A Contradiction in Terms? Making Sense of Emotional Intelligence in a Construction Management Environment
| Author | Catherine Cassell,Dirk Lindebaum |
| Date | 01 March 2012 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2010.00729.x |
| Published date | 01 March 2012 |
A Contradiction in Terms? Making Sense
of Emotional Intelligence in a Construction
Management Environment
Dirk Lindebaum and Catherine Cassell
1
University of Liverpool Management School, Chatham Building, Chatham Street, Liverpool L69 7ZH, UK,
and
1
Manchester Business School, Booth Street West, Manchester M15 6PB, UK
Corresponding author email: d.lindebaum@liverpool.ac.uk
Emotional intelligence (EI) has been hailed as being critical to individual performance
within organizations. However, recent theoretical debates indicate that scholars need to
apply a more differentiated lens when examining the utility of EI in a particular
organizational context. In this study, we seek to contribute preliminary empirical
evidence to this debate. Drawing upon an interpretivist approach and a narrative
analysis, we examine how UK construction project managers make sense of EI, and how
this shapes their receptiveness to the construct. Our data analysis suggests that there
are enduring, albeit changing, characteristics of the industry and the sensemaking
processes of project managers that renders the construct, at least for the time being, of
limited utility. Thus, our analysis is a cautionary tale for those management scholars
and practitioners who argue for the ‘trainability’ of EI.
Contradictions tend to fuel scientific inquiry (e.g.
Langton, 1984). One such contradiction manifests
itself in the domain of construction project
management, a discipline which has experienced
considerable growth in recent years (Brumagim,
2000; Toor and Ofori, 2008). Within this disci-
pline, the quality of interpersonal relationships has
been of particular concern to scholars (Mo,
Dainty and Price, 2006; Winter et al., 2006). On
the one hand, it is maintained that construction
firms are now seeking individuals with exceptional
management and leadership skills to improve
interpersonal relationships skills (Dulaimi, 2005),
the quality of which has been associated with the
performance of projects (e.g. Bryman et al., 1987).
More precisely, Dulaimi and Langford (1999)
posit that the industry’s goal ‘to continuously
improve its performance . . . can only be achieved
through proper understanding of the dynamic role
of its main resource – its people’ (p. 263). The
dynamics of human interaction are saturated with
emotional content and failure to acknowledge it
often entails detrimental consequences for organi-
zations (Ashkanasy and Cooper, 2008; Lundberg
and Young, 2001). On the other hand, however,
references to thesignificant degree of interpersonal
and interorganizational conflicts continue to
emerge (Latham, 1994; Loosemore and Galea,
2008). A great many of these conflicts are
influenced by aggressive management styles, fierce
competition, tight profit margins and adversarial
relationships (Holt, Love and Nesan, 2000;
Smithers and Walker, 2000), encapsulated within
a male-dominated c ulture (Fielden et al., 2000;
Loosemore, Dainty and Lingard, 2003).
In such a masculine environment, emotionality is
often taken to imply ‘emotional strength’, connoting
the suppression of, and control over, emotions
(Domagalski, 1999), although we argue that this
pertains primarily to softer, more empathic emo-
This study was supported by studentships from Man-
chester Business School and the Economic Social
Research Council (13), as well as grants from the
Statistical Society of Manchester and the Northern
Leadership Academy (all UK) to the first author.
British Journal of Management, Vol. *,*–*(2010)
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8551.2010.00729.x
r2010 The Author(s)
British Journal of Management r2010 British Academy of Management. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA, 02148, USA.
British Journal of Management, Vol. 23, 65–79 (2012)
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8551.2010.00729.x
© 2010 The Author(s)
British Journal of Management © 2010 British Academy of Management. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA, 02148, USA.
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