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Personality Traits’ Predictors of Outstanding Performance in the Public Sector
Abstract
This research provides Human Resources Managements with a tool to identify outstanding performers according to personality traits. The model has been empirically tested in the Israeli Public Administration sector. The innovative paired sample is composed of a variety of elite performers from 14 different government offices. Questionnaires were administered to a total of 742 participants, which comprised 189 pairs of outstanding employees and their supervisors, and 182 pairs of normative employees and their supervisors. Whereas the supervisors rated the job performances of their employees, these self-reported on their personality traits. The results show that two out of five personality traits, extraversion, and emotional stability, are positive predictors of outstanding performance, while openness to experience is a negative one. In addition, agreeableness emerges as a positive predictor of normative employees’ performance. As to its practical outcomes, this research assists public administrations in locating outstanding employees for successful planning.
... In the public administration literature, the effect of personality on behaviors has attracted limited attention (Aarøe et al. 2021), although there is growing interest. Studies mostly address the relationships between personality traits and work-related attitudes and behaviors of managers and employees (Schönherr and Thaler 2023), finding that personality traits contribute to job satisfaction (Cooper et al. 2013;Cooper et al. 2014), public service motivation (Hamidullah, Van Ryzin, and Li 2016;Liu et al. 2015;Piatak and Holt 2020;Van Witteloostuijn, Esteve, and Boyne 2017), and job performance (Eshet and Harpaz 2021), as well as budget manipulation (Anessi-Pessina and Sicilia 2020). Moreover, for politicians, Aarøe et al. (2021) find that personality traits are associated with a willingness to take on an administrative burden. ...
... Anessi-Pessina and Sicilia (2020) show that manipulation of budgets in Italian municipalities is explained by demographic characteristics and personality traits, being less likely in conscientious chief financial officers. Eshet and Harpaz (2021) find that outstanding performance is positively related to extraversion and emotional stability, and negatively associated with openness to experience, while normative employees' performance is positively associated with agreeableness. Among politicians, tolerance of administrative burden (Aarøe et al. 2021) is higher in the presence of high conscientiousness, and lower when openness to experience is higher. ...
Drawing on a survey of 385 municipal public managers in Italy, this article investigates the potential association between managers' personality traits and their use of performance information. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), the results show that cons cientious-ness, extraversion, and openness emerge as relevant personality traits that help explain public managers' use of performance information. Moreover, the study points to the presence of two distinct groups of users of performance information, which we label "enthusiastic" and "diligent" managers. For "enthusiastic managers", performance information use is mainly associated with extraversion and openness, while for "diligent managers", consci-entiousness and agreeableness drive its use. Implications for the theory and practice of performance management are discussed.
... Another key aspect is understanding the maximization and satisfaction tendencies regarding PM, as it can provide essential details for designing and implementing strategies (Liang, 2014). For example, promoting competency-based self-assessment of performance can help to raise awareness of individual training needs, capitalize on employee strengths and implement measures to minimize deficiencies in training, collaboration, socialization, etc., through appropriate feedback and guidance, which are often associated with better outcomes in the public domain (Yovav & Itzhak, 2021). ...
The article analyses the synergy between performance management and vocational training in Romanian organizations, especially in the military and university context, highlighting the central role of the two dimensions in improving organizational efficiency and aligning them to modern labour market requirements. Problematizing: (1) we summarized the current state of knowledge, (2) we explored the global trends and characteristics of the relationship between performance management and professional training, using the analysis of the results from the Cranet Reports (2017, 2023) covering the most relevant strategies related to performance appraisal and professional development, through continuous learning and (3) we reviewed possible perspectives for action to align the training process of military personnel in the context of military higher education institutions in Romania. Finally, we discussed the conclusions regarding the influence of the directions for cultivating the relationship between performance management and professional training on improving organizational and individual capabilities to respond to contemporary challenges, in flexible terms that reflect the limitations of this approach. The article stresses the importance of an integrated approach to performance management and training as determinants of long-term organizational success. At the same time, it recognizes the need to continuously adapt these practices to global trends.
... The requirements for employees in the IT sector are also not the same from the perspective of human resources and the perspective of IT users. Personality traits that are widely adopted by human resources include; openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism [4], [5]. On the other hand, IT users need to understand and be equipped with certain skills, for example communication skills and computer skills, analytical skills and problem-solving skills, coding skills, time management skills and computer understanding [6], [7]. ...
In the era of digitalization, the demand for competent IT employees is growing rapidly. However, the IT employee selection process often faces various challenges, such as biased selection criteria, many applicants, and difficulty in objective assessment. These challenges can lead to inaccurate selection decisions and have a negative impact on company performance. This research aims to develop a Group Decision Support Model (GDSM) for IT Employee Selection using the Fuzzy TOPSIS method to enhance objectivity and reliability in decision-making. This GDSM combines assessments from HRD and User IT groups by considering the weight of each criterion. The proposed model overcomes bias, uncertainty, and subjectivity in judgments from both groups. The GDSM is constructed with 8 parameters/sub-criteria (2 criteria) from the HRD group and 12 parameters (5 criteria) from the User IT group from interviews and research. Thus, the total is 20 assessment parameters, consisting of coding test, education, certification, computer literacy, openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, verbal, numerical, ability to learn, appearance & attitude, work experience, communication skills, time management, job knowledge, motivation to apply, decision making, and service orientation. The methodology involves determining parameters, weights, fuzzification and this GDSM was tested through a limited simulation of IT employee selection using 11 respondents from Computer Science students for evaluation of the model. The result of this model is a ranking of the candidates. The best candidate is Cand. 8, with a closeness coefficient (CC) value of 0.896. The worst candidate is Cand. 3, with CC 0.241. The model is acceptable because it has no difference value between coding and manual for all candidates. This study contributes to increasing objectivity in IT employee selection and offers an implementation model for companies that want to improve the effectiveness of the recruitment process.
... The results also aligned with existing theories postulating a correlation between certain personalities and innovation. For instance, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness are positively associated with innovative behaviours for novel ideas, solutions, or improvements in a specific context, such as the workplace or a professional setting (Ali, 2019;Eshet and Harpaz, 2021;Yovav and Harpaz, 2021). Simultaneously, neuroticism is negatively associated with innovative performance (Nilforooshan and Salimi, 2016;Rossberger, 2014). ...
This study investigated employees’ innovative performance in a highly competitive and rapidly changing workplace. Specifically, employees’ innovative performance is correlated to the Big Five personality and innovative culture through the mediation effect of psychological safety in the Chinese manufacturing industry. Time-lagged data were collected from 285 employees and analysed on both SmartPLS and SPSS software. Resultantly, the innovative culture and the Big Five personality of extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and openness individually impacted employees’ innovative performance. Furthermore, psychological safety significantly mediated the relationships between agreeableness and innovative performance, between neuroticism and innovative performance, and between openness and innovative performance. Organisations should consider employees’ personalities when fostering workplace creativity and adjusting training and development. Recognising employees’ personality types may also assist employees in unique performance, fulfilling career goals, and uncovering growth potential.
... Many personality researchers have explored the construction of other models but have come to the same dimensions of the five-factor model, with some small changes in the degrees of efficiency (Strang & Kuhnert, 2009). The taxonomy of personality proposed in the Big five model defines that its basic structure is composed of five factors: (a) Extraversion or tendency to be outgoing, assertive and expressive (b) Agreeableness or tendency to be friendly, adaptable, cooperative and treatable (c) Conscientiousness or trend towards achievement orientation, organization, focusing on the task and being reliable (d) Neuroticism or tendency to exhibit anxiety, insecurity and hostility associated with low emotional adjustment; it is the opposite to emotional stability or tendency to be secure, emotionally adjusted and calm, and (e) Openness to experience or willingness to be imaginative, artistic, independent, maverick and unconventional (Cable & Judge, 2003;Hassam et al., 2017;Hoogh, et al., 2005;Judge et al., 2002;Le Sante, et al., 2021;Snow-Andrade, 2023;Strus & Cieciuch, 2021;Xia et al., 2021) Investigations that have used the Big five model have shown that personality is related to job performance and that several personality factors serve as a source to examine the predictors of effective leadership (Ayub et al., 2019;Dababneh et al., 2021;Eshet & Harpaz, 2021;Harzer et al., 2021;Judge et al., 2002;Kumari et al., 2022;Lan et al., 2021;Snow-Andrade, 2023;Wihler et al., 2022;Zell & Lesick, 2021) and knowledge sharing and innovation (Vo et al., 2023). According to meta-analysis made by Judge et al. (2002), extraversion was the trait with the strongest correlation with leadership, followed by conscientiousness and openness to experience (Snow-Andrade, 2023). ...
En el presente artículo se desarrolla una revisión bibliográfica de investigaciones académicas en el campo de la psicología organizacional; específicamente, se incluyen algunos estudios de liderazgo, realizados desde el siglo pasado hasta hoy. El propósito de esta revisión es identificar si existe una correlación entre el liderazgo eficaz y los distintos rasgos de personalidad que caracterizan al líder. Cabe anotar que las investigaciones sobre la relación entre personalidad y liderazgo se han incrementado a partir del surgimiento del modelo de los cinco grandes. Sin embargo, los hallazgos han sido heterogéneos en lo que respecta a cuál rasgo (extraversión, amabilidad, conciencia, neuroticismo y apertura a la experiencia) explica un estilo de liderazgo transformacional, transaccional o pasivo- evitativo.
... Δηλαδή άτομα που είναι πιο ανοιχτά σε νέες εμπειρίες δεν αποδίδουν το ίδιο καλά (Eshet & Harpaz, 2021). Η παραπάνω έρευνα έγινε με σκοπό να αποτελέσει αρωγή προς τις δημόσιες διοικήσεις να εντοπίσουν εξέχοντες υπαλλήλους για επιτυχή προγραμματισμό, κάτι που αποτελεί σκοπό και της παρούσας έρευνας. ...
The importance of this research lies in the need of upgrading Greece's public sector by staffing it with managers capable of managing expected and unexpected situations, motivating the staff and achieving improvement of the service offered to optimize the quality of life of the civilians. The public sector does not upgrade its staff as often as businesses of the private sector, so the training of managerial staff and staffing them with skills (soft skills) is considered essential for success. Through the bibliographic and primary sampling research, an attempt was made to identify the skills possessed or lacking by the managers of the public sector of Greece with the ultimate aim of raising awareness and suggesting the type of targeted training that must be carried out in order to achieve future profitability in the public treasury. Therefore, the characteristics that managers must have in order to be considered capable of managing crisis situations and leading organizations to safe solutions of stability and development were studied through a quantitative case study in Local Self-Government Organizations, Public Companies and Organizations and Social Security agencies in the decentralized administration of Macedonia and Thrace. 97 managers of the above organizations participated in the survey. Most of them (61%) were aware of the crisis management plan of their organization. The most developed skills were found to be those of motivation & delegating work, followed by the skills of team creation and management, communication and managing recruitment skills, in descending order. Management skills, overall, are considered adequate but have the potentials to improve.
... Ambisi dan stabilitas emosi memberikan efek yang lebih kuat pada kinerja adaptif bagi manajer dibandingkan dengan karyawan (Huang et al., 2014). Sifat kepribadian mampu memprediksi kinerja optimal karyawan di sektor pemerintahan, terlebih pada kepribadian interaksi sosial dan stabilitas emosi (Eshet & Harpaz, 2021). ...
Praktik profesi Psikologi Industri dan Organisasi seperti seleksi, potential review, dan promosi membutuhkan Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) agar dipercaya, meminimalisir tindakan berbahaya, dan terhindar dari gugatan klien secara hukum. PAPI Kostick sering digunakan psikolog sebagai tes kepribadian untuk memprediksi kinerja. Adaptabilitas adalah salah satu bentuk dari kinerja yaitu contextual performance. Ironisnya belum ada penelitian tentang kemampuan prediktif PAPI Kostick terhadap adaptabilitas karyawan. Penelitian ini bertujuan memberikan bukti empiris kemampuan PAPI Kostick dalam memprediksi adaptabilitas karyawan. Metode penelitiannya adalah metode dokumentasi dengan menggunakan skor alat tes PAPI Kostick dan Penilaian Adaptabilitas dalam rentang waktu berbeda. Subjek penelitiannya adalah 158 orang karyawan tenaga non-kependidikan di Fakultas Ekonomika dan Bisnis Universitas Gadjah Mada. Analisis data menggunakan regresi linear berganda. Hasilnya adalah PAPI Kostick mampu memprediksi adaptabilitas karyawan sebesar 16% yaitu pada aspek peran pekerja keras (G) dan kebutuhan mengontrol orang lain (P). Kesimpulannya adalah PAPI Kostick mampu memprediksi Adaptabilitas Karyawan.
... In line with the FFM characterology, one may argue, this is due to these individual's flexibility, curiosity, and imaginative character [45], which is augmented by their constant need to pursuit novelty in new environments and search for new experiences [55]. The reason for this may be that individuals possessing the open to experience trait tend to be inhibited by conventional tasks, score lower on self-assessment, are less structured, and seldom tend to follow routines, as for instance, working full-time as it is usually required in the public administration [85]. ...
The nature of the digital age requires organisations to change their model and adapt to the demands to successfully maintain organisational legitimacy. The pressure on public sector organisations to transform at a higher-than-normal rate cannot be overemphasised; therefore, understanding employees’ capabilities is imperative for starting a systemic change. Personality traits are considered to be important determinants for improving individual performance. Employees’ personality traits in handling the digital environment determine the extent of digital transformation implementation in the public sector. Thus, the purpose of this research is to conceptualize approaches towards measuring the performance of public sector employees in Malaysia with particular attention to the Employee Dynamic Capability Model. The research method applied in this study was quantitative, and data were collected using an online questionnaire. SmartPLS software was used for the data analysis. The Big Five personality traits (agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness and neuroticism) were found to have a significant relationship, while extraversion was not. This study further extends the current body of knowledge by examining the dynamic capability of the employee as a mediator in the current research and provides directions for subsequent researchers focusing on employee performance in the context of the digital environment.
Using long‐term Finnish register data on labor market outcomes, we examine how personality traits predict the sorting of individuals into public and private sector employment. Our findings suggest that personality‐based sectoral sorting primarily occurs during the selection of educational fields. Once education and occupation are controlled for, public sector employment is negatively related to self‐confidence among males and extraversion among females. We also find that pecuniary incentives and shifts between the sectors may partly explain these relationships. Overall, our empirical results, combined with values that we use as theoretical mechanisms, suggest that values may serve as mediators explaining our results.
Employees' positive personality traits are one main enabler of tourism organisations to develop knowledge-sharing culture and promote innovative performance. To achieve the principle of personality-job fit, this study aims to measure the influence of employees' personality traits on their knowledge-sharing behaviour and innovative performance. It also measures the mediation of knowledge-sharing between employees' personality traits-innovative performance relationships. The study employs the quantitative method based on an e-survey to gather data from employees working in travel agencies in Egypt and Jordan. Structural equation modelling was used for testing research causal relationships. Findings revealed that positive personality traits significantly improve employees' knowledge-sharing behaviour and contribute to their innovative performance advancement. The findings of the study provide significant implications for human resources managers in tourism organisations and tourism education policymakers to improve their recruitment procedures of employees and new education entrants (future graduates) to fit tourism career jobs and marketplace duties.
Self-efficacy is regarded as one of the important aspects that could help teachers to achieve their learning goals and optimal work performance. However, in daily practice, there is only limited research that explores the importance of self-efficacy in the education process, especially for science teachers in Indonesia. This research aims to explore the relationship between science teachers' type of personality, self-efficacy, and work performance Indonesia. A total of 123 science teachers were chosen using purposive technique sampling to fill in the questionnaires as a form of self-report. The result shows that the type of personalities such as Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience significantly correlate to Self-efficacy. In accordance with this result, Self-efficacy also has a positive and significant correlation with the dimension of Task Performance and Contextual Performance. However, Self-efficacy has a negative correlation to the Counterproductive Work Behavior. Therefore, the higher the three personalities possess by a teacher the higher the self-efficacy and the work performance they have. This result asserts that there is a number factor that should be considered by science teachers to achieve the best work performance. The further discussion and the limitation of this research will be explained deeper in this paper.
Purpose
Extensive work related to examining predictors and determinants of employee engagement and job performance have been conducted in past studies. A dearth of studies relating organizational culture and employee engagement with contextual and task performance in the hospitality industry necessitated the present study. This study aims to examine variability in the task and contextual performance owing to employee engagement and organizational culture.
Design/methodology/approach
The study has been conducted in four districts of Himachal Pradesh using a multistage sampling technique. A total of 360 hotel employees were involved in collecting their responses through a structured questionnaire.
Findings
The results of multiple regression showed that vigor, dedication and absorption variables of employee engagement contribute toward contextual performance. Vigor and absorption affect the task performance of employees. In the case of contextual performance vigor shows maximum contribution followed by absorption and dedication whereas for task performance, the maximum contribution is exhibited by absorption followed by vigor. Organizational culture sub-variables of experimentation, autonomy and trust came out to be major predictors, which help to improve contextual and task performance of employees.
Practical implications
The study suggests that psychological ownership, along with trust toward top management can create an enriched work culture, which influenced both the contextual and task performance of employees. The findings of the study can be practically used by government and private organizations for improving workforce performance in the hospitality industry. Future research can be conducted based on the findings of the study.
Originality/value
The study provides insight on how and to what extent cultural and employee engagement variables can affect employee’s contextual and task performance. The present study adds value to the existing literature and investigates the role of culture and employee engagement in enhancing task and contextual job performance. Managers and policymakers can use the findings of the study to improve organizational culture, employee engagement and performance of the employees in the hospitality sector. The study opens avenues for future studies.
Over the last decades, various predictors have proven relevant for job performance [e.g., general mental ability (GMA), broad personality traits, such as the Big Five]. However, prediction of job performance is far from perfect, and further potentially relevant predictors need to be investigated. Narrower personality traits, such as individuals' character strengths, have emerged as meaningfully related to different aspects of job performance. However, it is still unclear whether character strengths can explain additional variance in job performance over and above already known powerful predictors. Consequently, the present study aimed at (1) examining the incremental validity of character strengths as predictors of job performance beyond GMA and/or the Big Five traits and (2) identifying the most important predictors of job performance out of the 24 character strengths, GMA, and the Big Five. Job performance was operationalized with multidimensional measures of both productive and counterproductive work behavior. A sample of 169 employees from different occupations completed web-based self-assessments on character strengths, GMA, and the Big Five. Additionally, the employees' supervisors provided web-based ratings of their job performance. Results showed that character strengths incrementally predicted job performance beyond GMA, the Big Five, or GMA plus the Big Five; explained variance increased up to 54.8, 43.1, and 38.4%, respectively, depending on the dimension of job performance. Exploratory relative weight analyses revealed that for each of the dimensions of job performance, at least one character strength explained a numerically higher amount of variance than GMA and the Big Five, except for individual task proactivity, where GMA exhibited the numerically highest amount of explained variance. The present study shows that character strengths are relevant predictors of job performance in addition to GMA and other conceptualizations of personality (i.e., the Big Five). This also highlights the role of socio-emotional skills, such as character strengths, for the understanding of performance outcomes above and beyond cognitive ability.
Meta-analytic research has established that age exhibits a small negative correlation with counterproductive work behavior (CWB) and a small positive correlation with organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). However, there is a lack of research examining why these relations exist, although it has been proposed that age-related changes in personality traits might explain these relations. Personality traits are generally assumed to be relatively stable, but small changes do occur across the adult lifespan: Especially those personality domains that are predictive of CWB and OCB change with increasing age. In line with these arguments, the current meta-analytic results (k = 18) demonstrate that HEXACO Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, and Conscientiousness mediate the relation between age and CWB, and that HEXACO Emotionality, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience mediate the relation between age and OCB. These results provide evidence that age-related changes in personality can explain the relation of age with these two dimensions of contextual job performance. Limitations and ideas for future research are discussed.
Burnout is characterized by emotional exhaustion and caused by exposure to excessive and prolonged stress related to job conditions. Moreover, burnout is highly prevalent among health care professionals. The aim of this study is, first, to examine the mediating role of social support over the effect of burnout in health care professionals and, second, to explore potential gender differences. A convenience sample of 1,035 health professionals from Ecuador, including 608 physicians and 427 nurses (68% women, with and age M = 40 + 9 years old), was surveyed using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), Social Support Survey (MOS), and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) as measures of burnout, social support, and general health, respectively. Social support was found to mediate the negative effects of burnout on health regardless of gender. Differences across the three dimensions of burnout and health are further discussed, along with their implications for designing effective burnout interventions for health care professionals in Ecuador.
Prior expectations are an important determining factor of how citizens evaluate politicians, government and public services. Typically, citizen expectations are divided into two main categories: predictive (“will”) expectations and normative (“should”) expectations. Theories of expectations say that predictive expectations are the sterile and indifferent prediction of future events, while normative expectations have a foundation in personal norms and values and express how the world should look according to the individual. Therefore, normative expectations should have antecedents more closely related to the individual’s personality than predictive expectations. However, these theoretical claims regarding the nature of the two different expectation types have not yet been tested empirically. Examining broad personality traits (Big Five) and The Maximizing Tendency trait, this exploratory study analyzes whether different personality antecedents explain the two types of expectations. Results show that the personality traits agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness correlate positively, and extraversion negatively, with normative expectations. None of the traits correlate with predictive expectations. These results have implications for politicians’ efforts to shape citizens’ expectations, the citizen satisfaction literature, including work considering the expectation-disconfirmation model, and for further research on citizen expectations.
Employees display various behaviors which also include work-related behaviors such as Job Satisfaction, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, and Innovative Work Behavior. The exploration of the relationship among the Big Five Personality Traits, Job Satisfaction, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, and Innovative Work Behavior of the employees working in the companies providing services for the Turkish Defense Industry serves as the primary aim of this study. Hence, the study was conducted on the employees of defense companies through face-to-face interviews and questionnaire forms. The results of this study demonstrate that the Big Five Personality Traits directly affects the changes in Job Satisfaction and Organizational Citizenship Behavior. Besides, Organizational Citizenship Behavior has a mediating role in the relationship between Big Five personality Traits and Job Satisfaction, which directly affects the changes in Innovative Work Behavior. This study primarily targeted to provide evidence and create an understanding of how employees’ intrinsic characteristics shape the attitudes and behaviors in the workplace according to the scores of Big Five Inventory as well as statistical research techniques. This study contributes to the literature by investigating the defense employees’ personality traits and the results show that personality traits are a pivotal factor in achieving corporate’s strategic goals.
Self-efficacy is regarded as one of the important aspects that could help teachers to achieve their learning goals and optimal work performance. However, in daily practice, there is only limited research that explores the importance of self-efficacy in the education process, especially for science teachers in Indonesia. Self-efficacy relates to the teachers’ internal factors such as personality and individual work performance. This research aims to explore the relationship between science teachers’ type of personality, self-efficacy, and work performance Indonesia. A total of 123 science teachers was chosen using purposive technique sampling to fill in the questionnaires as a form of self-report. The result shows that the type of personalities such as Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience significantly correlate to Self-efficacy. In accordance with this result, Self-efficacy also has a positive and significant correlation with the dimension of Task Performance and Contextual Performance. However, Self-efficacy has a negative correlation to the Counterproductive Work Behavior. Therefore, the higher the three personalities possess by a teacher the higher the self-efficacy and the work performance they have. This result asserts that there is a number factor that should be considered by science teachers to achieve the best work performance. The further discussion and the limitation of this research will be explained deeper in this paper
A common problem with using organizational performance as the dependent variable is the ignoring of feedback effect. The current conceptualization of the turnover–performance relationship is mostly unidirectional, focusing on how turnover affects organizational performance. Only a few scholars have investigated the possible reverse relationship between turnover and performance. Aiming to further the research on the feedback effect of organizational performance, this study employed cross‐lagged structural equation models that are especially suitable for modelling the possible reverse relationships between variables. Data were collected from public elementary and middle schools in New York City over a three‐year period. The results consistently show that organizational performance was negatively related to subsequent employee turnover. This research contributes to the development of a more valid and comprehensive understanding of the relationship between employee turnover and organizational performance.
Personality traits are powerful predictors of outcomes in the domains of education, work, relationships, health, and well-being. The recognized importance of personality traits has raised questions about their policy relevance, that is, their potential to inform policy actions designed to improve human welfare. Traditionally, the use of personality traits in applied settings has been predicated on their ability to predict valued outcomes, typically under the assumption that traits are functionally unchanging. This assumption, however, is both untrue and a limiting factor on using personality traits more widely in applied settings. In this article, we present the case that traits can serve both as relatively stable predictors of success and actionable targets for policy changes and interventions. Though trait change will likely prove a more difficult target than typical targets in applied interventions, it also may be a more fruitful one given the variety of life domains affected by personality traits.
The spate of public sector reforms which have taken place in recent decades has triggered the development of a new body of research around public sector accounting and performance measurement both in public administration as well as in the (public sector) accounting literature. However, studies in accounting and public administration have at times ignored each other, proceeding in parallel. This symposium encourages the adoption of interdisciplinary perspectives in exploring the myriad roles played by accounting and performance measurement systems in contemporary public administration. Emphasizing that accounting and performance measurement systems are socially, politically, culturally constructed and, in turn, are implicated in the creation of organizations, society and political values, this symposium aims to extend the dialogue between accounting and public administration scholars in exploring how accounting, accountability and performance measurement considerations are connected to policy‐making, public services and, more generally, the building and maintenance of modern states and democracies.
In this article, we discuss a retrospective study that examined the integration of community indicators (CI) with performance measurement systems (PM). The Community Indicators Consortium (CIC) promoted integration through its maturity model and related projects and research endeavors. Interviews with knowledgeable individuals from organizations considered exemplars of integration by the CIC suggests that political leadership and collaboration with stakeholders may act as both drivers and challenges to integration. The information derived from CI-PM integration efforts gets used primarily for reporting out and in some cases helps to inform budget decisions. Reported impacts of integration include greater trust and credibility, change of behavior within agencies involved, and changes in service delivery. Though most of the integration efforts studied continue to advance, there is no guarantee of their sustainability and at least one of the efforts has ceased. New perspective from some interview participants suggests acknowledgement of the aspirational value of CI-PM integration. We conclude with recommendations for further exploration to assess its potential as a framework for citizen engagement providing more guidance over public policy and concurrently improving the outcomes of public service.
Significance
Conscientiousness (C) is the most potent noncognitive predictor of occupational performance. However, questions remain about how C relates to a plethora of occupational variables, what its defining characteristics and functions are in occupational settings, and whether its performance relation differs across occupations. To answer these questions, we quantitatively review 92 meta-analyses reporting relations to 175 occupational variables. Across variables, results reveal a substantial mean effect of ρ ¯ M = 20 . We then use results to synthesize 10 themes that characterize C in occupational settings. Finally, we discover that performance effects of C are weaker in high-complexity versus low- to moderate-complexity occupations. Thus, for optimal occupational performance, we encourage decision makers to match C’s goal-directed motivation and behavioral restraint to more predictable environments.
The report describes the evolution and current state of public administration in Poland. This publication has been developed for the European Commission with the technical assistance of the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA), the Hertie School of Governance and Ramboll Management Consulting. It reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
Based on theoretical views that applicants express meaningful skills and motivation when presenting themselves in personnel selection settings, we challenge conventional wisdom that self-presentation necessarily impairs the diagnostic value of “fakable” selection devices. Instead, we propose to supplement the traditional psychometric approach to personnel selection with a social perspective that leverages the competitive nature of selection. In order to capture an outcome of self-presentation, we introduce the Ideal Employee Coefficient (IEC) as a supplement to traditional scoring of responses to personality items. Construct and criterion-related validity evidence using the IEC was collected in two studies covering three samples from diverse settings, populations, and measures. The IEC consistently showed incremental criterion-related validity beyond the same tests’ traditional scores, as well as construct-related evidence in line with theoretical underpinnings. Findings imply that traditional personality constructs can be meaningfully aggregated with measures of self-presentation that are cost-effectively derived from the same data sources.
Researchers, over the world, often create very brief measures of Big Five personality dimensions, so that they can assess people’s personality in a reasonably short period of time. The most prominent and well-established measure among all brief personality measures is the ‘Ten Item Personality Inventory’ (TIPI). The present study aimed to translate, adapt, and validate the TIPI for use in the Bangladeshi culture. After completing the standardized translation procedure, the Bangla version of the Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI–B) was examined in a study including 662 Bangladeshi adults. Though an exploratory factor analysis with one half of the sample (n = 330) had explained 77.53% of the total variance, it did not show the scale’s five dimensions as independent with two items for each. Acceptable goodness of fit indices (χ2/df = 3.177, GFI =.960, CFI = .935, TLI = .937, SRMR = .061, and RMSEA = .76) were found for the scale through a confirmatory factor analysis performed on the second half of the sample (n = 332). Acceptable internal consistencies, significant test-retest reliabilities, and convergent and discriminant validities were established in the scale through different statistical analyses. Thus, the TIPI–B with its five dimensions can be used as a valid and reliable measure to assess the personality of Bangladeshi people.
Purpose
Nowadays, the phenomenon of increased competition between firms and their need to respond effectively to rapidly changing operational conditions, as well as to personnel requirements, has escalated the necessity to identify those factors that affect employee performance (EP). The purpose of this paper is to examine the interrelations between firm/environment-related factors (training culture, management support, environmental dynamism and organizational climate), job-related factors (job environment, job autonomy, job communication) and employee-related factors (intrinsic motivation, skill flexibility, skill level, proactivity, adaptability, commitment) and their impact on EP.
Design/methodology/approach
A new research model that examines the relationships between these factors and EP is proposed utilizing the structural equation modeling approach.
Findings
The results indicate that job environment and management support have the strongest impacts (direct and indirect) on job performance, while adaptability and intrinsic motivation directly affect job performance.
Research limitations/implications
A potential limitation of this research is that it is not focused only on one business sector (i.e. the sample is heterogeneous).
Originality/value
In this study, firm/environmental-related factors, job-related factors, employee-related factors and EP are incorporated in a single model using data from small- and medium-sized enterprises. Overall, the final model can explain 27 percent of EP variance (first-level analysis) and 42 percent of EP variance (second-level analysis).
Nonprofit organizations are increasingly pressured to measure their performance. Although several studies identify driving factors of measuring performance in public organizations, there is limited understanding of current performance management practices at nonprofit organizations. Drawing from an online survey of mid- to large-sized nonprofit human service organizations across the United States, this research examines: (1) the types of performance information human service nonprofits measure; (2) the frequency of using performance data; and (3) the challenges nonprofits commonly face integrating performance data into management. Our empirical evidence suggests that human service nonprofits must recognize that data collected to meet external accountability requirements, often mandated by government or funders, may not provide meaningful information that organizations can use to enhance performance. We also discuss the nuanced role tangible incentives play in nonprofit performance management. The article concludes by highlighting the need for nonprofit managers and grant makers to work together to develop measures that meet both accountability and performance improvement aims.
Public administrators rely on written communications to send information to citizens and stakeholders, and they are among the heaviest users of the postal service. Behavioral science research has identified several techniques that public administrators can use to increase compliance with written requests and, in turn, increase effectiveness. Currently, however, many written communications from government bodies are not written in a manner that utilizes these techniques. It remains an ongoing challenge for public administrators to identify, understand, and use these techniques in the written communications sent by their organizations. This article presents a framework capturing seven prominent techniques in a simple mnemonic—INSPIRE—that is already being used by several government bodies in Australia. It also provides practical examples of how to use each technique and demonstrates that using these techniques could result in large aggregate improvements in effectiveness and socially desirable outcomes of public administrators' written communications.
Life events refer to status changes in important demographic variables, such as employment or marital status. Life events offer an interesting opportunity for studying transactions between environmental changes and personality traits, which are of relevance for diverging theories about the role of environmental factors in life span personality development. Yet in spite of the potential importance of life events for personality development, nuanced and sufficiently powered longitudinal designs with frequent assessments of life events and personality traits are lacking. The current study aims to address this gap by examining the associations between different life events and personality trait change, using data from a large, nationally representative, and prospective longitudinal study. Results demonstrated a number of selection effects, indicating that personality traits affect the likelihood that individuals experience certain types of life events. Less frequently, results indicated average effects of life events on personality trait development, both in anticipation of a life event change as well as resulting from it. However, some of these event-related changes ran counter to the notion that personality maturity increases as a result of adopting mature social roles, like parenthood or paid employment. Furthermore, we found significant variation around average event-related trajectories, suggesting that individuals differ in their reactions to life events. Theoretical implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.
This article examines the influence of empowering leadership practices on police officers' job performance, perceptions of managerial effectiveness, and unit performance. These relationships are examined using multisource survey data collected from 100 law enforcement managers, 446 of their subordinates, and 98 of their direct supervisors. The analysis shows that empowering leadership contributes positively to subordinate officers' job performance and unit effectiveness. Empowering leadership is also positively associated with subordinate but not with supervisor ratings of managerial effectiveness. Task‐oriented leadership, however, is positively associated with both subordinate and supervisor ratings of managerial effectiveness. Implications of these results for managerial leadership in law enforcement organizations are discussed.
This article assesses the impact of New Public Management (NPM)-style reforms in European countries as perceived by top public sector officials. Using data from an executive survey conducted in 20 European countries, we look at the relationship between five key NPM reforms (downsizing, agencification, contracting out, customer orientation and flexible employment practices) and four dimensions of public sector performance: cost efficiency, service quality, policy coherence and coordination, and equal access to services. Structural equation modelling reveals that treating service users as customers and flexible employment are positively related to improvements on all four dimensions of performance. Contracting out and downsizing are both positively related to improved efficiency, but downsizing is also associated with worse service quality. The creation of autonomous agencies is unrelated to performance. This suggests that policy-makers seeking to modernize the public sector should prioritize managerial reforms within public organizations over structural transformations.
For decades, the Big 5 model of personality has dominated as one of the most popular and widely used models of personality. The current article reviews the development and prevalence of the Big 5 model and explores the position of other personality variables not (or not fully) encompassed by this model, to see what lies ‘beyond the Big 5’. We start by comparing the Big 5 to the alternative six-factor HEXACO model, the Supernumerary Personality Traits, and a psychobiological model of personality. We then discuss the Dark Tetrad traits, self-defeating interpersonal styles, and trait emotional intelligence as examples of narrower personality traits which predict outcomes over and above the Big 5. Comparisons between these different personality models and the extent to which other personality traits can predict different psychological outcomes will be used to address the discussion of whether the Big 5 is a sufficient measure of personality, or whether other personality variables need to be also considered for a more comprehensive model of personality. Areas of consideration for researchers investigating Big 5 personality will also be discussed.
This article extends existing knowledge of performance management use by examining intergovernmental (IG) efforts as drivers of local government use. A capacity-building framework is proposed with IG strategies that (1) increase local leaders’ awareness and commitment to performance management; (2) provide technical assistance for increasing local government capacities; (3) incentivize local governments to take performance management seriously; (4) institutionalize local efforts that deepen and broaden performance management practice. Using audit assessments, field study, and survey research, this article empirically examines a comprehensive national IG effort that promotes performance management use in local governments. Results show that IG strategies, separately and combined, increase performance management use. This article makes recommendations for increasing IG practices that promote performance management use by subnational governments.
This book examines performance evaluation in the context of assessing the non-financial outcomes of human activities. The topic is particularly relevant when economic, environmental or social performance has to be evaluated, e.g. the efficiency of actions and the lifecycles of products. The authors combine multi-criteria decision-making and production theories to develop a theoretical and methodological foundation for performance evaluation. They also demonstrate the typical pitfalls that are hindering the implementation of contemporary methods in practice. Special emphasis is placed on efficiency measurement with data envelopment analysis (DEA), and on data aggregation in life cycle assessment (LCA).
This article advances a framework for identifying the likely implications of incentive intensity and associated transaction costs when employing performance management systems in the public sector. Performance management encompasses a broad range of systems including Managing for Results, PerformanceStat systems, performance-based contracting, and performance-based budgeting that seek to increase the capacity of government to achieve desired outcomes. These regimes share some common features, but, in practice, involve differing levels of incentive intensity, meaning the potency and certainty of the rewards and/or penalties attached to goal attainment. The article argues that increased intensity of incentives may improve organizational performance but very likely at the expense of higher governance costs. The framework is employed in a critical literature review of empirical research on performance management in the public sector. The review highlights the importance of considering the balance between weak incentives, which render few benefits, as opposed to very high-intensity incentives, which increase administrative costs while reducing benefits by encouraging gaming and other perverse responses.
This study examines recent changes in performance-based appraisals of Russian regional governors, key criteria used in the decision-making process regarding the reappointment or dismissal of top regional executives, the role of non-governmental organizations in their performance evaluations, and existing problems in this area. Moreover, the study explores the extent to which values such as equity, social justice, and quality of life are embodied in the performance evaluations of these officials.
The general factor of personality (GFP) has been construed as a life history trait and as representing social effectiveness. In either case, differential-K theory would predict that levels of the GFP are highest in Asians, intermediate in Caucasians, and lowest in Blacks. In studies 1-5, I present evidence for the opposite ranking such that Blacks are highest, Caucasians intermediate, and Asians lowest. In study 5, I also show that this finding is not fully explained by differences in self-esteem. In study 6 I show that the disconnect between the GFP and life history strategies when analyzed at the level of ethnic groups cannot be unambiguously resolved by observing patterns of covariation among lower-order personality traits. I argue that-similar to the relationship between the general factor of intelligence and life history strategies-within-group individual differences in the GFP do not necessarily result from the same processes as between-group differences.
One of the main practical recommendations from the copious public service motivation literature is that human resources (HR) professionals should use public service motivation (PSM) to assist in selecting candidates for public service jobs. To test if PSM is indeed attractive to HR professionals in selecting applicants to work in the public sector, 238 HR managers recruited from the International Public Management Association for Human Resources rated three cover letters and then rated themselves about PSM and the Big 5 personality traits. The cover letters were randomized on most likely combinations of PSM and Big 5, revealed in earlier research. Our results are that real HR professionals did not rate cover letters more highly when they displayed aspects of PSM.
Surveys of government personnel have shown that they are much more likely than their counterparts in business firms to say that it is hard to fire a poor performer, to raise the pay of a good performer, and to base promotion on performance. Yet the same surveys find that most government respondents indicate high levels of motivation, meaningful work, and other positive responses. This study analyzes “positives” who perceive sharp constraints on pay raises, promotions, and discipline, yet they still express positive perceptions of organizational performance and of their work. Using data from NASP-Citizen, the results show that “positives” are more prevalent in the public sector. We also analyze the 2010 Merit Principles Survey to develop a measure of positives and positiveness. The results show that they relate very strongly to public service motivation, to jobs with motivating factors (variety, identity, significance, autonomy, and feedback), and to positive perceptions of career executives in the organization. We discuss implications for civil service reform initiatives and for theory and research about people in government service.
Personnel management plays a critical role in the success of public organizations. Our literature review shows that there is a lack of systematic guidance on how to improve Public Personnel Management Process (PPMP) quality. Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination (SPICE) is a process assessment framework that is successfully used by software organizations during the past two decades. The framework can also be used as a baseline to generate process capability models for different specific domains/sectors. We have utilized this approach for the government domain and we developed the process definition of PPMP. To observe the benefits and usability of the model, we have performed a multiple case study, including the assessments of three organizations’ PPMP capability levels and the development of action plans for PPMP improvement. The findings show that the proposed approach is applicable for identifying the PPMP capability levels and is capable of providing a roadmap for moving to the next level.
The changing nature of public service has blurred the lines between economic sectors by intermingling public, private, and nonprofit missions, and made it easier for employees to balance extrinsic and intrinsic motivators by seeking employers positioned along a continuum that balance their interests. Using data from the “After the JD” study, the authors analyze responses of law school graduates to determine how academic qualifications and employee motives affect economic sector of employment. Findings suggest that the best and brightest law school graduates are predisposed to employment in the private or nonprofit sectors because they offer the strongest extrinsic or intrinsic incentives.
Recent comparative measures rank Israel very high on the innovation scale and note its preference for informal managerial practices. Based on a principal–agent analysis, this article explains that the economic and administrative systems in Israel have created the basis for the evolution of a managerial culture characterised by constant distortions and the gaming of performance information, lack of truthful reporting and improvisation. On the positive side, this managerial culture encourages innovation; on the negative side, it creates significant problems related to accountability, ethical conduct and overall managerial quality.
Performance measurement is not a panacea that automatically cures management problems and leads to success. To evaluate the effectiveness of performance measurement, the use of performance information should be investigated. In this article, the author examines how nonprofit organizations use performance information and what factors are related to its uses. Using survey data from California nonprofits (n = 143), the author finds that performance information use is influenced by government funding, range, and credibility of performance measurement, developmental culture, and stakeholder participation in the decision-making process. This study contributes to our understanding of performance information use in the nonprofit sector.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the fragmented literature on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), leader–member exchange (LMX), learning, innovative work behavior (IWB) and employee performance across different countries, disciplines and organizations, thereby broadening the literature breath and making gap identification comprehensive. Second, it provides information on how much studies have been concentrated on Africa with the goal of provoking scholarly work in a unique cultural setting on the interrelatedness of these concepts.
Design/methodology/approach
Relevant literature search was undertaken using key search terms, “employee performance,” “OCB,” “LMX,” “IWB,” “individual learning” and “team learning.”
Findings
The findings show positive relationships between the behaviors and employee performance. They also reveal an interesting diversity in the study across multidisciplinary fields holding both cultural and contextual significance for academia and practitioners.
Research limitations/implications
The limitation of literature to peer-reviewed journals from the authors’ university library might have missed important information not in this domain. Further studies must make use of additional search terms and engines excluded from this study to provide a more comprehensive analysis.
Practical implications
The paper has important managerial implications for practitioners. The analysis can support the understanding of employee performance from a broader and more diverse view points; and help in providing insight into real-life opportunities, constraints and solutions in enhancing performance management.
Originality/value
This systematic literature review highlights important knowledge gaps which need to be explored especially in the African and Ghanaian contexts.
Purpose
Knowledge management in the public sector is relatively an ignored avenue of research and practice that has recently been given attention. Knowledge management initiatives in the public sector are now not limited to the developed countries anymore. The public sectors of various developing countries including Pakistan have developed knowledge management functions to address the problems of low organizational commitment (higher turnover rates) and knowledge-workers’ performance. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to examine the mediation role of organizational commitment in the relationship between knowledge management practices and knowledge-worker performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were gathered from 341 knowledge workers of the public sector health department of Punjab Province, Pakistan, where knowledge management unit initiative has been taken. It was then analyzed using the structural equation modeling.
Findings
Organizational commitment partially mediates the relationship between knowledge management practices and knowledge-work performance.
Practical implications
The public sector policy makers are strongly advised to implement knowledge management units and practices in order to enhance knowledge-work performance as well as organizational commitment.
Originality/value
First, the model on the mediating role of organizational commitment has never been examined before. Second, the data collection from the public Health Department of Pakistan, a developing country, is relatively rare because the public sector knowledge management studies have mostly been conducted in developed countries. Finally, this study extends the literature on knowledge management in the public sector that is the developing theme in knowledge management discipline while adding knowledge management as a toolkit to enhance knowledge-workers’, organizational commitment and knowledge-work performance.
Purpose – Job performance is an important variable, which primarily affects outcomes at three levels: the
micro level (i.e. the individual), the meso level (i.e. the group) and the macro level (i.e. the organisation). This
paper aims to identify, analyse and synthesise factors that affect job performance.
Design/methodology/approach – Through an extensive integrative review of literature, this study
identifies and classifies the factors that affect job performance. A synthesised model based on the schema of
demands, resources and stressors is also developed.
Findings – The demands identified are grouped into physical, cognitive and affective. Stressors adversely
affecting job performance are classified at an individual level, job level and family level. Finally, resources are
classified at an individual level, job level, organisational level and social level.
Research limitations/implications – This review enhances the job demands-resources (JD-R) model to
job demands-resources-stressors (JD-R-S) model by identifying a separate category of variables that are
neither job demands nor resources, but still impede job performance.
Practical implications – The subgroups identified under demands, resources and stressors provide
insights into job performance enhancement strategies, by changing, managing or optimising them.
Originality/value – This study helps in better understanding the factors that go on to impact job
performance differentially, depending on the group to which they belong. It gives a holistic picture of factors
affecting job performance, thereby integrating classifying and synthesising the vast literature on the topic.
Keywords Review, Resources, Job performance, Job demands,
Organizational theory and behaviour, Stressors, Job demands-resources-stressors mode
Applied psychologists commonly use personality tests in employee selection systems because of their advantages regarding incremental criterion-related validity and less adverse impact relative to cognitive ability tests. Although personality tests have seen limited legal challenges in the past, we posit that the use of personality tests might see increased challenges under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) due to emerging evidence that normative personality and personality disorders belong to common continua. The current paper aims to begin a discussion and offer initial insight regarding the possible implications of this research for personality testing under the ADA. We review past case law, scholarship in employment law, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidance regarding “medical examinations,” and recent literature from various psychology disciplines—including clinical, neuropsychology, and applied personality psychology—regarding the relationship between normative personality and personality disorders. More importantly, we review suggestions proposing the five-factor model (FFM) be used to diagnosis Personality Disorders (PDs) and recent changes in the DSM. Our review suggests that as scientific understanding of personality progresses, practitioners will need to exercise evermore caution when choosing personality measures for use in selection systems. We conclude with six recommendations for applied psychologists when developing or choosing personality measures.
Combining insights from public administration, accounting, and psychology, this article explores the microprocesses by which public managers use performance information, investigating whether the type of performance information use and the request to justify decisions affect the way in which information is processed. The study draws on data from a series of artifactual survey experiments with Italian municipal executives. Findings show that managers process information differently under ex post rather than ex ante performance information uses. More specifically, managers are more likely to be subject to framing bias under ex post than under ex ante uses of performance information. This interaction seems to be robust when subjects are asked to provide justification for their decisions.
Objective. Because of their length and objective of broad content coverage, very short scales can show limited internal consistency and structural validity. We argue that it is because their objectives may be better aligned with formative investigations than with reflective measurement methods that capitalize on content overlap. As proofs of concept of formative investigations of short scales, we investigate the Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI).
Method. In Study 1, we administered the TIPI and the Big Five Inventory (BFI) to 938 adults, and fitted a formative Multiple Indicator Multiple Causes model, which consisted of the TIPI items forming 5 latent variables, which in turn predicted the 5 BFI scores. These results were replicated in Study 2, on a sample of 759 adults, with, this time, the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO‐PI‐R) as the external criterion.
Results. The models fit the data adequately, and moderate to strong significant effects (.37<|β|<.69, all p<.001) of all 5 latent formative variables on their corresponding BFI and NEOPI‐R scores were observed.
Conclusions. This study presents a formative approach that we propose to be more consistent with the aims of scales with broad content and short length like the TIPI. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Most research has focused on situational moderators to understand the relationship between personality and job performance under various situations. Instead, this study used the working hard and working smart perspective to revisit the relationship between personality and job performance. In this study, a theoretical model was built, and tested by empirical data which were collected online from 300 people who were employed or who had a full-time job. This study found that personality certainly influences job performance through both working-hard and working-smart work styles. Furthermore, three personality traits, including conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness to experience, were empirically shown to influence job performance through hard work. On the other side, extraversion, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience were found to influence job performance though working smart, as stated in the hypothesis. This study shows the effects of each trait on job performance, and discusses the academic and practical implications.
Studies of the Israeli public sector point to the vast influence of the Ministry of Finance (MOF) across multiple policy domains. This chapter combines bureaucratic politics research and the notion of veto players to theorize a two-tiered power game between bureaucratic and political players. It argues that the policy influence of bureaucracies is shaped by stable institutional factors and by the extent to which powerful politicians are inclined to intervene. In Israel, legal provisions vest the MOF with an institutional advantage over other bureaus and their ministers. Yet the MOF’s ability to exploit its advantaged position is contingent upon the joint propensity of the prime minister (PM) and the finance minister (FM) to forgo intervention. The chapter associates the PM’s and FM’s inclination to support the MOF with their political motivation to maintain their grip on the agenda of an increasingly fragmented coalition government. Thus, the MOF’s supremacy is reliant upon, and underpins, political power.