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IMPACT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ON TEAMWORK – A COMPARATIVE

STUDY OF SELF MANAGED AND CROSS FUNCTIONAL TEAMS

Article · November 2011

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ZENITH
International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research
Vol.1 Issue 6, October 2011, ISSN 2231 5780

IMPACT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ON TEAMWORK –

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SELF MANAGED AND CROSS
FUNCTIONAL TEAMS
DR. HARMINDER KAUR GUJRAL*; JAYA AHUJA**

*Assistant Professor,
Amity University.
**Faculty,
Amity University.

ABSTRACT

The development of effective work team continues to be an area receiving attention in

today‟s organizations. One area which is emerging as a key indicator of team effectiveness is
emotional intelligence. The role of emotional intelligence (EI) is important to improve team
performance. The main objective of the present research is to study whether there exists a
relation between emotional intelligence and team effectiveness with reference to self
managed and cross functional teams. The study helps to identify the impact of EI on team
effectiveness. Two teams in Information Technology (IT) sector have been studied to
measure the impact of emotional intelligence on team effectiveness. Each team consists of 50
employees. A survey has been conducted using the “Genos Short EI inventory” to measure
emotional intelligence and “Team effectiveness Scale” to measure the teamwork
effectiveness of each member. Findings confirmed the relationship between these two
variables as Emotional intelligence was found to have strong correlation with team
effectiveness. The study also provides evidence of higher correlation of Emotional
Intelligence with self managed team in comparison to cross functional team. Simple linear
regression identifies a positive impact of Emotional intelligence on team effectiveness in both
the teams.

KEYWORDS: Emotional Intelligence, Team effectiveness, Self- managed teams, Cross

functional teams.

INTRODUCTION

EI has been described as “the capacity to effectively perceive, express, understand and
manage emotions in a professional and effective manner at work.”Several schools of thought
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exist which aim to accurately describe and measure Emotional Intelligence (E.I). Salovey and
Mayer (1990) initially conceived the concept and coined the term Emotional Intelligence,
which was derived from Gardner‟s (1983) theory of multiple intelligences. This included
interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence which were used by Salovey and Mayer (1990) to
form the basis of the theory of emotional intelligence, which they define as the “ability to
monitor and regulate one‟s own and other‟s feelings and to use feelings to guide one‟s
thinking and action”. This definition identifies five main domains: knowing one‟s emotions,
managing emotions, motivating oneself, recognizing emotions in others and handling
relationships.
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Vol.1 Issue 6, October 2011, ISSN 2231 5780

Goleman (1998b) adapted Salovey and Mayer‟s (1990) model as a basis and explained the
theory of emotional intelligence and it‟s implications for everyday life. He divided EI
competencies into five parts: Self-awareness, Self-regulation, Motivation, Empathy and
Social skills. Another researcher of the emotional intelligence construct is Reuven Bar-On.
He coined the term "Emotional Quotient". He defined emotional intelligence as
understanding oneself and others, relating to people, and adapting to and coping with the
immediate surroundings to be more successful in dealing with environmental demands
(Bar-On, 1997).

TEAMS : AN INTRODUCTION

Groups are fundamental units of the organization. Groups provide the basis for family living,
protection, waging war, government, recreation and work. Group behaviour has ranged from
total chaos to dramatic success, but it is increasingly evident that groups enjoy their greatest
success when they become more productive units called teams. Teams are a growing
phenomenon in today‟s workplace and extremely popular work design in all types of
organization (Stevens &Campion, 1994). Many organizations rely upon teamwork to achieve
goals and meet the needs of clients (Luca &Tarricone, 2001) when teams are successful, they
have potential to provide benefits to organization (Weisner &Kichuk, 1998 ) It is therefore
important for organization to strive for maintaining effective teams. Teamwork is defined by
Harris and Harris (1996) as “…a work group or unit with a common purpose through which
members develop mutual relationships for the achievement of goals/tasks”. Teamwork means
individuals work in a cooperative environment in the interests of a common goal by sharing
knowledge/skills and being flexible enough to serve multiple roles. A team‟s success is
believed to be dependent upon members of the team who work together and contribute to the
overall Purpose or goal in hand.

Why Emotional Intelligence is important in Teamwork?

Emotional intelligence is important among team members to carry out their roles and tasks in
a cooperative and collaborative manner. It helps in reducing conflicts and can create a more
comfortable and cooperative work environment. It is certainly worth assessing your teams on
their emotional intelligence levels and if found lacking, there are workshops and seminars
that can help your teams redirect their thinking patterns and behavior and change for the
better. Team members need to be aware of their feelings as they may allow uncontrolled
emotions to effect the dynamics and culture of the team. Effective team members are self-
confident, which is reflective of their own emotional self-awareness, and ability to control
their emotions. The skill of regulating emotions during work stress and conflict would help
on smoothening the project and enhance working relationships effectively with other
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members. Team members are not only responsible for their own motivation but also play a
key role in motivating the team and colleagues. Empathic team members think from various
points of views and they accept the diversity of people.

Emotional Intelligence and Team Role Effectiveness

Team management is the most challenging task since it involves complex processes.
A number of factors may affect team effectiveness even at its early stage of development.
There are studies that look into the role of positive and negative emotions in team. George
(1990) investigating personality, affect and behaviour in groups asserted that affective tone;
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the ongoing emotional reactions of work team members, was found to affect the group.
Positive affective tone groups had lower absenteeism, and less negative tone teams exhibited
more helping behaviors.

Druskat and Wolff (2001) asserted that teams “must be mindful of the emotions of its
members, its own group emotions or moods, and the emotions of other groups and the
individuals outside its boundaries.” They argued that EI does not guarantee team performance
but enables teams to establish norms for group maintenance behaviours, which involve
building trust, group identity, and group efficacy. “Group emotion results from both the
combinations of individual-level affective factors that group possess as well as from group or
contextual-level factors that define or shape the affective experience of the group” (Kelly and
Barsade, 2001). A study on emotions and team processes by Peslak (2005) is beneficial in
understanding the impact and evolution of emotions in teams. He found that team emotions at
the beginning of the project were more positive and negative, however, they increased in
intensity over the project life with negative emotions grew more than positive emotions. He
also found that the initial emotions did not significantly affect overall team processes but the
final emotions did. Studies have shown that EI affects team or group performance.

Joe Luca & Tarricone ( 2001) suggest that skills needed for successful teamwork can be
viewed from different perspectives, ranging in nature from “Visible to Invisible”. A
programmer in a team has technical skills which can be tested for competence, and classified
as a “visible skill”. Also, having acceptable generic and team skills is highly desirable but not
always easily testable i.e. testing for time management, problem solving or collaboration
skills can be difficult. Another skill set, known as „Emotional Intelligence‟ is increasingly
being promoted as being necessary for successful teamwork. Emotional intelligence consists
of five main elements - self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, motivation and social skills
which are difficult to test for, and certainly are not as “visible” as technical skills. The study
showed a compelling relationship between students‟ emotional intelligence and their ability
to work effectively within a team. Visible skills and emotional intelligence should both be
considered when selecting team members for a collaborative environment.

Goleman (1998) demonstrated how teams with higher collective EI outperform teams with
lower collective EI. Druskat and Wolff (2001) define emotional intelligence in groups as “a
team atmosphere in which the norms build emotional capacity (the ability to respond
constructively in emotionally uncomfortable situations) and influence emotions in
constructive ways”

Druskat & Wolff (2001a: 2001b) expanded on EI and developed a framework for
understanding EI for SMWTs in particular. They suggest that team EI norms fall along three
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categories: Individual, Group and Cross-boundary. Individual norms include interpersonal

understanding, perspective taking, confronting team members, and caring. Group level norms
include self-evaluation, seeking feedback, creating resources for working with emotions,
creating an affirmative environment, and problem solving. The cross-boundary level norms
include organizational understanding and building relationships.
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OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

 To study the level of Emotional intelligence of the members of self managed and
cross functional team

 To measure the team effectiveness of members in self managed teams and cross
functional teams

 To study the relationship between Emotional Intelligence and team effectiveness of

self managed teams and cross functional teams

 To study the impact of Emotional Intelligence on team effectiveness of self managed

and cross functional teams

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Sample Size: total sample size is 100.

50 employees each from the Self managed teams and Cross functional teams in a software
company in Delhi.

Sample Design: Convenience sampling

RESEARCH INSTRUMENT

Two standardized questionnaires were used as instruments in the study, this included “Genos
Emotional Intelligence Inventory-Short” to measure the emotional intelligence of each team
member and “Team effectiveness questionnaire” developed by ETCT Team under the
guidance of Udai Pareek.

DATA ANALYSIS

Data was analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and Simple Regression.Pearson
Correlation Coefficient was used to assess the relationship between EQ (and factors of EQ)
and Teamwork effectiveness. The correlation was conducted between EQ (EI) and Self
managed teams and EQ and Cross Functional teams separately. In addition to correlation,
Simple Linear regression analysis has also been done to study the impact of Emotional
Intelligence on self managed team and cross functional teams.
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ANALYSIS

Pearson Correlation between EI and Self Managed teams

Correlations

EI Teamwork

EI Pearson Correlation 1 .700**

Sig. (2-tailed) .000

N 50 50

Two Pearson Correlation .700** 1

Sig. (2-tailed) .000

N 50 50

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

INTERPRETATION

The analysis shows that employees who are under self managed teams are emotionally
intelligent and their emotional intelligence competencies are positively correlated to
teamwork effectiveness. The r value is .70 which is significant

Pearson Correlation between EI and Cross Functional Teams

Correlations

EI Teamwork

EI Pearson Correlation 1 .607**

Sig. (2-tailed) .000

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N 50 50

Teamwork Pearson Correlation .607** 1

Sig. (2-tailed) .000

N 50 50

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

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International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research
Vol.1 Issue 6, October 2011, ISSN 2231 5780

INTERPRETATION

The analysis shows that employees under Cross Functional teams are emotionally intelligent
and their emotional intelligence competencies are positively correlated to teamwork
effectiveness. The r value is .60, p value < .05.

While comparing the relationship of Emotional Intelligence with self managed teams and
cross functional teams, the results state the higher correlation of Emotional Intelligence with
self managed team as compared to cross functional team. It shows self managed teams are
more emotionally intelligent and their emotional intelligence competencies contributes to
high teamwork effectiveness as compared to cross functional teams.

REGRESSION ANALYSIS

Regression analysis has also been done to study the impact of EI on teamwork effectiveness
of self managed teams and cross functional teams i.e. to what extent EI contributes to
effectiveness of teamwork. Simple linear regression was done to examine the effect of EI on
team effectiveness. The results revealed a significant effect of EI on teamwork on both of
teams i.e. self managed teams and cross functional teams.

For Self managed teams: r square= 0.7 which shows around 70% of variance in team
effectiveness. The regression model is significant as the p value is less than .05. The beta
coefficient of emotional intelligence is β= .386, p value<.05. For Cross functional teams: r
square=0.60 which shows 60% of variance in team effectiveness. . The regression model is
significant as the p value is less than .05. The beta coefficient of emotional intelligence is β=
.331, p value<.05. This indicates that emotional intelligence has a positive impact on team
effectiveness of cross functional team also.

DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION

The present research was conducted to study the relationship between Emotional Intelligence
and team effectiveness using two standardized questionnaires- Genos EI inventory short and
Team effectiveness questionnaire by Udai Pareek. The findings confirm a relationship
between theses two variables as Emotional Intelligence was found to have a strong
correlation with team effectiveness. The study also provided evidence confirming the strong
correlation of emotional intelligence with self managed teams as well as with cross functional
teams but higher correlation of Emotional Intelligence with self managed team can be
interpreted that these teams lead to higher cohesion. Great emphasis is on cross functional
training and multi tasking which reduces the dependability on any one individual and
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enhances the flexibility of team. Henceforth, helps in better management of work in case, one
or members leave the team. Self managed teams have clearly defined team goals, key result
areas and alignment of team objectives with the organizational objectives. Further, diversity
among team members improves the quality of team by bringing in the power of diverse and
innovative thinking into the groups. Other reported benefits of self managed teams include
reduced absenteeism, increased productivity and employee satisfaction.

Though self managed teams have many good features but we cannot undermine cross-
functional teams. Cross-functional teams also have some competitive advantages that can be
enumerated as speed, complexity, creativity, customer focus, organizational learning and
single point of contact which promotes team effectiveness. But present study supports that
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Emotional Intelligence has higher correlation with self managed teams (r=.70) compared to
cross functional team (r= .60).

Another objective was to study impact of emotional intelligence on team effectiveness. Both
the teams have positive impact of emotional intelligence on team effectiveness. Team
effectiveness leads to high performance. Both the teams being from one software company
indicate that the organization has a good environment for team building. The study supports
major impact of emotional intelligence on self managed teams (β = .386, p <.05) and for
cross functional teams (β = .331, p<.05). The findings of the present research are supported
by the studies of Luca and Tarricone (2001) and Jordan and Troth (2004) the existing theory
and research which shows a positive impact of emotional intelligence on team work
effectiveness.

Avenues for further Research

 This research focuses only on self managed and cross functional teams. Various other
teams can be considered.

 Research is limited to only one company and I.T sector only. Further findings could
be done by expanding the research to different companies to different sectors to get
more reliable results.

 The sample size is very small and restricted to one geographical location. Sample size
can be increased and observation study can be done.

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Druskat, V. U.; & Wolff, S. B. (2001), Building emotional intelligence of groups. Harvard
Business Review, 79 (3): 81-90.

Elisa Ilarda& Bruce M.Findlay(2006), „Emotional Intelligence and propensity to be team

player‟, E-journal of applied psychology: emotional intelligence, 2(2), 19-29.
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Gardner, Howard( 1983:1993) Frames of mind; the Theory of multiple intelligences, New
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George et al., ( 1990). Technical Professionals in cross-functional teams: their Quality of

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Goleman D (1998) Working with emotional intelligence, New York: Bantam

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