Identifying relationship between emotional intelligence and

cultural diversity

I. Abstract:
This report is considering the network service provider company for identifying the
relationship between the organisational culture and emotional intelligence. The leadership is
considered essential entity of service provider organisation for motivating employees to
achieve organisational objectives and goals. There are two major aspects of any organisations
such as emotion management and culture. These two terms are considered individually in
organisation but posses’ strong relationship during the management of followers. The leaders
face many problems for measuring and assessing emotions of their followers such as
conflicts, contradiction, non cooperation and organisational diversity. The culture of any
organisation is composed of many aspects such as organisational goals, local culture,
individual contribution, policies and emotions. The cultural diversity is directly affecting the
emotions of workers in Network Service Providers Company due to operational approach of
all individuals. The service provider company requires more contribution and collaboration
from all individuals in teams. The cultural diversity will raise different problems and issues
such as misunderstanding, contradiction, unbalanced work load, favouritism and
discrimination in organisation. Therefore, it is important to utilise the capabilities of
leadership in organisation for developing positive relationship between emotional intelligence
and organisational culture.

II. Introduction:
The emotions are considered important element at workplace due to major concern regarding
emotional process, experience, control and interaction at workplace. The term emotional
intelligence is considered as general ability of any individual to perceive their own and others
emotions, whereas it is also important to use these emotions in adaptive and functional way in
organisation. (Humphrey et al., 2008). The term emotional intelligence can be considered in
terms of employees, leaders and organisation. But, the major purpose is based on job
performance, satisfaction of followers and predicting the effectiveness. (Ashkanasy & Jordan,
2008).

The organisations with more emotionally intelligent personnel are getting more advantages in
terms of their performance and operations. Many researches had confirmed that almost 90%

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organisations with good emotional intelligence are capable of improving their business
performance in all kind of environments. These organisations have more competitive
advantage as compare to other organisations with less emotional intelligence. (Kilduff et al.,
2010). The leaders are managers are responsible for managing the emotional intelligence in
organisation by adopting strategies based on serving as role models, rewarding, inspiring and
empowering their followers. (Anderson, 2006). Also, leaders and managers are required for
managing the emotional tone of their subordinates. The major aspects of emotional
intelligence are related with performance management, enhanced communication, motivation
and cooperation in organisation.
There are different models proposed on emotional intelligence defining different types of
interpersonal abilities and competencies such as social skills, empathy, self motivation, self
control and self consciousness. (Nwokah and Ahiauzu, 2009). There are four major factors
involved with emotional intelligence such as perceiving emotions, assimilating emotions in
thoughts, understanding emotions, and managing emotions. The mixed model defined
emotional intelligence as an array of non cognitive skills, competencies and capabilities of
individual that influences others ability to succeed in coping with environmental pressures
and demands. (Chiva and Alegre, 2008). Also, emotional intelligence is consisting of five
major scales such as intrapersonal, interpersonal, adaptability, stress management, and
general mood. There are different sub scales associated with these scales such as happiness,
encompassing optimism, impulse control, tolerance, problem solving, flexibility, reality
testing, social responsibility, empathy, self actualisation, independence, assertiveness,
emotional self awareness, self regard, and encompassing. (Amagoh, 2009).
The relationship between behaviour/attitude and an event is depending on appraisal and
formation of emotions. The leaders with good emotional intelligence are well aware about the
feelings of their followers, whereas these leaders can help their followers to become
optimistic and enthusiastic. The leaders with good emotional intelligence have more abilities
such as individualised consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation and
idealised influence. (Hughes and Terrell, 2011). The leaders become more capable for
resolving all kinds of conflicts from their organisation. These leaders are increasing
interaction among followers to develop friendly environment with complete cooperation and
collaboration from all individuals. (Modassir and Singh, 2008).
The cultural of organisation is also important due to its relevance with performance,
operation and modes of management in organisation. The culture of organisation is defined
by considering local and international culture to achieve operational performance. There are

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different diversity factors in all kind of organisation such as cultural diversity, language
barrier, religious differences, caste system and social classes. (Thomas et al., 2008). The
cultural diversity is directly related with emotional intelligence of organisation. The cultural
differences are creating problems and difficulties to understand their personal and others
emotions. There are different nationalities with different professional culture such as Asian
workers are competition oriented, US workers are profit oriented, and European workers are
human oriented. The cultural issues are also affecting the performance of leaders, whereas
efficient leaders are managing positive relationship between cultural diversity and emotional
intelligence. (Modassir and Singh, 2008).
The leaders and managers are responsible for conveying the clear message of organisation for
removing cultural differences among workers. The emotions can never be assessed by
positive environment of organisation but efficient leadership can help in modifying the
behaviour and attitude of workers. There were different studies confirming negative
relationship between cultural diversity and emotional intelligence due to many reasons such
as national sentiments, supremacy of race, work approach, discipline and time orientation.
(Momeni, 2009). There are different activities that require complete collaboration and
handover among different employees, but diversity in culture can increase ambiguity for
understanding the work pace and operation procedure in organisation. Thus, it is important
for organisation to utilise their leadership capabilities for making positive relationship
between organisational culture and emotional intelligence. (Koman and Wolff, 2008).
Following are the key research questions for identifying relationship between organisational
culture and emotional intelligence.

 To identify key relationship between emotional intelligence and organisational

culture?
 How efficient leadership can act as bridge between organisational culture and
emotional intelligence?

III. Methodology:
There are different elements and aspects of research such as methodology, data collection
method, research philosophy, research approach, research strategy, time horizon, and data
analytical tools. The selection of research methodology is important for all kind of
researches. The successful completion of research is depending on selection of appropriate
research methodology depending on research question. (Blessing and Chakrabarti, 2009). The

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wrongly adopted methodologies can lead to confusion and errors during whole research, but
selection of appropriate methodology helps researchers to efficiently complete their research
work. This research report is considering questionnaire based research methodology to
identify key relationship between emotional intelligence and organisational culture. There are
four key elements considered during the selection of research methodology in research such
as sample selection, research procedure, research instruments, and research ethics. (Creswell,
2013).
The selection of sample is important for research methodology, in order to confirm the
relevance of participants with research. The selection of research methodology also requires
participants with sufficient background knowledge and experience about research problem.
(Grey, 2009). This research report was considering the project managers and project
engineers as target participants, whereas these participants were selected from different Small
to Medium Enterprises of Pakistan. It was also considered to check the experience of these
participants with emotional intelligence and cultural diversity. This was confirmed by
selecting multinational SME’s. There were 40 participants selected for this report from
different SME’s of Pakistan. The relevance of research participants was confirmed by
considering initial information about these participants such as designation, experience, and
age group. (Yin, 2003).
The research procedure is also important for selection of research methodology due to its
major influence on research findings. The research procedure is determining how research
will be completed such as collection of data, analysis and presenting data to targeted
audience. (Kumar, 2005). This report is following the research procedure by designing
questionnaire, pilot testing of questionnaire, data presenting to participants, data collection,
analysis of data, and final writing. The questionnaire was designed by considering the
primary and secondary research data regarding emotional intelligence and cultural diversity.
The questionnaire was sent by using email medium attaching Microsoft Word file. The
LIKERT method was used for questionnaire to categorise different statements presented in
questionnaire. The participants were requested to express their level of agreement and
disagreement with each statement of questionnaire. (Grey, 2009).
The research instrument is commonly defining the ways in which researcher will be collected
data from participants. The email medium was used for both questionnaire presentation and
data collection. This research report was using questionnaire as major research instrument
with multiple statements about relationship between cultural diversity and emotional
intelligence. (Yin, 2003). The questionnaire was designed by considering main research

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questions of this report, whereas multiple statements were selected from literature review
about research problem. The questionnaire was also simplified by providing options to
participants for expressing their level of agreement and disagreement with these statements.
The data was considered quantitative and collected data was analysed by calculating the
percentage of responses. (Kumar, 2005).
The research ethics are also important for research methodology and consider feelings,
sentiments, respect, availability, privacy, confidentiality and approach of respondents. This
research was also maintaining the research ethics by following professional manners to
conduct research. (Grey, 2009). The participants were provided sufficient time for completing
the questionnaire, whereas emails contains information about management of their privacy
and confidentiality of data. Also, professional language was used during the whole
communication process. Many researchers consider incentives for participants, but there were
no incentives provided except the greetings and thanking emails. This research considered the
emotions of participants for answering all possible statements in questionnaire. (Denscombe,
2007).
Beside these elements of research methodology, there are different issues affecting the
research during whole time period such as social, ethical, legal and technological issues.
There were many social issues for completing this research report such as communication
barriers, time difference between UK and Pakistan, distance communication, unawareness
about participants, telephonic conversation without expression, and limited resources. There
were also different ethical issues for completing this report such as sentiments of respondents,
unawareness about respondent’s nature, maintaining national sentiments, and unclear
research purpose. There were no legal issues faced during research such as plagiarism, data
protection, breaching confidentiality and privacy. There were no technological issues faced
during research, but consideration of emotions with technology could result in improved
research.

IV. Results and Discussion:

There were 30 responses received through emails but there were 5 incomplete responses
received, therefore total 25 responses were considered for this research report. The initial
section consisting of general information about respondents confirmed the relevance of
research such as designation, experience and age group. There were 18 project managers, 4
project engineers, and 3 team leaders. The majority of respondents were having experience of
more than 5 years, whereas majority of respondent were mature depending on their age

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group. The results collected from different statements of questionnaire is presented in the
given below table 1 and figure 1.

Table 1: Results collected from participants of different SME’s in Pakistan

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Figure 1: Graph presenting results collected from participants of different SME’s in Pakistan

The results collected from questionnaire were confirming strong relationship between
emotional intelligence and organisational culture. The clarification was also confirmed to
check its positive or negative impact on emotions of individuals. The leaders are considered
major asset of any organisation for acting as a major bridge for managing emotional
intelligence in culturally diverse environments. This report was also using 6 statements
considering all aspects involved with leadership, emotional intelligence and organisational
culture. The initial statement confirmed that good behaviour and work is highly appreciated
in their organisation. These results confirm that strong culture is adopted for monitoring and
rewarding good behaviour and work in organisation. (Groves and Feyerherm, 2011).
The emotions of individuals are improved by rewarding and motivating their good behaviour
and work. Also, leaders are capable of monitoring all kind of behaviour, attitude and work
approach. The more creative and innovative employees are also getting benefits and rewards,
but people with good emotional intelligence are capable of providing innovative options. The
leadership is also responsible for managing different conflicts and contradiction in
organisation. There is negative relation between cultural diversity and emotional intelligence.

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Majority of respondents considered that cultural differences are severely causing conflicts in
organisation. There may be many reasons for cultural difference such as non cooperation
nature, work approach, non collaboration, miscommunication, language barrier, and respect
for others. The leadership and managers are responsible for defining policing based on non
discrimination and total participation of employees at work. (Barczak et al., 2010).
There are different contrasting statements available in research about cultural diversity. Many
researchers considered that cultural diversity is creating problems during team formation. The
cultural issues are also affecting throughout the whole life cycle of projects. This was the
reason that majority of respondents provided confused responses regarding team management
with cultural diversity. But, majority of respondents confirmed that they are respecting all
individuals and their emotions during work. They also confirmed that all cultures gets similar
respect and majority of rewards are given on the basis of their performance. (Groves
and Feyerherm, 2011).
The organisation is responsible for designing and developing strong culture for considering
all local and international cultures. Also, they should enable their leadership to participate
actively for uniting all individuals from different cultures to follow unique organisational
culture. This unity will help in achieving performance competency, whereas different
conflicts will be removed from projects. (Rockstuhl et al., 2011). Therefore, it can be
concluded that there is both positive and negative impact of cultural diversity on emotional
intelligence of organisation. This all depends on capabilities of organisation and their
leadership to handle these two factors in their organisation. The leadership can help in
developing positive relationship between organisational culture and emotional intelligence.

V. Conclusion and Reflection:

There are two major aspects of any organisation related with this report such as culture and
emotional intelligence. The term emotional intelligence is associated with understanding and
learning of emotions by individuals in organisation. The leadership plays active role for
managing, motivating and influencing employees in any organisation. The leaders are also
responsible for monitoring the behaviour and attitude of workers to assess their emotions.
The efficient leadership is always considering all the needs and demands of their
subordinates, whereas emotions are usually measured with completion and non completion of
workers needs and demands.
The culture is also important for any organisation and requires proper defining of different
aspects such as objectives, operations, procedure, policies, regulations and performance

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activities. This report analysed that there is both positive and negative impact of cultural
diversity on emotional intelligence of organisation. This shows strong relationship between
culture and emotional intelligence. The leadership is responsible for managing different
strategies and activities to develop positive relationship between these two important entities
of organisation. The results showed that cultural diversity is making it difficult for forming
teams, whereas efficient leadership is resolving all types of conflicts in organisation. The
emotions can be improved through proper rewarding system, whereas all demands and needs
of employees must be completed in organisation.
This report provided detailed knowledge about emotional intelligence and culture of
organisation. The understanding helped in exploring major issues faced in multinational
companies. This knowledge will be helpful for future employment and emotions of other
would be considered in all other fields. This report also provided extensive knowledge about
research and its elements. This report developed good understanding about analyses of data
and data collection methods. This report will be extensively helping during the future M.Sc
dissertation.

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