Investigating the relationship between social intelligence and business performance (a case study of managers of the Agricultural Bank of Ardabil province)

Dissertation for Master's Degree in Executive Management

Major: Marketing

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between social intelligence and business performance among the managers of Agricultural Bank. For this purpose, the characteristics of social intelligence such as social information processing, social skills, social awareness and social desirability were measured as the main components of business performance, including behavioral performance, in-role performance, extra-role performance, and result-based performance. The statistical population of the current research is the managers of the Agricultural Bank of Ardabil province, and the required samples were selected based on all the counts, 152 managers. And the target customers of the branches were selected as a statistical sample by simple random sampling in the number of 305 people. The current research is field based in terms of practical purpose and data collection method. It should be mentioned that two types of questionnaires (managers and customers) were used as data collection tools after determining validity and reliability. And the method of analyzing the results is based on Pearson correlation and regression analysis. The results obtained from research findings have confirmed the relationship between social intelligence and business performance. This result was also obtained for each of the other hypotheses between social intelligence components such as social information processing, social skills, social awareness and social desirability with business performance components such as behavioral performance, in-role performance, extra-role performance, and result-based performance. According to the results, people who had the ability to establish social relationships and the ability to communicate in social networks were able to have better business performance than other managers.

Keywords: social intelligence, social information processing, social skills, social awareness and social desirability, and business performance.

Chapter One

Research Overview

Introduction

      Emotional talents lie, not IQ. What we certainly know about the great and successful leaders of organizations is that they are not necessarily the smartest person in the organization in terms of IQ, but rather they have higher emotional intelligence than others and thus they lead people in the direction they want. It must be said that the secret of their influence on people is on this point. The leadership and management of an organization in order to adapt to changes and to survive and grow in new environments requires special characteristics that generally managers face many problems to answer them. One of the most important traits that can help leaders and managers respond to these changes is social intelligence. Social intelligence is one of the effective factors in people's satisfaction.

It is certain that the success of organizations and managers always depends on a series of key factors that identify and strengthen such factors will lead to the success of organizations. Managers in every organization are at the top of the organization in order to coordinate and increase the efficiency of the organization's employees and achieve the goals (Mirza Qadri, 2016). 

1-2-Statement of the problem

     Individuals, organizations and societies that cannot keep pace with developments will stop moving and face failure, in the meantime, organizations should think about developing outputs so that they can use scientific achievements with a dynamic movement and save themselves from stagnation. Strengthening and developing business performance in organizations can increase the growth and productivity of organizations. Every organization should consider opportunities and threats. and propose ideas for them. One of the factors that plays a significant role in the success of people is emotional intelligence. Our culture has placed a high value on intelligence, but this general intelligence actually originates from social intelligence.

         One of the major problems in the field of social intelligence studies is the disagreement about the definition of social intelligence, which has been presented by experts and researchers involved for many years. According to theorists' statements, social intelligence has a multifaceted structure and includes perceptual components, cognitive and behavioral analysis. With this description, a person with high social intelligence is a person who is able to perform sufficient behavior to achieve the desired social goals. (Gini Qianloka[1] and Report Brief[2], 2008).

          During the last two decades, the topic of social intelligence is one of the most important topics of social sciences and humanities, including in the field of management. One of the pleasant feelings of every customer is the feeling of satisfaction from the bank with which he is a customer. In today's organizations, satisfaction is one of the main concerns of managers, especially in service organizations. Satisfied customers remain loyal to the organization, and ultimately bring benefits to the organization and the organization's productivity. Considering the basic role of social intelligence in increasing business performance and also interviewing a number of managers in the field of managers' performance in advancing branch deposits, it implies that managers have a very important role in attracting target customers, which can be seen through the monthly statistics of branch deposits, which is directly related to managers' performance. Comparative statistics with other banks show a decrease in the share of the organization in attracting people's deposits from the market share in recent years. Social intelligence is the ability to communicate with others, which is different in different people. The problem in the bank regarding social intelligence is that the managers implement the components of social intelligence, but they do not know what the category of social intelligence is. Every bank manager unwittingly uses the components of social intelligence in the communication they establish with the customer. The researcher's goal of this research is to organize these components, so that all managers regularly use all these components in order to advance the goals of the organization. Also, another goal of this research is the relationship between social intelligence and the business performance of the organization, whether the level of social intelligence of people is effective in the level of business performance, that is, after measuring the social intelligence of managers and employees, the relationship between social intelligence and the business performance of the organization is tested. Of course, business performance includes four components, which are: behavioral performance [3], in-role performance [4], extra-role performance [5] and result-based performance [6].  Considering the essential role of social intelligence in the formation of business performance, as well as interviews with a number of managers and employees in the field of studying social intelligence, all bank statistics indicate the impact of social intelligence of managers on the performance of managers. Therefore, service organizations must use human and material resources. take advantage and strive to achieve the goals, so the manager's ability to acquire all kinds of intelligence, especially social intelligence, which is considered one of the most important factors for the growth of the organization, has a significant impact on increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. However, the results of this research can be used by researchers to identify and have more knowledge about the factors that lead to the promotion of the organization's business performance. The goal of the researcher in this research is to use the results of this research in the branches by the managers to improve the condition of the branches to advance the goals of the organization. Therefore, in order to identify the reasons for the decrease in the amount of people's deposits in recent years, the present topic was selected for investigation, please answer the following questions. What is the status of the studied statistical population in terms of social intelligence in terms of social information, social information processing, social awareness, social process in the organization? What is the status of organizational performance in the four dimensions of behavioral performance, in-role performance, extra-role performance and result-based performance in the organization? What is the relationship between social intelligence and business performance? Based on the answers to these questions, what are the ways to help the organization in raising the social intelligence of employees and increasing the business performance of the organization? In general, the final goal of the current research is to reach the question of what is the relationship between the social intelligence of managers and business performance?  

1-3- Necessity and importance of research

       Considering the intense competition of banks in attracting available resources, especially after the entry of private banks into the banking system, due to the fact that most of the motivational methods have been used by banks and acknowledging the fact that private banks have a high financial maneuvering power compared to state banks in dealing with customers, state banks, of which our research organization (Agricultural Bank) is one of them, should It is necessary in its program priorities to attach special importance to the requirements and skills of the bank's employees in interacting with customers, and thus be able to withstand the high budget power of private banks in the competitive market and ensure its survival in today's turbulent environment.