Daniel Staemmler » case study

Emotional Intelligence and Age

Daniel Staemmler — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 20:52:26 +0000

The subject of emotional intelligence (definition) is a little bit of topic when it comes to learning and technology. But in some way I think it has something to do with learning since we as human beings learn and acquire knowledge in different areas that matter to us as an individual. Why do I bring this subject of emotional intelligence up at all? Well, I received an issue of the Chief Learning Officer referring to a study that challenges assumptions about age and emotional intelligence. The study they refer to has been conducted by the Lorenzo Farisell, Massimiliano Ghini and Joshua Freedman and the full text is available on the 6 seconds Emotional Intelligence Network. The white paper states significant findings that are in contrast to existing research, saying that the relationship between age and emotional intelligence is more of a slight nature.

“There are many assumptions about emotional intelligence and age. Popular literature and “common sense” asset that older people are more aware, wise, and restrained. Is it true? Existing research indicates a slight relationship between emotional intelligence and age. How strong is this effect, and which areas of emotional intelligence are most affected by age? Are older people more self aware, better at self management, and/or do they make more principled decisions?“

One thing in the conclusion paragraph grabbed my attention since they suggest to include different demographic categories and how those influence the combination of age and emotional intelligence. Their example question is that a “… high academic level is correlated with higher IQ, so does increased education likewise affect EQ?” From my own (subjective) experience at two different universities I can tell that some of the academic staff are petty smart but their emotional intelligence goes towards zero. So it should be pretty interesting to see what the result of another study will reveal.

Another interesting questions in regard to emotional intelligence would be for me, if individuals using social networks on the Internet differ from those who stay in touch with their circle of friends more so on a face to face base.

BayCHI Monthly Program: February 13

Daniel Staemmler — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 07:54:27 +0000

It’s time again for the BayCHI monthly program meeting. The meeting in February features Ed H. Chi from PARC and Scott Golder from HP Labs. Ed Chi will be talking about conflict and coordination in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. In the second part of the Program Scott Golder will be presenting results from a study of the behavior 4+ million users of the social network Facebook which is primarily used by college students.

Before the program I am volunteering to coordinate the pre-program dinner which is held at the Pro Bono Cafe Restaurant in Palo Alto. This is a great opportunity to meet the speakers before the talk and get a chance to get them, and other participants to know.

BayCHI Monthly Program: December 12

Daniel Staemmler — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 18:20:13 +0000

Today I’m going to the PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) where the monthly BayCHI program meeting takes place. This month program features Sean Kane, Director of User Interface Engineering at Netflix. He is presenting a case study about the development of a great user interface. This should be very interesting since Netflix is the world’s largest DVD rental service and a lot of other online DVD rental companies try to catch up with them, e.g. Blockbuster.The second half of the program is about “How do people use search engines?”. Daniel M. Russel, senior research scientist at Google, will be there to elaborate on how the use of multiple kinds of data can be used to understand what people do when searching.

Before the program I am volunteering to coordinate the pre-program dinner which is held at the Kan Zeman Restaurant in Palo Alto. This is a great opportunity to meet the speakers before the talk and get a chance to get them, and other participants to know.

New Brandon Hall Report Highlights Employee Orientation and Interpersonal Skills Training

Daniel Staemmler — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 17:47:10 +0000

Brandon Hall just publishes a new report how organizations like McDonalds, Microsoft, Health Partners and Bank of America organize pleasant work environments for their employees. The report features 21 case studies on 99 pages and in addition to “high-profile companies” it also takes a look a the vendors who create their content.
A free excerpt is available and contains the table of content, introduction plus one sample case study and an excerpt of one course. The full report is available online for $345 and can be ordered here.