Personality structure and emotional intelligence of high-potentials compared to low-potentials in a business context

Master's Thesis from the year 2016 in the subject Psychology - Personality Psychology grade: 1 Sigmund Freud University Vienna (ARGE Bildungsmanagement) course: Coaching organizational- and personnel development language: English abstract: A variety of companies has high-potential programs in place to support a selection of employees in their career path. The question comes up if there is a certain pattern of commonalities in these employees. What type of person is more likely to be in such programs? The thesis is analysing the specifics of high potentials in the matter of personality and emotional intelligence among other relevant attributes named in the literature. What do these people have in common and what distinguishes them from others which are not in such programs? The objective of this thesis is to find out about the difference in a selection of attributes. Employees of international companies are asked to participate in a personality and an emotional intelligence test and give answer to a questionnaire. According to the answers of the participation in a high-potential program the data is split into two groups and examined for significant differences in these two groups. The data is evaluated statistically and the significance for each attribute is defined with the chi-square or the t-test. The evaluation shows a significant difference in some of the attributes e.g. the personality type. This makes it possible to define a pattern which is characteristic for high potentials. The presence of this attribute pattern in a person indicates the likeliness on being considered a high potential. Einige Firmen betreiben High-Potential Programme in denen eine Selektion an Mitarbeitern eine besondere Förderung und Unterstützung erhält. Es stellt sich die Frage ob es eine Gemeinsamkeit der Personen gibt die sich in solchen Programmen befinden. Welcher Typ von Menschen hat eine höhere Wahrscheinlichkeit in einen High Potential Pool einer Firma aufgenommen zu werd