Emotional Intelligence as a predictor of job satisfaction and performance among customer service providers
Since its modern day conception in 1990 (Mayer and Salovey 1997), Emotional Intelligence (EI) has enjoyed increasing popularity within the business world, with many organisations exploring the contribution of EI to customer service excellence through enhanced human resources management (Mayer, Salovey and Caruso 2002; Guy and Newman 2004; Kernbach and Schutte 2005). The continued expansion of service industries has resulted in a shift towards the provision of high quality customer service as the number one source of competitive advantage (Leidner 1993; Fuller and Smith 1991; Dulewicz and Higgs 2000; Korczynski 2002). In relation to the enhancement of behavioural outcomes in customer service, EI has been identified as a potentially important construct, given that customer service providers are required to be both receptive and adaptive to consumer demands in order to facilitate service interactions which create value for the consumer (Cherniss and Adler 2000; Cook and MacCaulay 2002; Korczynski 2002; Bardzil and Slaski 2003).
Research in the field of EI is at the infancy stage and as such, there is a need for further empirical research which assesses the predictive ability of EI on life, and, and moreso on organisational success (Douglas, Frink and Ferris 2004; Zeidner, Matthews and Roberts 2004). As such, this research aimed to empirically establish the predictive power of EI in service organisational settings by examining the relationships between a customer service provider's level of EI and their associated job performance and job satisfaction. In order to delineate between customer service contexts the research assessed six key characteristics of customer service interactions. The inclusion of these customer service interaction strength dimensions allowed for the classification of service interactions to identify variance of EI on workplace outcomes across different service settings. With the inclusion of the customer service interaction strength dimensions this research is identified as the first such study to empirically measure the predictive power of EI for job satisfaction and job performance in a broad cross-section of interactive customer service roles.
The research utilised a quantitative data approach in the form of scaled survey items to measure the key constructs. Despite the growing body of literature espousing the value of EI to enhanced workplace outcomes, the statistical analysis of the predictive power of EI revealed that this construct may not be as pertinent as other factors, in particular, customer service experience, in enhancing customer service provider satisfaction and performance. This premise was supported by the statistical significance influence of customer service experience, gender and personality and personal values (intrinsic interpersonal characteristics) identified, in addition to that of EI, in predicting customer service provider job satisfaction and job performance. These findings suggest that measures such as EI should be used in conjunction with other sources of information and psychometric tests in the selection and recruitment of customer service providers.
Although, the results of the research did not revealed strong support for EI's predictive capability, the significant associations between EI and the workplace outcomes adds to the current body of knowledge offering empirical support for the investigation of EI in workplace environments. Furthermore, the findings linking customer service experience to EI offered empirical support for the developmental theory of EI as a learnt ability. Such that, while individuals may gain emotional knowledge through the course of everyday life, it is the application and enhancement of these skills through experience or training and development in customer service roles which increases a customer service provider's EI ability level.
Further, although the customer service interaction dimensions did not appear to significantly moderate the influence of a customer service provider's EI on their levels of job satisfaction and job performance. The research does identify a sub-set of these factors that offered additional insight into the prediction of such workplace outcomes for customer service providers demonstrating specific personal characteristics. Furthermore, the study highlighted a number of personal and environmental characteristics which provide insight into the types of customer service contexts which contribute to customer service employee satisfaction and enhanced job performance.
Overall this research makes a unique contribution to the conceptualisation and measurement of EI as a form of intelligence. These findings will serve to expand the theoretical debate on EI as a predictor of workplace success, identifying the unifying effect of EI with other characteristics which collectively work to enhance customer service provision across service contexts. At a practical level, the findings contribute significantly to human resource practices, namely the recruitment and training and development of satisfied and high performing employees in service organisations.
Source: http://sydney.edu.au/business/research/completed_phd_theses/marketing/emotional_intelligence_as_a_predictor_of_job_satisfaction_and_performance_among_customer_service_providers
Emotional Intelligence Tests and Leadership Development
In theory there is no person out there that knows you better than you know yourself. The truth is that this is just theory as it is really common that you do not even know yourself. Unfortunately it is quite hard to be able to know ourselves. This usually happens because of the fact that we can easily tend to believe that we are in one way when the truth is another one. There are so many that say that they are totally in tune with everything about them and no one can judge them better than themselves. The problem is that we have to know ourselves really good in the event that we want to be leaders. However, what happens when we do not actually know ourselves that well and we are actually just saying lies to ourselves? In this case a lot of problems appear, especially at work.
Men are most likely to lie to themselves so that they can fit in well with all those around them. The problem is that if something goes wrong and there is proof that you are not like you thought you were, you might be so disappointed that all your skills will suffer. The emotional intelligence tests can help out a lot in the sense that they will help you properly understand emotions and the relations that you have with them. These tests will be a way to properly assess you emotional maturity as it is really hard to do this in any other way. In most cases trusting friends can and will lead to problems. Professionals are much more likely to be able to help you.
If a regular person will tell you that you are lacking emotional intelligence how would you react? How would you react in the event that this is the result that you gain after an emotional intelligence test? This is the biggest reason why so many people these days are not going to do the tests. They are afraid that after taking emotional intelligence tests they are going to get bad results. The truth is that there is no such thing as a bad result. These tests were built with something else in mind. After you receive the results you can see exactly what you are good at and what you are not. This helps out a lot in leadership development because you can start putting an accent on your strong points while being able to minimize the aspects that are not that strong. To put it simple, you will look and act more like a leader. This is what the bosses actually want from you.
Every single person out there wants perfection and whenever there is a feeling that something negative is pointed out, it is easy to start going on a defensive. Unfortunately this is not at all a good attitude. It would be much better to learn how to use your weak points in order to be more successful in life. Emotional intelligence tests will help you do just that. It explains the reactions that you might have in some circumstances and will tell you exactly what is actually correct and what is not. The tests help a lot more than you might believe and you will also gain confidence. This is one of the biggest gains possible from emotional intelligence tests when referring to leadership development.
In some colleges it is obligatory to take emotional intelligence tests. This is done because of two possible reasons. The first one is that it helps teachers know students better and the second one is that it helps the student know himself better. Both reasons are really important. If a teacher knows the student perfectly then he/she will know exactly what methods to use to maximize potential. If that knowledge does not exist then all that the professional can do is to guess. Emotional intelligence tests are really helpful from this point of view as they eliminate the need to guess.
The bottom line is that you are going to take emotional intelligence tests for you but you have to be really open about it. There is absolutely no reason why you would try to cheat the test or answer incorrectly. Always remember that the information that you are going to receive from this emotional intelligence test is going to help you become a better leader in life. This does not only mean that you will learn how to guide others better. You will also learn how to guide yourself better so that you can reach your personal goals. Pay close attention to where you take the emotional intelligence test so that the professional reading the result really knows what he is doing. After getting the results try to take your time and make the needed modifications and you will turn into a better leader for sure.
Improving your Leadership Ability with an Emotional Intelligence Test
A lot of people have talked about emotional intelligence and there are some that see it as a simple oxymoron. This happens because of the fact that there is a strong link between intelligence and emotion but it is one that should not be seen this way. We can simply look at it as how well we tend to react in different emotional situations, how intelligent we are when something affects it. This is not the dictionary definition but it is one that can help us understanding everything better. An emotional intelligence test is a test that helps us to properly understand our personal emotional intelligence.
The reason why this is important is that emotional intelligence is a very good indicator of how we are going to react when a crisis appears. Are we going to quickly come up with a solution or is it normal for us to become silent and not do anything about that? By understanding this we make one step further into improving personal leadership ability. Truth be told, the step taken through the emotional intelligence test is a huge one that will really make a difference. The problem is that it is really hard to understand everything because of a normal lack of psychological education. It is a common belief that an emotional person is not going to be intelligent. It is considered that all intelligent people are unemotional, logical and rational. This is not actually correct as it can also be differently. You can be highly intelligent and still have problems in reacting properly when problems appear.
Emotional Intelligence Test Types
There are 3 main types of emotional intelligence tests according to psychologists. The first type is the self-support test. A psychologist is going to compare results with thousands that have been given by other people. Every result is put inside a database and this means that the more people stored there, the better the possible results. Through this type you are going to simply learn about how you should interact with other people and what you are most prone to do when you meet others and some particular situations.
The second type is the 360-degrees assessment emotional intelligence test. This one is mostly linked with the individual’s perception of other people. It is normal to react differently when faced with different people but this does not mean that we should not be aware of possible problems that we might have in this case. For instance, you are surely going to know how you usually react in front of your spouse but what happens when you are surrounded by people that you do not know or in front of your boss? In order to become a really good leader you will have to know what to do and react fast in any circumstance.
The third emotional intelligence test is the performance assessment test. It is really similar to a regular IQ test. We can say that emotional intelligence can be measured by using this test. In most cases individuals are going to be asked to recognize pictures of different individuals or to choose different responses about some particular tough life circumstances. You might also be asked to demonstrate emotion basic principles knowledge.
Should You Get Emotional Intelligence Tests to Improve Leadership Ability?
The really short answer to this question is yes, you should. The truth is that through the emotional intelligence tests you can become a better person as you are going to notice some of the problems that you might be having. In addition, by knowing your strong points you can always start using them more efficiently. The same thing goes for the weak points. If you highlight different circumstances where problems appear, you can avoid them much more easily while eventually learning how to react to them properly. We can only treat a problem if we understand it and if we know that it exists.
The last important thing that needs to be understood is the fact that it is really important who is going to administer the emotional intelligence test. This is true due to the fact that your results are basically compared with the results of others. By using such an approach the professional can properly assess you. If the database that holds the answers is small, there is room for more error. When the databases are big, the errors are far less likely to appear. Make sure that you always try to be assessed by real professionals that know what they are talking about and how to understand the results of the tests that you are performing. In addition, pay close attention to the tests that you are going to locate online. We need to highlight this fact as not all of them are great. Patience can help out a lot.