Reading and Carrying Framework: Emotional Intelligence - Iloka Benneth Chiemelie

0.1 INTRODUCTION

Emotional intelligence (EI) is now a commonly used phrase by organizational leaders and managers nowadays. Besides the business field, EI is also maintains huge highlight in the academic field recent years (Dasborough & Ashkanasy, 2002; Murphy, 2006; Zeidner, Matthews, & Roberts, 2004). This is because, people's emotion has been found to play important roles in both organizational management and their personal life.

Naturally, the way we assimilate data gathered and process it as information to their very best understand determine their next action. The more beneficial the information, the more they are likely to undertake action that is related to the processed information. Such is also their mode of interaction with fellow humans, thus, the more quality information they see in people, the more likely they are to keep the person for a very long times.

Emotional intelligence deals with the way we take control of our emotional feelings in relation to actions of people around us. It is believe that the more emotionally strong someone is, the better he will be able to associate with more people and thus gather more useful information.

In this paper, the objective is to evaluate and reflect on the way I interact with people in the past using Kim James and Tanya Arroba (2005)' reading and carrying framework, and how these interaction will influence my future workplace role. Therefore, this paper will begin with a literature review on the above framework, and then proceeded with an evaluation and reflection, before concluding with how my past interactions with people will influence my workplace role.

1.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

The reading and carrying framework was a product of previous research focused on understanding skills in working in political environment of public sector organizations (Baddeley and James, 1987a, Baddeley and James 1987b, Arroba and James 1988, Arroba and James 1990, Baddeley and James 1991).

From the researches above, James and Arroba (2005) found that the key ability responsible for developing successful skills in private sector organizations was placing a focus on reading situations, and ability to manage what has been personally integrated into the situation. These two key elements has been found to be vital making effective choices on how to act in a context that contains numerous and difficult to understand viewpoints and approaches.

The reading dimension entails having the ability and willingness to turn attention outwards and read the context. Under this dimension, two poles were identified (James and Arroba, 2005). The end pole contains the ability to focus outwardly and understand the less obvious aspect of the settings, gather intelligence and act appropriately according to the situation. The other end contains a behavior that reflects an inability and/or unwillingness to focus outwardly, or to only read the situation through an unclear and limited lens (James and Arroba, 2005). Thus, good reading capacity comprises of the ability to appreciate the need to read a situation and possession of the required skills to do so.

The carrying dimension concerns about managing actions that are undertaken in a situation, which implies having the ability to blend into the internal world and be conscious of present thoughts and feelings. It focuses on understanding the fundamentals of what is being carried, and utilizing the information in making conscious decisions about actions to undertake (James and Arroba, 2005). The carrying dimension helps in building robust and integrated self-esteem that is carried into complex situations: it enables individuals to act calmly, paying attention to designated task rather than being pulled out of course by their emotional feelings  (James and Arroba, 2005). 

Daniel Goleman, a psychologist also discovered the works of Salovey and Mayer in the 1990s, and he was inspired by their finding, which eventually led him to write his own book Emotional Intelligence(1995). His models outlined four main elements of emotional intelligence. The first is self-awareness, which is viewed as the ability to read one's emotions and notice their impact while adopting common sense and gut feelings as the base for guiding decision. The second construct is self-management, and it involves being able to control one's emotion and impulse, and adapting to changing circumstances. The third element is social awareness, which is the ability to note, understand and react to the emotions of other people, in accordance with socially acceptable networks and norms. The last element is the relationship management, which describes the ability to inspire, influence, and develop others while managing conflict (Goleman, 1998).

Figure (1): Goleman's model of emotional intelligence

The figure (1) above, includes set of emotional competencies in each construct. Emotional intelligence are not inherent qualities, rather they are acquired capabilities that must be developed to achieve outstanding results. Goleman is of the view that individuals are born with a basic emotional intelligence that valuates their potentials for acquiring emotional intelligence. The organization of these competencies is not random in any form, rather they appear in synergistic forms of groups, supporting and facilitating each other (Boyatzis, et al., 1999).

2.0 CRITICAL REFLECTION AND EVALUATION OF THE WAY I INTERACT WITH OTHERS

Complex situations in life have influenced my ways of interaction and expression to and/or with other people around me. What I read and carry depend on the situation in hand. This is because; reading and carrying are dynamic skills. Since no context is ever the say, the way I interact with people is based on a dynamic process that reviews each context and find the right approach for contributing my own quota.

For instance, if I meet a new buddy, I will find the best way to read him and carry the information gathered as bases of translating who he is. Even when I already know people for a long time, situation can result in change of human behavior, so I must also ensure that I keep updated with situations around him in other to gain detail information rather than personal conclusion based on my own feelings about him.

According to James and Arroba (2005), these two dimensions are intricately linked and I have found that to be true. For example, if my initial assessment of a situation is found to be hostile to my suggestions, this can lead me to be defensive in expectation of attack. While this serves as a bases for maintain conversational equilibrium, and ensuring that I am not on the offending side, it can also lead to my opinion being ignored at times during an interaction which can easily yield an emotional connection to the situation rather than relevant analyses of the overall situation.

James and Arroba (2005) also put up four behavioral options, highlighting the behavior that results from what is read and what is carried. These options are illustrated below.

Figure (2): Behavioral options - James and Arroba (2005)

2.1 Inept behavior – is when someone with lack of reading skills meets another person with low self-insight, forcing them to choose ego defensive behavior as a way of defending themselves in situation that they cannot make sense of or fell good in.

2.2 Innocent behavior – this is the resulted when someone with an integrated sense of self-esteem, from the experience of being either comfortable with his capability of perception of familiarity within a given situation interacts with someone with an unskilled reading of the situation or environment.

2.3 Clever behavior – this is the likely controlling or manipulative result that is produced when someone with skilled reading meets another person with self-serving and defensive ego. Both will true to prove their stance as the center of attention and vow for the most reputable contribution.

2.4 Wise behavior – this behavior is produced when someone with skilled reading meets someone with self-insight and desire to introduce himself in what is familiar, to risk new options as a result of situations that calls for him to exercise his highest values. Thus, he makes all efforts to be the dominant factor in the interaction.

Thus, the above explanation highlights why I exhibit different reading and carrying skills with different people. However, my first approach when interacting with people for the first time involves creating what I call "confidence room". Under this room, I try to energize them and make them fell as the main center of attraction by appreciating all their opinions and suggestions either verbally or by body language. Once they have developed full confidence with the situation, then I will relay my reading and carrying skills based on overall perception of their behavioral pattern.

For instance, if the person is very intelligent and familiar with the situation, then I will try to match his intelligence to maintain the confidence room in order to enable a more entertaining and calm conversation. However, if he frequently tries to bypass the confidence room by expressing the superiority of his ideas over mine, then I will adopt the clever behavior by finding faults in his opinions, or the wise behavior by introducing topics that I am more very familiar with and which I believe he is not familiar with. However, if he turns out to be more familiar in the situation and poses high self-insight, then I will switch to the innocent behavior in order to make him fell comfortable or the inept behavior in order to gain his full respect and regards towards my own opinions in the interaction process.

Larry Hirschhorn (1988) in his book reworking authority wrote about the need for collaborative power as a means of gaining understanding. The past decades has been noted for its turbulence and redefinition in many companies across the globe. The growing importance of information technologies coupled with services businesses has resulted in companies having to reconsider their structures and business undertakings. Thus, this has affected how people work, what skills they need and the type of careers they expect.

Thus, Larry Hirschhorn (1988) argued in his work that a new form of authority is needed to facilitate the change for better results. Such authority he said, is a type were superiors acknowledge their dependent on their subordinates, and subordinates can challenge their superiors, with both understanding and acknowledging their vulnerability.

He described collaborative authority as the essence of creating a culture of openness and transparency (Hirschhorn, 1988). The difficulty in such is the ability to accept and tolerate feelings of vulnerability, and being honest about uncertainties and mistakes. Such qualities are in reality difficult for me, as I avoid all potential uncertainties in order to reduce risks associated with my interactions with people.

For instance, I can be very inquisitive about people's family, business and life, while I hesitate when such questions are addressed to me, and thus inhibiting transparency and openness which Hirschhorn (1988) highlighted as the essence of collaborative authority. I strongly believe that it is necessary to protect myself and my undertakings from people as not everybody might be happy with whom we are, thus when asked sensitive questions, I will not be willing to be collaborative and this will eventually inhibit the reworking authority process.

3.0 IMPLICATION OF MY INTERACTION BEHAVIORS IN RELATION TO MY FUTURE WORK ROLE

Since they are four different behavioral patterns that I am likely to exhibit depending on the person I am interacting with, it is necessary to highlight the possible implication on all four behavioral options. However, it is clear that I am domineering and willing to adopt any circumstances in order to create a confidence room for my interacting partners, thus the elements will be analyzed based on the implications of creating such room.

Further point out from James and Arroba (2005), developing the required skills for reading within an organization and understanding the content of the situation required attention to systematic viewpoint on organizational life and unconscious workforces. If one is able to appreciate the dynamics of the organization as a whole, he will be able to shift emphasis from self-insight to awareness of the organization as a system.

Neumann and Hirschhorn (1999) also shared their view on the above argument with their contribution of psychodynamic and theories to organizations that have psychologically difficult settings, which states that dynamic approaches are often exercised with approaches oriented towards observable and measurable behavior. Since the type of behavioral option expressed in an organization can determine your reward package and possibility for promotion, it is necessary that the two most important elements which I will have to adopt is either beingclever or wise.

But James and Arroba (2005), believes that being wise in nowadays difficult organizational settings requires a greater understanding of the dynamic of the system, therefore making a systematic psychodynamic approach essential for knowing what is there to be read and what may be carried at a deep and/or unconscious level.  

3.1 THE JAMES AND AROBA'S CARRYING AND READING FRAMEWORK

3.1.1 When to be wise in my future work role

The ability to be wise in a difficult situation involves more than just reading, but also incorporate ability to access different aspects of the situation, both in the content of the organization and in the environment were the organization is operating. It requires an ability to also read an inaccessible aspect of organizational life. As Armstrong (2000) pointed out, emotions within an organization can be seen as a nuisance, an element that needs to be managed and controlled, or as a source of intelligence to be understood and put to sue.

This is a common aspect of my personal life. Interesting I find myself easy to adapt to any situation and it believe this is key to being wise in the organization. But, how wise I will be will certainly depend on my future rule and the consequences associated with its outcome. For instance, if I am less supervised in the rule were I will be full consequences of either demotion in failure or promotion in success with relation to an assigned task, I will apply more effort towards understanding the situation (what I am supposed to do to yield success), and carrying only information that are considered beneficial along with me. This is mainly motivational as if I succeed I will be rewarded.

However, if the task is a combined process whereby I will work in a group with other people, the decision to be wise will depend on the situation within the group. Where all tasks are equally divided amongst members, I will relax and focus on my task. But if certain members are given a hard task while other is given much easier once, I will exercise my wise behavior by arguing against the work designation. Through this means, I will ensure that all members are equally contributed and none is a sleeping partner.

3.1.2 When to be clever in my future work role

Besides the wise behavioral option, other options can only be applied in relation to group role, as an opponent in the form of human is needed to yield such behavior. Thus, in relation to being clever in the organization, it will depend on the situation at hand and the possible product of decisions made based on the situation. But in general, I will always be clever as I don't like to be intimidated in any form.

For instance, in a situation where I am assigned to undertake a certain task with self-insight personnel, I will work harder to understand the situation in order to ensure that I am not led to undertake more than required task by my colleague. Generally, productivity in organization involves commitment, but this behavioral patter as highlighted above involve controlling and manipulative behavior, thus it is essential that I understand the whole situation in order not to be controlled or manipulated by my colleague. Where the ball falls into my court, I will ensure control my colleague and ensure that the task are undertaken in my preferred setting; this will offer me more flexibility and increase my productivity efficiently.

3.1.3 When to be innocent in my work role

This can be considered a rare occurrence, as I believe in apply efforts towards understanding the environment I am working in due to my high level of sensitivity to change within the environment. However, nothing is impossible within the business world, thus it is essential to analyses what will be the likely outcome of such occurrence.

In the event that I find myself lacking in reading skill, I will still carry with me a high level of self-esteem, but I will be willing to listen to the other part either my colleague or my supervisor and understand what their opinions are. From listening to them, it is expected that it will increase my reading skill by equipping me with the lacking information, and once I have gathered the needed information, I will proceed to express my high level of esteem by demonstrate through practices I I fully understand what I have been told.

3.1.4 When to be inept in my work role

Just like the innocent behavior, this will also be a rare occurrence, as I am naturally humble and have no problem with my admitting my faults instead of adopting an ego defensive strategy to cover it up. However, human nature can deter us from being our normal selves in complicated situation and it must be noted that in such situation, I will likely adopt a self-ego defense strategy especially if such situation will affect my reward negatively.

For instance, if I am given a task to undertake with a colleague and our reward will be based on the output, I will adopt ego defensive behavior if I happen to lack in the reading of the task as I wouldn't want my colleague to look down on me or take advantage of my inability to contribute and build a controlling behavior towards me.

From all the above explanations, it has been illustrated that the reading and carrying framework will be integrated in my future work role, but how they will be integrated depends on the situation and other parties involved. Thus, while I will always ensure to create a confidence room for my partners in order to encourage them to be more contributory, I will also ensure that I am not used or manipulated.

4.0 GOLEMAN'S FRAMEWORK APPLIED WITHIN THE SOCIETY AND ME

4.1 HOW MY EI WILL AFFECT THE SOCIETY AND MY FUTURE WORKPLACE

4.1.1 Self-awareness – I am very sensitive and emotionally aware of the situation around me through accurate assessment and review. This gives me a sort of inner confidence to approach people with open heart and sincerity, and it creates a form of trust, understanding, good will and harmony between me and people I interact with. Thus, this will also yield a similar result in my future work place and people I meet in the future.

4.1.2 Self-management – on the other hand, I have full control of my personality and undertake my dealing in a conscious and truthful way. I am also adaptable to situations around me and working hard towards achieving set goals. Thus, this will be of numerous to both the people I meet in the public and my future workplace, as they can always count on my commitment, relentlessness, hard work and dedication in all tasks I will be given to undertake.

4.2 HOW THE SOCIETY AND MY FUTURE WORKPLACE WILL AFFECT MY EI

4.2.1 Social awareness – while I apply all necessary efforts towards ensuring that people around me are happy, I also demand the same in return. During my rainy days, it is necessary that people around me should be my umbrella and help me whenever the time arises. Being appreciated and encouraged by the society and my future work place will help me to maintain my emotional control, while the opposite will likely result in me reaching my breaking point and thus yielding negative effective on the society and my work place.

4.2.2 Relationship management – it is necessary that I will be able to trust people around me as much as they trust me, and I also expect frequent communication and sharing of ideas within the workplace in order to enrich my intellectual spectrum and build my career towards achieving my personal dreams. Relationship is important to me because I trust people easily as I want to be trusted easily too, but if the trust is broken as a result of the people I interact with or my work place, there is a low possibility of regaining my full self-esteem and respect and it will negatively influence both our conversations, dealings and my productivity.

From the above discussion, it can easily be seen that at some points in my future, I will need to change my ways and find new means to cope within my environment, as the society and my organization will not be so keen on change their system to favor me alone. In that case, an overview of the change model will be presented below to understand, the "when" and "how" of my future change plans and also my copying framework.

PROCHASKA & DICLEMENTE (1982) – STAGES OF CHANGE MODEL

Figure (2): Stages of change model

Pre-contemplation – there is no change process within this stage. This is because I don't see any reason to change because I believe my current practices are beneficial to me, the organization and the society.

Contemplation – this stage is when I see a benefit from changing in the sense of profitability to me, the organization or the society. Then, I will review whether or not to change. At this stage, there is a potential for change based on the outcome of the review.

Preparation – the next stage will occur when the outcome of the contemplation is in the favor of change. Thus, I will start to prepare for the change by understanding the outcomes of the change and possible alternatives I must forego.

Action – once I have finished preparing for the change process, I will proceed to change with in expectation of certain benefits to me, the organization and/or the society.

Maintenance – while change can be a straightforward process of deciding not to live by your past and start living by your present for the future, there is an underlying difficulty that people tend to ignore, and it is the ability to maintain the change process. This involves activities or other acts that are undertaken to make the change process a constant phenomenon in both the present and for the future. In that case, I intend to maintain my change process by ensuring that I review all process within my organization and link them with my change objectives. I will proceed when they are in line with the change objective or reject when they are contradictory.

Change as a process revolves around numerous perimeters and the process is every dynamic with change in environment. This implies that changing is just the beginning of being fully changed. Once we have adopted the change process, we should not expect everything to work for us, and in that case, contingency plans is essential and understand things that must be done to ensure the change process is internationalized. In relation to my own change, this will be evaluated by adopting the Freud's iceberg framework.

Both the employee and leader possible action in my future workplace can also be elaborated more by adopting Freud's iceberg analog to understand the ego and superego in relation to internationalizing the change process.

My Ego and superego after change – while ego and superego are essential for building great self-esteem and increasing productivity, they can also have numerous disastrous effects if not properly used. This makes understanding someone's ego a great importance for manipulating and controlling the change process. Once I have decided to change, I will reduce myself ego by adopting things that are socially acceptable and accepting to be below all people within me, in a bid to create a smooth atmosphere for conversation and increase our interpersonal relationship.

Through this means, I expect that people will trust me the more and be interested to do things with me as it will present an outward image of humility and sincerity. Once I gain the trust of people around me, I will then be able to utilize it in refocusing my attention toward enhancing my motivation, increasing my productivity and actualizing my dreams in a way that benefits me, the organization I work for and the society in general.

5.0 CONCLUSION

This research paper has been successfully in shading light on James and Arroba (2005)'s reading and carrying framework. The framework was developed in response to the increase importance of emotional intelligence in organizations, as staffs are believed to be able to gather and process more information if they don't take their emotional feeling into account in their work roles.

James and Arroba (2006), described the reading dimension as being able to look at a situation outwardly in order to fully understand the context of the situation. They also stressed that the reading dimension has two poles, one which encourages us to read a situation outwardly and the other which tries to play our emotions in the situation. The carrying dimension involves how we visualize something to be, and what we carry into all situations we read.

The two dimensions were found to be linked in application, as what we read out of a situation usually depend on what we carried into the situation. This is divided into four behavior options. The options consists of inept behavior which involves utilization of ego as defensive mechanism, innocent behavior which involves submission to an opponent when racking in reading skills and low in self-insight, clever behavior which viewed as yielding manipulation and controlling behavior as both opponents struggle for authority, and the wise decision which is a situation where someone possess reading skills and willing to commit their opinions in risky situations with high potential for gaining them great values.

Thus, it can be concluded that emotional intelligence is an essential element towards increasing productivity, as we are able to gather and process more information when we carry high self-esteem into complex situations and look at the situation outwardly instead of relating them to our personal feelings and emotions.

This was further elaborated by the Goleman framework where it was illustrated that I easily trust people, and if I receive the same treatment I give to the society, then I will be more productive both within the society and my future workplace. While on the other hand, if am not treated nicely by the society, it will negatively influence my self-esteem and trust on people and subsequently result in low productivity. Therefore, no matter how it is viewed, maintaining emotional intelligence is critical under any circumstances as human beings have both weaknesses and strength that must be either eliminated or enhances from time to time.  

6.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Armstrong, D. (2000) 'Emotions in Organizations: Disturbance or Intelligence?' International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations Annual Symposium, London, June.

Arroba, T. and James, K. (1990) 'Politics and Management: the effect of stress on the political sensitivity of managers', Journal of Managerial Psychology 5 (3): 22-27.

Arroba T and James K (1988) 'Are Politics Palatable to Women Managers? How Women can make wise moves at Work', Women in Management Review 3 (3): 123-130.

Arroba, T. and James, K. (2005) "Reading and Carrying: a framework for learning about emotion and emotionality in organisational systems as a core aspect of leadership development", Managemnet Learning, Vol 36, No. 3, pp. 299-316. Available at: https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/bitstream/1826/983/4/Reading_and_carrying-2005.pdf [Accessed on: 11-04-2012].

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Baddeley, S. and James, K. (1987b) 'From Political Neutrality to Political Wisdom', Politics 7 (2): 35-40.

Baddeley, S. and James, K. (1991) 'The Power of Innocence: from politeness to politics', Management Education and Development 22 (Pt. 2): 106-118.

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Hirschhorn, L. (1997), Reworking authority: Leading and Following in the Post-Modern Organizations, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

Murphy, K. R. (2006). Preface. In K. R. Murphy (Ed.), A critique of emotional intelligence: What are the problems and how can they be fixed? (pp. xi-xiii). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Neumann, J. and Hirschhorn, L. (1999) 'The Challenge of Integrating Psychodynamic and Organizational Theory', Human Relations 52 (6): 683-695.

Zeidner, M., Matthews, G., & Roberts, R. D. (2004). Emotional intelligence in the workplace: A critical review. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 53, 371-399.