Laura Heijnen – Organisational Psychology: Performance at Work
Problem 3. Beyond Intelligence, who would you hire?(2)
1. Now that’s a personality
How can you predict performance based on achievement need and personality?
Which one predicts best?
ü American Psychological Association. (2003) – Which Traits Predict Job Performance?
- Previously thought cognitive ability predicting job performance, but also other factors
playing a role, e.g., creativity, leadership, integrity, attendance, cooperation à are
predicted by personality. Focus on Big 5.
- The ‘g’ of personality: conscientiousness (= being responsible, dependable, organized
+ persistent) is generic to success. Consistently predicts performance for all jobs; only
personality trait fundamental to all jobs, others only for some criteria/occupations.
- Matching people to jobs: conscientiousness not always good, e.g., for creative jobs.
o 6 jobs themes, of which: realistic jobs (mechanics, fire fighters), conventional
jobs (bank tellers, statisticians) + artistic jobs (musicians, artists + writers) à
conscientiousness only predicts performance in realistic + conventional jobs,
but impedes success in investigative, artistic + social jobs (require innovation,
creativity + spontaneity) à prefer openness to experience.
o BUT: also moderate correlation found between conscientiousness + creativity
à probably because of timing: becoming more conscientious, so low when
first starting to work (ambition gets job, working promotes conscientiousness).
- Add social skills: can energize/inhibit natural personality tendencies (e.g., introvert
person having good interpersonal skills = having enough extraversion for public
speech; naturally hostile person can appear sweet).
o Difficult to study because no classification system exists, but important
because shift to teamwork + service-oriented jobs.
o Task + contextual performance contribute independently to overall job
performance. Job experience predicts task performance better, personality
predicts contextual performance better.
o Contextual performance: 2 facets
§ Job dedication: working hard volunteering, committing to organization
à predicted by conscientiousness. Affects both task performance +
interpersonal facilitation.
§ Interpersonal facilitation: cooperating, helping others à predicted by
extraversion + agreeableness.
ü Van der Linden, Pelt, Dunkel, & Born (2017) – Personality, Personnel Selection, and Job Performance
Job performance: objective/subjective outcomes one achieves in specific job (e.g., profit of
sales person) OR work-related activities (e.g., writing an article). Mostly outcome used.
Personnel selection: process of selecting best employees for specific jobs.
The Big 5 and job performance
- Meta-analyses (Barrick, 2001) show Big 5 consistent but low-moderate criterion-
related validity regarding job performance.
- Conscientiousness (= dutifulness, persistence + tendency to work hard) broadest +
most consistent job performance predictor of Big 5. BUT: relationship is moderate at
best.
1
, Laura Heijnen – Organisational Psychology: Performance at Work
- Emotional stability only other Big 5 dimension showing significant correlation.
- Big 5 dimensions significantly related to various types/aspects of job performance:
extraversion + openness positively related to training performance, agreeableness +
extraversion positively to team performance.
- Recent analyses haven’t made such extensive distinction between job types +
performance aspects as original study by Barrick.
- Limitation Barrick: mainly reporting associations with broad ratings/measures of
performance, didn’t explicitly mention extra-role aspects of performance, BUT:
literature suggests consider work behaviours falling outside job description
(contextual performance).
- Berry: testing Big 5 + counterproductive work behaviour (CWB) (e.g., stealing from
work, cutting corners).
o All of Big 5 traits are positively related to most of measures of OCB (negative
neuroticism, others positive).
o Mainly conscientiousness, agreeableness + emotional stability are negatively
associated with CWB, but extraversion + openness not clearly related to it.
- Judge: associations between Big 5 + leadership behaviour (= specific type of job
performance) à 4/5 Big 5 dimensions (except for agreeableness) demonstrate
relevant positive relations to overall leadership ratings + emergence. All Big 5 related
to leadership effectiveness + transformational leadership (= desirable) à do they use
emotional stability or neuroticism?
à Big 5 can be used to predict range of general + specific measures of job performance, so
may be relevant for selection procedures. BUT: effect sizes are often moderate at best, so
only limited predictor.
Alternative personality taxonomies
- HEXACO Personality Model: BIG 5 + honesty-humility dimension (= tendency to be
honest, lower drive for status + material gain). Extra dimension can add to prediction
of job performance, particularly to ethical aspect. Particularly good (negative)
predictor of delinquent work tendencies + CWB. Higher on honesty-humility = lower
probability engaging in socially undesirable behaviours. Adds value when jobs involve
integrity (e.g., police officer).
- Dark Triad: explicit focus on dark side traits that are assumed to be associated with
socially undesirable outcomes. Dark triad: mix of 3 intercorrelated negative traits.
o Machiavellianism: unconventional view on morality, low empathy + willingness
to deceive and manipulate others for own gain.
o Narcissism: tendency for self-enhancement/unrealistic positive view of own
personality/appearance.
o Psychopathy: impulsiveness + thrill-seeking, combined with low empathy,
anxiety + tendency toward being antagonistic.
o In common: low empathy, callousness/heartless + tendency to manipulate
others à better to focus on shared variance of traits (50-75%)?
o Relation of dark triad + job performance may depend on type of job + time
frame, e.g., motivation + ability to manipulate à better job performance if
influencing others. Particularly psychoticism associated with high creativity à
occupational success (e.g., artists, scientists).
2
Problem 3. Beyond Intelligence, who would you hire?(2)
1. Now that’s a personality
How can you predict performance based on achievement need and personality?
Which one predicts best?
ü American Psychological Association. (2003) – Which Traits Predict Job Performance?
- Previously thought cognitive ability predicting job performance, but also other factors
playing a role, e.g., creativity, leadership, integrity, attendance, cooperation à are
predicted by personality. Focus on Big 5.
- The ‘g’ of personality: conscientiousness (= being responsible, dependable, organized
+ persistent) is generic to success. Consistently predicts performance for all jobs; only
personality trait fundamental to all jobs, others only for some criteria/occupations.
- Matching people to jobs: conscientiousness not always good, e.g., for creative jobs.
o 6 jobs themes, of which: realistic jobs (mechanics, fire fighters), conventional
jobs (bank tellers, statisticians) + artistic jobs (musicians, artists + writers) à
conscientiousness only predicts performance in realistic + conventional jobs,
but impedes success in investigative, artistic + social jobs (require innovation,
creativity + spontaneity) à prefer openness to experience.
o BUT: also moderate correlation found between conscientiousness + creativity
à probably because of timing: becoming more conscientious, so low when
first starting to work (ambition gets job, working promotes conscientiousness).
- Add social skills: can energize/inhibit natural personality tendencies (e.g., introvert
person having good interpersonal skills = having enough extraversion for public
speech; naturally hostile person can appear sweet).
o Difficult to study because no classification system exists, but important
because shift to teamwork + service-oriented jobs.
o Task + contextual performance contribute independently to overall job
performance. Job experience predicts task performance better, personality
predicts contextual performance better.
o Contextual performance: 2 facets
§ Job dedication: working hard volunteering, committing to organization
à predicted by conscientiousness. Affects both task performance +
interpersonal facilitation.
§ Interpersonal facilitation: cooperating, helping others à predicted by
extraversion + agreeableness.
ü Van der Linden, Pelt, Dunkel, & Born (2017) – Personality, Personnel Selection, and Job Performance
Job performance: objective/subjective outcomes one achieves in specific job (e.g., profit of
sales person) OR work-related activities (e.g., writing an article). Mostly outcome used.
Personnel selection: process of selecting best employees for specific jobs.
The Big 5 and job performance
- Meta-analyses (Barrick, 2001) show Big 5 consistent but low-moderate criterion-
related validity regarding job performance.
- Conscientiousness (= dutifulness, persistence + tendency to work hard) broadest +
most consistent job performance predictor of Big 5. BUT: relationship is moderate at
best.
1
, Laura Heijnen – Organisational Psychology: Performance at Work
- Emotional stability only other Big 5 dimension showing significant correlation.
- Big 5 dimensions significantly related to various types/aspects of job performance:
extraversion + openness positively related to training performance, agreeableness +
extraversion positively to team performance.
- Recent analyses haven’t made such extensive distinction between job types +
performance aspects as original study by Barrick.
- Limitation Barrick: mainly reporting associations with broad ratings/measures of
performance, didn’t explicitly mention extra-role aspects of performance, BUT:
literature suggests consider work behaviours falling outside job description
(contextual performance).
- Berry: testing Big 5 + counterproductive work behaviour (CWB) (e.g., stealing from
work, cutting corners).
o All of Big 5 traits are positively related to most of measures of OCB (negative
neuroticism, others positive).
o Mainly conscientiousness, agreeableness + emotional stability are negatively
associated with CWB, but extraversion + openness not clearly related to it.
- Judge: associations between Big 5 + leadership behaviour (= specific type of job
performance) à 4/5 Big 5 dimensions (except for agreeableness) demonstrate
relevant positive relations to overall leadership ratings + emergence. All Big 5 related
to leadership effectiveness + transformational leadership (= desirable) à do they use
emotional stability or neuroticism?
à Big 5 can be used to predict range of general + specific measures of job performance, so
may be relevant for selection procedures. BUT: effect sizes are often moderate at best, so
only limited predictor.
Alternative personality taxonomies
- HEXACO Personality Model: BIG 5 + honesty-humility dimension (= tendency to be
honest, lower drive for status + material gain). Extra dimension can add to prediction
of job performance, particularly to ethical aspect. Particularly good (negative)
predictor of delinquent work tendencies + CWB. Higher on honesty-humility = lower
probability engaging in socially undesirable behaviours. Adds value when jobs involve
integrity (e.g., police officer).
- Dark Triad: explicit focus on dark side traits that are assumed to be associated with
socially undesirable outcomes. Dark triad: mix of 3 intercorrelated negative traits.
o Machiavellianism: unconventional view on morality, low empathy + willingness
to deceive and manipulate others for own gain.
o Narcissism: tendency for self-enhancement/unrealistic positive view of own
personality/appearance.
o Psychopathy: impulsiveness + thrill-seeking, combined with low empathy,
anxiety + tendency toward being antagonistic.
o In common: low empathy, callousness/heartless + tendency to manipulate
others à better to focus on shared variance of traits (50-75%)?
o Relation of dark triad + job performance may depend on type of job + time
frame, e.g., motivation + ability to manipulate à better job performance if
influencing others. Particularly psychoticism associated with high creativity à
occupational success (e.g., artists, scientists).
2
