Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Manager Performance

Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Manager Performance The impact of emotional intelligence on managers’ performance: Evidence from hospitals located in Tehran ABSTRACT Context: Most of the studies show that emotional intelligence (EI) is an important factor for effective leadership and team performance in organizations. Aims: This research paper aims to provide an exploratory analysis of EI in the hospitals managers located in Tehran, and examine its relation to their performance. Settings and Design: The present research was an analytical and cross-sectional study. Setting of the study was hospitals located in Tehran, Iran. Subjects and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study from a matched sample of 120 managers and 360 subordinates in hospitals located in Tehran. Cyberia shrink EI measure was used for assessing the EI of the participants. Moreover, a management performance Questionnaire is specifically developed for the present study. The total of 480 questionnaires analyzed throughout Kolmogorov–Smirnov, Mann–Whitney, and Kruskal–Wallis tests in SPSS. Results: The findings suggested a poor EI among hospital managers. As for EI subscales, social skills and self-motivation were in the highest and lowest levels respectively. Moreover, the results indicated that EI increases with experience. The results also showed there is no significant relationship between the components of EI and the performance of hospital managers. Conclusions: Present research indicated that higher levels of EI did not necessarily lead to better performance in hospital managers. Key words: Emotional intelligence, hospital managers, performance INTRODUCTION Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to identify, appraise, and handle one’s emotions.[1] Goleman and Sutherland[2] define EI as the ability to motivate oneself and persist in the face of frustration; to control impulses and delay gratification; to regulate one’s moods and keep distress from swapping the ability to think; to emphasize and to hope. As such Bar On,[3] defines EI as being concerned with understanding oneself and others, in relation with people and coping with the immediate surroundings in order to be more successful in dealing with environmental demands. Weisinger[4] sees EI as the intelligent use of feelings or making one’s emotions work to one’s advantage by using them to help guide behavior and thinking in beneficial ways. In this study, EI were defined as set of skills that contribute to the accurate appraisal and expression of emotion in oneself and in others, the impressive regulation of emotion, and the utilization of feelings to plan, persuade, and achieve in life.[5] Many studies have been conducted about EI that addressed both its concept and its measurement.[6] Some researchers believe in an ability model of EI,[5] while others claim that EI consists of both cognitive ability and personality aspects.[2,3] The ability model perceives EI as a form of pure intelligence, that is, EI is a cognitive ability. Salovey and Mayer’s model of EI is measured using the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso EI test, a performance measure which requires the participant to complete tasks associated with EI.[7] In contrast, the mix models of EI either emphasize how cognitive and personality factors influence general well-being[3] or focus on how cognitive and personality factors determine workplace success.[2] Bar On’s model is measured by using the emotion quotient inventory and Goleman’s model is measured by using the emotional competency inventory, the EI appraisal,[8] and the Work Profile Questionnaire.[9] Put it in perspective, research has shown that EI is an important factor in the workplace.[10-14] Researchers argue that EI is a critically important competency for effective leadership and team performance in organizations.[14-16] Some theorists claim that EI of managers can affect work output,[10,11] although evidence for this is not sufficient more.[17,18] EI has been reported to be positively associated with job satisfaction.[14] EI employees will be more capable of controlling their perception of the environment in which they work.[14] Leaders who are high on EI will be better able to take advantage of and use their positive moods and emotions to envision major improvements in their organizations’ functioning. They are also likely to have knowledge about the fact that their positive moods may cause them to be overly optimistic. Moreover, job performance is the aggregated value to the organization of the behavioral episodes performed by individuals over time that have posi tive or negative consequences for the organization.[19] Managers high on EI can foster their employees’ creativity through interaction with them and via the creation of a work climate supportive of creativity.[20,21] In addition, managers high on EI can create positive interactions between employees that leads to better cooperation,[22] coordination[23] and organizational behavior.[8,14] Furthermore managers high on EI help their employees in creating a good working climate and also reliable relationship with the customers.[24] Given the discussion above, EI plays a significant role in the manager-employee relationship and their performance. Though, the effects of EI on managers’ performance have not been assessed more in healthcare context. Considering the differences of the hospital environment in compare with other organizations, this study provides good evidence, with assessing the effect of EI on managers’ performance in hospitals environment for decision makers in health sector. SUBJECTS AND METHODS The present research was an analytical and cross-sectional study which were done in hospitals affiliated to three medical universities in Tehran (Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences and Shahid Behshti University of Medical Sciences). For selecting the samples in this study, only managers who had a minimum of three subordinates were included. Finally 120 top, middle, and lower level managers of the hospitals were selected. Moreover, 360 individuals participated in this study to appraise performance of the managers; in that each three individuals evaluated the performance of their direct manager. Overall, 480 questionnaires were completed by the participants and data were analyzed by Kolmogorov–Smirnov, Mann–Whitney, and Kruskal–Wallis tests in Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA), version 16. This study was approved by Iran University of Medical Sciences Ethics Committee. Participants in this study were informed that participating in this study is voluntary; which means if they don’t like to answer some questions they are free not to answer them and their biography will be treated as confidential and will not be disclosed. Furthermore participants provided informed consent for publication of this work. In this study, we followed Goleman’s model and examines five aspects of EI: self-awareness (the ability to recognize and understand personal moods and emotions, and their influence on postpone judgment and to think before acting), self-motivation (a passion to work for internal reasons that go beyond money and status), social awareness (the ability to understand the emotional makeup of other people), and social skills (the ability to manage relationships and build networks, and to find common ground and build rapport).[2] For this, Cyberia shrink EI questionnaire was used for assessing the EI of the participants. This questionnaire measures five subscales, namely self-awareness (seven items), self-regulation (four items), self-motivation (four items), empathy or social awareness (five items), and social skills (five items). [2] Moreover a management performance (MP) Questionnaire was specifically developed for the present study, which measures four major subscales: planning (8 items), organization (12 items), leadership (18 items), and control (12 items). Reliability and validity tests were conducted on Farsi version of the EI questionnaire and MP questionnaire with multivariate measure. To assess the acceptance of the questionnaires, 10 people involved at least 10 years in the field of academic managerial practice were invited to participate I order to revising parts of the questionnaires. At the end, all participants expressed high agreement to the appropriateness of the questionnaires. The questionnaires finalized after modifying some questions accordingly. Furthermore Cronbach’s alpha measured for the tools. The results showed that Cronbach’s alpha of Farsi version of EI questionnaire for all dimensions was as 0.89, and for MP questionnaire was as 0.88, which indicates strong reliability for our survey instruments. RESULTS Data showed 92 (76.6%) of samples were male and 28 (23.4%) were female. Participants’ age ranged from 23 to 57 (the majority of the managers belonged to the 40–50 years group) and the average age was 43.45 (standard deviation [SD] = 7.51). 45% of the managers had been >10 years of experience (mean = 14.24, SD = 7.14). The results show performance of male managers in public hospitals (mean 36 Â ± 13) was better that those in private hospitals (mean 35 Â ± 23). On the other hand, the performance of female managers in private hospitals (mean 38 Â ± 16) was significantly better that those in public hospitals (mean 36 Â ± 17). Emotional intelligence subscales scores of managers show that social skills have the highest rank and self-motivation has the lowest rank. In general, the EI score of hospital managers in this study was 56% [Table 1]. Moreover, there is no significant difference between the EI of men and women. Based on the result of this research, hospital managers in higher levels have a higher level of EI. Tough in some subscales of EI such as social awareness and social skills, middle managers have the highest score [Table 2]. The results of this study also showed, there is no significant relationship between education and the level of EI. However, this relationship is significant in social awareness. Moreover, the EI of the managers increased with experience, but this did not apply to all subscales of EI; as such in social awareness. Based on the results, a correlation was observed between the EI of hospital managers and their performance, although this correlation was not significant in any subscale of EI [Table 3]. DISCUSSION This study tried to assess the level EI of managers in hospitals located in Tehran and examine the relationship between the EI of hospital managers and the level of their performances. The result of this research shows there is a relation between EI of managers and their performances. However this relationship is not statistically significant. Most researches has shown that EI is positively associated with interview outcomes,[25] management analytical,[26] issues,[27] team working,[28] conceptual tasks[27] and (behavioral, job and employees) performance.[29-31] Studies have also depicted that emotional perception facilitates performance. Day and Carroll[17] showed that emotional perception was correlated with performance on a cognitive decision-making task. Newcombe and Ashkanasy[32] also showed evocation of positive expressed emotion through facial display has a significant and strong impact on follower and affect, the quality of the perceived leader-member relationship, which in turn with the result of present study. Langhorn[33] determined key areas of profit performance were correlated with the EI pattern of the general manager. Lyons and Schneider[34] examined the relationship of ability-based EI facets with performance under stress. They found that certain dimensions of EI were related to more challenge and enhanced performance. Hayashi and Ewert[35] reported a positive relationship between EI and successful leadership. Furthermore, Eicher[36] describe EI as a suitable basis in developing the staff’s executive programs. Offermann et al.[37] determined although both cognitive ability and emotional competence (intelligence) predict performance, cognitive ability accounts for more variance on individual tasks, whereas emotional competence accounts for more variance in team performance and attitudes. As such our study shows, performance of managers is multi-dimensional variable which can be affected by other factors like organizational factors, level of employees’ motivation than EI. Moreover the results of this study shows, there are no significant differences between EI of men and women. Although in those subscales associated with the social behavior (social awareness and social skills) women had higher scores than men. Generally, women are more aware of emotions, show more empathy, and have higher interpersonal communication skills.[3] As were discussed, in many of the previous studies, EI has been reported to be positively associated with performance. However, the results of the present research indicated that there is no significant relationship between the components of EI the performance of hospital managers. In other words, higher levels of EI did not lead to better performance in the hospital managers. CONCLUSIONS The current study shows managers in hospitals located in Tehran, had weak performance from their subordinates’ perspectives, and EI scores of managers were not in good condition. Moreover this research shows, unlike other related studies, there is no significant relationship between performance and EI of hospital managers. The effects of factors on the hospital managers’ performances should be assessed in more holistic point of view than considering EI as a determined factor on it.

Unjust Bomb :: essays research papers fc

Death is a reality. Men should be conscious of that reality. I say men, because the willingness to die for a cause is most likely inherent to our sex. We (the man) were hunters running after wily beasts, and nature most likely gave us the cruel gift to be contentedly conscious of our fate ( the jaws of the prehistoric predator before us!) If the soldier can imagine his enemy to be the beast, then perhaps he can die with this intrinsic honor. Throw total war away, leave the unprepared civilian be. The death of a civilian, bombarded by the atomic bomb is beyond all wrongs. The atom bomb is a manipulated force, the product of the human mind, misdirected to defile humanity and nature simultaneously. It gives the victims no time to prepare their life for their sudden exit, or worse, for a life tortured by atomic mutilation and shame. May a human be granted a death of peace, or at least, one of honor? The soldier has been forced to accept his role. He is fighting for his nation, against another nation, which is his enemy and he, perhaps, can perceive as evil. Perhaps he has considered his death. This will give him honor in that death, an otherwise empty destination. Let they who do not wish to be heroes or enemies, be. It is indeed morally wrong to end a war by killing civilians, regardless of whether their lives will save the lives of soldiers. To save our American soldiers these bombs were hurriedly created by physicists under the guidance of Oppenheimer. Later he would refer to it as the "scientist’s sin". Perhaps all of human civilization is an atom bomb. We harness nature, in order to destroy both it and ourselves. Yet nothing in our civilization is as overt as the atomic bomb. Who are these moralists? These moralists who bear objective truth? There is no truth? The atom bomb is natural? It is in our nature to destroy ourselves? So it is inevitable that we would forge the bomb, that our destructive nature would reach for the golden apple. But what is it? It’s a vile apple with worms and rot and dripping poison. We annihilated two cities filled with human civilians,( not living in a democracy, but

Environmental Impact Upon Health Essay

We humans have captured the environment to make our lives beautiful but through our activities and materialistic pursuits, we have made environment the biggest enemy of our health. We have ourself created an environment which has given us all leisures of life but on the other hand we have dug the walls of unhealthy livings also in it. In 1997, Department of Health Canada passed a report which stated: â€Å"The built environment is part of the overall ecosystem of our earth. It encompasses all of the buildings, spaces and products that are created, or at least significantly modified, by people. It includes our homes, schools and workplaces, parks, business areas and roads. It extends overhead in the form of electric transmission lines, underground in the form of waste disposal sites and subway trains and across the country in the form of highways. † (Hancock, 2000) In the contemporary society of today, built environment is the most crucial aspect of our lives. All over the world, more than 85 per cent of people are living in urban dewllings and 80 per cent of Europe and North America have urban population. These urban settlements are creating an adverse impact on the natural environment. They are using maximum amount of the world’s resources and in return are producing maximum waste from them. Even leRiche and Milner (1971) explained in â€Å"Epidemiology as Medical Ecology,† â€Å"One of the most striking changes in the ecology of man has been the growth of cities. † (Hancock, 2000) The WHO Expert Committee on Environmental Health in Urban Development (WHO, 1991) pointed that: In some respects, urbanization can itself be considered to be a key variable in the health equation: when the pollution produced by a densely packed population outstrips the natural absorptive capacity of the city’s ecosystem, adverse health effects can be increased where controls are lacking or unreliable. † (Hancock, 2000) Urban civilization cannot be termed as a natural ecosystem as it is completely built by humans encompassing almost whole globe in its vicinity and destroying the very concept of being â€Å"Natural†. It is a complex human ecosystem which constitutes both physical environment created by humans and the social, economic, cultural and political environments in which the humans survive. In North America itself, human beings spend around 90 percent of their time inside the four confines of their doors, another 5 per cent in their cars and remaining just 5 per cent outside. And outside too, they are spending maximum time in the vicinity of the built urban environment. It is a general trend of humans to consider the poor diet or just lack of exercise as an excuse for their bad health but they hardly consider the ill effect of the built environment with the housing characteristics, patterns in land use, transportation etc. It is evidently proved without doubt that when these different modes of our living standards are not created keeping the ecological balance into consideration, the ecosystem collapses (Jackson & Kochtitzky, Online Edition) which deteriorates our health causing stress, chronic diseases etc. The haphazard urban development leads to the climate and atmospheric changes, pollution and ecotoxicity, resource depletion and reduced habitat and bio- diversity. (Hancock and Davies, 1997) The subject that encompasses the link between these human endeavors and the public health is known as human ecology. This human ecology can provide integrative, holistic and radical perspective on health issues. (Hancock, 2000) Catalano in 1979 propounded that there is an utmost need that the health issues must take into consideration economic and social processes which shapes community, so as to prevent any spread of diseases. Hancock, 2000) The metapopulation theory gives an enduring account of urban ecosystems and the human aspect of the study of the urban systems can be done by the â€Å"human ecosystem model,† which deals with the social components which are the part of the human system and its connections to ecology. (Niemela, 1999) The Mandala of Health is a model, which establishes the relationship between the natural sciences and the social sciences and gives suggestion at every level of human activity corresponding to its environment. Hancock & Perkins, 1985) Another model, which has incorporated the most important characteristic of ecosystem, is a Butterfly Model of Health. In this model, health is related to societal, economical goals and patterns and biological resources for self-renewal. This model states that number of biophysical and socioeconomic holarchic environments represented by wings, which exert an influence on the health of any individual or whole population. There are number of biological and behavioral filters that engulf the human beings. The nature, people and these factors affect each other. People are considered as healthy when the two wings of the butterfly are in equitable balance within their own dimenisons. In other words, when the biological and other factors maintain equilibrium in nature, it will lead to the healthy individuals. (VanLeeuwen, Toews, Abernathy & Smit, 1999) Overall we can say that the health of the human beings is dependent on the health of the natural ecosystems and the planet. Therefore it is utmost necessary to keep the urban ecosystems healthy keeping in mind both its physical and social dimensions such as health of the population with regard to the mental well being, the social well being of the urban community with regard to their social and cultural aspects, the quality of different components that make the built environment, the quality of the environment in the vicinity of the urban sphere like clean air, clean water, soil, prevention of noise pollution and the urban ecosystem on the overall ecosystem of planet. Indicators of Population Health at the Community Level formulated a model known as the Healthy Community model. (Hancock, 2000) This model reflects on the environmental, social, economic, cultural and political factors that lead to the health of urban populations. There are three main parts, which make up the healthy community model. These are community, environment and economy, which in turn possess three qualities like livability, viability and sustainability. These qualities are related to our living styles and we humans have to make the best use of the available resources to maintain these qualities for our healthy lives. For e. g. Traffic causes respiratory problems because it causes air pollution and noise pollution. This healthy community model provides answer to the best way possible to control traffic. The theories and models show how we can maintain and improve human and ecosystem health, which will require changes in the way the urban settlements are planned, designed and worked upon. Canadian Public Health Association Taskforce on Human and Ecosystem Health in 1992 said in a report: â€Å"Human development and the achievement of human potential requires a form of economic activity that is environmentally and socially sustainable in this and future generations. † (Hancock, 2000) We cannot change the urban settlements but we can sort out ways by which we can reduce the pollution, and make our environment the most beautiful and healthy place to live in.

Gastornis (Diatryma) - Facts and Figures

Name: Gastornis (Greek for Gastons bird); pronounced gas-TORE-niss; also known as Diatryma Habitat: Woodlands of Western Europe, North America, and eastern Asia Historical Epoch: Late Paleocene-Middle Eocene (55-45 million years ago) Size and Weight: About six feet tall and a few hundred pounds Diet: Unknown; probably herbivorous Distinguishing Characteristics: Short, powerful legs and beak; squat trunk About Gastornis First things first: the flightless prehistoric bird we now know as Gastornis used to be called Diatryma (Greek for through a hole), the name by which it was recognized by generations of schoolchildren. After examining some fossil specimens unearthed in New Mexico, the famous American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope coined the name Diatryma in 1876, not knowing that a more obscure fossil hunter, Gaston Plante, had bestowed his own name on this genus a couple of decades earlier, in 1855, based on a set of bones discovered near Paris. With true scientific evenhandedness, the name of this bird gradually reverted back to Gastornis in the 1980s, generating almost as much confusion as the roughly contemporary switch from Brontosaurus to Apatosaurus. Naming conventions aside, at six feet tall and a few hundred pounds Gastornis was far from the biggest prehistoric bird that ever lived--that honor belongs to the half-ton Aepyornis, the Elephant Bird--but it may have been one of the most dangerous, with a tyrannosaur-like profile (powerful legs and head, puny arms) that demonstrates how evolution tends to fit the same body shapes into the same ecological niches. (Gastornis first popped up in the northern hemisphere about 10 million years after the dinosaurs went extinct, during the late Paleocene and early Eocene epochs). Even worse, if Gastornis was capable of pack hunting, one imagines that it could depopulate an ecosystem of small animals in no time flat! Theres a major problem with this pack-hunting scenario, however: lately, the weight of the evidence is that Gastornis was a herbivore rather than a carnivore. Whereas early illustrations of this bird depicted it munching on Hyracotherium (the tiny prehistoric horse previously known as Eohippus), a chemical analysis of its bones points to a plant-eating diet, and its massive skull has been reinterpreted as ideal for crunching tough vegetation rather than flesh. Tellingly, Gastornis also lacked the hooked beak characteristic of later meat-eating birds, such as Phorusrhacos, aka the Terror Bird, and its short, stubby legs would have been little use chasing prey through the rough underbrush of its environment. Aside from its numerous fossils, Gastornis is one of the few prehistoric birds to be associated with what appear to be its own eggs: shell fragments recovered from western Europe have been reconstructed as oblong, rather than round or ovoid, eggs measuring nearly 10 inches long and four inches in diameter. The putative footprints of Gastornis have also been discovered in France and in Washington state, and a pair of what are believed to be Gastornis feathers have been recovered from the Green River fossil formation in the western U.S. As prehistoric birds go, Gastornis clearly had an unusually widespread distribution, a clear indication (no matter the details of its diet) that it was well-adapted to its place and time.