Inteligencia Emocional

Level 2 Increasing team emotional intelligence through process

Patricia Moriarty Dublin City University Business School, Dublin, Ireland Finian Buckley Dublin City University Business School, Dublin, Ireland

Keywords

Learning, Skills, Work teams, Teamworking

Introduction
Teams in the workplace
The movement to the adoption of teamworking in the workplace has been widely noted in thelast decade (Van Offenbeek, 2001; Osterman, 1999). There is clear evidence that the adoption of a teamwork approach has several qualitative and quantitative advantages for the organisation (Dooley and Fryxell, 1999: Neumann and Wright, 1999). Organisational work teams can be defined as:
. . . groups that exist within the context of a larger organisation, have clearly defined membership, and shareresponsibility for a team project or service (Edmondson, 1999, p. 351).

Abstract

The use of teams in the workplace is an accepted facet of current working life. Training is undertaken with a view to equipping students for the eventual transition to a workplace which demands the social scientific skills of being an active, contributing, co-operative team member. The use of content andprocess in a practical-based learning situation is the focus of this study, which assesses a range of learning approaches used to acquire a knowledge of the skills required for team working. The division of the course into content and task-related aspects on the one hand, and process and subjective experience on the other, is evaluated from the point of view of the skills it transfers to the courseparticipant. The concept of emotional intelligence is measured to ensure the practical application of theory on team working to the experience of team functioning. The results indicate the success of this approach and demonstrate its ease of transfer to the workplace training environment.

In order to retain an organisation's dynamism and efficiency organisations must understand the learningprocesses involved in team development and how to maximise the effectiveness of these processes (Polat, 1995).

Teams in learning setting

Thanks are due to both S. Leith and G. Conyngham for their inputs.

Journal of European Industrial Training 27/2/3/4 [2003] 98-110 # MCB UP Limited [ISSN 0309-0590] [DOI 10.1108/03090590310468921]

Due to the fact that businesses are utilising teams more atall hierarchical levels, there is a need for educational institutions to prepare students for the group decision-making processes that exist in the real world, as well as increasing their ability to function within a team structure (Kaplan and Welker, 2001). Kremer and McGuinness (1998) explain that since the ability to work in a team and ability to think and act independently are highly desiredskills and competencies for success in the workplace, educational institutions should actively and overtly seek to develop these skills in graduates. Such skills are not best taught through the formal and traditional lecture style educational model, and indeed the static and
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregisterunidirectional format of lectures may perpetuate passivity and dependency (Kremer and McGuinness, 1998). This teaching model is based on the assumption that students are dependent on the teacher and merely learn what they are told to learn in order to progress. The student remains passive. It is clear that this model of teaching and learning has its origins in traditional models of childhood education and maynot be best suited to adult learners (Knowles, 1990). Research in adult education in recent decades clearly demonstrates that adults learn better when experiencing the andragogical approach to learning facilitation. This model seeks to treat students like adults rather than children and is based on the following premises outlined by Knowles (1990). Adults are typically responsible for their own...