The renowned Chilean scientist Humberto Maturana (2013) once commented that "we are emotional beings, that is our origin, and it is from the arrival of language that we become rational beings. " Finding something more disruptive to our existential paradigms seems difficult.
And it is that until recently emotionality was not part of the elements that made up an organization, and it was not considered when analyzing it as a whole or the actors who intervene in it individually.
Considering the above and if we look at the considerations of the North American Daniel Goleman (based on studies by countless scientists) in his book "Emotional Intelligence", and we appropriate his conclusions, we end up stating that the "Emotional Coefficient" is more important than the well-known IQ, but few dare to declare that the emotionality of the human being has a clear dominance over the rationality that we have always bragged about possessing… and managers too.
So, if we accept the above, we would have to say that the decisions that managers make in an organization are within emotional schemes and not what we thought before that they were predominantly rational. As the ineffable Maturana says: "Every rational system has an emotional origin, since accepted logical reasoning arises from the desires, tastes and preferences of each person"
There, in the organization, we locate ourselves and begin to realize that the manager says before "I want you to do such a thing" and then "because it is necessary." And now we can realize (consciousness appears) that the first expression is found on the emotional plane and the second on the rational plane. We can see that the "I want" in the first expression could be replaced (without losing any meaning) by "desire" or, "I would like".
Although loosely linked, Maturana's claims can be reflected in the Triune Brain Theory proposed by Paul McLean in the middle of the last century. En la misma se expresa desde una perspectiva evolucionista cómo se fue formando el cerebro humano: el primero de los cerebros denominado “Reptil” es donde ocurren procesos fisiológicos e involuntarios como el respirar, el hambre y los reflejos; el segundo en aparecer (o más bien integrarse) el cerebro “Límbico” donde se ubican las emociones y por último el cerebro “Neo-Cortex” con sus hemisferios cerebrales donde se conjugan los pensamientos. Si observamos el orden nos percatamos que las emociones en el ser humano estaban primero que los pensamientos que conllevan a los razonamientos y por ende a la racionalidad. De allí que una interpretación de la teoría del Cerebro Triuno es que las emociones son más antiguas que las razones, por ello gobiernan.
In organizations, the manager continues to make decisions that are considered rational, which are intended to be established even within the plane of objectivity. And it is believed that there lies its strength. It is perhaps the moment to carefully review that emotional aspect that inevitably characterizes the human being who inhabits those joint spaces called companies.
It is imperative that the manager observe his collaborators as emotional people (and observe the manager as an essentially emotional being) so that organizations focus their actions within a perspective of constant emotional learning, starting with the recognition of the working human being as a being "No-machine" that feels and suffers, wherever it works.
It is worth ending with Sawaf and Cooper, who reaffirm the above when they point out (2002: 146): "When one lives from the bottom of the heart, he does what he says, hears the voice of conscience and does not hesitate to adopt a position"
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Goleman, D. (1999) Emotional Intelligence in the Company. Vergara Editores. Buenos Aires.
Sawaf, A & Cooper, R. (2002) Emotional Intelligence applied to Leadership and Organizations. Norma Editorial Group. Bogotá.
Parra, Gabriel (2013 January 6) Humberto Maturana: How we live competing, we are always denying others. Recovered from
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpMuubZSuy4&list=RDGpMuubZSuy4&t=1081
