EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS-AN OVERVIEW

Organizations are emotional hotbeds because they produce situations likely to be meaningful to employees. Organizations involve complex relationships that are interdependent, often competitive, and compulsory. Employees often interact with a range of people not necessarily of their choice. Organizations are often characterized by hierarchical relationships, and stark differences are a primary cause of emotional response. Emotions are responses to specific events that have meaning to the individual, either positive or negative. They are generally more focused, of shorter time duration, and more intense than moods or feelings, and emotional responses involve several psychological subsystems, including the physiological, cognitive, motivational, and experiential systems. Organizations typically involve pressure surrounding deadlines and productivity, and high personal stakes?often an individual's self-identity is wrapped up with his or her perceptions of organizational achievement.