(p. 173). As stated in Illeris (2007), Piaget wrote in 1945 that “affective life, like
intellectual life, is a continual adaptation” (Illeris, 2007, p. 79). Tyre and von Hippel
(1997) advocated that situated learning is important for developing leaders and their EI:
Situated theories of learning have important implications for how learning and
problem solving take place in organizations ... because learning is a social
process, the social and cultural context will affect both how and what
organizational actors (e.g., leaders) learn. (p. 72).
Other theorists help underscore the relationship between EI and experiential/
situated learning. Dewey’s pragmatism “is identified by anticipating ‘what-if’
consequences to potential activities and conduct” (Elkjaer, 2009, p. 76). Through
reflection, learning, and knowledge, emotions can be transformed into cognitive and
communicative experience (Elkjaer, 2009). The communicative experiences are what
Lave and Wenger (1991) referred to as “trajectories of participation” (p. 121). Extending
the participation trajectory metaphor, action learning, previously discussed as a
developmental activity by Yukl (2010) and a type of experiential learning by Marquardt
(2011a), can promote a leader’s EI (Marquardt, 2011b).
These conduct and activity-based consequences have important connections to the
leader’ exercise of EI in a social context. In taking an inclusive approach to learning,
Lindeman (1926) advocated that learners ask themselves the following three questions:
- What part of my personality is here involved about which I need further
enlightenment? - What further information do I need concerning the various aspects of the
impeding environment?