Revision summary
Emotional intelligence uses feeling as information and energy, not as a flood. The quote is right when fear becomes preparation and anger becomes a lawful, measured reply. Empathy can turn irritation into a better public counter. The caution is that prejudiced feeling must not be made efficient. For a civil servant, “for you” means for the constitutional role, not for private ego.
Model answer
Introduction
The statement treats emotional intelligence as skill in using feeling as a tool, not as a flood. The claim is largely right for public service, with one caution that feelings must still answer to rights.
Body
Why the statement holds
- Emotions carry information: fear can mark a real risk, and anger can mark an injustice, so ignoring them is not professionalism.
- Emotional intelligence is the trained use of that information so that fear becomes preparation and anger becomes a lawful, measured reply.
- Self-awareness and self-regulation stop an officer from shouting in a hearing or freezing in a riot, which is emotion working against the role.
- Empathy and social skill turn irritation at a queue into a redesigned counter, which is emotion working for the citizen.
- Goleman’s workplace model matches the quote: feeling is steered toward a goal rather than denied.
Limits of the quote
- Emotions can be prejudiced; making a communal dislike “work for you” would be efficient vice, not intelligence.
- The Constitution, not the officer’s comfort, decides whose feelings count in a minority’s file.
- Manipulation of others’ fear in a campaign can look like skill and still be unethical persuasion.
- Therefore agreement is yes, if “work for you” means work for the lawful public role, not for private ego.
Discussion for the civil servant
- Training, sleep, and peer debrief after a disaster are practical ways to keep emotion as a resource.
- A stone-faced officer who never names feeling often leaks it as delay or sarcasm, which is emotion against the office.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD E[Emotion as signal] --> S[Self-regulation] S --> P[Public purpose] E --> X[Prejudice ego] X --> H[Harm]
Conclusion
The statement is acceptable when emotional intelligence means steering feeling toward a lawful public purpose. It is not a licence to weaponise prejudice or to treat citizens as material for one’s own mood.
Quick related
Students also ask
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How can social influence and persuasion be ethically employed in a public information campaign by public servants? Explain.
Next question in the 2025 paper (Q8). View answer →
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Should an officer suppress all emotion?
No. Suppression often leaks as delay or sarcasm. The task is to name and steer feeling, not to pretend it is absent.
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Is emotional intelligence manipulation?
It becomes manipulation when others’ fear is used for a private or unlawful end. Ethical EI serves a public, lawful end.
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