Aarhus, Denmark

Leadership and Emotional Intelligence in Organizations

The present social and economic context (e.g., Covid19, economic recession ) has impacted the functioning and adaptability of professional organizations. The complexity and volatility of environmental change has generated a serious concern about behavioral and emotional competencies of senior and top leaders regarding “how to cope up with the challenges of sustainable profitable growth, health and well being”. Leaders’ decision making has become too abrupt and chaotic at personal and professional level. Examples of mental disorders, suicides, divorces, anxiety, fears, sleeplessness are raising questions about the psychological well being of working executives and their ability to cope up with work or non-work related stress. Current observations indicates that executives are earning well but there is a loss of happiness, life satisfaction, harmonious relationship and a culture of mutual trust and support. Negative emotions (anxiety, fear, frustration, work
pressure, jealousy and hatred) are new becoming normal organizational behavior. Future-ready organization needs to employ a workforce with rich psychological resources in the form of hope, optimism, resilience, self-management, spirituality, adaptability, and ability to manage stress positively. Such competencies are not only essential at the work place but also at home. In psychological and management literature, Salovey and Meyer (1990, 1997), Goleman (1995, 1998) and BarOn (1997) have found the relevance of the concept of Emotional Intelligence (EI) in the process of coping up with the environmental demands and pressure. These proponents of EI say that the ability to handle stresses of modern workplace may be actually more important than intellectual competency of employees. EI draws on a research tradition, which focuses on intelligent behavior in natural situations, or practical intelligence which is defined as an aggregate of abilities, skills, and competencies that represent collection of knowledge used to cope up with life effectively. Research studies in the area of emotional intelligence demonstrate that people with high emotional intelligence (a) are able to effectively communicate with one another, (b) are willing to contribute beyond the expectations to the overall growth of the organization and, (c) work for a common purpose of the organization. Consequently, it means that EI increases leadership and teaming skills to achieve personal and organizational effectiveness. Research studies (e.g., Jain et al., 2014, Jain & Sinha, 2005; Sinha & Jain, 2004) showed the imperatives of EI for organizations in the area of personal effectiveness, employee commitment, psychological health, trust in manager, job satisfaction and organizational effectiveness. Also, EI reduces the indulgence into negative leadership behavior, e.g. abusive or toxic leadership (Jain et al., 2021). Therefore this course is designed to help the students to become emotionally intelligent leaders in order to drive the process of organizational transformation in the current business context. The students should also be able to become “corporate trainer and consultants” to help organizations become more effective and efficient in coping up with unexpected demands and be more adabtable to environmental change. It is evident from literature that high EI inviduals leads to the development of emotionally intelligent teams and organizations. Leadership, emotional intelligence, psychological well being, team building and change management are interrelated themes.

Course leader

Ajay K. Jain

Target group

Master's level

Fee info

EUR 691: EU/EEA citizens
EUR 1717: NON-EU/EEA citizens

Scholarships

No scholarships available