Experimental Study On Effects Of Group Emotional Intelligence On Group Decision-making Process And Decision-making Results

With the acceleration of global integration process, the environments that modern organizations confronted are much more complex than those of the past. More and more enterprises and organizations began using group as its decision-making unit. However, previous studies mainly concentrated in the rational-cognitive decision-making process, few focused on the emotional issues. In recent years, accompanied by people's concern about emotional intelligence, group emotional intelligence also aroused the interests of researchers. Through the review of past research, I proposed the conceptual model of group emotional intelligence. I also explore the mechanism of the effects of group emotional intelligence on group decision-making process and outcomes with empirical datas.To test the hypotheses, I conducted an experiment with 55 student groups to examine the relationship among group emotional intelligence, intragroup conflict, conflict management processes and group decision-making outcomes. The experiment was designed as a 2 (high vs. low average emotional intelligence)×2 (high vs. low leader emotional intelligence) factorial design. The main conclusions are as follows:Group average emotional intelligence (GAEI) and the emotional intelligence levels of group leaders are correlated with group whole emotional intelligence (GEI): GAEI is positively related to group whole emotional intelligence. High GAEI groups will show a higher level of GEI in the following interactive process; Group leader emotional intelligence (GLEI) is positively related to the ability of group regulation of emotion (GROE). High GLEI groups will show a higher level of GROE in the following interactive process.Group emotional intelligence has significantly effects on group decision-making processes. High GAEI groups tend to take more cooperative behaviors and less competitive behaviors than low GAEI groups; different levels of GLEI groups have no significant differences in conflict management behavior; GEI has significant effects on group decision-making process. High GEI groups always experience less relationship conflict; take more cooperative manner, and less competiting and avoiding behaviors to solve the problems.Group emotional intelligence has significantly effects on group decision-making outcomes: High GAEI groups will experience higher levels of process satisfaction and cohesion than low GAEI groups; Groups which are in HH, HL, and LH conditions always have higher levels of cohesion than groups which are in LL conditions; GEI is positively related to process satisfaction and group cohesion.The conclusions offer references for enhancing emotional management capacity and problem-solving abilities of decision-making groups.