The role of emotional intelligence and personality variables on attitudes toward organisational change

Although the role of organisational characteristics in the change process has been extensively analysed and discussed in the literature, individual characteristics, which are equally crucial for the success of change, have been neglected. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to add a different way of looking and working with organisational change by focusing on individuals’ emotions and personality traits. This paper explores how emotional intelligence and the “big Wve” dimensions of personality can facilitate organisational change at an individual level by exploring the relationship between these attributes and attitudes toward organisational change. The sample consisted of 137 professionals who completed self-report inventories assessing emotional intelligence, personality traits and attitudes towards organisational change. The results conWrmed that there is a relationship between personality traits and employees’ attitudes toward change. Similarly, the contribution of emotional intelligence to the attitudes to change was found to be signiWcant, indicating the added value of using an emotional intelligence measure above and beyond the effect of personality. The practical implications of these Wndings are discussed in relation to the phases of a change project. As organisations try to survive and remain competitive, they are reorganising, re-engineering, downsizing and implementing new technology. In other words, they constantly try to change. These ongoing and seemingly endless efforts can put a lot of strain not only on organisations but also on individuals. Beer and Nohria (2000) argue that 70 per cent of change programs fail because of lack of strategy and vision, lack of communication and trust, lack of top management commitment, lack of resources, lack of change management skills, resistance to change etc. Research dealing with organisational change has mainly focused on organisational factors neglecting the person-oriented issues. Although some The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister www.emeraldinsight.com/0268-3946.htm