1. What is Emotional Intelligence? Mention the importance of emotional intelligence in public service delivery.
Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to understand, perceive, and appropriately manage one’s own emotions as well as the emotions of others. It is a social skill that enables a person to control their own emotions, understand others' emotions, and behave accordingly. Values such as self-awareness, self-control, empathy, and compassion are closely associated with emotional intelligence.
Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Public Service Delivery
Public service delivery serves as a bridge connecting the government with citizens. To make public services citizen-friendly, civil servants need to possess a high level of emotional intelligence. Its importance in public service delivery can be understood as follows:
- To increase citizen satisfaction by understanding the concerns, difficulties, constraints, and problems of service recipients and providing services accordingly.
- To manage conflicts that may arise during public service delivery.
- To listen patiently to citizens’ expectations and address them appropriately, particularly in offices that have frequent and extensive public interaction.
- To remain patient and dedicated to serving citizens continuously during disasters, emergencies, and crises.
- To manage workplace stress effectively and maintain quality service delivery.
- To ensure objectivity and transparency by keeping decisions and behavior within the boundaries of law, reason, administrative values, and professional ethics.
- To maintain ethics and integrity in the process of public service delivery.
- To control irregularities and corrupt practices that may occur during service delivery.
Emotional intelligence is important for providing citizen-centered public services by giving due consideration to the human aspect of service delivery. Since emotional intelligence is also a skill that can be developed through continuous practice, government agencies should focus on developing a high level of emotional intelligence among frontline public service employees who directly interact with citizens.