Kathryn Thory

Teaching managers to regulate their emotions better: insights from emotional intelligence training and work-based application

Despite the prevalence and significance of regulating emotions in the workplace, there is a major gap in the literature on the training and work-based application of emotion regulation strategies. This study seeks to fill this gap by investigating how emotion regulation strategies are taught to managers on three emotional intelligence training courses, the events associated with their use in the workplace and any constraints. Drawing on qualitative data from participant observations and interviews with managers and trainers, the study identifies the use of eight emotion regulation strategies that are classified as attention deployment, cognitive change and response modulation. Managers use a variety of the strategies at work, sometimes combining and adapting them. These strategies were reportedly used during situations of interpersonal conflict, interpersonal interactions, organizational change, to relieve boredom and cope with work overload. Managers described constraints as dispositional, physical, time, effort, status and unfeasibility/lack of realism of tools.

A gendered analysis of emotional intelligence in the workplace: issues and concerns for human resource development

Drawing on a sociological analysis considering gender, this article explores how emotional intelligence (EI) abilities are socially constructed and valued. It presents a range of societal trends including “the future is female” to explore how both men and women are perceived and judged against symbolic representations of masculine and feminine when they perform gendered conceptions of EI. The article illuminates how women and men may be encouraged to take up feminine and masculine interpretations of EI skills but women fare less well. It then examines the effects of EI’s assessment and therapeutic methods in training and work-based use. It argues that these approaches are damaging to individuals when deployed in work environments where masculinized management resides as the dominant framework. Finally, the article discusses the findings in relation to HRD to reveal important theoretical guidelines for practice.