Organisational Behaviour
Cognitive Intelligence (CI) and Emotional Intelligence (EI) are considered to be important individual differences in the field of organisational behaviour and there is a lot of research to support this statement. This essay will critically evaluate both concepts and discuss how cognitive ability and EI are applied in modern organisations. It is clear that CI and EI both have very different roles in the modern organisation and they assist in the prediction of success in both personal and professional sectors of ones life. It is important to understand the main difference being that CI implements the individuals mental function for understanding and developing a systematic prospective in thinking whilst EI is considered as the ability for one to make decisions through their emotional and social skills and their understanding and belief system. In modern day organisations there has been a clear shift towards operating in an emotionally intelligent way as this is proving to hold a key to a successful organisation.
Cognitive Intelligence (CI) can be defined as "The ability to learn new things, recall information, think rationally, apply knowledge and solve problems." (Kaplan & Sadock, 1991). CI or commonly referred to cognitive ability was originally researched by Aristotle approximately 23 centuries ago, along with other workings of the mind and the effects on human experience. Many centuries later as psychological studies were advancing in Europe and America, many researchers contributed to the overall study of cognition. Cognition is often measured by the General Mental Ability (GMA), which looks at attention, memory, producing and understanding of language, decision making, learning, reasoning and problem solving. CI is one’s ability to process information, mental functions and processes thoughts and state of intelligence. It also consists of a large number of factors that relate to the way individuals perceive, interpret and respond to information.
Emotional