogios, 2023).
Henry Gantt is one of the first to characterize the scientific management as an oppressive tool for the workers and expresses the view that “management must take on a humanistic tone and treat workers as beings with needs and dignity (Kefis, 2005, p. 70)”. Gradually, management focuses on people as the weaknesses of the mechanistic classical approach are highlighted, and the interest of scientists turns to the study of human behavior in the workplace, the relationships between managers and employees, and the efficiency of employees, through the understanding of their personal needs (Katarahia & Pitoska, 2021).
The studies of Münsterberg, Fayol, Follet and Mayo, who emphasize the essential role of social and psychological factors in employee performance, contribute to this. (Katarahia & Pitoska, 2021). Hawthorn's experiments show the critical importance of social and psychological factors, as well as the values prevailing within an organization (Kefis, 2005). Maslow's motivational theory of the hierarchy of needs and McGregor's “X and Y Theory” come to reinforce them with their findings, emphasizing the social nature of the human employee, the variety of personal needs he or she meets through his or her work, and his or her emotional world, which has a decisive effect on his or her performance (Katarahia & Pitoska, 2021).
This decisive effect of emotions was subsequently supported by many researchers, some of whom focused on their impact on effective leadership.
Leadership is one of the four core functions of management, responsible for managing human resources and guiding them towards the achievement of an organization’s objectives. And a leader must possess certain skills and competencies to effectively carry out his/her responsibilities. Emotional intelligence (EI) - which is a human capacity (to perceive, understand and manage emotions) that has a significant impact on an individual's personal, professional, and social life, contributing to their development, well-being, and success - has occupied a prominent place among these skills for about the last two decades.
This chapter attempts to highlight the specific role of EI in the formation of basic and necessary skills and characteristics of leaders and in the exercise of effective leadership, as an element of Organizational Behavior (OB), which has a drastic effect on the attitudes, perceptions, and performance of human resources, spreading positive results throughout the organization.