The Effect of Character on Emotional-Social Competencies: A Survey on Management Students

 This study examines the relationship between character and emotional-social competencies among management students. Emotional and social competencies are two types of competencies that have a significant impact on individual's performance. Character is an underlying element that can influence the development of emotional and social competencies. In addition, both character and competencies are the building blocks of successful performance among individuals in personal and organizational settings. Considering the importance of character in competence building and development and the shortage of relied studies in the literature, in this study we examined the relationship between these two constructs. The present quantitative research was carried out through questionnaires. Based on random sampling using email, 165 M.A students of management were selected. We also used self-reported surveys to measure character and emotional and social competencies among those students. The validity of the instruments was sought based on the literature review, interviews with experts, and the translation of the questionnaire into Farsi within several steps. Chronbach Alpha was also used to determine the reliability of the instrument. And finally, the data were analyzed using linear regression. Results of our study matches the predictions of character-competence entanglement theory. Character dimensions had significantly positive influence on the formation of emotional and social competencies. In total, for emotional awareness competencies: temperance, accountability, and integrity; for emotional self-management competencies: temperance, motivation, transcendence, collaboration, and courage; for social awareness competencies: humility, humanity, and courage; and for social relationship management competencies: judgment, transcendence, collaboration, courage, and integrity had significantly positive effects on different dimensions.   This study highlights the important role of character in emotional-social competency building and development. Based on the results, character dimensions including temperance, humanity, humility, and transcendence have an important effect on building competencies. Organizational strategies including humble leadership, motivational mechanisms that foster respect, humility, temperance, and refusal of overconfident behavior are discussed for promoting such character dimensions in organizations.