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Beyond the Big Five: Personality and Job Performance in an E-Commerce Firm
Abstract
The purpose of this paper was to investigate of the relationship between personality and job performance with employees of a rapidly expanding Swedish e-commerce firm. Two studies were carried out with the UPP TM test of personality. In Study 1, seventy persons took the test on an Internet site. Three groups at NN AB participated: a group of top performers, selected by management, a group of employees selected at random, and 8 members of NN AB's top management. In Study 2, the validity of the UPP TM test was investigated with relation to supervisor assessments in a group of employees in customer service at NN AB. In Study 1, large and significant differences were found between the group of employees selected at random, and the other two groups. In terms of correlations, validity was = 0.44. In Study 2, the tested subjects were assessed by supervisors using a comprehensive assessment form (40 variables), which could reduced to three criterion dimensions. The validities for the three criterion dimensions of value for the company (halo), efficiency and social functioning were 0.66, 0.52 and 0.40. Analysis of proxy criteria (work motivation and similar attitude scales) gave similar results
The present study investigated the personality traits, resilience, and job performance of the Filipino university faculty members. It utilized the quantitative method, involving a descriptive survey and documentary analysis. Two hundred forty-seven faculty members were selected through purposive sampling. The Neo-Pi-R personality assessment, a questionnaire developed by the researcher and the Individual Performance Commitment and Review ratings from February 2021-January 2022 were used to measure the variables. Results revealed that faculty members were average with personality traits. Furthermore, it showed that they were highly resilient. Finally, they were very satisfactory in carrying out their tasks. There was a significant relationship between extraversion, neuroticism, and resilience and with conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and job performance. Personality traits showed that most of them are conscientious; however, they fall short of being open-minded. It also showed that they are optimistic but fall short in handling their emotions.
Faking is a common problem in testing with self-report personality tests, especially in high-stakes situations. A possible way to correct for it is statistical control on the basis of social desirability scales. Two such scales were developed and applied in the present paper. It was stressed that the statistical models of faking need to be adapted to different properties of the personality scales, since such scales correlate with faking to different extents. In four empirical studies of self-report personality tests, correction for faking was investigated. One of the studies was experimental, and asked participants to fake or to be honest. In the other studies, job or school applicants were investigated. It was found that the approach to correct for effects of faking in self-report personality tests advocated in the paper removed a large share of the effects, about 90%. It was found in one study that faking varied as a function of degree of how important the consequences of test results could be expected to be, more high-stakes situations being associated with more faking. The latter finding is incompatible with the claim that social desirability scales measure a general personality trait. It is concluded that faking can be measured and that correction for faking, based on such measures, can be expected to remove about 90% of its effects.
© 2015 Psykologisk Metod AB. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology published by Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Performance appraisal is a topic that is of both theoretical interest and practical importance. As such, it is one of the most researched topics in industrial and organisational psychology. Several measurement issues are central to performance appraisal including: (a) how performance has been measured, (b) how to improve performance appraisal ratings, (c) what is meant by performance, and (d) how the quality of ratings has been defined. Each of these are discussed along with the shortcomings of the extant literature in helping to come to grips with these important issues. Next, some of the new challenges facing performance appraisal, given its historical focus on single individuals being evaluated, are highlighted. In particular, the appraisal problems inherent in the assessment of team performance and the complexities inherent in multisource feedback systems are covered. We conclude with a short discussion of the litigious issues that can arise as a result of poor performance management practises. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study examined whether inclusion of narrow personality trait scales improved prediction of job performance enough to overcome increased capitalization on chance characteristics of the sample. Data were obtained from 262 midlevel managers who had completed a personality inventory and had been assessed using multisource performance ratings. Three methods of combining trait scores organized under the 5-factor model were compared in order to better understand the contribution of variance specific to the narrow traits in the prediction of performance: common factor scores, unit-weighted composite scores, and regression-weighted composites. Results showed that on average the sets of facet scores explained an additional 9% of the variance in performance beyond summated composites and 10% beyond the factor scores (4% and 5% after correction for shrinkage). Contrary to the idea that broadband predictors would fare better with broad criterion constructs, the increment was similar whether the criterion was a single dimension of performance or overall job performance. Recommendations include reporting results from multiple levels of the personality hierarchy, and suggestions are made for situations where sample size limits the number of predictors advisably entered into a regression equation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A literature review reveals that supervisors’ positive affective regard (‘liking’) for subordinates is associated frequently with higher performance appraisal (PA) ratings, and with other findings such as greater halo, reduced accuracy, a better interpersonal relationship, and a disinclination to punish poor performance. However, the interpretability of the empirical literature is weakened by a number of conceptual and methodological problems. Moreover, most investigators have simply assumed that the effects of liking constitute sources of bias in PAs, and the causal nature of the observed relationships needed to be clarified. Based on the review, nine causal hypotheses constituting a model of 10 latent constructs with 17 paths are presented. Each direct effect is characterized as representing either a relevant (valid) influence, a source of bias, or as biased/valid contingent on the particular indicator or circumstances. Suggestions are made for integrating the model with a developmental approach, and implications are drawn for employment test validation and the investigation of test bias.
A recently developed procedure produces substantial improvements in the accuracy of corrections for range restriction and reveals that predictive validities of employment selection methods are higher than previously thought. This study applied this procedure to meta-analytic validities of 2 personality measures (Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability) and general cognitive ability measures. Results show that the increases in validity estimates are greater for cognitive ability than for personality, reducing the relative validity of personality. In addition, the incremental validity of these personality measures over that provided by cognitive ability is smaller than previously estimated. Path analyses based on the more accurate data reveal relatively smaller path coefficients from these personality traits to job and training performance. These findings have implications for theories of job performance and for the practical value in selection of personality measures relative to cognitive ability measures.
This study compares the criterion validity of the Big Five personality dimensions when assessed using Five-Factor Model (FFM)-based inventories and non-FFM-based inventories. A large database consisting of American as well as European validity studies was meta-analysed. The results showed that for conscientiousness and emotional stability, the FFM-based inventories had greater criterion validity than the non FFM-based inventories. Conscientiousness showed an operational validity of .28 (N = 19,460, 90% CV = .07) for FFM-based inventories and .18 (N =5,874, 90% CV = -.04) for non-FFM inventories. Emotional stability showed an operational validity of .16 (N = 10,786, 90% CV = .04) versus .05 (N = 4,541, 90% CV = -.05) for FFM and non-FFM-based inventories, respectively. No relevant differences emerged for extraversion, openness, and agreeableness. From a practical point of view, these findings suggest that practitioners should use inventories based on the FFM in order to make personnel selection decisions.
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of applicant faking on personnel selection outcomes (fakers hired and hiring discrepancies) across single-predictor (conscientiousness alone) and multiple-predictor (combinations of conscientiousness and cognitive ability) selection methods.
Design/Methodology/Approach
Applicant faking was measured using a within-subjects design in which participants completed a conscientiousness measure both under the assumption that they were applying for a job and under honest response instructions. The two selection outcomes (fakers hired and hiring discrepancies) were compared across single- and multiple-predictor scenarios.
Findings
Our results indicated that the combinations of conscientiousness and cognitive ability resulted in as much as a 13.50% reduction in hiring fakers (compared to a conscientiousness measure alone); however, most of these differences were not statistically significant. The use of cognitive ability–conscientiousness combinations did, however, result in significant reductions in hiring discrepancies.
Implications
The primary implication of the present study is that while the use of multiple predictors is effective in reducing the impact of faking on hiring discrepancies over the use of a personality measure alone, this reduction may not be large enough to eliminate concern over the occurrence of faking.
Originality/Value
Most research investigating potential negative effects of applicant faking has focused solely on single-predictor selection scenarios. However, personality measures rarely serve as the sole basis for hiring decisions. The present study sheds light on the impact of faking on selection outcomes when more than one predictor variable plays a role in hiring decisions.
The authors used socioanalytic theory to understand individual differences in people's performance at work. Specifically, if predictors and criteria are aligned by using theory, then the meta-analytic validity of personality measures exceeds that of atheoretical approaches. As performance assessment moved from general to specific job criteria, all Big Five personality dimensions more precisely predicted relevant criterion variables, with estimated true validities of .43 (Emotional Stability), .35 (Extraversion-Ambition), .34 (Agreeableness), .36 (Conscientiousness), and .34 (Intellect-Openness to Experience).
A new social desirability scale was constructed and correlated with MMPI scales. Comparison was made with correlations of the Edwards Social Desirability scale. The new scale correlated highly with MMPI scales and supported the definition of social desirability. Ss need to respond in "culturally sanctioned ways."
Holland's (1985a) typology of persons and environments is outlined, and support for the theory as an explanation of stability and change in careers and work satisfaction is summarized. Studies show that people flourish in their work environment when there is a good fit between their personality type and the characteristics of the environment. Lack of congruence between personality and environment leads to dissatisfaction, unstable career paths, and lowered performance. The results of recent research designed to strengthen the explanatory power of Holland's typology and link it to the Big Five personality factors is described. Speculations about the application of the theory to future careers in a changing economy are offered.
To investigate the relationship between personality and multi-source feedback, we assessed 190 health care managers by applying the Understanding Personal Potential personality test, which provides comprehensive measurement of the Big Five dimensions and eight narrower personality traits. Managers' leadership behaviors were assessed by colleagues, supervisors, a random sample of each manager's subordinates as well as the managers themselves using a 360-degree change, production, employee (CPE) instrument. Hierarchical multivariate regression analysis showed that the Big Five variables were significantly related to the Managers' leadership behavior in all CPE dimensions. Also, addition of narrow personality variables to the Big Five increased explained variance in leadership behavior. This study is the first of its kind to include the full range of viewpoints in a 360-degree instrument, along with a large number of subordinate assessments. We found that both the strength of the relationship between personality and behavior and the configuration of different predictors varied depending on who did the rating and what leadership orientation was investigated, and this observation merits further investigation.
Our review of the relevant research literature in the recent past strongly supports the view that personality assessment has high utility in the workplace. We review the evidence that personality assessment measures, especially those based upon the Big Five factors of personality, can effectively predict job performance and thus can be used for personnel selection. The validity of integrity testing in predicting counterproductivity on the job has been demonstrated both for overt measures of integrity and, to a lesser degree, for more general (subtle) measures of personality. We also found good evidence of validity for measures of (supervisory) management and (transformational) leadership, a complex field which includes a number of multidimensional instruments each built around its own theory. Finally, we review the empirical literature that supports the use of assessment centers and the use of personality assessment in training and development.
Prior research indicates that market orientation is associated with positive outcomes for firms. For service organizations, a market orientation is implemented largely through individual service workers. The authors investigate the mediational role of customer orientation in a hierarchical model of the influence of personality traits on self-rated and supervisor-rated performance. The results support a partially mediated hierarchical model. Three basic personality traits (emotional stability, agreeability, and the need for activity) account for 39% of the variance in the customer orientation of employees. In turn, the customer orientation measure and conscientiousness account for 26% of the variance in self-rated performance. The customer orientation measure, along with the direct effects of conscientiousness and agreeability, account for 12% of the variance in manager ratings. The authors discuss the results and their implications for marketing researchers and managers.
Prior research examines customer satisfaction in retailing and e-commerce settings, yet online financial services have received little research attention. To understand customer satisfaction with this fast-growing service, this study investigates the role of flow experience, a sensation that occurs as a result of significant cognitive involvement. The study examines how service system characteristics affect the cognitive states of the flow experience, which determines customer satisfaction. The flow construct and total experience design suggest a structural model that is empirically tested using responses from a large sample of online investors. In support of the model and most of the hypotheses it suggests, the empirical results clarify the important antecedents and consequence of flow experience in online financial services and suggest the viability of using a dual-layer experience construct to investigate customer satisfaction.These findings can help researchers and service providers understand when, where, and how flow experience is formulated in online financial services.
Combining/weighting subscores into an aggregate score involves issues that apply to many fields in the organizational sciences (e.g., weighting predictors in selection, weighting multiple performance appraisal indicators, overall evaluation of organizations). The weights that are used in practice can be different (differential weights) or equal (unit weights). Relevant literature across multiple disciplines and multiple decades is reviewed. The literature indicates that unit weights have substantial predictive validity when compared with regression weights, but there is a lack of data on how other differential weighting strategies (e.g., weights generated by subject matter experts) compare to unit weights. In response, a primary and a meta-analytic study are provided here. The recent literature also contains some potential criticisms of unit weights in regard to personnel selection and content validation—and those statements are evaluated. The data and findings indicate that unit weights can be a highly appropriate approach for weighting under many circumstances.
This article distinguishes between task and contextual activities, and a taxonomy of contextual performance containing elements of organizational citizenship behavior and prosocial organizational behavior is offered. Evidence is presented demonstrating that supervisors weight roughly equally subordinate task and contextual performance when making overall judgments of their performance. This, along with data showing that personality successfully predicts contextual performance, provides an alternative explanation for recent meta-analytic findings that personality correlates moderately with overall performance. Personality may be predicting the contextual component of overall performance. Results from studies using the Hogan Personality Inventory confirm that correlations between personality and contextual criteria are higher than correlations between personality and overall performance. We argue that finding such links between predictors and individual criterion elements significantly advances the science of personnel selection.
In most well designed researches larger substantive factors show a break in size from those of a trivial lower degree of variance, which are due to error and other sources. The only short test for the number of such factors that has been repeatedly supported by plasmode results is the scree. The present experiment extends this empirical testing of the scree by taking 15 plasmodes, which vary in (1) number of variables, (2) of factors, (3) degree of obliquity, from orthogonal cases on, (4) presence of simple structure, (5) presence of error, extending to factoring random numbers, and (6) size of communality. The results support the scree and show it superior to the Kaiser-Guttman unity root criterion. Apart from the scree itself, a brief examination is made of the reliability of its use in the hands of trained and untrained judges. A second evaluation of the intrinsic validity of the scree is made by examining internal consistency of item and parcel factoring, of different sampling of variables and of change of population. The result again supports its capacity to locate the correct number of factors within narrow limits.
Hypothesized relations among polychronicity, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and supervisor performance ratings were developed and tested in a sample of 174 computer retail sales employees. Polychronicity was significantly related to supervisor ratings of customer service (r = .22), sales performance (r = .22), and overall performance (r = .23). Although Conscientiousness was unrelated to the performance outcomes, Extraversion was significantly related to supervisor ratings of customer service (r = .27), sales performance (r = .20), and overall performance (r = .25). In addition, polychronicity provided incremental validity above the contribution of Big Five personality dimensions in predicting supervisor ratings of customer service, sales performance, and overall performance. Future directions for research examining relations between polychronicity and job performance across different work settings are discussed.
This article describes a theory of job performance that assumes that job performance is behavioral, episodic, evaluative, and multidimensional. It defines job performance as the aggregated value to the organization of the discrete behavioral episodes that an individual performs over a standard interval of time. It uses the distinction between task and contextual performance to begin to identify and define underlying dimen- sions of the behavioral episodes that make up the performance domain. The theory predicts that individual differences in personality and cognitive ability variables, in combination with learning experiences, lead to variability in knowledge, skills, and work habits that mediate effects of personality and cognitive ability on job perform- ance. An especially important aspect of this theory is that it predicts that the kinds of knowledge, skills, work habits, and traits that are associated with task performance are different from the kinds that are associated with contextual performance.
This paper is prepared with the hope that it may offer a useful summary of experimental and clinical researches, together with a review of the best of the speculative work, and so assist the reader to a clarified notion of the present status of psychological investigations concerning personality and character. For convenience the contributions to be considered will be arranged under three headings: (1) the psychological nature of character and personality (the problem of definition); (2) the composition of personality (the classification of traits); and (3) the measurement of traits by testing devices and rating scales. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Two studies compared specific versus broad measures in linking personality with work behavior. In Study 1, 100 university students completed the 20 subscales of the Personality Research Form and an in-basket exercise scored on 16 distinct managerial behaviors. In Study 2, 335 market research field representatives completed the Hogan Personality Inventory, containing 41 specific trait scales organized into seven primary scales, and were rated by their supervisors on seven performance dimensions. In both studies, significant linkages between broad personality and criterion variables (e.g., factors) were explained by stronger relations among relatively few specific variables. Moreover, consistent with prior research, weak relations among broad measures obscured important linkages at the specific level, including several cases of cancellation (i.e., specific traits loading the same factor in the same direction correlated with criteria in opposite directions). Canonical correlations with appropriate shrinkage correction revealed notable improvements in criterion validity over inter-factor correlations and helped summarize the data while retaining the diagnostic advantages of specificity. Our findings are unique by demonstrating the value of specificity on both sides of the prediction equation. Implications for personnel selection are discussed. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
As we begin the new millennium, it is an appropriate time to examine what we have learned about personality-performance relationships over the past century and to embark on new directions for research. In this study we quantitatively summarize the results of 15 prior meta-analytic studies that have investigated the relationship between the Five Factor Model (FFM) personality traits and job performance. Results support the previous findings that conscientiousness is a valid predictor across performance measures in all occupations studied. Emotional stability was also found to be a generalizable predictor when overall work performance was the criterion, but its relationship to specific performance criteria and occupations was less consistent than was conscientiousness. Though the other three Big Five traits (extraversion, openness and agreeableness) did not predict overall work performance, they did predict success in specific occupations or relate to specific criteria. The studies upon which these results are based comprise most of the research that has been conducted on this topic in the past century. Consequently, we call for a moratorium on meta-analytic studies of the type reviewed in our study and recommend that researchers embark on a new research agenda designed to further our understanding of personality-performance linkages.
One factor that can influence the magnitude of predictive validity of personality tests for selection is the bandwidth of the constructs measured (Ashton, Jackson, Paunonen, Helmes, & Rothstein, Journal of Research in Personality, 29, 432–442 (1995)). In addition, certain personality characteristics have been shown to be more prevalent in an occupational category (Barrick & Mount, Personnel Psychology, 44, 1–26 (1991)). The results of this study suggest the necessity to perform personality based job analysis within a specific occupational category to properly select a personality measure. Criterion validity coefficients of broad constructs were non significant. However, specific facets identified in a personality based job analysis demonstrated moderate significant correlations. In addition, applicants prefer a more narrowly defined selection test.
Research has focused heavily on whether individuals can fake on personality inventories. Research is less clear on whether
individuals actually do fake on personality inventories. Verbal protocol analysis was used to trace the motivational processes
for 12 participants as they completed a personality inventory in an applicant context. Exploratory analyses suggested that
individuals do fake on personality inventories; that individuals can be classed into one of three faking classes (honest responders,
slight fakers, and extreme fakers); and that honest fakers take less time to complete and make less corrections to their personality
inventories than faking responders. Study implications, limitations, and future research will be discussed.
Rapporten beskriver mätning av personlighet med hjälp av självrapporttest, i ”Big Five”-traditionen, kalla Big Five Plus. Teorier om personlighetsegenskaper och metoder för att mäta dem beskrivs. Bland de befintliga testen på dimensioner i femfaktormodellen (FFM) diskute-ras främst NEO-PI-R, som är ledande inom forskningen och kliniska tillämpningar, samt HPI, som ofta används inom arbetspsykologin. Bakom dessa två test finns försök till teoretiska analyser. Dessa diskuteras. Problemet med skönmålning av svaren på ett självrapporttest dis-kuteras och en lösning föreslås. Utvecklingen av en ny ansats genomförs i 11 separata studier med sammanlagt 2204 deltagare, huvudsakligen genom testning på en Internetplattform, men till en viss del också genom traditionella papperstest. Reliabilitetskoefficienter och stabilitet rapporteras dels för nya mätningar av dimensionerna i FFM, dels för 8 tillkommande person-lighetsskalor och för 6 kriterieskalor. Reliabiliteterna var tillräckligt höga. Begreppsvalide-ringar för samtliga skalor genomförs med goda resultat. Validering mot arbetsrelaterade atti-tyder visar att man får en dramatisk förbättring med detta test jämfört med FFM. Resultaten tyder på att 90-95 % av effekten av skönmålning har kunnat rensas bort ur svaren, samtidigt som tillförlitligheten, i betydelsen avsaknad av slumpmässiga mätfel, ökat med ca 14 %. Normdata föreligger för den slutliga versionen av testet för 612 kompletta testningar. Perso-nalekonomiska aspekter diskuteras och de stora ekonomiska vinster som testning kan medföra påvisas. Principer för en datorgenererad narrativ rapport beskrivs och tillämpas.
The correlations between attitude scales and behavioural criteria were studied. A multiple act criterion was found to be more predictable than the average predictability of single criteria. The predictability of single criteria was related to the domain representatives of criteria and how much act performance correlated with rated social desirability of the act. Domain representativeness was uncorrelated with the correlation between act performance and social desirability. Perceived diagnostic properties of acts were also related to attitude-criterion correlations.
Variance in faking across noncognitive measures
- L A Mcfarland
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A socioanalytic perspective on person-environment interaction
- R Hogan
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Similarity and correlation
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Understanding personal potential: The UPP test. Manual. Version 1.0 Stockholm: Psykologisk Metod AB
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En jämförelse mellan CTI och UPP-testet i olika grader av "skarpt läge
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Personality-Based Recommendation in E-Com-merce
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A third generation personality test. SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Business Administration. Stockholm: Stockholm School of Economics
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Skönmålning i personlighetstest. (Faking in personality tests)
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A comparison of attitude, personality, and knowledge predictors of service-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors
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