The importance of EI competence for teachers and leaders in diverse ELT contexts

Researchers and practitioners in a variety of fields have recognised the importance of the human element in the workplace. It is sometimes referred to as soft skills, in contrast to technical or hard skills. Pink (2006) claims that we need more high touch rather than high tech in the workplace because it is high-touch skills that allow an individual to empathise and understand the intricacies of human interaction. Goleman (1998) has found that high-touch skills are critical to effective performance in the workplace. Using his model of emotional competence (EI), he found that EI was twice as important as pure cognitive abilities in effective performance. While EI’s importance is likely universal, diverse cultures may value the sub-components of EI in different ways. The overall goal of the research was to introduce English language teaching (ELT) professionals to EI and in doing so, reinforce its importance in the workplace. The study was designed around the 24 sub-components of social and personal competence that comprise EI. Participants (N=487), who worked in diverse ELT contexts, responded to an online questionnaire in which they evaluated their own skills relative to the sub-components of EI and the skills they believed to be important for both teachers and leaders. To understand how culture may affect participants’ interactions in the workplace, they were also asked to self-identify with one of Hofstede’s ten cultural clusters (Hofstede, 1991). An analysis of qualitative results showed that cultural dimensions influence interactions in the workplace, which in turn can influence how the sub-components of EI are perceived.