This activity explains the need for emotional intelligence in a management position. Students are asked to name the characteristics of both a good boss and a bad boss. This training activity provides guidance for an instructor-led discussion of “best” and “worst” boss characteristics, how employees respond to these types of bosses, and how emotional intelligence plays a role in being a “best” boss. The guide provides things for the instructor to look for and questions to ask to elicit appropriate responses. The activity is described using physical materials such as flip charts.
Type of Material:
Drill and Practice
Recommended Uses:
This is best used as an in-class assignment so there can be a discussion following the activity.
If this is assigned as homework for a group or an individual, there should be a discussion to gain consensus on the characteristics and to allow students to discuss the items.
For an online class, could use discussion forums.
Technical Requirements:
Mozilla Firefox 95.0.1, Chrome
Identify Major Learning Goals:
To demonstrate the need for emotional intelligence in a management position
To recognize how the behavior of other people can influence your feelings
To understand the characteristics of good and bad bosses in terms of their attitudes and behaviors.
To explore employee responses to good and bad bosses.
Target Student Population:
Undergraduate lower-level and undergraduate upper level management classes
This is not recommended for professional development in a group setting (such as a training class)because there could be conflict when discussing the characteristics of the “best boss”, or the activity could generate animosity and assumptions about others in the organization.
If used in an organization this would be recommended for an appreciative inquiry approach and make only positive recommendations without negative attributions.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
This is recommended for experienced teachers and facilitators; a discussion with the participants is necessary to reach consensus and to provide clarity and a common understanding.
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
Easy and low-tech, this is a good way to begin a lecture on emotional intelligence
The exercise provides leading questions so a discussion following the exercise can assist in making the point that emotional intelligence is correlated with performance.
Concerns:
Emotional intelligence as a theory is not supported because there is no research available to show that it exists.
The author of the book on emotional intelligence (Daniel Goleman) said that it was not possible to prove that emotional intelligence exists, yet it remains prevalent in training material and in dialogue.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
The activity is simple and easy to apply.
This is a good in-class interactive activity for students that could be modified for an online discussion.
This would be a good approach to introducing the concept of emotional intelligence at work.
This exercise can be informative about how individuals’ behavior can have impacts on others.
This is important for people who plan to be in leadership positions of any kind.
Concerns:
The exercise states that emotional intelligence is highly correlated with performance but there is no research provided to support this.
In the exercise the Journal of Occupation and Organizational Psychology examined the relationship between loyalty to a supervisor and work performance. This is not the same thing as emotional intelligence. It appears as though the company offering this activity has made a leap of faith when they say “Bosses with high intellect and advanced emotional intelligence open up an avenue of success…”.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
This activity is easy to use and comes with clear instructions.
Questions and approaches to a group discussion following the exercise are provided.
Concerns:
The layout of the instructions could be organized so that the questions asked by the instructor are clearly identified and contrasted to the expected responses from the students.
Creative Commons:
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