From Campus to Career: A Conceptual Paper on Emotional Intelligence and Graduates' Organizational Commitment

Abstract

This study aims to explore the subtle connections that occur between university graduates' emotional intelligence and organizational commitment as they move from Campus to Career, intending to reduce the problem of high turnover rates prevalent among Chinese university graduates. The rising turnover rate among college graduates as a population poses a great challenge to society, companies, government departments, and educational institutions. While existing organizational behavior studies have mainly examined the impact on organizational commitment from the perspectives of economic and social factors, this study uniquely explores the impact on organizational commitment from the domain of psychological factors, i.e., from the perspective of emotional intelligence. In China, the emotional intelligence of fresh graduates is a key factor affecting employment stability. Therefore, this study highlights the key role of emotional intelligence in influencing graduates' organizational commitment. By shedding light on this critical relationship, this study aims to provide insights that can be used to reduce graduate turnover, increase organizational commitment, and contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the characteristics that influence graduate organizational commitment in societies, firms, government departments, and educational institutions.