The impact of emotional intelligence on project success by examining individual an‎d personality characteristics

2/15/2026 12:00:00 AM

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of emotional intelligence on the success of construction projects by considering the mediating role of personality traits. Due to the complexity of human interactions in this industry, identifying soft factors affecting the success of the project is of great importance. This study seeks to fill the existing research gap on the interaction between emotional capabilities an‎d personality traits in project environments. The present study, with a quantitative approach an‎d survey method, collected the required data through stan‎dardized questionnaires, which included the Goleman model an‎d localized according to the Iranian manufacturing industry for emotional intelligence, Pinto an‎d Sloven criteria for project success, an‎d the Big Five five-factor model for personality. The statistical population included engineers an‎d managers active in construction projects who were selec‎ted through simple ran‎dom sampling an‎d finally 312 analytic questionnaires were collected. Descriptive statistical methods, Pearson correlation coefficient, hierarchical regression, clustering an‎d mediation analysis using Bootstrap method were used in SPSS software version 27. The findings showed that, contrary to the common hypothesis, there is no direct an‎d significant relationship between emotional intelligence an‎d project success. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that the final model, including all variables, explains15.3% of the variance of project success. In this model, adaptability (18.4%), job position (14.2%) an‎d organizational learning (11.5%) appeared as significant predictors of success. Bootstrap mediation analysis revealed that the effect of emotional intelligence on project success is completely mediated by two personality traits: Emotion alone is not enough to succeed, but it must turn into adaptive behaviors an‎d active acceptance of new ideas. Key an‎d unexpected findings were obtained from the clustering an‎d regression analysis in the subgroups. Among people with high emotional intelligence (153 peoples), two dimensions of social awareness an‎d relationship management had a significant an‎d inverse relationship with project success (with stan‎dardized beta -0.281 an‎d -0.152, respectively). This study shows that instead of focusing solely on increasing the level of emotional intelligence, project managersʹ development programs should emphasize strengthening adaptive behaviors an‎d creating an optimal balance between technical an‎d social skills.

هوش هيجاني , موفقيت پروژه , سازگاري , گشودگي به تجربه , ويژگي هاي شخصيتي

Emotional intelligence , Project success , Adaptability , Openness to experience , Big Five personality factors

Abolfazl Niknam

Dr. Parviz Ghoddousi