Author: Maree Roche
Abstract: The focus of this research was the development of leadership potential, responsibility and contribution of a Work Team in a medium-sized plastics manufacturing company in the metropolitan area. The aim was to move towards a developmental program that reflected the principles of Emotional Intelligence (EI) as outlined by Goleman (1995, 1998a, 1998b, 2000). Four, four-hour sessions were developed based on Goleman’s (1995,1998a, 2000) competencies and taught one week apart. Evaluation of the training program was completed by examining a number of variables at the end of workshop sessions, in order to ascertain whether or not the EI program and competencies were used in the workplace, and whether an understanding of EI contributed to the overall effectiveness of the workplace. The research reports on a single case and thus represents an instrumental case study design. The outcomes of this case study firstly were used to confirm or challenge EI theory in a particular workplace, and secondly, collected information that acted as pre- test research. The results provided a positive indication of the effectiveness of the EI program and supported the viability of developing a larger scale evaluation of EI in the workplace, and its effectiveness at an individual and organisational level.
