Introduction
In modern conditions of the international market development, the most crucial factor in maintaining the country’s economy’s stability is its competitiveness. For many organizations, to enter the foreign market and maintain a leading position in the domestic market, it is necessary to form an enterprise strategy in which many associations can successfully operate in the harsh conditions of global competition and quickly respond to changes in the external environment. In addition to these conditions, enterprises are faced with an equally important task – to achieve maximum labor productivity and increase the company’s profits. These are some of the most critical indicators that determine the efficiency of the transport industry enterprises and not only.
The set goals can be achieved by wisely choosing a human resource management strategy. This study is based on the issue that affects personnel’s emotional intelligence, as one of the components of employee motivation at the enterprise, in terms of its increase. This strategy’s effectiveness is possible only through the use of innovative mechanisms and models of personnel motivation. They promote more active employee involvement in work, stimulate professional development and encourage employees to be professionals in many areas, going beyond their responsibilities. One of the primary drivers of emotional intelligence and awareness, self-esteem, and adaptability is motivation.
The EI Building Blocks
Emotional intelligence is the ability of a human being to identify, use, understand and manage their own emotions in a positive way, for example, to relieve stress, overcome difficulties, and defuse conflicts. This ability allows to recognize the emotional state of other people. Various researchers distinguish between four and twelve elements of EI. One of the most popular classifications belongs to Daniel Goleman who divides emotional intelligence into five components.
First, self-knowledge is the main skill in which a person recognizes his or her own emotions and understands how they affect thoughts and behavior. The individual knows his or her strengths and weaknesses, and he or she has self-confidence. Second, self-control means the ability to control impulsive feelings, manage emotions in relationships, take the initiative, and follow through changing circumstances. Third, an empathy with which a person knows how to develop and maintain good relationships, communicate efficiently, inspire and guide other people is required. Fourth, motivation is essential, due to which an individual represents their goal and is aware of each next step on the way to their dream. Fifth, social skills play important role in which an employee can understand other people’s emotions, needs, and problems, resolve conflicts within a team.
It should be noted that with an increase in emotional intelligence, a person develops all the listed qualities in approximately equal measures. In the National Center on Education and the Economic work environment, all of the EI building blocks would impact management’s ability to enhance employee performance and job satisfaction. Self-knowledge will allow the manager to become more confident in themselves, which will entail a more objective assessment of their strengths and subordinates’ abilities. Self-control is an essential quality of a leader due to the need to make difficult decisions, the consequences of which will affect the entire team. Empathy is critical to understanding and exploiting the strengths and weaknesses of the team. Motivation contributes to stable and productive work in the long term and demonstration of personal example for subordinates. Finally, social skills are critical for any leader because they need to find common ground with different people. Thus, it is possible to conclude that all EI components’ development will allow managers to do their job more efficiently.
The Motivational Theory
Based on the company’s initial research, poor communication between the firm’s divisions was identified. The organization has three independent links, between which it is difficult to establish a dialogue. To address this problem, it was proposed to strengthen the democratization of decision-making in the corporation. The more employees are involved in the process, the more important they will feel; therefore, communication problems between the company branches will be leveled. To achieve this goal, the use of Vroom’s motivational strategy is best suited.
One of the fundamental concepts in the theory of motivation for workers’ effective labor activity is the concept developed by Viktor Vroom. Vroom’s motivational idea of expectations is a procedural theory. A much more significant motivating factor is a person’s expectations that the chosen behavior model will lead to the desired result. The theory of expectations formulated by Vroom introduces four key concepts which underlie the motivation of employee behavior: “expectations”, “instrumentality”, “valence” and “results”.
Expectations are employee beliefs that his or her work will lead to the desired result. To meet expectations, the specialist must have the appropriate skills and experience in their field of activity. For example, most workers expect that if they work efficiently and to the fullest, they will receive a career promotion, bonus, or pay raise.
Managing employee motivation is based on the instrumental factor and should enhance the valence that is most significant for him or her. Instrumentality is understood as realizing that the performance of work and the required result’s achievement is the fundamental factor for receiving remuneration (Alston et al., 2017). The analyzed term implies identifying the degree of closeness of the relationship between the development of actions and the consequences to which this result will lead. Instrumentality can be optimistic, absent, and cynical; its values vary from -1 to +1. A special place in Vroom’s theory is occupied by valence, which means the degree of desirability of each specific activity result: money, career, the attitude of the administration, authority among colleagues, job retention, etc. To create positive motivation among employees, it is necessary to apply additional incentives to achieve the highest valency degree.
For example, a person wants to get some benefit related to his work. To receive the desired reward, he must achieve a certain level of performance of work assignments. If this expectation is high, the individual will be motivated to work hard. If he or she is confident that long and hard work will not allow them to get the desired benefits, the motivation will be much lower.
EI and Social Skills and Decision Making
The higher the management team’s representatives’ emotional intelligence, the more conscious their decisions will be. EI’s development makes it possible to comprehensively look at the problem, considering various factors. As described earlier, the company’s primary concern is the lack of communication between departments. To solve this issue, it is proposed to use Vroom’s motivational model, which allows employees to be given more freedom and desire to take responsibility. To take into account all the team’s opinions and suggestions considered to have developed emotional intelligence. In this case, all employees’ ideas will be considered, which will allow them to achieve maximum productivity in the work process. The core concepts of EI will build more trustful, independent, and supportive relationships between the co-workers. Thus, the decision-making efficacy of the management team will rise due to more opinions within the group and the possibility to make the best choice.
The Core Attributes of an Effective Team and the Strategies to Develop Team Dynamics
Determination of the effectiveness of the work team can be based on several attributes and phenomena. The team’s working atmosphere is informal and comfortable and does not contain apparent tensions. People are involved and interested in the work process. There are many discussions, and everyone participates in them. The team’s goals and objectives are well understood and accepted by its members; the task is discussed in free form until all team members find their place in its implementation. Most decisions are reached by consensus, which demonstrates that everyone agrees with the decision being made and is willing to move forward. Criticism is mundane, sincere, and relatively comfortable. There are very few personal attacks, both open and veiled, and the critical analysis is constructive. The leader does not dominate; in fact, management changes from time to time depending on the circumstances. Team members are seen as a leadership resource.
Given that the National Center on Education and the Economic is a non-profit organization, its primary goal is to provide high-quality services. Making a profit is not the goal of this company. Most team strategies are aimed at optimizing business processes to increase income. However, in this case, a different approach is required. An intensification strategy is best suited for NCEE, where communication within the company is strengthened, and management seeks to optimize communication between various departments.
Effective Reward System and the Strategies to Motivate Employees and Influence Behavior
One of the most common forms of remuneration for any company employee is monetary since almost every employee is interested in the highest possible wages. Indeed, when specific KPI indicators are achieved, which will be formed by the management, it will not be a mistake to assign cash bonuses. Nevertheless, it is worth considering the nature of the company’s work, which does not set itself to make a profit. Moreover, employees quickly get used to material bonuses and begin to take them for granted. Therefore, ideologically motivating employees with money in a company that develops policy for education and the economy will not be entirely correct. Given the characteristics and challenges found in the NCEE analysis, intangible forms of motivation are the best rewards. In analyzing the company’s internal situation, it was concluded that it was necessary to develop the emotional intelligence of employees, and the strategies of motivation and encouragement were also considered. Accordingly, one of the best remuneration methods will be the ability to make critical decisions on a particular policy and management in case of demonstrating quality work (Fianko et al., 2020). Participation in strategic sessions will also increase communication between different departments, motivate employees, and allow management to learn more about the company’s work from the perspective of ordinary employees.
To achieve the maximum result, the project manager needs to develop criteria for evaluating a particular department’s personnel’ work. These criteria must reflect the needs of leadership in completing tasks and consider using emotional intelligence skills to achieve results. The main goal of this approach is to develop skills among workers. If before they did not use emotional intelligence principles in the work process, sometime after introducing evaluation criteria and the announcement of rewards, this will happen automatically. Employees will subconsciously start to think more about their colleagues, act more consciously, and be open to dialogue. The incentive system’s primary goal is not to find and select the most persistent and talented employees – in this case, the mistrust between team members will grow, and everyone will strive to become the best. On the contrary, this approach’s primary goal is to strengthen relationships within the team, increase trust between colleagues, and maximize operating units’ efficiency.
References
Alston, D. M., Marshall, J. C., & Zambak, V. S. (2017). Inquiry instructional practice in middle school science classes: Applying Vroom’s valence-instrumentality-expectancy theory of motivation. Science Educator, 26(1), 1–10.
Fianko, S. K., Afrifa Jnr, S., & Dzogbewu, T. C. (2020). Does the interpersonal dimension of Goleman’s emotional intelligence model predict effective leadership? African Journal of Business & Economic Research, 15(4), 221–245.