To reveal or conceal? Managers’ disclosures of private information during emotional intelligence training

Thory, Kathryn (2013) To reveal or conceal? Managers’ disclosures of private information during emotional intelligence training. In: University Forum for Human Resource Development, 2013-06-05 - 2013-06-07.

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Abstract

This paper explores the function of managerial disclosures and non-disclosures during ‘popular’ EI training courses provided by independent management consultancies. Using Petronio’s communication privacy management theory and Stiles’s fever model of disclosure it shows how managers adopt calibrated and varied responses to disclosure requests. Through the presentation of a critical matrix, the paper presents two functions of disclosure ‘self development’ and ‘catharsis’ and two functions of concealment ‘self protection’ and ‘disengagement’. The conceptual matrix offers insights into how managers exert control over EI’s disclosure practices, have expectations how that information is co-owned and how emotional states influence access to private information. In doing so, it highlights how extant accounts of therapeutic cultures have over-rated the powerlessness of actors to resist the cathartic, self-actualising and confessional demands of therapeutic practices.

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