| Pub. Date | : Oct, 2020 |
|---|---|
| Product Name | : The IUP Journal of Organizational Behavior |
| Product Type | : Article |
| Product Code | : IJOB021020 |
| Author Name | : P Ramesh |
| Availability | : YES |
| Subject/Domain | : Arts & Humanities |
| Download Format | : PDF Format |
| No. of Pages | : 18 |
This study aims at assessing the personality traits of scientists and non-scientists and finding out their relationship with emotional intelligence and happiness. The data was collected from 134 scientists and 122 non-scientists (technical, administrative, and financial staff) from Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) by administering Big-Five Inventory (BFI), Emotional Intelligence Test (EIT) and Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI). The results indicate that scientists differed from non-scientists in three out of five personality traits. They have lower levels of extraversion and conscientiousness, but higher levels of openness to experiences. In emotional intelligence domain, scientists have relatively lower levels of 'Managing Emotions' and higher levels of 'Motivating Oneself' compared to non-scientists. The levels of happiness did not differ between the scientists and non-scientists. Personality traits, viz., Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Openness, were positively related and Neuroticism was negatively related with both emotional intelligence and happiness across the two groups. Emotional intelligence and happiness were found to be positively related. From the findings, the role of personality traits in establishing the relationship between one's emotional intelligence and happiness is inferred. Since emotional intelligence can be learned, it is suggested to incorporate it in employees' in-service training programs, which will result in enhancing happiness and thus improving their overall productivity.
Personality of employees plays an important role in the work environment. It is defined as the set of emotional qualities, thought, and behavior that makes a person different from other people (Allport, 1961). According to Beer and Brooks (2011), personality of an individual is distinctive characteristics or qualities which give the perception of how able the person is in doing a particular job compared to others (Sackett et al., 1998). There is a dearth of research on the psychological attributes of scientists in the literature. A few researchers like Feist (1998 and 2006) attempted to analyze the personality traits and creativity among scientists. In a study, Wilson and Jackson (1994) reported that physicists were found to be more introverted, careful, controlled and inhibited compared to general, cross-occupation norms. Cattell et al. (1970) developed norms for scientists-defined as biologists, chemists, geologists and physicists-which indicated that compared to the general population, they were less outgoing, enthusiastic and conscientious as well as more stable, assertive, and tender-minded. Similarly, Bachtold and Werner (1972) examined the personality traits of 146 female biologists and chemists and found that compared to general population norms, they were more serious, radical, confident, dominant, intelligent and adventurous, although less sociable, group-dependent and sensitive.