Intelligence - a multidimensional concept: Its Effect on
Organisational Dynamics
Submitted by:
Meghna Goswami, Ph.D. Scholar, Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi
&
Dr. Kavita Singh, Associate Professor, Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi
ABSTRACT
In spite of a large body of research on different dimensions of intelligence, it has
been difficult to integrate the existing knowledge into a comprehensive theoretical
framework tracing the evolution of different types of intelligences and the
subsequent changes in its perspectives over the years. Different types of
intelligences – cognitive, emotional, social and spiritual are an integral part of
workplace abilities; they in turn have a profound effect on not just on-job
performance but on various other workplace dimensions like stress, leadership
effectiveness, organisational citizenship behaviour, job satisfaction and employee
health.
The present paper is an attempt to trace the evolution of different types of
intelligence; right from cognitive intelligence to spiritual intelligence. How these
different types of intelligence affect various organisational dimensions and thereby
influence the overall productivity of the individual employees and the organisation
as a whole. The degree and nature of influence of various intelligence on
workplace related variables differs from strongly positive to negligible.
The paper begins with defining the concept of intelligence as “a very general
mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan,
solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and
learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill or
test-taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper capability for
comprehending our surroundings—"catching on," "making sense" of things, or
"figuring out" what to do (Gottfredson, L.S. 1997)
It then proceeds with describing the various types of intelligence, beginning with
one of the oldest concepts of intelligence – Cognitive intelligence. It is the
intellectual ability to reason; have logic; reading; analysing and prioritizing and
writing. Two important sub dimensions of cognitive intelligence are: Fluid
intelligence and Crystallized intelligence.
Fluid intelligence is one’s ability to think independently, analyse and solve new
problems, irrespective of past knowledge. It also enables to identify patterns and
establish relationships in a novel situation. Fluid intelligence and numeracy are
positively correlated with decision making performance in various tasks, with more
cognitively demanding tasks exposing stronger correlations with fluid intelligence,
and tasks requiring more intensive number processing or numeric assessment being
more strongly correlated with numeracy. (Missier, Mantyla, Bruin, 2011)
Crystallized intelligence is the ability to use past knowledge and experiences to
skilfully tackle a situation at present.
Thereafter, Howard Gardner’s much talked about theory of multiple intelligence
has been discussed to give a peek into an important perspective of the intelligence
theory. Firstly, Gardner’s definition of the concept has been explained and the 8
different types of multiple intelligences.
This theory of multiple intelligence
conceives individual as possessing a profile of intelligences in which he
demonstrates varying levels of strengths and weakness for each of the eight
intelligences.
The paper also discusses E.L. Thorndike’s classification of intelligence into three
aspects of: abstract, mechanical, and social intelligence. Abstract intelligence
refers to the ability to understand and management concepts and abstract ideas.
Mechanical intelligence refers to the ability to understand and manage concrete
targets within personal environments. Social intelligence refers to the ability to
understand and manage people, as well as intelligence demonstrated in
interpersonal relationships.
In the present paper, out of Thorndike’s three types of intelligence the concept of
social intelligence has been touched upon in detail. Social intelligence is the ability
of individuals to develop and maintain cordial relationships, to assess and predict
the moods and behaviours of others and in-depth understanding of socio- cultural
norms. It also includes the ability to act and react wisely in a given situation so as
not to violate the socially acceptable behaviour pattern. Social intelligence can
prove to be an asset in conflict or negotiation situations. Social intelligence has a
connotation closely related to social skills and competence.
The paper discusses in great detail an important subset of social intelligence –
emotional intelligence (EI) tracing is origin and evolution over the years.
Emotional intelligence is an ability to recognize the meaning of emotions and their
relationships and to reason and problem solve on the basis of them. EI cuts across
the cognitive and emotional systems and is at one time unitary and
multidimensional, being sub divisible into four branches. The first branch,
emotional perception/identification, involves perceiving and encoding information
from the emotional system. The second branch, emotional facilitation of thought,
involves further processing of emotion to improve cognitive processes with a view
to complex problem solving. The third branch, emotional understanding, is in some
ways the obverse of the second: it concerns cognitive processing of emotion. The
fourth and final branch, emotion management, concerns the control and regulation
of emotions in the self and others (Mayer & Salovey, et al., 2000). Over the years a
lot of empirical studies have been carried on in the realm of emotional intelligence
which have added to the existing stock of knowledge and provided the vision for
future research. An attempt has been made to incorporate the essence and
implications of some important path breaking studies on the concept of emotional
intelligence in this paper as well. One such important study was the Reuven BarOn (1997, 2000), who has constructed the first commercially available operational
index for the assessment of EI. This model asses five broad types of emotional
intelligences namely a) interpersonal intelligence; b) intrapersonal intelligence; c)
adaptability; d) stress management; e) general mood
An attempt has been made to focus on some important dimensions of emotional
intelligence such as – trait EI, ability EI and information processing EI. The paper
also focuses on the two opposing schools of thought regarding the nature of
emotional intelligence: one that considers emotional intelligence as an integral part
of an individual’s personality. Previous studies have held that emotional
intelligence is reflected in various personality traits like extraversion, openness.
Sine personality is a sum total of hereditary, reactionary and environmental factors
therefore emotional intelligence is also influenced by the same factors and cannot
be conditioned easily. Whereas the second school of thought holds that emotional
intelligence is not an inherent trait like other personality characteristics; rather it
can be developed over a period of time through training programs and sustainable
conditioning exercise.
After a thorough discussion about one of the most recent and popular concepts of
intelligence we move on to explore the realm of spiritual intelligence. Spiritual
intelligence focuses on the abilities that draw on spiritual themes that predict
functioning, adaptation and being able to produce valuable products and services.
Spirituality at the working environment refers to the act of bringing together the
people’s mind, body and spirit. Spiritual intelligence has 7 important dimensions:
Consciousness, Grace, Meaning, Transcendence, Truth, Serenity and InnerDirectedness.
After describing in great detail the concept of intelligence and explaining its
various aspects – cognitive, multiple, social, emotional and spiritual; the paper sets
out to reflect on various past studies which have established how these different
types of intelligence play a crucial role in a work place set up. These facets of
intelligence affect the performance but they also have impact on various
occupational variables like organisational commitment, job satisfaction, stress,
superior-subordinate relations, and work group cohesiveness.
Past research reveals that intelligence has a positive relation with the process of
organisational change. Emotional intelligence contributes significantly in shaping
employee attitudes towards the process of organisational change. Another study
holds how trader intelligence affects price discovery based on intraday data and
market efficiency. It was found that intelligence does help improve market
performance. A number of studies have held that emotional intelligence has a
positive relationship with employee work outcomes, organisational political skills,
and leadership effectiveness.
This paper intends to analyse the concept of intelligence and understand its
different connotations and their implications in an organisational set up. It
discusses the results of various past research regarding the importance and
influence of different types of intelligence on various organisational dimensions.
Thus, the paper aims to uphold the belief that intelligence in any form – cognitive,
social or spiritual leads to an enhanced work performance, both in terms of
quantity and quality. Thereby employee intelligence contributes to the overall
success of an organisation. Intelligence not just affects the individual or
organisational productivity but also influences various other work related variables
like employee health, attitudes, political and leadership skills which leads to
enhanced productivity, though in an indirect and subtle manner.