Project management: an analysis from the perspective of emotional intelligence

Cristine Hermann Nodari^a, Vanessa Daniele^b

Abstract

The study aimed to analyze the impact that emotional intelligence has on the management of projects in information technology from the settings on the understanding and control of emotions. The methodology used was the case study with a descriptive approach. For gathering information a structured questionnaire based on the principles of emotional intelligence proposed by Goleman (2001) was used. The questions were based on the applicability of emotional intelligence in project management. The sample consisted of eighteen professionals that serve the project managers in the field of information technology. The main results show that there is a balance between the pillars established in the literature on the job of project managers in the field of information technology. Another finding was that more experienced professionals possess greater emotional maturity resulting in a less emotional involvement with the project. Consequently were analyzed and discussed the results presented in the survey and presented suggestions for future research.

Keywords: Emotional Intelligence, Project Management, Emotions.

1. INTRODUCTION

In a competitive and dynamic market, in project management (GP) wins a role in the corporate world. For companies to ensure their survival in the midst of rapid change, it is essential to develop their capacity for innovation and adaptation. So, they can meet market demands, technological advances, growth opportunities, legal requirements and customer requests, according to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK, 2008), organizations need to use the project as a means to achieve goals established in its strategic planning.

With that, it shows a clear increase of the project manager figure within organizations. Because, according to the PMBoK Guide, it is relevant the need to identify the impact of this professional in the success of the project, because represent the person designated by the organization to achieve the objectives of these activities (PMBoK, 2008).

On the other hand over the past two decades, "human face" of project management has increasingly been identified as a critical component of the role of the project manager associated with success (Cleland, 1995; Cooke-Davies, 2002; Cowie, 2003; El-Sabaa, 2001).

According to Keeling et Branco (2012), in order to succeed in the projects, the manager, as well as understand and apply tools and management techniques, must have personal skills. These refer to organic skills of management, understood by interpersonal skills, ie the ability to lead and communicate with project stakeholders.

Thus, the manager must have certain personal attitudes that characterize your personality, such as: courage, steadfastness, perseverance, self-respect and determination. This is because this position requires the ability to deal with their emotions and those of his colleagues, creating a more productive environment. More recently, Rudolph et al. (2008) also found the behavioral dimension of project management, which included communication, involvement, motivation and identification of conflicts, playing an important role in project success contribution.

Thus, it shows the need for professionals develop interpersonal relationships and learn to deal with emotions. From this perspective, Goleman (2001), in the early 1990s, popularized a new form of intelligence that can be used as a differential to achieve success in both career and personal life, emotional intelligence (EI). So Druskat et Druskat (2006) corroborate suggesting that the concept of emotional intelligence can be a key differentiator of the individual to distinguish the effectiveness of project managers in the implementation of these important human abilities or behavior.

In the context of projects, Mersino (2009) describes that for the project manager to progress in your career should have dominion over emotional intelligence. The author reports that this kind of intelligence can assist the project manager in the development of its relations with stakeholders, anticipate and prevent wear emotional with the team, manage conflict, increasing assertiveness in making decisions, communicate effectively, build a positive environment and engage the team to build the promised scope of the project. All these factors contribute to the success of the project because mobilize the team to achieve it's objective.

Thus, considering the relevant aspects identified, this research was intended to identify the impact that the emotional intelligence has the project management in the information technology (IT) field. For that, we highlight some variables in emotional intelligence analysis under the project management perspective, and thus provide a contribution to the development of the relationship between these elements, whereas in a study meta-analysis of Clarke (2010) only five studies, by the year 2010, proposed an analysis of the issues.

This article was divided into four sections plus the introductory section. Section two presents the approach theoretical framework between research variables on emotional intelligence and project management. Section three highlights the main drivers of methodological research, section four presents the analysis and discussion of the results of the case study, under a quantitative approach. And finally, section five presents conclusions of the research.

2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

This section aims to present the main theoretical concepts necessary to understand the development of this work, so will be divided into two topics. In the first are discussed concepts related to emotional intelligence. Then in the second topic will be exposed concepts related to project management, as the personal skills of the project manager, communications management processes, changes and conflicts, and, finally, human resources.

2.1 Emotional Intelligence

To understand the significance of emotional intelligence should be understood the concept of emotions and how they impact on people's lives. Copper (1997) reports that the emotions were considered intense and powerful, being defined in Latin as "motus anima", ie, the spirit that drives us. He describes that emotions are based on feelings, built by experiences and experienced relationship. Goleman (2001) believes that emotion is triggered by the pulse.

Another factor to be understood is that throughout history the concept of intelligence has evolved. In the beginning was intended to only measure the level of intellectual ability of the individual, so that Gardner (1999) found out that society in the twentieth century, defines a person as intelligent through its ability to master the classical languages and mathematics. However, in 1983, he disputes the view of intelligence based only on language skills and logical-mathematical, exposing the intelligence tests represent only the tip of the iceberg cognitive, making thus the Theory of Multiple Intelligences. This theory has seven types of intelligence, including interpersonal intelligence that denotes the ability to understand the intentions, motivations and desires of others, and intrapersonal intelligence means understanding one's own feelings and relate to himself.

From these concepts began studies on emotional intelligence. According Woyciekoski (2006), this area is relatively new and has the intention to review the concept of what is accepted as intelligent. In 1990, researchers Peter Salovey and John Mayer, authors responsible for co-formulation of the concept of emotional intelligence, defined the concept of emotional intelligence:

(...) as the subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one's own and other's feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and use this information to guide the one's thinking and actions. (Salovey et Mayer, 1990, p. 188).

Therefore, in 1996, Goleman (in Brazil published in 2001) published the book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than QI. Based on the demarcation of Salovey et Mayer (1990), he developed a structure consists of five main areas: a) know their own emotions, ie self-consciousness; b) deal with emotions, known as self-control; c) motivate yourself; d) recognize emotions in others, known as empathy; e) deal with relationships. The first three refer to the characteristics of how the individual relates to himself and the others relate how he interacts with others.

Therefore, the first area considered as the building block of emotional intelligence is the self-consciousness. This refers to the competence to recognize the feeling when it occurs. Goleman (2001) describes the self-reflexive consciousness, according to Freud, is the ability to record in the human mind, impartially, everything that is being experienced, including emotions. It is a neutral point where consciousness is maintained even in the face of unstable situations caused by turbulent feelings. Complementing Mersino (2009) believes that self-consciousness is the ability that the individual has to understand their own emotions.

The second area is to deal with emotions, known as self-control. It is the ability to control emotional impulses. This competence only is possible after obtaining the self-consciousness. Goleman (2001) defines self-control as the ability to control and be able to withstand the whirlwind of emotions that chance offers. Mersino (2009) translates the self control in self-management, determining this as the competence to be in control of their own emotions so that it does not dominate the individual.

The third pillar is the motivation, Goleman (2001) considers it as the master aptitude, because it interferes deeply in other capacities related to how a person can deal with his own feelings. He reports that zeal, confidence and enthusiasm collaborating in conquest of goals, as intense and negative emotions inhibit the working memory, interfering with the power of concentration in performing tasks. Reinforcing this, Valeriano (1998) considers motivation as a kind of internal engine, this is as a source of energy, values, needs and feelings that together induce people to act, noting that the motivation levels impact the performance of the professionals.

The fourth ability refers to the ability to recognize emotion of others, that Goleman (2001) characterized as empathy. This is fueled by self-knowledge, as to understand their own feelings, it becomes easier to understand the emotions of others. The author says that the key to understanding the feeling of the next is in interpreting nonverbal cues, ie, it should be noted the tone of voice, facial expressions and gestures that people make when communicating.

Finally, the fifth area relates to the ability to handle relationships, being built by the maturation of self-control and empathy. Goleman (2001) describes that when humans interact send emotional signals that infect, from more expressive to more passive. Hence the need of autocontrol and transmit positive signs, since the display of emotion causes an immediate impact on people who are around.

Thus, Mersino (2009) shows that when working with projects is almost impossible to finish them without experiencing emotions, and they are built by people based on feelings. With that, Cooper (1997) points out that human feelings provide vital information and potentially profitable at every moment of the day. This emotional feedback functions as an internal compass, guiding them to unexpected possibilities and can recover failure of projects, as addresses Cowie (2003).

2.2 Project management

To understand the applicability of emotional intelligence in the project management, it must first be understood the concept of project management. As described in the PMBoK Guide:

Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements (PMBok,2008, p. 6).

In the opinion of Keeling et Branco (2012) this application includes in defining and plan all the work to be performed, as well as conducting the activities and control their performance to ensure that the specified characteristics to be delivered by the end of the project.

Consequently, it is important to clarify which factors characterize a successful project. In the view of Pinto et Sleven (2007), a project is only considered successful when it meets the criteria of time, cost, efficiency and customer satisfaction. However, Mersino (2009) emphasizes that emotions interfere with the success of the project because project management means perform tasks through people, built of feelings.

In contrast, it is important to analyze which factors cause the project failures in order to identify the impacts that cause the failures. According to research conducted by PMI, PM Survey, 2012 Edition, implemented in 730 organizations from the countries Argentina, Brazil, France and Uruguay, to consider only the companies operating in the information technology field (IT), the most frequent problems mentioned by project managers can be seen in Figure 1.

As shown by the research, the problems facing the communication lead the ranking. According to the PMBoK (2008), they are the means of creating a bridge between the various stakeholders involved in the project. To Rabechini et Carvalho (2008), companies have realized that their communications are distorted constantly, often voraciously, damaging its effectiveness, including when it comes to projects. Following this line, Oliveira (2013) iterates that managers must be great communicators because understanding and managing the emotional climate allows to be consistent in the exposed group or individual communications.

Another factor pointed out are the constant changes in scope, these measures or updates, according Heldman (2006), are common in projects being originated during the process of monitoring and track of them. They require certain skills from manager due to trigger conflicts. These conflicts in Kerzner's vision (2004) are part of business life with cultures in project management. In the view of Mersino (2009), conflicts in projects can be harrowing. If it is not properly channeled, conflict can suppress communications, destroy creativity and greatly decrease productivity.

Figure 1. Frequent problems in projects

So Keeling et Branco (2012) proposed that the project manager is responsible not only to implement tools, techniques and knowledge, but also to possess skills, attitudes and values, allowing it to happen a good driving the project. Following this perspective, the PMBoK (2008) considers that the project manager must have personal skills such as motivation, leadership, team development, influence, decision making, negotiation, political and cultural knowledge.

Davis (2011) shows that project managers to assume leadership roles, have the need to expose certain points of view in the project life cycle. The emotional intelligence can increase their performance, causing him to act efficiently, as the project manager's role is an important factor in the successful completion of a project (Oliveira, 2013).

Corroborating, Goleman (2001) also portrays that the emotional intelligence through social awareness, can improve compliance of the project manager activities. Among them we can highlight: performing feedback through constructive criticism, allowing the development of the team, dealing with conflict and negative behaviors of those involved in the project, in addition to effectively understand communications and existing involvement with stakeholders. And finally, understand what motivates team members, redirecting them to achieve the project objectives.

Another point raised by Mersino (2009) is that because the projects are temporary and unique, project managers can not take long to build their relationships with stakeholders. Thus, it is interesting to have the emotional competence which involves empathy, organizational awareness and emotional limits, as these provide unique information about people interacting in the project, assisting in the establishment of relations.

Regarding the management of human resources, mobilization and allocation of people is vital for the project to happen. This process, as Heldman (2006), covers aspects of managing and integrating people, conflict resolution, performance and leadership ratings.

On the perception Carvalho et Rabechini (2008), the management of human resources is also linked to behavioral aspects. This leads to another point raised by Mersino (2009), which exhibit strong emotions such as: anger, disappointment, sadness or fear before the team can hamper the project, creating a negative environment. Thus, the manager can create a bad reputation, making difficult the retention of resources and development of the team on future projects.

Finally, it is possible to identify the pillars cited by Goleman (2001), in which can understand, control their emotions and recognize them in others makes the manager emotionally more intelligent, because according to PMBoK (2008), in order to obtain success in a project, it is critical to identify the stakeholders analyzing your expectations, interests, importance and influence.

3. METHODOLOGY

This is an exploratory research, whose chosen method of work was the case study (Yin, 2005). Also, this work was characterized by the descriptive approach, which is justified because it is a research that aims to identify and analyze a reality. According to Gil (1999), descriptive research has as main purpose the description of the characteristics of a given population or phenomenon.

Were measured the agreement about the perceptions that the project managers have related to emotional intelligence in counterpoint to the concepts of success of the projects managed by them.

To translate into numbers the opinions and information, allowing their classification and analysis of data, so that to be built the conclusions, this research was classified, as its approach, as quantitative. Thus, the gathering of information necessary for this research was obtained through structured questionnaire and prepared based on the five areas of emotional intelligence described by Goleman (2001). Were referred 50 questionnaires to project managers in information technology area, of which achieved a return of 18 questionnaires. This step had the help of Google Docs tool.

With regard to the experience of participation in projects in information technology area, 22% are less than 10 years, the majority (61%) are between 10 and 20 years of experience, finally, 17% have more than 20 years.

Currently, all engaged in the project management role, and 50% fulfill this role for less than five years, 33% between 5-10 years and 17% between 10 and 15 years.

Of the participants, 44% are female and 56% belong to the male gender. With regard to academic training, the majority (67%) have postgraduate degree, 22% are graduates and 11% have master's degrees. These professionals work in companies based in Serra Gaúcha and municipalities in the big Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul (RS).

Innovation projects with the support of technology of information, software development centers, technology solutions and social media are part of the service of 44% of the sample. The remaining (56%) work in the footwear industry sector. An important factor is that 94% of companies were found to have the project management culture.

The measurement of the collected data was performed using the Likert scale of five points, consisting of the following variables: 1 = strongly disagree; 2 = partially disagree; 3 = neither disagree nor agree; 4 = partially agree; 5 = strongly agree. This type of scale allows us to evaluate the level of agreement or disagreement of those interviewed before the claims presented in the questionnaire, ie he is forced to make a choice that depends both to agree or disagree with the corresponding declarations (Wu, 2007).

4. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

The survey showed that there is no difference in importance between the pillars established by Goleman (2001), on the use of emotional intelligence in project management in the technology of information field. This was note due to interviewees score, with almost the same level of importance, each pillar, causing a balance between them.

Thus, the first and second pillars, self-awareness and self-control, had 21% acceptance each; motivation achieved 20% agreement; and the last two pillars related to empathy, ie recognizing the feelings of others and dealing with relationships, obtained 19% each. Therefore, it was complacent note that the project management is so important that the manager understand and control their own emotions as understand the feelings of those involved in the projects.

To properly understand the influence of each pillar of emotional intelligence in the project management, the results obtained in the research were presented on topics.

4.1 Self-consciousness

The results of this study shows that self-awareness is recognized by interviewees as important to make the most competent project manager, since 67% of the respondents agreed completely with the statement that understanding their strengths and weaknesses make them managers more efficient. In the view of Cury (2008) that may occur as a result of self-consciousness is the awareness of the human essence, through which people construct their identity and establish their social role.

Another point highlighted by the author and observed in the research refers to the use of emotional intelligence through social consciousness, for which it was found low level of disagreement: only 6% nor disagreed nor agreed with this statement; the remaining 61% totally agreed and 33% agreed partially.

According Mersino (2009), social consciousness favors the project manager to enhance the compliance of activities, such as performing feedback through constructive criticism besides allowing the efficient development of the team, managing to deal with conflicts and negative behavior of those involved in the project. Along the same line, Valeriano (1998) states that the command skills such as self-analysis skills, build confidence on the superior and lead, are desirable attributes for the manager, necessary for project success.

With regard to emotions, Goleman (2001) describes that in addition to psychological states, they understand biological states due to reflect on the human body, for example, stay with flushed cheeks to feel shame or cold hands to feel fear. The study showed that 72% of the respondents totally agreed and 22% agreed partially with the statement that understanding the emotional reactions of physical form, such as, anger, irony, sadness and joy, helps the project manager to conduct efficiently the discussions held in meetings with those involved in the project. These feelings are responsible for composing the individual's state of mind, corroborating with Cabral (2013) which states that understanding the emotional state by the project manager contributes to the success of your career.

The survey also countered the claims of Matthew (2013) with regard to the importance of nonverbal communication. The author believes that the body posture, gestures and facial expressions can be stronger than verbal communication. However, only 33% of information technology project managers agreed completely with this statement.

However, this triggers an inconsistency in the importance that communication takes in the project management. Since Rabechini et Carvalho (2008) states that the communication process requires that project managers have certain specific skills, among them, know how to negotiate resources, distribute information to stakeholders, build performance reports, conduct meetings and hear your team.

According to Gil (2010), be able to communicate means to be understood, the communicator must be able not only to speak but also to listen. So Kerzner (2004) portrays that the project managers get to use 90% of their time on internal interpersonal communication with your team members. With it, you can see that this research portrays the difficulty that managers have to communicate, and enhance the results of PMI Survey 2012, pointing communication problems as the main causes of failures in the projects.

Finally, it is important to note that self-knowledge is the first step on the road of emotional maturity. This ability in the project management area provides a better performance of the project manager, because it improves your way to communicate and to relate to the stakeholders and to understand what motivates team members redirecting them to achieve the project objectives yielding best results.

4.2 Self control

Self-control enables the emotions are conducted in order to assist in the smooth running of the project. According Mersino (2009), the emotionally healthy climate contributes to building a positive and productive environment for project team work. This study revealed that 72% of the respondents totally agree, 22% agree in part and 6% nor agreed nor disagreed with this placement. This finding may portray the high turnover of information technology professionals in the job market because of the high level of stress that the projects provide.

This can be reinforced by the results to the statement presented to the research subjects concerning the importance of emotional control of the project managers in the face of stressful situations with team members: only 50% totally agreed, 33% agreed partly and 17% nor agreed nor disagreed on the relevance of emotional control to prevent wear to the team. It can be observed that at critical times not all are cautious to show emotions, prioritizing the product or service produced by the project to the detriment of emotional health of project environment. However, Carvalho et Rabechini (2008) point out that the management of human resources, ie the way in which they manage the resources, it is also linked to behavioral aspects and not only the way in which to distribute the resources.

Goleman (2001) describes that there should be a balance of emotions, ie they should not be suppressed, but harnessed positively. To Mersino (2009) the feeling of anger, for example, can carry a team towards the project objectives since the project manager lead to this.

From this perspective, it was presented to the participants the statement that there is direct relationship between managing the emotions of those involved and the impact on the success of the project, with which 67% totally agreed, 28% agreed partially and 6% nor agreed nor disagreed with the statement. Interestingly, both for Kerzner (2004) and for Mersino (2009), the projects are built on conflicting constraints from the start, so it would be of great importance that the manager had mastery of their emotions and to observe the feelings of the team in the daily life of the project environment.

Finally, the highest level of agreement among professionals in the research was related to the interference that the mood of the project manager has the environment in which the project team operates: 83% agreed completely that the manager's mood influences the work of the team, the other 17% agreed partially. This quote reiterates the importance of successfully deal with emotional impulses because, as Goleman (2001), emotions demonstrations infect the people around.

4.3. Motivation

Motivation is considered by Goleman (2001) as the master aptitude and may be responsible for conducting those involved in the daily pursuit of project objectives. Research has shown that project managers do not regard as important their motivation for the project's success, but not bother to find out what drives the team members in favor of the project objectives. On that point, 50% of respondents partially agreed and 44% completely agreed with the statement that the manager's motivation before the critical problems faced preserve the productivity of your team.

Also in this line, the highest percentage (78%) strongly agree that it is important that managers understand the motivational factors of team members in order to influence them and redirect them to the achievement of project objectives. These characteristics are essential to a leader. Gardner (1999) differentiates leaders managers, stating that an effective leader helps people understand their life situation, clarifying its objectives and therefore engaging them in a meaningful search. Therefore, it is evident the importance of the project manager to be recognized for leadership, described by Russo et al. (2005) as the process of conducting the actions or influence the behavior and mentality of others.

In corroborate, Mersino (2009) points out that the project manager is responsible for directing the team, acting as an advisor. These actions generate security in the environment, being positive for the team, as it enables each member to present better performance collaborating with project success.

4. Empathy

Surprisingly, the study showed that the pillar empathy presented the lower rates of agreement between managers. According to Goleman (2001), Martin Holfam says that the root of ethics is in empathy, because it is supporting many of judgment and moral actions facets, as it allows the individual to put himself in the other's place and, therefore, understand the reasons that lead people to a certain state of mind. The empathy makes then, the individual more humanized.

Regardless of what preaches the literature, the corporative world can show himself different, as observed in this study, where only 44% of managers agree totally with the statement that it is important to have empathy when they receive a request of team members to, for example, move away from private and / or family issues; 28% agreed partially; 22% nor agreed nor disagreed; and 6% partially disagreed. This result goes to meet what exposed Mersino (2009) to say that it is difficult for managers to understand the emotions of others involved in the project.

The author states that some personal behaviors such as self-centeredness, the priority for the search for results and the difficulties of communication, especially when it comes to listening to the needs of others rather than imposing his or sponsors, hinder the exercise of manager empathy by team members. However, it should be taken into consideration that this is relative to the personal characteristics of each manager, and their private professional experiences that built their way of managing people.

Mersino (2009) states that empathy is a feature that highlights the manager among the rest, but he must have emotional boundaries, ie it is necessary that the manager knows to discern his feelings of the others feelings, portraying a balance that measures the level of emotional involvement among those involved in the project.

Another interesting point is that only 50% strongly agree with the statement that it is important to amid the unrest among the team members, understand beyond the facts, understand the feelings of those involved in the conflict. On the perception of Valeriano (1998), the conflict is defined by the clash of opposing ideas, and they happen under any circumstance or moment during relations between people or groups of people. The author also notes that it must be accepted, understood and managed, due to be considered as a natural response to routine changes imposed in the project environment. The project manager is nothing but a manager of conflicts (Mersino, 2009). And one way to get to manage conflicts is to be in tune with the feelings of those with whom he interacts, dealing disagreements so they do not grow in order to return to the desired flow of execution of a job. For Goleman (2001), this is the art of leadership: getting people to work towards a common goal, shifting the focus of the differences and redirecting to the changes let those involved satisfied with their work. Malek (2000) states that individuals who have emotional intelligence are more likely to resolve conflicts effectively, because they can better understand the real reasons that caused them.

The lack of empathy may explain why the constant changes of scopes are scored as failure reasons in project management, considering that they are inevitable and are part of the project routine. In these situations, managers can not ignore the feelings of those concerned; should assess the facts and the emotional reasons that trigger the changes. Should be aware that softwares are created by people, who are provided with emotions. When the manager stands in their place is easier to understand what moves or demobilize. Empathy applied correctly is a difference in the pursuit of excellence in project management.

4.5. Handle relationships

The opinions of managers on the pillar empathy did not differ much from notes related to their relationship with their employees: only 28% of managers agreed completely with the statement that by establishing relationships should show your feelings in a pleasant way to collaborate in building a good reputation that will help them to gain the resources for future projects; the vast majority (67%) agreed partially and 6% nor agree nor disagree. Even if the personal skills allow shaping relationships that help to mobilize, inspire, influence and convince those involved in the project.

This picture that the research brought shows that the market follows the opposite path to that touts Mersino (2009) that the management of relationships is of utmost importance in the project management, as managing projects is to carry out the work through people. A good relationship contributes with the progress of work, because it allows the manager to approach more of people, allowing greater influence on those involved, increasing its capacity to manage conflict and build links that consequently help in developing their team and product / service that the project set out to create.

The market in which these professionals work exposes other organizational structures, where culturally people with high technical competence are promoted to managers, having to get across their management to develop the ability to manage people. Another issue to be in relief is that most professionals operates in large companies, ie with more than 10,000 collaborators causing the lack of proximity between those involved. In this scenario, the built ties are extremely professional and the involvement of the project manager with the team is superficial.

4.6. Project management

Overall, 93% of the professional agree that emotional intelligence impact on the success of the project; 56% agreed completely with the statement that the emotions, present in routine work, when unrecognized or poorly managed directly impact the outcome of the project; 68% felt it is important to understand the emotions of those involved and this helps to manage the project to success. Also in this line, 78% believe that keeping the emotional climate of the team also collaborates with the project's success.

Another question indicated by Goleman (2001) and Mersino (2009) is that, over time, the emotional intelligence may be obtained by the people, ie over time the experiences cooperate to emotional maturation. Unlike this, the survey showed that the greater the project management, the lower the level of agreement in the pillars, as shown in Figure 2.

It is possible to identify that the first three pillars on which refer to how the individual relates to himself, there was greater agreement among project managers with more time on the job. Self-consciousness, ie the recognition of their own feelings is essential to achieve higher levels of emotional intelligence, collaborating with the formation of self-analysis capacity. The motivation, in turn, understood as the master aptitude, when present, determines, through emotions that are expressed, set the power to use the innate intellectual capacity.

The level of reliability obtained to self control showed minor differences between the measured ranges. This pillar ensures that people identify their physical devices, which trigger the emotional impulses and the way in which they deal with. This is because the feelings are built based on the emotions experienced and every business has gone through different life experiences, and therefore have different interpretations of the same scenario, and directing the emotions, differently, depending on the construction of his personality.

With respect to the latter two pillars on which refer to the ways in which the manager is related to the others, it was apparent that the longer experience in management, the lower the level of agreement. Mersino (2009) describes that the social consciousness related to empathy and the relationship management, requires emotional limits, which implies that the manager must learn to discern their own feelings of the others feelings.

Figure 2. Time relationship of project management and pillars of emotional intelligence

The emotional intelligence can increase the performance of the project manager, leading him to act efficiently, as the project manager's role is an important factor in the successful completion of a project (Davis, 2011). And to be able to understand, control, and recognize their emotions, the manager becomes emotionally more intelligent.

Finally, it became clear that the personality and organizational culture influence the way the manager conducts the project, because the emotional intelligence allows the self knowledge, which is dependent on the personal characteristics of each manager and determines his way of leading and working in management of people; On the other hand, the act to recognize and relate interfered in the way people behave in the organization by the rules and pre-defined values as ideal for achieving the established goals.

5. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

This research aimed to identify the impact that emotional intelligence has in the project management, in information technology area as represents differential elements of identification in the organizational context (Clarke, 2010), in order to identify the interference of the control of emotions is at work carried out by project managers.

Thus, it took based on the merits of the authors Mersino (2009) and Goleman (2001) to, from an empirical analysis, try to show that the emotional intelligence pillars influence in the conduct of project management. It is understood that all starts by knowing yourself to be able to understand the aspirations and achievements of others in order to lead them in achieving common goals, satisfying thus the goals and corporative strategies.

The main findings showed that there is a balance between the pillars, because to the project manager function is important to have balance between the self knowledge and the establishment of relations with those involved in the project and therefore over time the self knowledge emotional makes management emotionally more mature. In the process, leadership skills and mobilization of team gain greater relevance. Similar results were found in the search of Rudolph et al. (2008).

Is worth emphasizing that people are the main raw material of the projects developed in information technology area. For this reason, it was interesting that most managers agreed that understand and control emotions has an impact on project management since interfere with the routine of the project, and, in turn, results.

Another highlighted issue is the level of emotional involvement that the manager should have with the project. The share of existing problems with team members should be dosed just be enough to motivate them. Experienced project managers have greater discernment between your feelings and of those involved thereby demonstrating an equalization of thought and conduct for an activity to be earned.

Finally, as a suggestion of future research, he highlighted the need to compose an analytical framework from a more extensive data sample, allowing more insights to compose the study leading to other findings. Became, in the same way, relevant, the identification of organizational culture in which interviewees were exposed, showing a scenario analysis that led to such notes and thereby establishing a different relationship of variables for the analysis of emotional intelligence actions about the project management.

REFERENCES

Carvalho, M. M. et Rabechini, R. (2008), Construindo competências para gerenciar projetos: teoria e casos, 2. Ed., Atlas, São Paulo, SP.

Clarke, N. (2010), “Emotional intelligence and its relationship to transformational leadership and key project manager competences”, Project Management Journal, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp.5-20.

Cleland, D. C. (1995), “Leadership and project management body of knowledge”, International Journal Project Management, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 83–88.

Cooke-Davies, T. (2002), “The real success factors on projects”, International Journal Project Management, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 185–190.

Cooper, R. (1997), Inteligência emocional na empresa, Campus, Rio de Janeiro, RJ.

Cowie, G. (2003), “The importance of people skills for project managers”, Industrial Community Trainning, Vol. 35, No. 6, pp. 256–258.

Cury, A. (2008), O código da inteligência: a formação de mentes brilhantes e a busca pela excelência emocional e profissional, Thomas Nelson Brasil, Ediouro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ.

Davis, S. A. (2011), “Investigating the impact of project managers’ emotional intelligence on their interpersonal competence”, Project Management Journal, Vol. 42, No. 4, pp. 37–57.

Drustak, V. O. L. et Drustak, P. (2006), Applying emotional intelligence in project working, em Pryke, S. et Smyth, H., eds., tThe management of complex projects: a relationship approach, Blackwell, Oxford, UK.

El-sabaa, S. (2001), “The skills and career path of an effective project manager”, International Journal Project Management, Vol. 19, No.1, pp. 1–7.

Gardner, H. (1999), Inteligência: um conceito reformulado, Objetiva, Rio de Janeiro, RJ.

Gil, A. C. (1999), Métodos e técnicas de pesquisa social, 5. ed., Atlas, São Paulo, SP.

Gil, A. C. (2010), Gestão de pessoas: enfoque nos papéis profissionais, 1. ed., Atlas, São Paulo, SP.

Goleman, D. (2001), Inteligência emocional: a teoria revolucionária que define o que é ser inteligente, Objetiva, Rio de Janeiro, RJ.

Heldman, K. (2006), Gerência de projetos, 3.ed., Campus, Rio de Janeiro, RJ.

Keeling, R. et Branco, R. H. F. (2012), Gestão de projetos: uma abordagem global, 2.ed., Saraiva, São Paulo, SP.

Kerzner, H. (2004), Gestão de projetos: as melhores práticas, 2.ed., Bookman, Porto Alegre, RS

Mersino, A. C. (2009), Inteligência emocional para gerenciamento de projetos, M. Books do Brasil, São Paulo, SP.

Oliveira, M. A. (2013), Inteligência emocional para gerentes de projeto, disponível em: http://pos.faap.br/pensemelhor/files/235.pdf (Acesso em 12 de julho de 2013).

Project Management Institute (2008), Um guia do conjunto de conhecimentos em gerenciamento de projetos (Guia PMBOK), 4. ed., Project Management Institute, Inc, Pennsylvania, USA.

Rudolph, T., Wagner, T. e Fawcett, S. (2008), “Project management in retailing: integrating the behavioral dimension”, International Journal Project Management, Vol.18, No.3, pp. 325–341.

Russo, R. F. S. M., Ruiz, J. M. e Cunha, R. P. (2005), “Liderança e influência nas fases da gestão de projetos”, Revista Produção, Vol. 15, n 3, pp. 365-375.

Soloney, P et Mayer, J. (2013), Emotional Intelligence, University of New Hampshire, disponível em: http://www.unh.edu/emotional_intelligence/EIAssets/ EmotionalIntelligenceProper/EI1990%20Emotional%20Intelligence.pdf (Acesso em 27 de setembro de 2013).

Valeriano, D. L. (1998), Gerência em projetos: pesquisa, desenvolvimento e engenharia, Makron Books, São Paulo, SP.

Woyciekoski, C. (2006), Instrumento de inteligência emocional de auto-relato medem alguma coisa que instrumentos de personalidade não medem?, Dissertação de Mestrado em Psicologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, RS.

Wu, C. (2007), “On the application of grey relational analysis and RIDIT analysis to likert scale surveys”, International Mathematical Forum, No. 14, pp. 675-687.

Yin, R. K. (2005), Estudo de caso: planejamento e métodos, 3. ed., Bookman, Porto Alegre, RS.