The effects of emotional intelligence on conflicts between managers amd subordinates in business

Ill ABSTRACT THE EFFECTS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ON CONFLICTS BETWEEN MANAGERS AND SUBORDINATES IN BUSINESS Although the roots of the concept emotional intelligence, an important milestone on mankind's journey in its discovery of self identity, dates back to ancient times, it first appeared in 1990 and gained widespread popularity in 1995. Emotional intelligence is different from traditional intelligence in that while traditional intelligence rests on the evaluation of only some verbal and numerical skills, emotional intelligence rests on the understanding that verbal and numerical skills cover only a minor part in the man's range of skills and that they can never be expected to play a significant role in determining one's success in life. It has been verified by many studies that the impact of emotional intelligence on the success in business life is much more important than that of the traditional concept IQ. In this study, the effects of emotional intelligence on the conflicts in the business environment for which the managers spend most of their time are examined. A study is carried out on the managers of large scale firms in Kayseri with the purpose of finding out the relationship, if any, between the emotional intelligence of the managers and the course of action they adopt for overcoming the conflicts between them and their subordinates. The results indicate that there is a positive correlation between the managers' emotional intelligence and courses of action based on cooperation and compromising, but a negative correlation between the use of force and avoidance. According to these results, it is likely that managers with high emotional intelligence would effectively resolve the conflicts that they have with their subordinates. Given the significance of the emotional intelligence in establishing a peaceful working environment, it will certainly be worthwhile to take into account the emotional intelligence of the people in assigning them to managerial posts and to design educational programs for improving their emotional intelligence.