Training & Development Journal Vol. 5, No. 2, July - December, 2014, pp- 140-148 1 Doctoral Scholar, 2 Associate Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Science, IIT Kharagpur-721302, West Bengal *Corresponding author email id: *lkjena@iitkgp.ac.in; 2 rkpradhan@hss.iitkgp.ernet.in DOI: 10.5958/2231-069X.2014.00788.4 Developing Effective Human Resource for Achieving Business Excellence: Role of Emotional Intelligence L.K. Jena 1 * and R.K. Pradhan 2 ABSTRACT In an increasingly competitive work environment, today’s business world has realised the fact that their human resource should not only be academically skilful, but also emotionally intelligent. It is said that in a corporate establishment, a person is recruited on the basis of IQ but is promoted on the ground of his or her EQ. Many research findings have established the fact that the powerful technique of integrating and applying the dimensions of emotional intelligence (EI) has shown better creativity and an increase in overall productivity of establishments. Basically, excellence in the context of business environment demands employees who can transcend their linear thinking towards inhabiting the art of cooperation, resilience, optimism and persuasiveness in their day to day activities. Daniel Goleman, the father of EI, has defined EI as a potential for mastering the skills of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management. In this context, successful HR strategies of an organisation are urged to recognise the fact that strong, faithful and emotionally stable employees having the aforementioned characteristics can build business healthy and competitive. Therefore, it can be presumed that EI may stand as a valuable tool for management practitioners’ who seeks to bring about changes in their own organisations. Keeping this objective in mind, we have attempted to critically analyse the available literature for drawing inferences about the role of EI in terms of its measurement, applicability and effects. To concretise our assumptions, various conceptual factors on EI have been revisited which can be used effectively to drive the HR profession for deriving business excellence. Keywords: Emotional intelligence, Genesis of EI, EI measurement, Human resource, Professional effectiveness, Leader’s role, Organisational excellence INTRODUCTION Traditionally, emotions were considered as irrational and illogical, this is because the conventional wisdom among cognitive scientists held the view that intelligence is a mere processing of facts, and emotions have no role to pay in intelligence. But with the progressing research in the field of psychology and corresponding growth of emotional intelligence (EI), both emotions and intellect have moved together to enhance and enrich human capital. It is essential that in today’s environment, while dealing with human resource we need to remember that ‘we are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotions’. Excellence in business life requires something more than mere general intelligence. An acknowledgement of this fact may lead us to explore the emotional aspects of the human mind. Therefore, emotions are ubiquitous and inseparable part of everyday life in the workplace (Ashforth and Humprey, 1995). Goleman (1995) in this context has opined that IQ alone is no more the measure of success but combinations of other factors that is EI, social intelligence, etc., plays a vital role in defining a person’s achievement and well- being. Over the last decade, the notion of EI has become a scientific construct to understand implications of behaviour and adaptation of the individual to his/her environment (Shanwal, 2004). EI speaks about human characteristics of emotions, spirit, experience and intention. It treats people, market Vol. 5, No. 2, July - December, 2014 140