Personal Attributes and Emotional Intelligence on Employability among Graduate Employees in SMEs: An Empirical Study in Selangor, Malaysia

The study aims to identify the influence of personal attributes and emotional intelligence on graduate employees' employability in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Selangor, Malaysia. A questionnaire survey was conducted, and the study's respondents comprised graduate employees employed by SMEs in the service sector. The data from the 403 questionnaires were analyzed for descriptive, correlation, and regression statistics. The regression analysis results showed a significant positive relationship between personal attributes, emotional intelligence, and graduate employees' employability. The findings from the hypothesis tested showed that personal attributes influence graduate employees' employability, and that emotional intelligence too significantly influences graduate employees' employability. However, the moderators of gender and experience that were expected to have an influence on personal attributes and emotional intelligence were found not to have any influence on the independent variables towards the dependent variable of graduate employees' employability. Further, based on the boots-trapping tests that were performed on the data, it has been shown that the results could be generalized. Thus, personal attributes and emotional intelligence influence graduate employees' employability in service sector SMEs.