| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
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Secondly, anger and happiness are important representative emotions and reliably occur on the lists of basic emotions identified by several researchers (Ortony & Turner, 1990). Thirdly, there is a growing recognition of the critical importance of these emotions in the workplace and their effect on productivity, well-being, health, and the viability of businesses (Csikszentmihalyi, 1992; Glomb, 2002; Goleman, 1996, 1998; Seligman, 2002; Spencer, 2001). Finally, Dulewicz and Higgs (2004) found that the self-awareness and interpersonal sensitivity, enabling elements of their model of emotional intelligence (Dulewicz & Higgs, 1999, 2000), are particularly amenable to development by training.
The reason for the use of Goleman’s (1998) framework is as follows. Firstly, a large number of soft skills have been incorporated into this framework and related to his conceptualisation of emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1996, 1998, 2001b; Spencer, 2001). Within this context, they have been relabelled as emotional intelligence competencies (EIC) (Spencer, 2001) and related to self-awareness, self-regulation, social awareness, and social skills. Secondly, the wide acceptance of Goleman’s approach is such that it effectively defines the way these soft skills are now often described (cf. BCA & ACCI, 2002; Mezirow, 2000; Rychen & Salganik, 2001). Finally, the competency-based nature of this conception of emotional intelligence is well aligned to the task of developing competency standards.
Within the context of workplace competency standards, emotional intelligence competencies will be shown to provide an underpinning for what are currently known as key competencies (ANTA, 2001a; Mayer Report, 1992). They will also be shown to have significant underpinning relevance within much research related to the definition and selection of such competencies (BCA & ACCI, 2002; DeSeCo 2002a, 2002b; Rychen & Salganik, 2001, 2003a). It will finally be argued that emotional intelligence competencies are deserving of a more explicit level of identification than is reflected in many current key competency schemes.
Developing the Standards
The standards will be developed using an adaptation of the methodology for competency standards development prescribed by the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) Training Package Development Handbook (ANTA, 2001a, 2001g).