Emotional Intelligence And Control

We can go through the whole gamut of emotions during any working day. Hearing news about additions to the family, promotion, sales figures, successes, failures, disappointments or death produces the different emotions of each day. These things happen to all of us. As we experience these emotions our behaviour is being regulated differently by each of us to achieve our goals and to stop us going on to other things before the goal has been achieved. This self-regulation can be distorted or even prevented by the preoccupation and hesitation that interfere with goal fulfilment.

A number of lists of emotions have been developed by people down the ages from the Stoics basic 4 to over 450 on My-Therapist Inc. The Stoics did in fact sub-divide their basic 4 of distress, fear, lust and delight into 32 others but still. Aristotle listed 14. They have also been classified as 8 basic and 8 advanced emotions by Plutchik. Lojban is a constructed artificial language based on predicate logic the interjections of which express degrees of emotion as simple, complex and pure emotions and propositional and complex propositional attitudes with 38 sub-divisions. Very detailed and complex lists they are and it takes someone with emotional intelligence to recognise and express them appropriately and to use them in thought and practice and to regulate them in themselves and others. There are also debates about the differences between the sexes and the emotions. It is occasionally suggested that men do not have emotions.

Emotions can also be interpreted at the level of spirituality. Emotions often turn a person’s mind to higher or religious things. On these special occasions, usually concerned with major family events, the expression of the emotional and spiritual feelings are taken to the religious level and celebrated outside the workplace in formal religious surroundings with a public dimension.

The power of emotions should not be underestimated. Emotional intelligence should be developed in workplace situations in the interests of people-oriented management.