Emotional Intelligence: a Missing Link in Preparing Instructional Design Students for Workplace Success

Abstract

Research confirms that workplace emotional intelligence (EI) is important to employers, indicating organizational benefits realized from emotionally intelligent leaders and employees. Instructional designers (ID'ers) seldom work in isolation, and many deliverables they produce are developed by working with others in teams or through others who may not directly report to them. The work of ID'ers requires effective interpersonal and communication skills-aspects of emotional intelligence-and evidence shows that emotionally intelligent workers successfully navigate workplace dynamics. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE INVOLVES the ability to recognize emotions in oneself and others, understand how emotions originate, develop, and change through experiences, and then develop competencies to use these understandings to enrich thinking and behavior leading to improved learning and individual and collective interactions (Fiori, Antonietti, Mikolajczak, Luminet, Hansenne, & Rossier, 2014). Majeski, Stover, Valais, and Ronch (2017) state, "Emotional intelligence enables individuals to effectively resolve differences and work together to navigate the myriad challenges pertinent to the rapidly changing economic and societal landscape" (p. 135). Workplace emotional intelligence (EI) is becoming increasingly important to employers as research has shown over the past decade (

Improving self-perceived emotional–social competencies with relational outcomes through the strength deployment inventory

“…EI also helps individuals develop practical interpersonal skills to build workplace friendships (Irlbeck and Dunn, 2020; Ofoegbu and Akanbi, 2013). People with EI may be more successful in managing interpersonal interactions with peers, achieve better employee–customer interactions and be more easily recognized by leaders (Gill et al , 2015; Zijlmans et al , 2015).…”