Associations of personality and emotional intelligence with political skill: A study on budding managers

Pages: 354-364
Saswat Barpanda (Department of Management ,Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kerala)
Anju Kamal (Department of Management ,Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kerala)

The present business context is characterized by an unpredictable environment and impulsive firms where the jobs that necessitate interpersonal skill, flexible and approaches continue to gain importance. Every organization must prepare itself to deal with the changes and develop novel behaviors for survival. In this context, political skill can be considered as a competency which is becoming increasingly important for employees’ success in their careers. Further many studies witnessed the role of personality and emotional intelligence in influencing political skills in employee. So, these past studies beckon further in inquest of requirement of political skills of the budding managers. This study focused on the interplay of these three variables in organizations from the perspectives of budding manager. By using cross sectional descriptive survey on 118 post graduate students from various business schools this study examines the associations of personality and emotional Intelligence with political Skill. Empirical analysis revealed that personality and emotional intelligence emerged as strong predictors of political skill. This study asserts positions political skill as akey variable for enhancing employees’ and organizational health. The present study attempts to contribute to the theory and research in political skill about its influence on personality and emotional intelligence. For producing a more engaged workforce in their organizations this study will help Managers in finding out how emotional intelligence and personality traits directly influence political skill.