Believing in a Pragmatist Business Ethic

This chapter focuses on the concept of “emotional intelligence” as it is commonly understood in organizational contexts and explores the temptation to use this concept to simplify, categorize or even reject vague and unruly sensations as they occur in the work place. It chapter deals with emotional intelligence as it is most commonly employed in organizations, these other voices in the emotional intelligence debate fall outside the scope of the argument presented here. Daniel Goleman’s theory of emotional intelligence encompasses the components mentioned above. As he explains in a “primer” on emotional intelligence, “the ability to manage ourselves and our relationships effectively consists of four fundamental capabilities: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and social skill”. A tough-minded empiricist in a managerial role will not exclude parts of experience from consideration but “try to interpret each notion by tracing its respective practical consequences”.