Focusing on Resilience and Renewal From Stress: The Role of Emotional and Social Intelligence Competencies.

Individuals are subject to stressful events from daily chronic stress to traumatic life-changing experiences and the resulting impairment. Efforts to reduce stress or stressors are misdirected. Instead, bouncing back or recovering from such experiences, often called resilience is a far more potent way to ameliorate the ravages of chronic stress and move to a state of renewal, thriving and flourishing. Because we infect each other with stress or renewal through emotional contagion, each person's ability to manage their own emotions as well as those of others and their relationships becomes key to health. These capabilities are called emotional and social intelligence. At the trait level, they are personal dispositions but at the behavioral level they are patterns of behavior we call emotional and social intelligence competencies (ESI). This paper is a review addressing the role of emotional and social intelligence competencies in resilience. By focusing on the behavioral level of ESI, designs for more precise research and practical applications as to how to develop ESI and resilience are offered.

Inspired and Effective: The Role of the Ideal Self in Employee Engagement, Well-Being, and Positive Organizational Behaviors.

This study explores the efficacy of a specific tool - the articulation of the ideal self - in job engagement, psychological well-being, and organizational citizenship behavior. We hypothesized that employees who can visualize their jobs as part of their ideal self - in particular how it helps in its development and realization - would feel higher levels of engagement and fulfillment in their lives, as well as engage in greater amounts of helping and voice OCB. A total of 239 full time employees from five companies in Costa Rica filled out the ideal self questionnaire, the job engagement, and psychological well-being surveys, and were evaluated by their peers on task behavior and helping and voice OCB. Results of the SEM model showed that the ideal self was positively related to job engagement, psychological well-being and helping and voice. These findings contribute to the research on the impact and importance for organizations to help employees find meaningfulness in their work.

Updating the Debate on Behavioral Competency Development: State of the Art and Future Challenges.

Emotional, social, and cognitive intelligence competencies have been recognized as the most critical capabilities for organizations to acquire at all levels. For this reason, a wide body of research since the 1980s has demonstrated their positive impact on individual performance, career success, and wellbeing across sectors and professional roles, and a large number of theoretical contributions on how these competencies can be effectively developed has emerged over time. We focus attention on the developmental and learning processes of emotional, social, and cognitive intelligence competencies that occur after formal training or educational courses provided by universities or certified organizations and directed to students or practitioners. Specifically, we conduct an exploratory literature review on the existing academic studies in order to identify the scholars and the pieces of research contributing most to the debate under investigation. This article aims at analyzing this body of research through a systematic review of the literature in order to: (i) provide a comprehensive critical analysis of the distinctive features of the theoretical and methodological frameworks adopted to develop these competencies; (ii) review the contexts in which the training initiatives analyzed by the literature have been delivered and the categories of learner involved; (iii) discuss the learning outcomes of these educational programs and how they have been assessed; (iv) identify gaps and inconsistencies in the current state of the literature, suggesting promising paths for future research; and (v) stimulate insights for educators, human resource managers, executives, and policymakers by organizing and critically analyzing the extant contributions on competency development. This review represents the first attempt to systematize the methodologies of the educational programs for competency development and to assess their effectiveness in order to assist educators and executives in their ongoing efforts to equip students and employees with the relevant skills needed to achieve superior performance in the workplace. At the institutional level, policymakers should promote a dedicated agenda with concrete actions to equip people with emotional and social intelligence competencies.

Relational Climate in the Workplace: Dimensions, Measurement, and Validation.

Relationships are the fundamental building blocks of organizations, yet the field lacks a validated and comprehensive measure of how employees perceive the quality of the relationships in their organization. In this paper, we develop and validate a scale to measure the perceived relational climate in an organization. We operationalize relational climate as a second-order latent construct reflected by three first-order constructs: shared vision, compassion, and relational energy. In Study 1, we develop an item pool consisting of 51 items and then use a Q-sort procedure to assess content validity. In Study 2, the item pool is further reduced using exploratory factor analysis. This is followed by a confirmatory factor analysis that finds initial support for the three-dimensional structure of relational climate. Study 3 provides further evidence of convergent and discriminant validity and assesses the criterion validity of the construct in relation to leader-member social exchange (LMSX), perceived organizational support, and procedural justice (all positive relationships). Finally, in Study 4, the factor structure of the quality-of-relationships scale is successfully replicated, and criterion validity is further assessed in relation to instrumental ethical climate (negative relationship) and affective organizational commitment (positive relationship). This paper contributes a new validated measure to the literature that will allow organizations to capture an important aspect of their work environment-the nature of the interpersonal relationships. Implications for theory, limitations, and future research are discussed.

The Power of EI Competencies Over Intelligence and Individual Performance: A Task-Dependent Model.

Prior research on emotional intelligence (EI) has highlighted the use of incremental models that assume EI and general intelligence (or g) make independent contributions to performance. Questioning this assumption, we study EI's moderation power over the relationship between g and individual performance, by designing and testing a task-dependent interaction model. Reconciling divergent findings in previous studies, we propose that whenever social tasks are at stake, g has a greater effect on performance as EI increases. By contrast, in analytic tasks, a compensatory (or negative) interaction is expected, whereby at higher levels of EI, g contributes to performance at a lesser extent. Based on a behavioral approach to EI, using 360-degree assessments of EI competencies, our findings show that EI moderates the effect of g on the classroom performance of 864 MBA business executives. Whilst in analytic tasks g has a stronger effect on performance at lower levels of EI competencies, our data comes short to show a positive interaction of EI and g in affecting performance on social tasks. Contributions and implications to research and practice are discussed.

The Behavioral Level of Emotional Intelligence and Its Measurement.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is now widely used in organizations and graduate schools with an increase in published research supporting it. Discussion about EI whether based on measures or theory has given little distinction as to behavioral EI (i.e., how does EI appear in a person's actions). This results in spurious conflicts about the validity of the different theories or measures which likely limit predicting managerial and leadership effectiveness, engagement, innovation and organizational citizenship. By adding a behavioral level, the concept of EI could relate to work and life outcomes beyond general mental ability and personality traits, avoid some of the criticisms while providing a more holistic theory of EI. As such, EI exists within personality as a performance trait or ability, and a self-schema self-image and trait, and a set of behaviors (i.e., competencies). The main contribution of this establishing the behavioral EI with a multi-level theory, while explaining how to assess it, the benefits of such a concept and its psychometric validity and challenges. The history and assortment of validation studies will illustrate that measures can rigorously and effectively assess the behavioral level of EI.

Multisource Assessment for Development Purposes: Revisiting the Methodology of Data Analysis.

Multisource assessment (MSA) is based on the belief that assessments are valid inferences about an individual's behavior. When used for performance management purposes, convergence of views among raters is important, and therefore testing factor invariance across raters is critical. However, when MSA is used for development purposes, raters usually come from a greater number of contexts, a fact that requires a different data analysis approach. We revisit the MSA data analysis methodology when MSA is used for development, with the aim of improving its effectiveness. First, we argue that having raters from different contexts is an integral element of the assessment, with the trait-context dyad being the actual latent variable. This leads to the specification of an Aggregate (instead of the usual Latent) multidimensional factor model. Second, since data analysis usually aggregates scores for each rater group into a single mean that is then compared with the self-rating score, we propose that the test for factor invariance must also include scalar invariance, a pre-requisite for mean comparison. To illustrate this methodology we conducted a 360° survey on a sample of over 1100 MBA students enrolled in a leadership development course. Finally, by means of the study we show how the survey can be customized to each rater group to make the MSA process more effective.

Using Leadership Competencies as a Framework for Career Readiness.

This chapter provides an overview of how a leadership competency approach grounded in emotional and social intelligence can help educators promote career readiness for students. Strategies and approaches for building leadership competencies will be reviewed.

Financial Planning for Retirement: A Psychosocial Perspective.

Retirement is a time of life that has grown ever longer in the developed world, and the number of pensioners has increased accordingly, questioning the strength of Social Security systems and the social safety net in general. Financial Planning for Retirement (FRP) consists of the series of activities involved in the accumulation of wealth to cover needs in the post-retirement stage of life. The negative short-, mid-, and long-term consequences of inadequate Financial Planning for Retirement do not only affect individuals, but also their extended families, homes, eventually producing an unwanted impact on the entire society. The Capacity-Willingness-Opportunity Model has been proposed to understand FPR, combined with Intentional Change Theory, a framework for understanding the process, antecedents and consequences of FPR. From this perspective, we propose this promising model, but there are a large number of variables that have not been included that offer novel ways to deepen our understanding of FPR. A focus on each dimension of the model, the role of age and psychosocial variables associated with demographic indicators such as gender, health status, and migration, allow us to provide a proposal of scientific advancement of FPR.

An Alternative Approach to Analyze Ipsative Data. Revisiting Experiential Learning Theory.

The ritualistic use of statistical models regardless of the type of data actually available is a common practice across disciplines which we dare to call type zero error. Statistical models involve a series of assumptions whose existence is often neglected altogether, this is specially the case with ipsative data. This paper illustrates the consequences of this ritualistic practice within Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) operationalized through its Learning Style Inventory (KLSI). We show how using a well-known methodology in other disciplines-compositional data analysis (CODA) and log ratio transformations-KLSI data can be properly analyzed. In addition, the method has theoretical implications: a third dimension of the KLSI is unveiled providing room for future research. This third dimension describes an individual's relative preference for learning by prehension rather than by transformation. Using a sample of international MBA students, we relate this dimension with another self-assessment instrument, the Philosophical Orientation Questionnaire (POQ), and with an observer-assessed instrument, the Emotional and Social Competency Inventory (ESCI-U). Both show plausible statistical relationships. An intellectual operating philosophy (IOP) is linked to a preference for prehension, whereas a pragmatic operating philosophy (POP) is linked to transformation. Self-management and social awareness competencies are linked to a learning preference for transforming knowledge, whereas relationship management and cognitive competencies are more related to approaching learning by prehension.

Emotional contagion and proto-organizing in human interaction dynamics.

This paper combines the complexity notions of phase transitions and tipping points with recent advances in cognitive neuroscience to propose a general theory of human proto-organizing. It takes as a premise that a necessary prerequisite for organizing, or "proto-organizing," occurs through emotional contagion in subpopulations of human interaction dynamics in complex ecosystems. Emotional contagion is posited to engender emotional understanding and identification with others, a social process that acts as a mechanism that enables (or precludes) cooperative responses to opportunities and risks. Propositions are offered and further research is suggested.

The role of the positive emotional attractor in vision and shared vision: toward effective leadership, relationships, and engagement.

Personal and shared vision have a long history in management and organizational practices yet only recently have we begun to build a systematic body of empirical knowledge about the role of personal and shared vision in organizations. As the introductory paper for this special topic in Frontiers in Psychology, we present a theoretical argument as to the existence and critical role of two states in which a person, dyad, team, or organization may find themselves when engaging in the creation of a personal or shared vision: the positive emotional attractor (PEA) and the negative emotional attractor (NEA). These two primary states are strange attractors, each characterized by three dimensions: (1) positive versus negative emotional arousal; (2) endocrine arousal of the parasympathetic nervous system versus sympathetic nervous system; and (3) neurological activation of the default mode network versus the task positive network. We argue that arousing the PEA is critical when creating or affirming a personal vision (i.e., sense of one's purpose and ideal self). We begin our paper by reviewing the underpinnings of our PEA-NEA theory, briefly review each of the papers in this special issue, and conclude by discussing the practical implications of the theory.

EI competencies as a related but different characteristic than intelligence.

Amid the swarm of debate about emotional intelligence (EI) among academics are claims that cognitive intelligence, or general mental ability (g), is a stronger predictor of life and work outcomes as well as the counter claims that EI is their strongest predictor. Nested within the tempest in a teapot are scientific questions as to what the relationship is between g and EI. Using a behavioral approach to EI, we examined the relationship of a parametric measure of g as the person's GMAT scores and collected observations from others who live and work with the person as to the frequency of his or her EI behavior, as well as the person's self-assessment. The results show that EI, as seen by others, is slightly related to g, especially for males with assessment from professional relations. Further, we found that cognitive competencies are more strongly related to GMAT than EI competencies. For observations from personal relationships or self-assessment, there is no relationship between EI and GMAT. Observations from professional relations reveal a positive relationship between cognitive competencies and GMAT and EI and GMAT for males, but a negative relationship between EI and GMAT for females.

Antecedents of organizational engagement: exploring vision, mood and perceived organizational support with emotional intelligence as a moderator.

As organizational leaders worry about the appalling low percentage of people who feel engaged in their work, academics are trying to understand what causes an increase in engagement. We collected survey data from 231 team members from two organizations. We examined the impact of team members' emotional intelligence (EI) and their perception of shared personal vision, shared positive mood, and perceived organizational support (POS) on the members' degree of organizational engagement. We found shared vision, shared mood, and POS have a direct, positive association with engagement. In addition, shared vision and POS interact with EI to positively influence engagement. Besides highlighting the importance of shared personal vision, positive mood, and POS, our study contributes to the emergent understanding of EI by revealing EI's amplifying effect on shared vision and POS in relation to engagement. We conclude by discussing the research and practical implications of this study.

Antagonistic neural networks underlying differentiated leadership roles.

The emergence of two distinct leadership roles, the task leader and the socio-emotional leader, has been documented in the leadership literature since the 1950s. Recent research in neuroscience suggests that the division between task-oriented and socio-emotional-oriented roles derives from a fundamental feature of our neurobiology: an antagonistic relationship between two large-scale cortical networks - the task-positive network (TPN) and the default mode network (DMN). Neural activity in TPN tends to inhibit activity in the DMN, and vice versa. The TPN is important for problem solving, focusing of attention, making decisions, and control of action. The DMN plays a central role in emotional self-awareness, social cognition, and ethical decision making. It is also strongly linked to creativity and openness to new ideas. Because activation of the TPN tends to suppress activity in the DMN, an over-emphasis on task-oriented leadership may prove deleterious to social and emotional aspects of leadership. Similarly, an overemphasis on the DMN would result in difficulty focusing attention, making decisions, and solving known problems. In this paper, we will review major streams of theory and research on leadership roles in the context of recent findings from neuroscience and psychology. We conclude by suggesting that emerging research challenges the assumption that role differentiation is both natural and necessary, in particular when openness to new ideas, people, emotions, and ethical concerns are important to success.

Long term impact of emotional, social and cognitive intelligence competencies and GMAT on career and life satisfaction and career success.

Career scholars have called for a broader definition of career success by inviting greater exploration of its antecedents. While success in various jobs has been predicted by intelligence and in other studies by competencies, especially in management, long term impact of having intelligence and using competencies has not been examined. Even in collegiate outcome studies, few have examined the longer term impact on graduates' careers or lives. This study assesses the impact of demonstrated emotional, social, and cognitive intelligence competencies assessed at graduation and g measured through GMAT at entry from an MBA program on career and life satisfaction, and career success assessed 5 to 19 years after graduation. Using behavioral measures of competencies (i.e., as assessed by others), we found that emotional intelligence competencies predict career satisfaction and success. Adaptability had a positive impact, but influence had the opposite effect on these career measures and life satisfaction. Life satisfaction was negatively affected by achievement orientation and positively affected by teamwork. Current salary, length of marriage, and being younger at time of graduation positively affect all three measures of life and career satisfaction and career success. GMAT (as a measure of g) predicted life satisfaction and career success to a slight but significant degree in the final model analyzed. Meanwhile, being female and number of children positively affected life satisfaction but cognitive intelligence competencies negatively affected it, and in particular demonstrated systems thinking was negative.

Visioning in the brain: an fMRI study of inspirational coaching and mentoring.

Effective coaching and mentoring is crucial to the success of individuals and organizations, yet relatively little is known about its neural underpinnings. Coaching and mentoring to the Positive Emotional Attractor (PEA) emphasizes compassion for the individual's hopes and dreams and has been shown to enhance a behavioral change. In contrast, coaching to the Negative Emotional Attractor (NEA), by focusing on externally defined criteria for success and the individual's weaknesses in relation to them, does not show sustained change. We used fMRI to measure BOLD responses associated with these two coaching styles. We hypothesized that PEA coaching would be associated with increased global visual processing and with engagement of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), while the NEA coaching would involve greater engagement of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). Regions showing more activity in PEA conditions included the lateral occipital cortex, superior temporal cortex, medial parietal, subgenual cingulate, nucleus accumbens, and left lateral prefrontal cortex. We relate these activations to visioning, PNS activity, and positive affect. Regions showing more activity in NEA conditions included medial prefrontal regions and right lateral prefrontal cortex. We relate these activations to SNS activity, self-trait attribution and negative affect.

What is the relationship between emotional intelligence and dental student clinical performance?

Emotional intelligence has emerged as a key factor in differentiating average from outstanding performers in managerial and leadership positions across multiple business settings, but relatively few studies have examined the role of emotional intelligence in the health care professions. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and dental student clinical performance. All third- and fourth-year students at a single U.S. dental school were invited to participate. Participation rate was 74 percent (100/136). Dental students' EI was assessed using the Emotional Competence Inventory-University version (ECI-U), a seventy-two-item, 360-degree questionnaire completed by both self and other raters. The ECI-U measured twenty-two EI competencies grouped into four clusters (Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, and Relationship Management). Clinical performance was assessed using the mean grade assigned by clinical preceptors. This grade represents an overall assessment of a student's clinical performance including diagnostic and treatment planning skills, time utilization, preparation and organization, fundamental knowledge, technical skills, self-evaluation, professionalism, and patient management. Additional variables were didactic grade point average (GPA) in Years 1 and 2, preclinical GPA in Years 1 and 2, Dental Admission Test academic average and Perceptual Ability Test scores, year of study, age, and gender. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted. The Self-Management cluster of competencies (b=0.448, p<0.05) and preclinical GPA (b=0.317, p<0.01) were significantly correlated with mean clinical grade. The Self-Management competencies were emotional self-control, achievement orientation, initiative, trustworthiness, conscientiousness, adaptability, and optimism. In this sample, dental students' EI competencies related to Self-Management were significant predictors of mean clinical grade assigned by preceptors. Emotional intelligence may be an important predictor of clinical performance, which has important implications for students' development during dental school.

Using tipping points of emotional intelligence and cognitive competencies to predict financial performance of leaders / Análisis de los puntos críticos de inteligencia emocional y competencias cognitivas para predecir el rendimiento financiero de líderes

Competencies have been shown to differentiate outstanding managers and leaders from their less effective counterparts. Some of the competencies related to effectiveness reflect cognitive intelligence, but many of them are behavioral manifestations of emotional intelligence. Meanwhile, the performance measures used have often been an approximation of effectiveness. A study of leaders in a multi-national, consulting company shows that the frequency with which they demonstrate a variety of competencies, as seen by others, predicts financial performance in the seven quarters following the competency assessment. This, like other studies only clarify which competencies are necessary for outstanding performance. Borrowing from complexity theory, a tipping point analysis allows examination of how much of the competency is sufficient for outstanding performance. Using the tipping point analysis shows an even greater impact of competencies on the financial performance measures of the leaders in the study. The emotional intelligence competencies constituted most (i.e., 13/14) of the validated competencies predicting financial performance

Las competencias han demostrado capacidad para diferenciar entre los dirigentes y líderes excepcionales y sus iguales menos efectivos. Algunas de las competencias relacionadas con la efectividad reflejan inteligencia cognitiva, pero muchas otras son manifestaciones comportamentales de inteligencia emocional. A su vez, las medidas de ejecución utilizadas constituyen frecuentemente una aproximación a la efectividad. El estudio de líderes en una compañía consultora multinacional indica que la frecuencia con la que los líderes muestran una variedad de competencias, tal como son percibidas por los compañeros, predice su rendimiento financiero en los siete trimestres siguientes a dicha evaluación. Esto, como en otros estudios, sólo clarifica qué competencias son necesarias para el rendimiento excepcional. Desde una teoría más compleja, el análisis de puntos críticos permite examinar cuánto de una competencia es suficiente para el rendimiento excepcional. En el estudio, utilizando el análisis de puntos críticos, se observa un impacto incluso mayor de las competencias sobre las medidas de rendimiento financiero de los líderes. Las competencias de inteligencia emocional constituyeron la mayoría (esto es, 13 de 14) de las competencias validadas para predecir el rendimiento financiero