CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The economy is quickly developing in modern society, competition continues to increase, and industrial success has ended up being among one of the most substantial measures of ways to develop better and better in the face of worldwide competition. Firms today wish to employ or educate new employees that have the ability to exceed their current positions to maximize efficiency. Emotional intelligence (EI) has attracted substantial interest from business professionals and intellectuals in recent times. This personality-related element has been commonly suggested by educationists in the field of behavior and management sciences (Alotaibi, Amin and Winterton, 2020; Naz, Li, Nisar and Rafiq, 2019). As the global environment today is extremely varied, the emotional understanding and the result of workers have to be linked. Emotional intelligence is for that reason essential for the presentation of the firm and for the growth as employees are determined mainly to accomplish their goals. The emotions of the worker likewise play an important role in assisting them navigate this stimulating climate of transition (Alonazi, 2020).
Sometimes we are in very tough and challenging situations at workplace and usually need to choose the best ways to deal with it effectively without hurting any type of parties included and without needing to express any regret on the choices we have taken later on. Consequently, we should continue methodically with the issue and evaluate it for its positive and negative impacts on us and those who are affected by our choices. Likewise, wise decisions which we are not specific are a requirement for our daily therapy of a variety of issues. All these are issues dealt with by our feelings. Thus, psychological intelligence comes to be an essential device for dealing with the difficulties that impact one in the workplace in other to carry out their responsibilities efficiently and effectively in the current day situation (Alsughayir, 2021).
Emotional intelligence is the capability to check and distinguish emotional experiences from each other and to utilize this knowledge to direct one's ideas and actions. It is commonly stated that it is the ability to acknowledge one's very own feelings and those of others, to affect feelings and relate them to tasks such as thinking and problem solving, to adjust emotions, consisting of the capability to manage one's very own emotions and the capability to influence or relax another individual (Majeetha and Nirmala, 2020; Dhani and Sharma, 2019). Lots of firms have acknowledged that in order to stand out in today's dynamic business world, they need not just academic capabilities but likewise emotional intelligence (Gunu and Oladepo, 2014; Wen, 2020).
The achievements of workers can be significantly improved by enhancing the emotional intelligence (Kim and Foroudi, 2020). For many years, the degree of intelligence was the just way to identify appropriate people for employment, regardless of the weaknesses that are consequently determined until EI became apparent in 1995, when it aroused the interests of researchers (Dhani and Sharma, 2019). Ever since, IQ has not just been dismissed as the just sign for accomplishment, but also as an alternating higher-level element, which is most significant because it can distinguish between the very best performers and the other workers around the world (Poornima, and Sijatha, 2020). EI impacts our daily lives more to ensure that we comport, connect to and pick the choices of personal and collective results in order to make choices to know where, what, when or the method we think. It is not natural to have just couple of people who are empowered to realize when their feelings happen, while the others are unable and have to be trained and learned to ensure that they have the potential to fail or understand uncertain emotions, leading to poor choices, interventions or attitudes (Puri and Mehta, 2020).
Emotional intelligence is considered to have a considerable effect on our professional abilities. For example, transformational leadership is believed to arise when leaders are capable of understanding themselves and deal with others efficiently (Dhani and Sharma, 2019). It is one of the most recommended methods to direct our efforts in a way that creates one of the most acceptable results, and in this undertaking, a number of EI research studies concerning skills needed for performance have been carried out by academics, with outcomes suggesting that emotional intelligence has a considerable impact on the performance and a big portion of success in any type of employment whatsoever. Our EI is the base of a range of crucial skills and has an effect on almost everything, not least on the things we say or do every day, however also on some tasks, including performance at work (Navas and Vijayakumar, 2018).
Disputes today at work environment can be got rid of, booming production and organization's output can be increased when appropriate EI growth investments are made (Ul-Hassan, 2016). The overwhelming majority of firms in the current time have tried to defeat the tough market competition. Consequently, the majority of these companies have likewise invested so greatly in their mission to improve the commitment and satisfactions of their clients, the advancement of their human resources, technology, efficiency, quality and quantity, and in the area of corporate social responsibility. Therefore, they have overlooked to build and enhance their employees' emotional intelligence, which has cost them a considerable amount of money without their awareness. However, as Mohanty, Sarangi, Nayak and Pasumarti (2019) explained, emotional intelligence makes it possible for an individual to create positive work relationships, team up successfully, and create social capital. Emotional intelligence likewise helps a person's performance by enabling them to control their feelings in regards to dealing with pressure and respond also under pressure, as well as helping them in adapting to strategic development in the organization.
Emotional intelligence as a result, is not an entirely new idea. Organisations have frequently made use of various characteristics in the past to evaluate the prospective work performance of a job applicant. Such attributes can include their cognitive capability, past attitudes, skills, personality and job-related competencies. Today, emotional intelligence has currently been contributed to this group and continues to increase in acceptance (Kim and Foroudi, 2020). For that reason, the need to examine emotional intelligence and organizational performance (Nestle Nigeria Plc).
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Managing workers' emotions properly seem a 21st century challenge to the managers. Although previous researcher established a relationship between emotional intelligence and performance in the organization, little evidence is learnt about how workers translate their emotional intelligence into improved work outcomes in their organisations.
In work environments where people are frequently scared and insecure, workers are in danger of turning numb to protect themselves. These are clearly seen in the black faces of sub staff the lack of enthusiasm by front line workers, and in the remarkably incentive ways managers and workers deal with each other.
The system which enables an individual to survive an emotionally unpleasant atmosphere also makes it challenging for them to react sensitively and empathetically to others. Some staff in organisations like Nestle Nigeria Plc. appears not to be socially aware of the feelings and concerns of others. They do not know what is socially appropriate from them in society and how they ought to act in that manner
At the workplace, interaction with other people appears to be crucial which might need the competency of empathy for better performance. Many workers in the manufacturing companies like Nestle Nigeria Plc. are not socially competent workers. They lack the idea of placing themselves in others' position and after that might continue to specific unsuitable action.
Socially competent staff have the capability of understanding the general psyche of a company and political realities in groups, however many workers appear not be aware of this. They lack the capability to develop organizational awareness that might improve networking and coalition building which might make them to wield influence regardless of their professional role. Organizations regardless of size, technology and market focus are dealing with worker retention difficulties. Few companies think that the human personnel and workers of any type of organization are its main assets which can lead them to success or if not focused well, to decline.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The main objective of this study is to determine emotional intelligence and organizational performance by using Nestle Nigeria Plc as a case study. However, the specific objectives are:
a) To evaluate factors that influence emotional intelligence in the organizations.
b) To examine the role of different factors of emotional intelligence in organizational performance.
c) To investigate the extent to which managing emotion affect organizational performance at Nestle Nigeria Plc
1.4 Research Questions
Based on the objectives of this study, the following research questions are stated and will be addressed:
a) What are factors that influence emotional intelligence in the organizations?
b) What is the role of different factors of emotional intelligence in organizational performance?
c) To what extent is managing emotion affect organizational performance at Nestle Nigeria Plc?
1.5 Research Hypotheses
The following hypotheses are formulated and will be tested in the course of this study:
a) There is a significance influence of emotional intelligence on organisations
b) There is no significant relationship between factors of emotional intelligence and organizational performance
1.6 Significance of the Study
This study will be beneficial to manufacturing companies most especially to Nestle Nigeria Plc on the way to ensure that the employee’s emotions are important in order to achieve their organizational goals and objectives.
In addition, this study will be extremely beneficial to numbers of people which include scholars who want to learn more about emotional intelligence and workers who want to contribute to a body of management theory because the findings from this study will bring new ideas to the current state of research in the areas and can be used for training and developing a body of performance management as well as leadership styles in the organization.
This research will also provide the government with valuable insights into the management and performance enhancements of government-owned companies. This becomes imperative as the majority of public-sector employees are faced with the decision not to do their utmost because of their bad emotions at work.
The study will also assist managers to take decisions in the recruitment, placement, promotion, grooming, incentive and introduction of new ideas, particularly in their organizations. This study will also add to existing understanding about the relationship between emotional intelligence and employee performance and commitment. Lastly, existing study concentrated more on the link between emotional intelligence and work-related results, neglecting the root paths in which emotional intelligence influences employee performance and engagement at work. This study is important by studying how various emotionally intelligent elements influence the productivity of organisations. This has also made an avenue to bridge the current gap where most studies inadvertently ignored.
1.7 Scope of the Study
This study covers the impact of emotional intelligence on organisational performance in the manufacturing industry by using Nestle Nigeria Plc as a case study. It covers only it covers staff, management and casual workers of the organization. The organisation was chosen because the researcher can easily get information needed for this study since the researcher resides in Lagos.
1.8 Limitations of the Study
In carrying out the study, the researcher was faced with some constraints. Many employees
of organisation do not like activities that appear to be probing them. They seem to have special liking for secrecy, thereby tend to avoid researchers. They considered giving information as secret. As such, they refuse to give out meaningful information that would aid the researcher.
Most casual workers of the organisation are illiterates and therefore cannot be useful for the research since they are afraid that if they give out right information, it will be used against them. This made the researcher to segregate them out of research samples due to the difficulty of
obtaining relevant data from them.
Some respondents made it difficult for researchers to obtain research information. The researcher was denied access to some confidential data that were considered to be relevant to the study.
The research is mainly for academic purpose. Other academic workload hindered the research from covering a wide range since the research was carried out alongside with this academic workload.
Finally, there were no much work done by researchers in the areas of study. The researcher
therefore, found it difficult to get much materials for the literature review.
1.9 Definition of Terms
For better understanding of some of the terms used in this study, the researcher gave the
definitions of some terms as they connote to the study.
Emotion: The part of a persons’ character that concerns feelings.
Intelligence: The ability to learn, understand and think in a logical way about things, the ability to do this well.
Emotional Intelligence: This refers to the abilities concerning recognition and regulation of emotions in self and others.
Employees: These are people who are paid by Nestle Nigeria Plc to work in the organisation.
Performance: This is the result or impact of activities of individuals over a given period of time.
