Example research essay topic: Emotional Intelligence Wishful Thinking - 1,913 words

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Book Report (1) Daniel Goleman's book Working with Emotional Intelligence discusses different aspects of concept of emotional intelligence, which author considers to be superior to peoples ability to operate with abstract terms, commonly referred to as intelligence quotient. According to author, individuals social skills determine his prospects in life more than any other factor. Goleman defines emotional intelligence as the skill of getting along with others, which is not inherited but determined by various social circumstances. Author suggests that EI is measurable category, although he does not base this claim on empirical data, which can be structural ized and become the variable of scientific formula. Goleman's strives to explain the reason why high intelligence does not necessarily results in professional efficiency.

It is because the factual knowledge is being overly dogmatized and it does not quite fit into the concept of diversified society. According to author, the social context of acquiring knowledge is much more productive, because it stimulates persons ability to improvise, while applying this knowledge practically. This leads author to conclude that the classical learning techniques became outdated, because they do not consider social interaction to be the important element of learning process. Thus, the emphasis needs to be switched from measuring persons intelligence quotient to defining the effectiveness of his ability of social orientation, when it comes to designing educational and social policies. Goleman was able to define the essence of his book at the very beginning: I make the case that emotional intelligence counts more than IQ or expertise for determining who excels at a job.

Working with Emotional Intelligence is filled with examples of people achieving social prominence not because of their high intelligence, but because of being in right place in right time. Goleman considers such situation to be absolutely natural in post-modern society and suggests that the factor of chance plays in it a negligible role. There is no doubt that Goleman's argument is very controversial, but his book was being welcomed by the promoters of political-correctness, because it gives them a pseudo-scientific base for their otherwise absurd ideas. Working with Emotional Intelligence cannot be considered as academically credible book, because it contains many unsupported claims. It appears that Goleman's foremost task was to establish his reputation as prominent sociologist, rather then explaining the essence of socio-political dynamics in modern society. Author uses variety of buzz words such as diversity, empathy, political awareness, teamwork spirit etc, which had lost its original meaning long ago, because of being used many times by individuals, who want to sound sophisticated, while coming up with unsupported statements.

The most noticeable feature of Goleman's book is wordiness. Author is clearly having a difficult time trying to stay focused on the subject. But the worst thing of all is that he denies the objectivity to IQ tests. This reveals him as someone who is simply pushing a political agenda, while having concealed it under disguise of scientific theory. It is not a secret that IQ tests show that degree of peoples intelligence is directly related to their racial affiliation. However, this proven scientific fact deprives the concept of multiculturalism any credibility.

This is why it was necessary to show that the notion of intelligence quotient is subjective. Goleman simply wanted to take the advantage of present socio-political situation in multicultural societies to become famous. Therefore, anyone, whose ability of critical thinking has not been fully atrophied, will inevitably come to conclusion that Goleman's book is based on wishful thinking and has nothing to do with the objective reality. The fact that it became very fashionable among left-wing Liberals does not entitle it with academic credibility. There is no doubt that Working with Emotional Intelligence had significantly influenced my attitude towards human resources. It reaffirmed me in my conviction that successful manager should think twice, before deploying a social policy, which is based on wishful thinking.

For example, companies are now required to celebrate diversity, without being explained the economic benefits of such practice. Authors like Goleman suggest that somehow, the professional effectiveness of employees will increase if company turns into some kind of kindergarten, where all other considerations will come secondary to making employees feel socially comfortable. I do not share this point of view. Goleman insists on the universal value of his vision of what constitutes a professional excellence. According to him, emotional intelligence corresponds to persons ability to earn the most, while applying the least amount of effort. This very well might be the case, but it is doubtful of whether any company will benefit from hiring the employees, who think that they are automatically entitled to special rights and privileges, because of high degree of their self-awareness.

I agree with the author that peoples emotions often prevent them from effectively executing their professional duties. However, I dont think that the specifics of persons emotionalism can be a subject of psychological manipulation, as author suggests. This is because emotional intelligence and intelligence quotient are the factors of genetic predetermination. As manager, I would much rather employ someone with high IQ score than the individual who is being rumored as emotionally intelligent, because of his ability to sound emotionally neutral, when it comes to discussing controversial topics.

There is no unified definition of what emotional intelligence stands for, therefore, it is too early to seriously consider it, while managing human resources. As practice shows, the relations between employees within a team, cannot be regulated according to some abstract theory. This is why, I think that Goleman's book should definitely be read, but his views on emotional intelligence can never be given the status of dogma. (2) In his monograph Good to Great: Social Sectors, Jim Collins embarked on identifying the keys of organizations commercial success. Collins challenges the traditional view of leader as someone whose charismatic qualities alone enable him to lead the organization towards becoming more competitive. Collins monograph is simply a further development of his earlier ideas, expressed in book Good to Great, where he describes the effective leadership as paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. By providing concrete examples, Collins emphasizes the importance of unorthodox thinking, when it comes to managing organization.

Therefore, there can be no standardized approaches to accomplishing an operating efficiency. Collins suggests that, in order to insure companys ability to correspond to the challenges of objective reality, its leader needs to have an understanding of how commercial mechanism functions, rather than to simply posses a factual knowledge, without being able to apply it practically. Collins brushes aside the importance of social factor, while managing organization. He challenges the validity of modern approaches to accomplishing an effective teamwork, within company, by motivating right behavior, on the part of wrong people. Collins suggests that it is much easier to get the right people in the first place. He was able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that fanatical devotion to accomplishing a commercial goal, on the part of leader, is the most important precondition of organizations transition from good to great.

Good to Great: Social Sectors, just as Collins previous work, became very popular in recent times, because it is being written in simple language and spared of excessive moralizing. Collins strives to provide practical advices of how to manage the organization in the most effective way, without imposing his personal opinion of what is right and what is wrong. He was able to prove that organizations of social sector can be even more financially efficient than commercial companies. The important feature of Collins monograph is that it shutters a traditional vision of social sector as such that is fully dependent on monetary infusions from the government.

Author does not come up with well defined recipes of how to accomplish a commercial independence, on the part of social organizations, such as schools, churches or charity funds. Nevertheless, he was able to prove that it is possible in theory. According to Collins, the effectiveness of commercial or non-commercial organization is defined by the same set of initial preconditions, which are directly linked to the issue of leadership. It is very remarkable that it is almost exclusively church leaders, who praise Collins monograph as something that opened their eyes on how to achieve a greater commercial efficiency.

This proves any religious organization to be a commercial institution, it its essence. At the same time, there was not much of a feedback, on the part of other institutions of social sector, such as libraries, for example. This is because these organizations do not rely on effective leadership as something that is crucial for their functioning. It is only a drawback of Collins monograph. His way of thinking does not consider the fact that, in post-modern society, the effective leadership is often based on collective rather then on individual basis. In fact, the productive leadership can be thought of as such that endangers the very principle of how non-commercial organization functions.

Nevertheless, Good to Great: Social Sectors contains many original ideas, which significantly increase monographs value as scientific work. Just as any science, economics require an unorthodox thinking, in order to accomplish breakthroughs. Collins was able to show that sometimes, the economic issue is best described in terms of politics. At the same time, managing social resources can be the most effective, if leader thinks about it in terms of economy. After having read Collins monograph, I came to conclusion that the role of effective leadership cannot be overestimated. Also, author ideas coincide with my own understanding of how the issues of management and commercialism relate to each other.

Collins is absolutely right when he suggests that the artificial notions of organizations management do not have any value. Very often, a person with no official degree in economics has advantage, while being asked to design a social policy for the organization, in order to improve its economic efficiency. What is important is dedication and hard work, everything else comes secondary. In Good to Great: Social Sectors author promotes the idea of freedom. According to him, people will only follow the leader because of their inner conviction: True leadership only exists if people follow when they have the freedom not to. This is very true, still, Collins contradict himself when he suggest that it is wrong to depend on charismatic personality to get things done.

In fact, the practice shows that only irrational factors can motivate people better than anything else. What appeals to me the most in Collins work is the fact that he was able to prove the absurdity of claims that diversity helps to achieve an effective teamwork, within organization. Of course, he does not suggest it openly, but this conclusion comes out of the context of his monograph. Any team is nothing but an open system. The quality of teamwork is defined by the number of associations, between the elements of system.

However, only the homogeneous elements provide stability to the whole system, because they can be related to each other in variety of different ways. Promoting diversity strives to something opposite. My attitude towards potential employees in the future is going to be defined by the degree of their professional competence alone. Collins monograph proved the legitimacy of my opinion, in regards to this issue. Hiring right employees and having a clear organizational goal requires a clear thinking, on the part of manager.

In order to achieve a professional success, leader must have both a well developed sense of imagination and ability to think logically.

Research essay sample on Emotional Intelligence Wishful Thinking