EMPLOYEE’S POSITIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS: DO THEY MATTER FOR THEIR EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE THROUGH PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL? AN INTEGRATIVE DIMENSIONAL STUDY

Abstract

The quality of administrative staff is widely regarded as a key asset for organizational development. Constructs such as emotional intelligence, positive personality traits, and psychological capital are considered critical in enhancing employee effectiveness. This study aimed to examine  the association of  positive personality traits to  emotional intelligence and its dimensions through psychological capital. Particular emphasis was placed on understanding how university administrative employees utilize their psychological resources to achieve emotional intelligence, an area that has received limited attention in the context of Pakistan. Data were collected from 330 administrative staff members across three universities using a stratified random sampling technique. The findings revealed that psychological capital mediates the relationship among four positive personality traits and four components of emotional intelligence, although mediation was not observed uniformly across all constructs. Positive personality traits namely “extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience, and conscientiousness” emerged as significant predictors of psychological capital. Furthermore, psychological capital demonstrated a strong association with important  dimensions of emotional intelligence, including “self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management”. Overall, the results support the hypothesis that psychological capital serves as a mediating mechanism among positive personality traits and employee emotional intelligence. The study concludes with implications and recommendations for future research