Exploring Emotional Intelligence for Multicultural Work
- Suzanne Hendrich (Iowa State University)
Abstract
Differences in race and ethnicity often cause strong emotional responses in people. Our abilities to be aware of and manage our emotions and to interact with others’ emotions may profoundly influence our abilities to communicate and work across cultures. Four dimensions of emotional intelligence (EI)—emotional perception (self and others), use of emotions to facilitate thinking, making emotional meanings, managing emotions (self and others)—will be explored with the focus on how to use EI in working across cultural groups. After a brief introduction to EI, a self-assessment will be done by workshop participants, and, in a go-round, participants will share stories about situations in which they either found aspects of EI to be valuable or later wished they had been able to use EI-related abilities better. Group discussion on how to work on EI abilities in intercultural contexts will ensue, with a final go-round related to participant insights on this topic. Go-rounds may be in subgroups, depending on the numbers of participants.