C. Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence (EI) is an interpersonal capability that includes the ability to perceive
and express emotions, to understand and use them, and to manage emotions in oneself and
other people.
EI involves using emotional regulatory processes to control anxiety and other negative
emotional reactions and to generate positive emotional reactions.
The five dimensions comprising EI are:
1. Self-awareness: being aware of what you are feeling
People differ in the degree to which they are able to recognize the emotional meaning of others’
facial expressions, although seven universal emotions are expressed in the face in exactly the
same way regardless of race, culture, ethnicity, age, gender, or religion. These emotions are joy,
sadness, fear, surprise, anger, contempt, and disgust.
Case Study: Emotional Intelligence at FedEx
Summary: Global shipping company FedEx has a “people first” philosophy and believes that for the
company to deliver world-class customer service its managers must also have an attitude of service in
managing their associates. FedEx recognizes that leadership has grown more complex and wants to
1. Do you think that EI would be important for a manager at FedEx to have? Explain your
answer?
2. How does FedEx develop its new leaders’ EI?
FedEx keeps a running measurement of leadership performance with an annual survey where all
3. What else do you think that FedEx can do to enhance its managers’ EI?
The majority of leaders receiving the leadership development training showed large improvements in
V. Learning Styles
Learning style refers to individual differences and preferences in how we process information when
problem solving, learning, or engaging in similar activities.
A. Sensory Modalities
One approach addresses our preference for sensory modality. A sensory modality is a system
that interacts with the environment through one of the basic senses.
The most important sensory modalities are:
B. Learning Style Inventory
A second approach to understanding learning styles, the Kolb Learning Style Inventory, is one
of the more dominant approaches to categorizing cognitive styles.
David Kolb suggests that there are four basic learning styles:
1. Convergers: depend primarily on active experimentation and abstract conceptualization to
learn. People with this style are superior in technical tasks and problems and inferior in
interpersonal learning settings.
2. Divergers: depend primarily on concrete experience and reflective observation. People with
There are many differences in how styles are conceptualized, and there have been numerous
criticisms of Kolb’s measures and the underlying theory.
These measures are subject to a variety of statistical and inferential problems, and many show
low reliability.
C. Learning Style Orientations
Finally, Annette Towler and Robert Dipboye developed a learning style orientation measure to
address some of the limitations of the Kolb inventory and identify key styles and preferences
for learning.
They identified five key factors:
1. Discovery learning: an inclination for exploration during learning. Discovery learners
prefer subjective assessments, interactional activities, informational methods, and active-
reflective activities.
Summary and Application
Understanding individuals in organizations is important for all managers. A basic framework for
facilitating this understanding is the psychological contract—people’s expectations regarding what they
will contribute to the organization and what they will get in return. Organizations strive to achieve an
optimal person-job fit, but this process is complicated by the existence of individual differences.
Discussion Questions
1. What is a psychological contract? Why is it important? What psychological contracts do you
currently have?
A psychological contract is the overall set of expectations held by an individual with respect to what
2. What individual differences do you feel are most important to organizations? Why?
The individual differences that are most important in organizations are emotional stability, because it
3. If you were denied a job because of your score on a personality test, what would be your
reaction?
4. If your supervisor exhibited bullying behaviors, what would you do?
Students could follow the suggestions offered in the Improve Your Skills feature. For example, if the
5. Which of Gardner’s multiple intelligences do you feel are most important for managers?
6. Do you think EI is important to managers? How would you assess EI in deciding who to
promote to a managerial position?
EI is important to managers because as Daniel Goleman explains, EI is “the capacity for recognizing
7. If you were a manager, what individual differences would be important to you in hiring an
assistant? Why?
Understand Yourself Exercise—Work Locus of Control
1. Do you think that your score accurately reflects your locus of control at work? Why or why
not?
If students are not currently working outside of attending school or they have limited work
2. How do you think the work locus of control might influence your effectiveness as a
manager?
A manager with an external locus of control is more likely to believe that whatever happens to
them is caused by forces beyond their control. This could be seen by the manager’s supervisors as
3. What do you think is the ideal locus of control in a work setting and why?
Students will likely answer that a mix of external and internal is ideal as it would allow managers
4. What might you do in the next year to make your work locus of control consistent with your
answer to question 3?
Group Exercise—Strengths-Based Development
Learning Objective: This exercise incorporates many ideas contained in this chapter with the main point
reinforcing the fact that each individual is different. Intelligence is a related concept in this situation as is
identifying other personality traits present when deciding the co-op’s course of action.
Summary: When drought threatened the survival of Ohio farming co-op Auglaize Provico, CEO Larry
Hammond realized that he would have to change the business model. Hammond then implemented
Task: Groups of three to five can answer the following questions and then present their answers in a class
discussion or simply discuss the questions as a class.
1. Do you think it is better to focus on assessing and developing employees’ weaknesses or to focus
on their strengths? Why?
Students mostly will answer that focusing on strengths is better. The idea that workers should “fix”
attention, and energy away from maximizing naturally powerful talents.
2. Why would strengths-based development increase employee engagement?
3. If you were a manager, how might you interact with employees differently if you were using
strengths-based development rather than deficit-based development?
Video Exercises
Videos and questions can be found in the eBook and MindTap video folder.
Barcelona Restaurant Group
Summary: Barcelona Restaurant Group is always trying to attract and retain only those employees who
reinforce its service-oriented culture and provide top-quality customer service. The manager being
Task: As a class, watch “Barcelona” (6:04) and then individually consider the following questions. After
students have come up with their own ideas, form groups of four to five people to discuss their insights.
Be sure to have each group nominate someone to serve as a spokesperson to share their ideas with the
class.
1. How does the Barcelona Restaurant Group focus on fit? What types of fit does Barcelona try to
optimize when hiring?
Barcelona focuses on fit by attempting to hire employees who already possess the right
2. How does sending managerial candidates on a $100 “Shop” serve as an RJP? Explain why you
think this would or would not be effective in helping job candidates assess their fit with the
Barcelona Restaurant Group.
The “Shop” is an assignment in which prospective employees must spend $100 at a
3. Besides the “Shop,” how else does Barcelona try to maximize employee fit? What other
suggestions do you have for the company to improve new hires’ fit with the job and
organization?
After the “Shop,” Barcelona attempts to maximize employee fit by asking prospective
employees to pretend that they have been working for the restaurant for six months and take
Now What?
While waiting for a phone call with two subordinates, imagine that another subordinate walks into the
room and has a loud, frustrated outburst after being unable to find something. The other employees in the
room clearly feel uncomfortable as a result of this behavior. What do you say or do? Go to this chapter’s
“Now What?” video, watch the challenge video, and choose a response. Be sure to also view the
outcomes of the two responses you didn’t choose.
Discussion Questions
1. Which aspects of management and OB discussed in this chapter are illustrated in these videos?
Explain your answer.
Management concepts: The ability to understand what others think and feel, knowing how to
2. Which do you feel is more important at work, an employee’s behavior or performance? Why?
An employee’s behavior and performance are both important at work because behavior affects
performance. Negative emotions, such as anxiety or frustration, result in diminished learning and
3. As a manager, what else might you do to effectively handle this situation?
The manager should continue to develop a strong organizational culture that is supportive of
employees. Strong organizational cultures decrease the influence of personality on employee