The Emerging Role of Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace with Special Reference to IT/ITeS Sector in Chennai City

Emotional Intelligence is the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate sentimentsto assist thought, understand feelings and psychological knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth. According to Mayer and Salovey, Emotional Intelligence subsumes inter and intrapersonal intelligence. Inter-personal intelligence is considered the ability to understand other people, what motivates them, how they work, and how to work cooperatively with them. Intra-personal intelligence, on the other hand, is a correlative ability, turned inward. It is the capacity to form an accurate, veridical model of the self and to be able to use that to operate effectively.Social scientists are just beginning to uncover the relationship of emotional intelligence to other phenomena such as leadership, group performance, individual performance, inter-personal or social exchange, managing change, and conducting performance evaluations. According to Goleman, ‘Emotional Intelligence, the skills that help people harmonize, should become increasingly valued as a workplace asset in the years to come.