Emotional intelligence and change management: how does change affect employees' emotions?

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate emotional intelligence and change management. The research had two main purposes. To study how a change in the work environment affects the emotions of employees and to understand how it would be possible for employees to adapt to the change as quickly and efficiently as possible.

To be able to study the emotions of employees and the impact of change on them, it was important to study different models of change management, the historical development in the field of change management, and to take two theoretical models of working life's emotional intelligence to create a better background understanding and as the cornerstones of the research.

To carry out the research, an emotional culture index survey developed by Genos International was carried out for the company that is the subject of the research. The survey was designed to measure three dimensions of emotions at work, current state, expected state, and ideal state. In the survey, 73 responses were received from people in various positions for about two weeks. Thanks to the research method, the results are very well visualized between different respondent groups and therefore easily interpretable.

The findings of the study confirm the fact that the change influences the emotions of the employees. Particular attention is drawn to the fact that the expected and ideal state of emotions among all respondents regarding the ten central feelings of working life is higher than the current state. Especially for those employees who have experienced a change in the past 12 months, they rate negative emotions higher and positive emotions lower than the target group for whom no change occurred.