Emotional Intelligence | Stevehein.com
EI
Consortium
(eiconsortium.org)
* under construction
| Introduction May 29, 2001- Consortium drops link to my site May 31, 2001- Consortium funding June 4, 2001 - More on the Consortium and their links The Consortium's April 2005 campaign to discredit the EQI.org site |
Most Recent Items July 27, 2007 - Update May 31, 2006 - Trying to get some responses from the board members Feb 2006 - Started redoing this page |
|
The EI Consortium is a group co-founded by Daniel Goleman. Its webmaster and chief PR agent is Rob Emmerling. For a long time I have felt very skeptical about their motives. Its main function seems to be promoting the consulting services of its members and to get money through getting grants from government agencies etc. David Caruso once told me it is very political and there is big money involved. For several years I pretty much ignored what Emmerling was doing with his Consortium site because none of it seemed to be of much use to people outside the corporate world. Then in April 2005 Emmerling started a campaign to discredit me and sabotage my site. This motivated me to do some more writing about Rob and the Consortium site.
You can read more about all of this below and on the Rob Emmerling page.
S. Hein
January, 2006
The Consortium's April 2005 campaign to discredit the EQI.org site
In April 2005 I found out that Robert Emmerling, the webmaster of the EI Consortium, was writing emails to people trying to get them to drop their links to the EQI.org site. In his emails he said I am "posing as an authority in emotional intelligence" and he implied that my work with suicidal teens is somehow exploitative, though he did not say how. After many attempts to contact Rob to discuss his concerns, misrepresentations and allegations, I have come to the conclusion that his primary motive for sending out the emails was simply a desire to reduce the influence my site has on the web. My site has been number one in Google in "Emotional Intelligence" for most of the past 5 years or so, while the Consortium site has consistently been number two or lower. Also, I have been very critical of Goleman and other Consortium members, such as Maurice Elias, and Reuvon BarOn.
It is impossible to know Rob's true motives for sending out the defamatory emails. Rob could have been acting on his own, or with the support of other Consortium members who I have criticized. I have tried in many ways to address his concerns, and I have asked him for suggestions but he has never replied. So it seems clear to me now that Rob was defaming me and my site not because he is really concerned that I am a threat to teens, but because I am a threat to him, Goleman and the status quo at the Consortium.
You can read more about this on the Rob Emmerling page.
Criticism of the EI Consortium
Before Rob Emmerling's campaign to discredit me and my site I had written some critiques of the Consortium. In April of 2005 I felt even more critical of the Consortium because Emmerling's actions. Here is a list of my critical comments of the Consortium over the years.
Emotional honesty not part of the Goleman model of EI
Membership Requirements for the EI Consortium (Individual); and "Organizational"
A few questions for Rob concerning his membership in the EI Consortium
Emotional literacy not part of the Goleman corporate definition of emotional intelligence
The EI Consortium an exclusive club?
Who is the "consortium" really designed for?
A list of Goleman's articles and more critique of his means and motives
A few more facts about the EI Consortium site
A critique of Dan Goleman's membership status and motives
| See also my page on Rob | New Items April 18 - Rob still trying to discredit me instead of discussing this with me directly. April 9 - Rob Emmerling and the EI Consortium trying to discredit me |
May 29, 2001- EI Consortium drops link to my site!
Well, I guess Dan Goleman finally felt annoyed enough with me that he pressured Rob Emmerling, the webmaster for the EI Consortium, to drop the link from their site to mine! I feel amused. And inspired. And successful. I say successful because it seems Dan is getting increasingly defensive as more people visit my site and read about how he is misleading the public. I am actually starting to feel sorry for the guy.
At any rate, when Rob first put the link on to my site I warned him that I was pretty critical of Goleman, but Rob said that was okay because they wanted to represent all sides of the EI debate. Rob and I have corresponded several times and he seems like a good guy to me. So I wrote to him today and asked what is up. I wonder if the other members of the consortium know about this. I have not been critical of the consortium website because I respect Rob, but I am starting to feel a bit more critical...
S. Hein
May 29, 2001
May 31, 2001 - EI Consortium Funded by Fetzer Institute
I just read that the EI Consortium got funding from something called the Fetzer Institute.(1) With all the money Goleman made from his 1995 and 1998 books, (easily over a million US dollars), he actually had the nerve to ask someone else to fund his new self-promotional project called the EI Consortium!
After a little more research I also found that they funded Goleman in 1992 and 1993 when he was collecting information for his 1995 book. (2) Very interesting. He is one clever guy!
--
1. Evidence that the Fetzer Institute gave money to the EI Consortium
Example 1
"The Consortium has been funded by the Fetzer Institute, a private foundation located in Kalamazoo, Michigan."
Source: eiconsortium/research/technical_report.htm_"
Example 2
These guidelines emerged from a review of research conducted under the auspices of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in funded by the Fetzer Institute of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Consortium members were: Richard Boyatzis, Ph.D., Professor of Management and Associate Dean, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University; Robert Caplan, Ph.D., Professor and Director of the Organizational Psychology Program, George Washington University; Cary Cherniss, Ph.D., Professor of Applied Psychology, Rutgers University; Daniel Goleman, Ph.D., author and CEO of Emotional Intelligence Services; Marilyn Gowing, Ph.D., Director of Resources and Development, U. S. Office of Personnel Management, Washington, DC; Kathy Kram, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Management, Boston University; Richard Price, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan; Mary Ann Re, Ph.D., Manager of AT&T Corporate Employee Research, AT&T; and Lyle Spencer, Jr., Ph.D., Hay Group Research Fellow, Author (Competence at Work), and Consultant.
Source: eiconsortium .org/research/technical_report.htm
----
2. Evidence that the Fetzer Institute gave money to Goleman while he was working on his 1995 book
From 1992 to 1993, the Fetzer Institute supported a pioneering inquiry by Daniel Goleman, Ph.D., that revealed forms of intelligence and ways of knowing relating to our emotions that, combined with our intellectual capacities, are critical to success. Dr. Goleman's work was published in his best-selling book, Emotional Intelligence.
Goleman also acknowledges the Fetzer Institute in his 1995 book with these words: Support from the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazo, Michigan, has allowed me the luxury to explore more fully what (p. 341 Hardcover edition) "emotional literacy" might mean..."
June 4, 2001 More on the EI Consortium and their links
As you may know the EI Consortium recently dropped the link to my site. (See May 29, 2001 entry) Now go see what other links they have and tell me if you think my site is more informational than some of the others. (www.eiconsortium.org/links.htm) What is an ad for the Rutgers Graduate Psych.department doing there, for example? And the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology?
Out of curiosity I went to look at the Society for I & O Psych. site. I didn't see anything about EI. So I did a search on "emotional intelligence" using their site search option. I found a long list of results. I was impressed. I thought, maybe I am mistaken, maybe this is a helpful site. So I tried the first one on the list, which had a point ranking of 175. This sounded like it probably had a lot of references to EI on it, so I was anticipating something big. What I found, though was a job posting for an OD consultant to work for the Hay Group! From October of 1999!! Read the job qualifications, by the way... EI skills are not even included.
Hmm. So I tried the next on the list. It turned out to be another job opening for another consultant.
Okay, let's try number three. This turns out to be an announcement for a workshop that is already over. Interestingly though, I see a familiar name. Marilyn Gowing, who is a member of the EI Consortium. I will say no more about this link.
I can't blame the folks for not liking me over there at the EI Consortium. But now I have written to both the webmaster and one of the consortium members to ask what is going on with the link to my site. It has been a few days now and I haven't heard from either of them, so I will be patient a few more days and then try again, or try another approach or both. While I at first felt amused by their dropping me, I am starting to feel more offended and injusted, if I can make up that word. My site is a valuable resource to the world and it serves a role in keeping people like Dan Goleman somewhat more honest. Right now I am also feeling ignored and this is sometimes equal to feeling provoked for me. I am not a person who takes injustice "lying down" as the saying goes. Check out my sexual abuse story if you have any doubt of what I can do when my ire is sufficiently aroused. And my motivation to take action and show up in person on campus recently was largely triggered by feeling ignored.
I know what one person can do, and I know what one website can do. If anyone has any doubt of that, check out www.walmartsucks.com It is now the second ranked Walmart site on google after the official Walmart site. (You probably have to live in North America to understand this fully, but you will get the idea quickly.) It turns out this one lone individual has struck a chord which resonates with many, many people. Now I am not going to make a DanGolemansucks.com page. But it is an amusing thought! (and the domain is available - I just checked!!)
* August 2003 update - walmartsucks.com evidently was shut down when Walmart paid the site owner off to stop criticizing them.
Anyhow, tonight, as I was doing some web work, I decided to move my Dan Goleman page up a bit on my home page. I took it from the "Everything Else" section and put it in the first column. I have also been adding to my section on how he is misleading the public and the other day I started a section on how he manipulates his readers.
You might think I sound resentful, bitter, and hostile. Well, those would be good guesses! Sometimes those emotions lead to important social change, though, so they are not always negative emotions. Remember what Maslow said: What shall we call the well-adjusted slave?
Something else which is starting to bother me is what Hay/McBer is doing under the name of EI and with the apparent full support of Goleman. If you go to the following link and read the section on "Why should I use the ECI over other instruments such as the Bar-On EQI or Salovey and Mayer’s instrument?" you may understand one of the reasons I am bothered, especially if you know a little about the ECI 360, the EQi and the MEIS/MSCEIT tests. I am now going to start referring to the ECI-360 as the CCI-360, by the way -- The "Corporate Competencies Inventory."
But tonight it is late and this reporter is tired. So I will say no more for now.
Organizational Effectiveness & Management Development Consultant (Boston) Unique opportunity for a Ph.D. in psychology to help develop the leadership talent of major corporations. Working with senior psychologists in business settings, you will help executives develop their “emotional intelligence” through management assessments, coaching and ongoing development programs. To succeed in this key position you must have demonstrated experience in performance management and competency model development, excellent business acumen, and strong analytical, planning, project management and communication skills. Consulting experience desirable.
Contact:
Marcia
O’Connor, National Recruiting Manager
E-mail: marcia_o’connor@haygroup.com
Address: Hay Group
100 Penn Sqaure East
The Wanamaker Building
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Fax:
215-861-2110
Posted October 29, 1999
Malcolm Pirnie, Inc. a nationwide leading environmental engineering firm is seeking an OD consultant located in corporate offices in White Plains, NY. Services we provide include executive coaching, leadership development, team building, organizational effectiveness, change management, and emotional intelligence training. Qualified candidate must have experience with organizational needs assessment, proposal writing, managing programs and developing long-term client relationships with grace and business acumen. Outstanding interpersonal communication skills, excellent writing ability, the capacity to get things done quickly, teamwork, collaboration and enthusiasm are a must. This candidate will have an M.A. and five (5) plus years experience or a Ph.D. and two (2) plus years experience. Some travel required. Excellent benefits package. Please send resume and salary requirements to Dana P. Middleton, 104 Corporate Park Drive, White Plains, New York 10602, email to dmiddleton@pirnie.com or fax to 914-641-2802. Please refer to Req#910 when applying. EOE, M/F/D/V
September 19, 2000
Membership Requirements - copied from the EI Consortium site:
How to Apply for Individual Membership
If you feel that you meet the criteria listed below and are interested in being considered for individual membership in the Consortium please contact Melissa Extein.
Criteria for Membership
Questions for Rob concerning his membership in the EI Consortium
Hey Rob,
Would you call yourself open-minded? How do we decide when someone is actually open-minded? What are your criteria? You don't seem very open-minded to me. You seem to think there is something wrong with a lot of things I do.
And when did you become a member yourself? It seems like you were a member before you met these criteria! Were you a member when you were just the webmaster? Can you tell me, for example, when you got your name on the first article about emotional intelligence? And where your articles have been published? I am guessing they have only been published on the EI Consortium site. Do you have any in any psychology journals? Does Goleman have any in any psychology journals yet?
Could you also please tell me who exactly decides on who is accepted as a new member? I would like to write to them and suggest that you shouldn't be a member because, in my opinion, you are not very open-minded.
Steve
April 17, 2005
from the EI Consortium site:
--
Organizational and corporate members have made a commitment to furthering high quality research on the application of emotional intelligence in organizational settings. The current organizational members are: American Express Financial Advisors, the HayGroup, Johnson & Johnson, and the Federal Office of Personnel Management.
Organizational Members
If you think your organization might benefit by becoming a member of the consortium.
The Consortium currently includes six organizational members, and we hope to gradually expand the number during the coming year. Organizational members send one or two representatives to Consortium meetings, which are held twice a year and take up about 1-1/2 days. These meetings provide rich opportunities for organizational members to:
Organizational members will be companies or public sector organizations with at least 10,000 employees. (Smaller companies also will be welcome if they already have done high quality work on assessment and development of emotional intelligence.) The organizational members will pay an annual membership fee to help cover administrative costs. (My red highlighting - thanks for the idea, Rob.)
If you think your
organization might benefit by becoming a member of the consortium
or to get additional information about becoming an organizational
member of the Consortium, contact Cary Cherniss,
co-chair of the Consortium.
--
By the way, sometimes you capitalize "consortium" and sometimes you don't. I feel confused. Is there a reason for this or is it just a typo when you don't capitalize it? And does it have to be capitalized at all, or are you just trying to make it look more impressive?
Oh and could you please tell me what the "annual membership fee" is? And how what how much the annual administrative costs actually are for the EI Consortium? How much are they paying you? Is that public information? Or is it a secret? If you want to make my life difficult you could refuse to tell me and I could probably find out how much the Federal Office of Personnel Management is paying. I think that would probably be public information. But if you would just tell me I would appreciate it and not have another reason to feel resentful towards you.
Steve
April 17, 2005
Here is one more little thing that bothers me. This is from the list of benefits to being an "organizational member" of the "consortium."
Get the latest research findings on emotional intelligence first, months before they reach the public domain.
Why do they have to be so exclusive and elitist? Why don't they put all this stuff on their site and make it available to everyone in the world for free? And why isn't there a copy of Goleman's 1995 book on their site yet so everyone can read it? Hasn't he made enough money from it by now?
Who is the "consortium" really designed for?
In some parts of their site they talk about "organizational members." This could mean non-profit organizations like Amnesty International, for example. But then they slip up and say "companies" here when they are talking about the "bottom line".
In addition, member companies will be able to initiate research projects on how Emotional Intelligence can help improve the bottom line - to help frame the questions as well as get the answers.
And what does the "bottom line" mean? It means profits. Money.
To me this whole group of people, well not everyone because I see that Neal Ashkanasy is a member and he seems quite okay to me, but most of them, are interested in money more than people or feelings. And very few of them seem very interested in children or teenagers, who supposedly are so important as they are said to be the "future". But if this is true, then why are their feelings ignored so often?
A critique of Dan Goleman's membership status and motives
Okay now this, to me, is pretty funny. They make a big deal in their membership requirements that the members have...
... published empirical research on one or more of the competencies associated with emotional intelligence. By "research" we mean posing a question or hypothesis and then collecting and analyzing data -- quantitative or qualitative -- designed to answer the question or test the hypothesis. Papers presented at conferences can be counted as "publications" if they report on empirical research and the conference submissions are "refereed."
and they say the members must have
published several articles or books on the topic (i.e., one is not enough).
Then here is the list of Goleman's articles as listed on the EI Consortium site:
Goleman, D. "What Makes a Leader," Harvard Business Review, Nov-Dec. 1998.
Goleman, D. "Leadership That Gets Results," Harvard Business Review, March-April 2000
But what does Goleman have? Some books which were not "refereed" and just two articles, neither in what could be called scientific journals. The Harvard Business Review is not where psychologists publish their research findings. It is not written for other psychologists. It is written for business managers and business professors. It seems obvious to me that the HBR printed Goleman's articles simply to sell more copies.
Also, I am pretty sure that in his two articles for the HBR Dan didn't "pose a question or hypothesis and then collect and analyze data designed to answer the question or test the hypothesis. No, instead what he did was make a lot of claims about EI and support them very weakly with what he called research. Both articles were, in my opinon of course, basically just big advertisements for his version of EI. No doubt he got a few consulting contracts after each one came out. But look also at how he hasn't written a single article since March/April 2000. Does this suggest he is very "passionate" about promoting emotional intelligence through research?
And something else, why do the members have to be passionate about "promoting" EI? Maybe it is a poorly defined concept, or "construct" as the psychologists like to say, and the researchers should be passionate about trying to discredit it.
What are we really looking for here? Why do researchers really do research? To promote something, or to search for the truth?
In Goleman's case I think it is fair to say his whole fame and fortune is built more on promotion, of every sort, than of anything of real substance, let alone a search for the truth.
S. Hein
April 17, 2005
Yesterday I wrote to the board members again. On this date these were the board members according to the consortium website.
Richard Boyatzis
Robert Caplan
Cary Cherniss
Daniel Goleman
Marilyn Gowing
Kathy Kram
Richard Price
Lyle Spencer, Jr.
Note to the board members, if you are not already aware of it, as of this date searches on "EI Consotium" list this page as number two on Google.
Here is the search if you want to try it
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ei+consortium
found this about $1,000,000 grant to heartmath...
from: heartmath.org/ihm-action/press-room/press-releases/federal-funding.html
Media Contact:
Gabriella Boehmer
(831) 338-8710 or email at gboehmer@heartmath.org
The Institute of HeartMath® has been awarded $1 million of federal funding to demonstrate the benefits of HeartMath’s innovative TestEdge™ programs. Nine school districts of varying profiles across the U.S have been selected as TestEdge demonstration sites. The states designated to participate in the project include California, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Ohio, Texas, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Test anxiety and other emotional stress associated with high-stakes tests have increased dramatically over the past several years with the new testing requirements. Just ask Diana Govan, a public high school teacher in Carmel, California. "Many of my students find that they are unprepared for the pressure of high-stakes tests and become emotionally and physically upset weeks in advance," Govan says. "We need to do a better job preparing students both emotionally and academically for standardized testing."
This grant is timely in light of the increasing emphasis at the state and federal levels on standardized testing of all students. Rep. Ralph Regula (R-OH), who was instrumental in providing funding for the demonstration, states, "As annual testing becomes a regular part of our educational system through the No Child Left Behind Act and other state requirements, it is important that when we test students on their mastery of a subject, we are truly getting accurate results. The program developed by the Institute of HeartMath to reduce test-related anxiety shows great potential for helping students achieve success."
Congressman Sam Farr of California commented, "HeartMath takes cutting-edge technology and applies it to the very real classroom testing situation, giving students the kind of tools they need to positively address the rigors of compelled testing performance."
With federal funding, the Institute is now in a position to demonstrate its effectiveness in a broad array of education environments. "By supporting the Institute of HeartMath's efforts, we're supporting our teachers and students," Representative Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA) said. "I'm pleased that my congressional colleagues and I were able to secure funding for this national demonstration project designed to provide students in the Redwood City School District and other selected sites with the tools they need to succeed in their high-stakes tests."
The national demonstration project is designed to provide students with the tools needed to manage the emotional and academic challenges associated with high-stakes tests. According to Dr. Robert Rees, Director of Education and Humanities at the Institute of HeartMath, "TestEdge has already proven successful in pilot programs in Minnesota, California and Massachusetts, where students using HeartMath tools and technology have shown significant improvements in their test scores."