Which is more important in the workplace?
I think the importance of IQ and EQ in the workplace is dependent on whether we are talking about the past or today’s practice. I think that it is also dependent on whether the enterprise is new or old in the industry.
I would consider IQ as the hard skills and EQ as the soft skills, and the possession of both skills is important for a manager and a leader in order for him to become versatile in facing rapidly changing conditions.
Intelligence as a Leadership Trait
In the past, there were several authors who wrote that intelligence or intellectual capacity is an important trait of a leader. This point of view was probably a carryover from tradition when only the aristocracy or the well to-do could get better intellectual development because of their station in life.
Ralph Stogdill’s 1948 research on leadership trait arrived at the following general conclusion on traits that characterize leaders:
1. Intelligence and scholarship
2. Physical traits
3. Personality
4. Social status and experience
5. Task orientation
Stogdill noted, however, that “if there is too much of an intellectual gap between leader and follower, there can be problems in cooperation and coordination of performance” because there will be problems in understanding and in communicating with followers.
Edwin Ghiselli (1907 – 1980), another researcher, who conducted research on leaders, listed the following very important traits of a leader:
1. Decisiveness
2. Intellectual capacity
3. Job achievement orientation
4. Self-actualization feelings
5. Self-confidence
6. Management ability
Ghiselli was referring to intellectual capacity as the effective use of judgment, reasoning skills, and creative abilities.
Leadership During the Industrial Revolution
At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the work in the factories was done by peasants. They did not have the training or the knowledge to know how to operate the machines and what to do in a factory. It was the leader or the industrialist who told them what to do, how to do things and when to do things. The leaders had to possess a higher IQ to perform his job and knowing what the best solution is to the problem seemed to be enough.
During the industrial revolution, Henri Fayol came up with a better approach to problem solving by defining the four functions of management that addresses the need to come up with the best solution to a problem – Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling. It took a lot of IQ to perform these functions and it was primarily a top-down process that did not require much input from laborers because they were considered not equipped to contribute to the thinking process. The laborers were then considered as mere mechanism of production.
The managers set the goals for the company, organized the resources needed to achieve the goals, told employees and workers what to do, and measured the results and adjusted the plan accordingly. Because of the rapidly growing population and growing demand, most of what was produced then were sold to the public.
Role of World War II in Evolution of Growth
Later, with the growing technological innovation and the introduction of the computer, production soared and with higher employment, the overall living standards improved. World War II also fueled the growth in the manufacturing industry in the US and facilitated the entry of women into the work force. But as more people were pulled into factory work, they formed into unions that influenced some dramatic changes in the way people were managed. Managers were, therefore, forced to recognize the human aspect of their task. There is now emphasis and consideration for the satisfaction of employees’ basic needs in order to increase productivity.
Another aspect that grew out of the growth of labor unions was the formation of the social environment of employees in the work place. This social environment provided a rewarding relationship in the workplace for the worker and exerted greater influence on the productivity of the group than management demands. Thus, in addition to the task to be done, the manager had to now also understand the motivation of people to encourage productivity which required managers to design work that met higher-level needs of the worker and encouraged participation from the worker themselves.
Present Environment: Technology & Globalization
Recently, globalization and deregulation added a new complexity to the business. Competition had not only increased in numbers, it had also intensified, forcing managers to look for better ways to increase their competitiveness.
In addition, technology had been creating new technologies that create more obsolescence. Companies that had not adapted to new technologies find themselves replaced by companies who leverage themselves on the use of new technologies. These new technologies are also accelerating change and shortening the product life cycles requiring companies to move faster in order to compete.
To compete under this new environment, managers still need IQ to perform its function of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. And if the enterprise is new in the industry and the managers and leaders are the only ones with experience, they may still have to shoulder the burden of carrying out the management functions by themselves until their employees have gained enough experience to be able to contribute to the process.
But if the enterprise has been in the industry for a long time and its employees have a lot of experience, an emotionally intelligent manager would know that asking for the employees’ participation in the managerial process would generate a lot employee enthusiasm and support for its programs. IQ is still important but it is the IQ of the whole organization and not only the IQ of the managers and leaders of the organization that was utilized. And the utilization of the organizational IQ could be facilitated using EQ.
Now, whether an enterprise is new or old in the industry, in communicating directions or goals of the organization, a manager or leader would need EQ to be able to assess how the employees are feeling and why they are feeling the way they are feeling in order to craft a compelling vision that addresses their concerns and create optimism and confidence in the future of the company.
In shaping the culture of the company or the organization, managers or leaders would need EQ to be able to express how they feel about the values and norms of the company and walk their talk as they talk their walk. And as managers and leaders recall events that demonstrated those values and norms, they must overlay it with emotions to make it more memorable.
In organizing, an emotionally intelligent manager would know what causes employees to work more efficiently and effectively. A manager would use this knowledge to generate in all the employees the appreciation of the importance of the work they do, create a better understanding of the rationale for the division of work, and raise the motivation of everyone to relate to each other in the most collaborative ways. With EQ, a manager would be able to raise the employee’s self-confidence in meeting challenges and in overcoming problems to achieve their goals and the goals of the organization.
In leading, an emotionally intelligent manager would be able to feel the pulse of the employees and be able to understand the causes of those emotions so that he could change negative feelings or enhance positive one. He should be able to predict the consequences of prevailing emotions so that he could prevent negative ones and nurture positive ones. With EQ, a manager would be able to anticipate how his followers will react to circumstances or events that may happen or needs to happen so that he could plan to influence those feelings. With EQ, a manager will recognize feelings and will be able to respond to feelings.
As for himself, an emotionally intelligent manager should be able to regulate his own moods in order to maintain a positive atmosphere in the organization. It means expressing oneself not in judgment of others but in facilitating understanding of events and searching for areas of improvements. With EQ, a manager will be able to express trust in the eventual resolution of problems.
Conclusion
In the past, IQ was enough to accomplish the goals of the organization because what was important was how to supply the needs of the growing population. The managers then needed the hard skills of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.
As the industry had progressed and as organizations have become bigger and more competitive, the needs of the employees have become an important factor in creating the competitive edge. This led to the need to develop the softer skills on understanding people and how they feel and why they feel the way they feel in order to be able to make them work together in a more collaborative way and in being able to motivate them in achieving the goals of the organization.
In a newly-formed organization, the hard skills would probably be more important in order for the organization to find a successful formula to grow their business, but once they begin to grow and become bigger, EQ would be equally important in the workplace.
I think that both IQ and EQ are equally important in the workplace. IQ provides the framework whereas EQ provides the form.
Reference:
E. T. Santos, Organization and Management; Makati: IAME, 1999
