The Effect of Emotional Intelligence on Organization Performance Using the Big Five Personality Traits”: An Applied Study on Higher Education Institutions

Design/Methodology: Based on the Structural Equation Model, this study examines 270 faculty members within a higher education institution, to test an estimated model presenting the effect of top management EI on organization performance in the presence of the BFPT. The hypothesized model indicates that there is no significance for the presence of the one of the dimensions of EI domain as an independent variable. Thus, this dimension is deleted and another hypothesized model is re-estimated.


Introduction
Emotions have a great part in the place of work; they affect manners of employees and thus affect perceptions, understanding, and managing of such manners. Higher education institutions have their specific strategies which allow them to compete on a solid ground, all employees especially higher management need to use their emotions efficiently to achieve success. Crawford (2009) indicated that managers have great effect on their assistants' behavior affecting organization performance. Also, Walter et al. (2011) concluded that those high in EI are most truthful at influencing their employees, as they are more capable at understanding their employees' needs.
Emotionally sound individuals have better interpersonal communication by understanding their own emotions and others' emotions . Daniel Goleman (1995) highlighted on the importance of emotional intelligence (EI) for organizational success. Anwar and Sulaiman (2013) indicated that Goleman stressed on developing EI model in addition to implementing it for organizational effectiveness.

Research Importance
The study is important for higher education institution to improve their performance as they must stay competitive. Investigating the relationship between EI and organization performance in the higher education institutions through the BFPT and the DTT can contribute in improving organization performance which will aid in developing and recruiting top management who have high EI skills to handle challenges and improve their institutions performance. Miao et al. (2017aMiao et al. ( , 2017b defined EI as "a constellation of behavioral dispositions and self-perceptions concerning one's ability to recognize, process, and utilize emotion-laden information", their results were consistent with other researches' findings (Schutte et al., 2007;Joseph and Newman, 2010;Martins et al., 2010;Walter et al., 2011;O'Boyle et al., 2011;Miao et al., 2016Miao et al., , 2017aMiao et al., , 2017bMiao et al., , 2017cMiao et al., , 2018aMiao et al., , 2018b indicated that emotionally intelligent individuals have the ability to control their emotions to remain positive and excited and to ease undesirable feelings in the place of work, thus resulting in positive outcomes like organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors. In spite of the evidence indicated by both Martins et al. (2010) and Resurrección et al. (2014) to link EI to better physical and mental health, Davis and Nichols (2016) suggested that high emotional alertness and managing may be related to bad psychological health and unfavorably effect on a person's capacity to deal with emotionally vital circumstances.

4-2 Models of Emotional Intelligence (EI)
4-2-1 Ability Emotional Intelligence (AEI) Mayer et al. (2016) were the first researchers who labeled ability EI (AEI) as a set of abilities starting with perceiving emotions and ending with managing it. Wong and Law (2002) proposed four EI domains in terms of ability-based model: self-emotional awareness, using emotion, regulating emotion, and assessing emotions of others. They introduced the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) to measure EI of individuals which was used in this study. Travis and Lac (2006) criticized AEI model as for the lack of both face and predictive validity in the workplace.

4-2-2 Trait Emotional Intelligence (TEI)
Mayer and other researchers declared that EI is an ability construct while other researchers have linked EI to other constructs like personality. This model led the way to substitute EI concept as an inherent trait rather than acquired abilities developed through experience. Petrides and Furnham (2000) indicated that TEI referred to consistencies in behavior based on situation while AEI referred to individual's capability to recognize, express, and label emotions in self and others. Professor of Psychology and Psychometrics Konstantinos V. Petrides proposed a conceptual difference between the AEI and TEI and developed the later over years (Petrides and Furnham, 2000;Petrides et al., 2007). Davis and Nichols (2016) stated that trait EI as emotions were relevant to self-perceptions and natures, such as: sympathy, self-control while ability EI is the cognitive skills dedicated for processing emotional information, such as: emotion perception, understanding, which were different in their basic empirical bases and measurement methods as Petrides et al. (2007) and Mayer et al. (2008a) indicated that this was consistent with what Martins et al. (2010) stated concerning the differences in the way both trait EI and ability EI were measured. Davis and Humphrey (2014) and Salguero et al. (2015) indicated that TEI and AEI work in alternatively one behind the other to emphasize these effects; where high emotional skill levels accompanied with low emotional selfefficacy, result in highly depressed individuals.

4-3 Big Five Personality Traits (BFPT)
The Big Five Personality Traits (BFPT) refer to the differences in individual's patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Soto and John (in press 2017) labeled the Big Five personality traits as Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Negative Emotionality, and Open-Mindedness. While Goldberg (1993); John et al. (2008); McCrae and Costa (2008) labeled them as Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism contrasted with Emotional Stability, and Openness to Experience, Intellect, or Imagination. According to Soto and John (in press 2017), the five domains of the BFPT had 15 facets; Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Negative Emotionality, and Open-Mindedness. This labeling was consistent with McCrae and John (1992) argument, as they described BFPT in terms of the same five basic dimensions; extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience.

4-4 Performance of Higher Education Institutions
Performance is an important concept to achieve organizational goals, it was sometimes seen as the same meaning of success as indicated by Olusola (2011), others view it as goal-directed activities as per Godlovitch (1993). While Bierbusse and Siesfeld (1997) concluded that others see it as achievement of a certain task measured by certain predetermined standards like accurateness, comprehensiveness, cost, and speed, and others relate it to effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity (Berry et al., 2006;Tukamuhabwa et al., 2011;Gleason et al., 2000;and Hilman and Abubakar, 2017).
Higher education institutions are facing the same pressure as all other kind of organizations with respect to market competition, and due to aggressive competition, higher education institutions are adopting the model of other businesses in other fields so that dealing with students as customers as indicated by Zwain et al. (2012) and Hilman and Abubakar (2017), and since different stakeholder demands are getting more complex, educational institutions must keep up its competitive advantage (Zwain et al., 2012). As per Hazelkorn (2015), higher education institutions used both peer review and accreditation as performance assessment, where (Hilman and Abubakar, 2017) indicated that the results of such assessment tools were difficult to understand by ordinary people which leads to breaking down trust between stakeholders. Higgins (1989); Johnes and Taylor (1990); Ball and Wilkinson (1994); Hilman and Abubakar (2017) indicated that scholars have different beliefs about performance measurement, where some thought that evaluating performance must reproduce students' academic achievement only; in the meantime, others thought that it was vital to measure both students' academic achievement and nonstudents academic achievement.

4-5 Previous Investigated Relationships
Prati and Karriker (2018) indicated that a manager's emotional intelligence (MEI) might expressively decrease the deleterious effect of blue mood on employees' emotional performance. Miao et al. (2017aMiao et al. ( , 2017b stated that emotionally intelligent persons are capable of regulating their emotions in order to be positive and enthusiastic and to reduce undesirable feelings in the workplace, accordingly resulting in positive outcomes such as organizational commitment, and organizational citizenship behaviors, higher job satisfaction. Sinha and Jain (2004); Mayer et al. (2004), Anwar et al. (2017) concluded significant relationships between others' emotion appraisal, use of emotion, and regulation of emotion aspects of EI with organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), while the only dimension of self-emotional appraisal is not found to have statistically significant relationship with OCB. Also, they indicate that people, with higher positive levels of EI, show higher levels of OCB which consequently lead to increased organization performance.
They confirmed that the relationship between self-emotional awareness and OCB was not significant, in spite of the fact that they have positive relationship among them. Self-emotional awareness refers to an individual's 47 capability to understand their own emotions and be able to express those emotions. Furthermore, Wong and Law (2002) claimed that an individual's increased self-emotional awareness of the possibly negative impact of their behavior had little influence on the actual behavior they subsequently displayed. Newton et al. (2016) discussed the relationship between EI and understanding work environment, where high EI employees might easily understand the environment that enables more optimistic and less bad emotional responses for more adaptive coping, however high EI maximizes the destructive effects of job stressors such as overload, management difference, underload, and vagueness, on outcomes where significant interactions are found between role underload and management disagreement.
The relationship between both ability and trait EI with the Big Five measures was analyzed by van der Linden et al. (2017), indicating that TEI has strong correlation and basically identical with BF measures and with the social effectiveness dimension of personality, as people high in TEI are expected to behave in a successful social manner, which will consequently produce higher scores on personality aspects like friendliness, dependability, and sociability. People high in TEI are characterized by being extrovert, agreeable, conscientious, confident, and emotionally stable (Petrides, 2009a). Nevertheless, those with high AEI have greater emotional knowledge, awareness, and regulatory capability (Davis and Nichols, 2016).

4-6-1 Measures of Emotional Intelligence
A lot of EI measures are developed such as Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i) (Bar-On, 1997a,b), Self-report Emotional Intelligence Test (SREIT) (Schutte et al., 1998), Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue) (Petrides and Furnham, 2001), Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Tests (MSCEIT) (Mayer et al., 2002a,b), Emotional and Social competence Inventory (ESCI) (Boyatzis and Goleman, 2007), and both The Situational Test of Emotional Management (STEM) and The Situational Test of Emotional Understanding (STEU) (MacCann and Roberts, 2008). Petrides and Furnham (2000) were the first to distinguish between AEI and TEI based on whether the measure is testing highest performance (AEI) or a self-report questionnaire (TEI) (Pérez et al., 2005). Accordingly, AEI measures are based to emotional theoretic understanding of an individual, while TEI measures are based to usual behaviors in emotion-relevant situations and self-rated abilities.
Ability-measures are different than trait measures as they need participants to resolve problems related to emotion that have correct or incorrect answers. Since they were quizzes of highest ability, they cannot predict normal behavior like trait-based measures (O'Connor et al., 2017). Trait-based measures are referred to as those using self-report items to measure EI. Individuals scoring high in different TEI measures have great levels of self-efficacy concerning behaviors related to emotion and are capable of dealing with and regulating their emotions and others' emotions (O'Connor et al., 2019).
Mixed EI measures are used to develop surveys and questionnaires which include a mixture of traits, social skills and capabilities which are similar to other personality measures (O'Connor et al., 2019). A mutual feature amongst these measures is the concentration on emotional capabilities so that they can be improved to boost people's proficient achievement (Goleman, 1995). Each measure varies in the quality of its psychometric properties and predictive validity, Wong and Law (2002) have discussed the fact of the lack of a psychometrically sound practically short EI measure that was why they developed Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) a valid and reliable measure, providing evidence regarding the effects of EI on affecting job outcomes.
In this study, the researcher is interested in emotional abilities and competencies where a good theoretical understanding of emotions is required, as the researcher investigated higher management abilities and competencies effects on organization performance, and as indicated by Mayer et al. (2008b), high EI managers were experienced decision makers, problem solvers and negotiators due to their excessive capabilities at distinguishing and understanding emotions. Wong et al. (2004) developed a forced choice EI scale (WEIS) adopting the Mayer et al. (2000) explanation of EI as a specific group of mental capabilities, they used a Likerttype EI measure.

4-6-2 Measures of the Big Five Personality Traits
The 44-item Big Five Inventory developed by Benet-Martinez and John (1998) was used to assess the Big Five personality dimensions, test-takers were asked how much they agree or disagree to the statements they were answering. Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2) was a measured developed by Soto and John (in press 2017) consisting of a 60-question questionnaire assessing the Big Five domains and 15 facets: Extraversion, Agreeableness, International Journal of African and Asian Studies www.iiste.org ISSN 2409-6938 An International Peer-reviewed Journal Vol.76, 2021 Conscientiousness, Negative Emotionality, and Open-Mindedness.  developed and validated a 30-item short form (the BFI-2-S) and a 15-item extra-short form (the BFI-2-XS) based on the BFI-2. These shortened forms save assessment time; in addition, they preserve most of the BFI-2 measure's reliability and validity, particularly at the domain level.

4-7 Hypotheses
Based on the above discussion, the researcher formulates the main hypothesis assuming that the Big five personality traits have a mediating effect on the relationship between emotional intelligence and organization performance.

5-1 Introduction
The current study examines the relationship between top management EI and organization performance within higher education institutions by mediating the BFPT. Although the topics of EI and organization performance have been examined using different variables than what is used in this study, their relationship to one another mediated by the BFPT has been studied in the literature.

5-2 Conceptual Framework
Since the current study is interested in studying the relationship between EI and organization performance using the BFPT in higher education institutions, and as this type of relationship was not investigated previously, the current study has investigated this relationship as demonstrated in the hereunder framework.

5-3 Methodology and Design
A quantitative correlation study is applied using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to examine the possible relationship between EI and organization performance using the BFPT in higher education institutions. A quantitative technique is appropriate as the purpose of the study is to measure the possible relationship between EI as an independent variable, and organization performance as a dependent variable, such correlation design is considered as a convenient way to examine the correlation between both dependent and independent variables.

5-4 Survey Instrument and Sample
The researcher uses a three-part self-administered questionnaire consisting of 50 questions. The survey used a 5point Likert-type scale, it consisted of 3 parts; the first one included 12 questions scale developed by Abubakar, Hilman and Kaliappen (2018) reflecting respondents' understanding of their current institution measuring organization performance; the second part reflected respondents' understanding of their dean's personality and traits including 31 questions about EI, and BFPT using Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS), and Big Five Inventory-2-XS (BFI-2-XS) respectively, and the third part included 7 questions related to demographic aspects of respondents.
The population consisted of 1411 staff members. A stratified random sampling technique was used to ensure that participants in the sample represented the population. This probabilistic sampling method was chosen as the sample was targeting the different academic staff members representing four different occupational degrees within the institution, as well as classifying them according to specialties representing different specializations. Such probabilistic sampling method could accurately reflect population being studied.

6-1 Hypothesis Validity Test
Validity test of the research hypothesis "There is a mediating effect of the Big five personality traits on the relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational performance", which was investigated using the Structural Equation Model (SEM).

6-2 Description of the Model
Variables of the model were classified according to their performance in the model, and coded as follows in order to be processed.

Model Variables
Variables  An estimated structural model was designed to examine the effect of emotional intelligence on organization performance mediated by the Big Five personality traits dimensions. As a result, it revealed that the estimated model emphasized that all of the independent variables of EI affected the three effective dimensions of the BFPT (extraversion, agreeableness, and open-mindedness), where the three effective dimensions chosen after trial and error trials to exclude non-effective ones. It was found that three BFPT effective dimensions affected the organization performance directly. Thus, it can be argued that all of the independent variables of EI affected indirectly the organization performance mediated by three of the BFPT (extraversion, agreeableness, and openmindedness).
But after studying the different paths' significance of the estimated model including CR test and covariance analysis, it was found that there was no significance for the presence of the independent variable self-emotion appraisal due to the lack of significance of its relationship with the three mediating variables; extraversion, agreeableness, and open-mindedness, Thus, there was no clear path linking self-emotion appraisal with the dependent variable organization performance within the model. Therefore, self-emotion appraisal should be removed from the model and another model should be re-estimated; the results of the adjusted model is displayed below.

6-3 Adjusted Estimated Model
The adjusted estimated model is presented by the figure below. The three effective BFPT dimensions were used to mediate the relationship, in addition "self-emotion appraisal" dimension of EI was omitted.  The results confirmed that the three tested dimensions of EI as independent variables affected the three effective dimensions of the BFPT (extraversion, agreeableness, and open-mindedness) in the model, particularly after omitting the "self-emotion appraisal" EI dimension. The following demonstration shows the adjusted estimated model results.

6-4 Adjusted Estimated Model Testing
Adjusted structural model results after omitting the "self-emotion appraisal" EI dimension from the model.

Test
Tests

6-5 Goodness-of-Fit Indicators of Adjusted Model
The results of goodness-of-fit indicators of the adjusted model are presented below.

Indicators
Indicators Index values were 0.987 and compared to the optimal value of 0.90+, it is clear that the both indices values significantly and positively exceeded the optimal value. As for the Root Mean Square Error index, though the indicator's value was close to the optimal ones, the researcher could not be certain that the values calculated did not achieve the optimal value.

6-6 Different Paths' Significance Study of the Adjusted Model
The following The results presented in table (4) confirm all paths significance except for some specific ones, including the three paths between X3t Z2t , X4t Z2t , and X4t Z5t. As for the covariance analysis results, they confirm the significance of the three relationships within EI domain; X4t X2t, X4t X3t, and X3t X2t at the level of significance 0.01.  The results presented in table (5) confirm the fact that there are both direct and indirect effects of the variables listed in the table. Yet, the indirect effect is evident in the results of the independent variable, depending on the relationship nature, the three independent variables effect, and the extent to which they affect the dependent variable. However, the direct effect is mostly clear through the mediating variables. Therefore, the researcher can absolutely accept the validity of the hypothesis.

Discussion and Conclusion
The relationship between ability and trait emotional intelligence with the Big Five personality traits was previously studied. High TEI individuals were regarded as being extrovert, agreeable, conscientious, confident, and emotionally stable (Petrides, 2009a). While, those high in AEI had better emotional knowledge, awareness, and regulatory capability (Davis and Nichols, 2016).
In the present study, the relationship between emotional intelligence and organization performance through the Big Five personality traits within higher education institutions is examined. Since this relationship needs a proof to show EI contribution to organization performance, the respondents are assessing their college deans, as how they perceive their deans in their current roles. This result is consistent to Sinha and Jain (2004); Mayer et al. (2004), Anwar et al. (2017) who concluded the significant relationships between others' emotion appraisal, use of emotion, and regulation of emotion dimensions of EI with organizational citizenship behavior, while the self-emotional appraisal dimension did not have a statistically significant relationship with OCB. Also, they indicated that employees with high EI, could effectively manage their emotional experiences leading to higher levels of OCB, thus leading to increased individual and organization performance. Also, Wong and Law (2002) argued that an individual's increased selfemotional awareness might possibly have a negative effect on their conduct. These results are similar to the results of the current study, which proves also the effectiveness of all of the EI dimensions except the selfemotion appraisal dimension in the relationship between EI and organization performance.
Also, results have confirmed the significance of the three relationships between different EI dimensions as follows: others' emotion appraisal and regulation of emotion, others' emotion appraisal and use of emotion, and use of emotion and regulation of emotion. When testing the paths significance between EI dimensions and the BFPT dimensions, it is found that all were significant except for the three paths between use of emotion and agreeableness, others' emotion appraisal and agreeableness, others' emotion appraisal and open-mindedness. These results are consistent with what Petrides, 2009a had concluded, indicating that individuals high in TEI is characterized by being extrovert, agreeable, conscientiousness, confident, and emotionally stable. While, those high in AEI have greater emotional knowledge, awareness, and regulatory capability, and both EI types included abilities that seem beneficial for effective social interactions (Davis and Nichols, 2016).

Theoretical and Practical Implications
From the results of the current empirical study, it provides some assessment and establishes knowledge about the top management's emotional intelligence effects and how it is related to their organization performance by mediating the big five personality traits. The study empirical evidences can contribute to advancing the existing knowledge in the fields of both emotional intelligence and organization performance in higher education institutions by showing the different effects of EI dimensions on organization performance.
It would be important for human resource experts to improve methods for increasing the levels EI and BFPT dimensions when they are lacked, thus enhancing organization performance. These study findings could generate awareness about the impact of conducting more researches on EI, BFPT, and organization performance by incorporating other constructs of interests. Additional studies could be established to find proper HR policies and strategies that might be provided to develop top management emotional capabilities as well as personality traits. It is also anticipated that these research findings might generate awareness and interests among HR experts in terms of recruitment and selection of employees with such desired capabilities and traits. HR professionals should help organization management to conduct required programs for training and development, and use psychological procedures to increase the EI level of employees as well as their personal traits in order to achieving high organization performance.
In summary, academic top management have high EI specifically the three dimensions; others' emotion appraisal, use of emotion, and regulation of emotion, and at the same time characterized by being agreeable, conscientious, and open-minded, help their organizations to achieve high performance in achieving high organization performance. The positive correlation between overall EI and organization performance through using the BFPT is perceived as an essential capability for effective top management within education sector. In order to manage effectively, high EI is required to improve top management self-awareness, to manage their own emotions and those of others, and improve their personality traits in order to manage according to their organizations expectations.

Limitations and Future Research
The current study uses self-reported survey which has the variance limitations of this common method. The Abubakar, Hilman and Kaliappen (2018), WLEIS, and BFI-2-XS scales are self-reported which are subject to issue of over or under estimations that cannot be controlled, hence further study should overlook this biasness by conducting other measures to compare results. Further empirical research could make significant contributions to the other business sectors as well as providing a comparative study between different demographic attributes such as gender and different age range. Scholars can develop researches to recognize the nature of effects EI and International Journal of African and Asian Studies www.iiste.org ISSN 2409-6938 An International Peer-reviewed Journal Vol.76, 2021 54 BFPT might have on employee's performance which can lift the goal of the organization and therefore achieve high performance. For this reason, EI and personality traits of both managers and employees should be measured, and according to that findings, suitable human resource interferences could be planned and executed for improving performance of both employees and organizations. Moreover, future researchers can also study the mediation effects of BFPT in the relationship between EI and organization performance in investigating the reason behind having some ineffective dimensions within the EI and BFPT domains when they are linked together in the current study. Employee personal beliefs and consequently organizations might differ from the national cultural perspective. So, further studies might fill the research gaps regarding these aspects. Expectantly, this paper could encourage more scholars to conduct more researchers in the field of emotional related studies that might contribute to the new scopes of organizational performance. In this regard, this research could be a start for conducting more studies in related fields for advancing the knowledge.