Developing Emotional Intelligence Skills for the Workplace

Report - "Why building an emotionally intelligent workforce should be a business priority in the post-COVID work climate and how employers can train and develop their existing staff to make them emotionally intelligent workforce?"

ASSESSMENT TASK 1

Produce a academic report by applying academic models, methods, and theories to appraise the importance of emotional intelligence and mindfulness in the workplace and its usefulness in achieving competitive advantage.

Task Description/Scenario:

Emotional Intelligence is a combination of emotional and social skills that influence a person's overall capability to cope effectively with the demands and pressures of work and life. Employees with high EQ have the ability to perceive, express, understand, and regulate their emotions to build better, more healthy respectful relationships that will then help achieve business goals. Workforces with these abilities are better placed for success for a number of reasons: greater resilience and mental wellbeing, stronger team communication and cohesion, higher self-regard and assertiveness, greater employee loyalty, lower employee turnover, and better problem-solving abilities.

In the post-COVID work climate, soft skills such as emotional intelligence will be more in-demand than ever before. Workforces with high EQ are more agile and much better placed for business survival.

‘Emotional intelligence' is labelled by LinkedIn as one of the top five most in-demand soft skills for employers. With the rise of Artificial Intelligence and smart technology, businesses are recognising they need their staff to excel at ‘soft skills', or essential skills, for jobs of the future. Fast forward to the second half of the year and a lot of things have changed for workplaces due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the demand for essential skills has only been reinforced. Workplaces went from office-bound jobs to remote working almost instantaneously. With this global shift in the way work is done, essential skills such as high emotional intelligence (EQ), which include concepts like flexibility, adaptability, creativity and resilience, are now more important than ever as teams navigate uncharted waters.

If business seems to be unable to consistently develop strong, positive client/customer relationships there could be an emotional connection (EQ) problem. Teams have to be able to relate to customers and show empathy in resolving their issues. If there is unwillingness to understand a client's goals and needs this can result in unhappy clients and lost business opportunities

In light to the given scenario above, identify an organisation that you either currently work for or have worked for in the past. If you have never worked for an organisation, then you will need to choose an extracurricular organisation you are involved in, or an alternative organisation that you know a lot about, in terms of what

happens within the internal organisation environment (e.g. an organisation your parent/partner works for). If you are having problems choosing an organisation, please discuss this with your module lecturer.

Having chosen your organisation and reviewed the brief scenario above, you then need to answer the following question:

"Why building an emotionally intelligent workforce should be a business priority in the post-COVID work climate and how employers can train and develop their existing staff to make them emotionally intelligent workforce?"

Report Details:

Produce a report by including each of the following sections:

Briefly Introduce the organisation you have chosen to write about

Briefly introduce the key models of emotional intelligence that you will underpin in your report

Answer the question by applying the key models of emotional intelligence to your chosen organisation, i.e. Explain the importance of developing emotional intelligence in the workplace and the relationship between emotional intelligence, effective management communication and business advantage.

Critically evaluate ‘models of emotional intelligence' you have applied to your chosen organisation and explain the extent to which you think they are appropriate in meeting the development needs of the individual.

Provide recommendations (based on your answer and critique) with a plan for the systems and processes that may enable better collaboration and connectedness between people and implement company values to high EQ behaviours among existing staff during and post COVID-19 pandemic.

ASSESSMENT TASK 2

Produce a one-page poster by focussing on the 3 issues of Emotional Intelligence (EI) as described on the table below. First consider the dimensions of emotional issues you would like to consider and then present your thoughts how you have benefited or will benefit from EI.

The starting point is therefore: 1st) reflect on your own EI;
2nd) asses how to use or reason out about your own emotion(s) and; 3rd) explore how to improve and capitalise on your EI.

Ensure that the report and your poster:

Explores concepts of emotional intelligence and its relevance to the workplace.

Demonstrates understanding and application of the models of emotional intelligence and evaluates theorists.

Critically appraises the importance of emotional intelligence and mindfulness in the workplace

Is within the requested word limit of 3,000 +/- 10% words and a single page poster

Uses a suitable report and poster structure

Is well presented and professional

Uses good grammar, spelling, and punctuation

Engagement with Literature Skills
Your work must be informed and supported by scholarly material that is relevant to and focused on the task(s) set; you should make use of scholarly reviews and primary sources, where appropriate (for example, refereed research articles and/or original materials appropriate to the discipline). You should provide evidence that you have accessed a wide range of sources, which may be academic, governmental and industrial; these sources may include academic journal articles, textbooks, current news articles, organisational documents, and websites. You should consider the credibility of your sources; academic journals are normally highly credible sources while websites require careful consideration/selection and should be used sparingly. Any sources you use should be current and up-to-date, mostly published within the last five years or so, though

seminal/important works in the field may be older. You must provide evidence of your research/own reading throughout your work, using a suitable referencing system, including in-text citations in the main body of your work and a reference list at the end of your work.

Guidance specific to this assessment: you are expected to have a minimum of two in-text citations (mainly from academic journal articles, textbooks and other peer-reviewed sources) for every 500 words written. Include a complete reference list that consistently applies Harvard referencing style.

Knowledge and Understanding Skills
At level 6, you should be able to demonstrate coherent and detailed knowledge and a systematic understanding of the subject area, at least some of which is informed by the latest research and/or advanced scholarship within the discipline. You should be aware of the uncertainty, ambiguity and limits of knowledge. Your work must demonstrate the growing extent of your knowledge and systematic understanding of concepts and underlying principles associated with the subject area. Knowledge relates to the facts, information and skills you have acquired through your learning. You demonstrate your understanding by interpreting the meaning of the facts and information (knowledge). This means that you need to select and include in your work the concepts, techniques, models, theories, etc. appropriate to the task(s) set. You should be able to explain the theories, concepts, etc. meaningfully to show your understanding. Your mark/grade will also depend upon the extent to which you demonstrate your knowledge and understanding; ideally each should be complete and detailed, with comprehensive coverage.

Guidance specific to this assessment: all submissions must clearly demonstrate knowledge and understanding of Emotional Intelligence and directly address the task requirements.

Cognitive and Intellectual Skills
You should be able to: critically evaluate evidence, arguments, assumptions, abstract concepts and data some of which are at the forefront of a discipline (and that may be incomplete) to devise and sustain arguments, to make judgements and/or solve problems; describe and comment upon particular aspects of current research, or equivalent advanced scholarship, in the discipline Your work must contain evidence of logical, analytical thinking, evaluation and synthesis. For example, to examine and break information down into parts, make inferences, compile, compare and contrast information. This means not just describing what! But also justifying: Why? How? When? Who? Where? At what cost? At all times, you must provide justification for your arguments and judgements. Evidence that you have reflected upon the ideas of others within the subject area is crucial to you providing a reasoned and informed debate within your work. Furthermore, you should provide evidence that you are able to make sound judgements and convincing arguments using data and concepts. Sound, valid conclusions are necessary and must be derived from the content of your work. Where relevant, alternative solutions and recommendations may be proposed.

Guidance specific to this assessment: your response(s) must provide critical justification for any perspective followed. In some instances, this could include but not be limited to comparing, contrasting and synthesizing information.
Practical Skills
At level 6, you should be able to apply the methods and techniques that you have learned to review, consolidate, extend and apply your knowledge and understanding, and to initiate and carry out projects. You will deploy accurately established techniques of analysis and enquiry relevant to the discipline, and apply them in complex and unpredictable contexts, to devise and sustain arguments and/or to solve problems. You should be able to frame appropriate questions to achieve a solution - or identify a range of solutions. You should be able to demonstrate how the subject-related concepts and ideas relate to real world situations and/or a particular context. How do they work in practice? You will deploy models, methods, techniques, and/or theories, in that context or circumstances, to assess current situations, perhaps to formulate plans or solutions to solve problems, or to create artefacts, some of which may be innovative and creative. This is likely to involve, for instance, the use of real world artefacts, examples and cases, the application of a model within an organisation and/or benchmarking one theory or organisation against others based on stated criteria. You should show awareness of the limitations of concepts and theories when applied in particular contexts.

Guidance specific to this assessment: you need to apply relevant theoretical tools or models associated with Emotional Intelligence when discussing options or proffering solutions.
Use examples where appropriate to support your points/arguments.

Transferable Skills for Life and Professional Practice
Your work must provide evidence of the qualities and transferable skills necessary for graduate-level employment requiring the exercise of initiative and personal responsibility and decision-making in complex and unpredictable circumstances. This includes demonstrating: the learning ability for professional development to advance existing skills and acquire new competences of a professional nature that will enable you to assume significant responsibility within organisations; that you can initiate and complete tasks and procedures, whether individually and/or collaboratively; that you can use appropriate media to effectively communicate information, arguments and analysis in a variety of forms to specialist and non-specialist audiences; fluency of expression; clarity and effectiveness in presentation and organisation. Work should be coherent and well-structured in presentation and organisation.

Guidance specific to this assessment: follow the generic submission guidelines. Students will be given extra marks in this section who demonstrates individual or collaborative engagement in the class through effective communication and contribution to the class

This section details the extent to which the assessment criteria are demonstrated by you, which in turn determines your mark. The marks available for each category of skill are shown. Lecturers will use the space provided to comment on the achievement of the task(s), including those areas in which you have performed well and areas that would benefit from development/improvement.