Abstract

Executives  are  the  backbone  of  an organization; through  their  leadership and personality attributes they  drive  the  organization.  The fate  of  the  organization depends  upon on their  efforts.  No  question  that  intelligence  remains  an  important dimension   of   human   personality   but   recent   research   suggest   that   emotional intelligence is also a key factor for the success in any job.  Besides, personality traits emotional  intelligence also plays pivotal  role  to  performance  in  the  organizations. The military officers are the key leaders in the battle scenario and in peace time, who leads the  team  in  different  levels of the hierarchy. Thereby, selection of officers’ cadet  remains  as  a  sacred  job  for  the Armed Forces. No  previous  research  has addressed or explored on the relations of personality traits and emotional intelligence in selection process in Bangladesh military environment. The research was designed to   explore   the   contribution   of   personality   traits   and   emotional   intelligence(independent  variable)to  the  selection  of  Armed  Forces  officer  cadet(examination outcome. selection or rejection). Participants were the candidates appeared in the final  stage  of  the  selection  process  aged  between  17  to  21  years.  They were administered  two  objective questionnaire Bangla  version tests namely  NEO-FFI-3 and  Trait  Emotional  Intelligence  Questionnaire-Short  Form. Total  1028  respondent participated in  the study.  The analysis suggests  mixed effect on  the  selection process  amongst Personality and  EI,  a  few  factors  could  influence  them  in  the  final stage selection. Out of all facets global trait emotional intelligence and emotionality could  predict  the outcome significantly  and  extraversion  and  sociability  can predict very marginally. The study provided much-needed window in regards to selection process of Armed Forces officers in Bangladesh and also it is an eye opening for the other modern organizations.

Keywords: Emotional  intelligence,  Trait  Emotional  Intelligence,  Personality  traits, Big Five, Personnel Selection