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Big Five personality traits as predictor’s of

emotional intelligence: An empirical
approach among college teachers in
Bangalore city
1C.Andrew Isaac, 2Dr. S.Raju
1
Research Scholar, 2Director
1,
Doms, Madurai Kamaraj University, Professional Programs, Fatima College, Madurai

Abstract
Nowadays, with the rapidly changing environment, most organizations face serious
challenges to manage. The relationship between EI and personality traits has been vastly
discussed in the literature. A convenient sample of 150 teachers who were working as student
faculties in different arts and science colleges in Bangalore city were approached. Primary
data were collected using a well structured questionnaire. The significantly influencing
independent variables on EI are Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness.
Suitable suggestions were discussed

Keywords: Personality, Emotional Intelligence, Big five

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1. Introduction:
Nowadays, with the rapidly changing environment, most organizations face serious
challenges to manage. The volatility associated with globalization, rapid development,
relentless innovation and rapid changes in stakeholder perceptions are affected by many
organizations including higher education institutions. Many of the studies showed significant
differences in human behavior as changes occur in the environment (Piderit, 2000). Most of
these shifts have to do with temperament, emotional intelligence, and many more. Emotion is
the consequence of experience accompanied by the situation's physiological stimulation and
assessment. Once a physiological sensation is felt, a person's external stimuli or circumstance
or events will decide which emotions the person will feel. Emotions and moods are a natural
part of the make-up of a person ( Nawal G. Alghamdi, Muhammad Aslam, and Khushnoor
Khan,2017) . There is empirical evidence that personality and EI have been essential keys to
achieve organizational goals and to succeed in changing environment (Beer & Nohria, 2000).
The "Big Five" Personality Factor Model is a more recent and more widely accepted trait mo
del. The Big Five Factor Model, often referred to as the "Big Five" or the "Five Factor Model
"It proposes that personality can be factored into five domains: neuroticism, extraversion,
openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Different figures show an upward trend in
the workplace's negative emotions over the past few years. Given this, it is understandable

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that since its emergence in the mid-1990s, emotional intelligence (EI) has continued to be of
interest to businesses and organizations. Understanding and controlling our emotions,
empowering oneself and understanding the emotions of others and maintaining relationships
are important' soft skills' for the workforce of today. But this context of research has received
less research attention in Asian countries. The purpose of this study was to examine big five
personality traits as determinants of EI. And for present study it was hypothesized that
emotional intelligence would be positively related with extraversion, agreeableness,
conscientiousness and openness to experience, whereas EI and neuroticism would be
significantly and negatively correlated

2. Review of literature:
The relationship between EI and personality traits has been vastly discussed in the literature.
Several models of EI are closely attached with personality theory, specifically the mixed
models (Bar-On, 2005; Goleman, 1995). Both models list components and sub-components
of their theory of EI which are similar to areas which have been previously studied under
personality theory. The following section discusses the previous studies conducted on the
research topic. Atta, Ather, & Bano, (2013) made an attempt to examine relationship pattern
between personality traits and emotional intelligence. The study sample comprised of 163
university teachers in Pakistan. Results of correlational analysis revealed that EI was
positively correlated with extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience and
agreeableness, and negatively with neuroticism. Krishnan (2012), randomly selected 291
participants to estimate the relationship between Emotional Intelligence and the personality
of Malaysian respondents. The finding of the study shows that there are strong relationships
between EI and Big Five traits, consistent with previous studies. Conscientiousness and
Agreeableness strongly correlated with EI, followed by Extraversion, Openness and
Neuroticism. Alghamdi, Aslam, & Khan, K. (2017), through a sample comprising of 100
student advisors, investigated personality traits as the predictor of emotional intelligence. .
The findings revealed that three personality traits, extraversion, agreeableness, and openness
to experience, emerged as significant predictors of EI. The findings also revealed that
conscientiousness and neuroticism have no impact on EI . Ghiabi & Besharat (2011) ,
examined the relationship between personality dimensions and emotional intelligence (EI) in
a sample of students from the University of Tehran. Four hundred and fourty three students
(237 females, 206 males) were included in their study. The results revealed that EI could
positively and negatively predicted by extraversion and neuroticism, respectively.
Dehghanan, abdollahi, & Rezaei (2014), carried out a study to investigate the effects of big
five personal traits on emotional intelligence on Iranian firms. The authors used structural
equation modeling and stepwise regression where the study found a positive and meaningful
relationship between four components of big five model namely extraversion, agreeableness,
conscientiousness and openness and emotional intelligence. Also, the study found a negative
and significant relationship between neuroticism and emotional intelligence. Hudani, Nawi,
Redzuan, Hashmi, & Din (2015), through their research wok examined the effect and
contribution of big five personality traits on emotional intelligence among high performance
public school personnel. Regression analysis revealed that personality traits were a significant

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predictors and contributing significantly in explaining emotional intelligence. The significant
predictors are Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Openness to experiences.
The finding revealed that all four personality traits emerged as
significant predictors of emotional intelligence. The finding also revealed that
Conscientiousness emerged as best predictor of emotional intelligence.

3. Problem Statement:

The students ' success is largely dependent on the teachers ' actions. Teacher quality has the
greatest impact on student performance levels. Quality teachers are the valuable assets of any
country and are the nation's foundation for a knowledge-based economy in the development
of human resources. Even critical factors in determining their efficiency are their job
performance and working attitudes. Our behavior and attitudes have a direct impact on the
learner cycle of teachers. Consequently, economists, educators, and policy makers generally
agree that the need to improve teachers ' efficiency for schools ' performance. Teachers have
high job results, greater satisfaction, high dedication and high engagement with their work for
this reason. Generally, though, it's hard to predict that all teachers have these values. The
researchers have established the significance of employees ' emotional intelligence as a key
backdrop to job outcomes, work attitudes, and other activities in the recent past.

4. Research methodology:
A convenient sample of 150 teachers who were working as student faculties in different arts
and science colleges in Bangalore city were approached. The respondents were explained the
purpose of the research and their consent was taken for the study participation. Primary data
were collected using a well structured questionnaire. The Mini-IPIP Personality scale
developed by Donnellan et al.,(2006) contains 20 items, with 4 items for each of the 5
factors: Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Intellect/Imagination, Agreeableness, and
Neuroticism. Response formats were on likert scales ranging from strongly agree to 5
strongly disagree. The factor Intellect/Imagination varies from the traditional Big Five factor
of Openness. Although Openness has an intellectual curiosity component, it also contains
elements of openness to new experiences. The way this factor is measured in the Mini-IPIP
however is more strictly related to comfort with abstract ideas and imaginative creativity. The
Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test consists of 33 items to measure EI. It has
been developed on a 5-point Likert scale format where 1 indicates strongly disagree and 5
indicates strongly agree. The study data was analyzed using SPSS version 21.

5. Objectives of the study

1) To determine the impact of big five personality traits on emotional intelligence
2) To identify the pertinent personality dimension influencing emotional intelligence

6. Hypothesis
The research hypotheses developed for the present study are:
H1. Extraversion is positively related to Emotional intelligence

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H2: Conscientiousness is positively related to Emotional intelligence
H3: Intellect/Imagination is positively related to Emotional intelligence
H4: Agreeableness is positively related to Emotional intelligence
H5: Neuroticism is negatively related to Emotional intelligence

7. Analysis and Discussion:

Multiple linear regression analysis was done to examine the strength of the relationship
between multiple independent variables and a single dependent variable. The independent
variables used in the present study are the five traits (Extraversion, Conscientiousness,
Intellect/Imagination, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.) and dependent variable (EI).

Table 1
Multiple regression analysis between Big five personality traits and Emotional
intelligence
Independent
Dependent Variable Standardized β R² F Value
Variables

Extraversion .167*

Conscientiousness .146*

.211
Intellect/Imagination

Emotional Intelligence .553 34.912

Agreeableness .331*

Neuroticism -.117

From table 1, the significantly influencing independent variables on EI are Extraversion (β =

0.167, p< .05), Conscientiousness (β = 0.146, p< .05) and Agreeableness (β = 0.331, p< .05).
The F-statistics of 34.992 is significant at the 5% level indicating that this is a highly
significant relationship.
6. Results and Discussion:
The results revealed that there is a meaningful positive association between extraversion,
agreeableness and conscientiousness with emotional intelligence. Also analysis revealed the
trait “Agreeableness” as the most important trait influencing EI. Considering the implications

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of personality traits towards EI among college teachers, the current research may assist in
augmenting organizational behavior in general and boost productivity in particular.

References:

1. Atta, M., Ather, M., & Bano, M. (2013). Emotional Intelligence and Personality
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