Role of Personality Traits and Psychological Capital in Academic Achievement: A Longitudinal Study.

Situated in positive organizational behaviour (POB) literature, this study uses a three-wave longitudinal research design and latent growth modelling (LGM) approach to investigate the effect of psychological capital (or PsyCap) on academic achievement and the mediating role of PsyCap in personality -- academic achievement relationship over time. The present study is grounded in the premise that PsyCap, a higher order core-construct comprising of four positive psychological resources of hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism (or hero), is an important outcome of personality traits and a strong predictor of academic achievement. The final data set included responses on Personality (collected once) and PsyCap (collected at three time points) from 235 MBA students at a premier business school located in central India during their first-year course work. Academic achievement was measured through term-wise actual Grade Point Average (GPA) collected from the administrative office. Data analysis was done using the Lavaan package of R. The results showed that PsyCap positively influenced academic achievement. Subsequent mediation analysis showed that PsyCap mediated the relationship between extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism dimensions of personality and academic achievement. Further, the LGM analysis indicated that change in academic achievement (or change in GPA) was dependent on the change in PsyCap. Future research directions and implications for management education and academic administrators are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]