Workplace Five Factors

Running head: THE FIVE FACTOR MODEL AND THE WORKPLACE

Personality, the Five-Factor Model, and Job Performance

Sean Neubert

Rochester Institute of Technology

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Workplace Five Factors

Abstract

This paper investigates the correlation and validity of the five-factor model with job

performance and other job related activities. Motivation, deviation, absences, and job

satisfaction are related to the five factors. Conscientiousness and agreeableness appear to

be positively correlated with productivity in a team environment among peers and are

more likely to aid in being selected for a job. Neuroticism and agreeableness were

negatively correlated with leadership capabilities. Individuals who score high on

conscientiousness tend to perform well at work; while individuals lacking

conscientiousness and having neuroticism tend to perform poorly at work.

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Workplace Five Factors

This is a review of the relation between the Five-Factor Model of psychological

analysis and performance in the workplace. Research in this field has yielded correlations

regarding aspects of job performance such as motivation, deviation, job satisfaction, and

teamwork, and the five-factor model.

Motivation and the Workplace

Studies performed on sales representatives have defined two aspects of

motivation. Status striving and accomplishment striving are these two aspects and they

are correlated with extraversion and conscientiousness, respectively. These two subsets

of motivation lead to sales performance, although the data implies that status striving is

responsible for performance and accomplishment striving leads to performance only

indirectly via a relation between accomplishment striving and status striving. (Barrick et.

al, 2002)

This study is questionable in that it studied sales representatives who are likely

required to be extraverted in order to succeed at their job. To say that extraverted sales

representatives perform better is a bit redundant; shy sales people do not go far. Since

extraversion is such an integral aspect of being a salesperson, this study does not lend

much support for a general model or theory correlating the five-factor model with job

performance.

Deviation and the Workplace

Workplace deviance is a situation in which an employee voluntarily pursues a

course of action that threatens the well-being of the individual or the organization.

Examples of this include stealing, hostile behavior towards coworkers, and withholding

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Workplace Five Factors

effort. Withholding effort and stealing are categorized as Organizational Deviance, while

hostile and rude behavior towards coworkers is categorized as Interpersonal Deviance.

Workplace deviance is related to the five-factor model of personality.

Interpersonal Deviance is negatively correlated with high levels of agreeableness.

Organizational Deviance is correlated negatively with high levels of conscientiousness

and low levels of neuroticism. This implies that individuals who are emotionally stable

and conscientious are less likely to withhold effort or to steal, while those who are

agreeable are less likely to be hostile to their coworkers.

Another entirely different factor to consider is perception of the workplace.

Employees who had a positive perception of their workplace were less likely to pursue

deviant behavior. Research indicates that personality acts as a moderating factor:

workplace deviance was more likely to be endorsed in an individual when both the

perception of the workplace was negative and when emotional stability,

conscientiousness, or agreeableness was low. (Colbert et al, 2004)

Job Satisfaction and the Five Factor Model

The five-factor model is correlated with the overall level of job satisfaction

experienced by employees. In general satisfied employees are more likely to remain in a

position and to avoid absences than those that are not satisfied.

Initial research indicated that neuroticism is negatively correlated with job

satisfaction while conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness are positively

correlated. Openness to experience had a negligible impact on job satisfaction.

Additional research, however, has only been able to replicate correlations among the

factors of neuroticism and extraversion, with extraversion being positively correlated

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Workplace Five Factors

with job satisfaction and neuroticism being negatively correlated. This could be due to

the social nature of the workplace. (Judge et. al., 2002)

This is possibly due to the nominal level of arousal for extraverted individuals

(Hebb’s theory). If the workplace is a social environment then extraverted employees are

more likely to be at their nominal level of arousal while at work, whereas at their home

there is a greater chance of few stimuli. Introverts, on the other hand, are more likely at

their optimal level of arousal outside of the workplace, and therefore are more likely

unsatisfied with the level of stimulation that they experience at their place of

employment.

Teamwork and the Five Factor Model

Often times at the workplace the ability to be a team player is valued and is

critical to job performance. Recent research has suggested that conscientiousness,

extraversion, and agreeableness are all related to cooperative behavior, but that they are

not related to task performance. While this fortifies that case that job performance is

related to the five-factor model via increased cooperativeness among coworkers, it lays

siege to it by implying that actual job performance (task performance) is related to

cognitive ability and not to personality. (LePine et. al., 2001)

Leadership abilities are often essential in the workplace, especially for individuals

who aspire to move up into the ranks of management. Studies performed on Asian

military units have found that neuroticism is negatively correlated with leadership

abilities, but agreeableness is negatively correlated as well (which was not what the

researchers hypothesized). Openness to experience was unrelated while extraversion was

positively correlated with leadership abilities. (Lim et. al., 2004)

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Workplace Five Factors

This evidence suggests the long-standing idea that there are leaders and followers

in teams. The leaders make decisions and the followers abide by them. While

agreeableness was positively correlated with working with a team, it is negatively

correlated with being a leader. Those followers who don’t always agree and are willing

to voice their own opinions end up moving up the ranks while those who blindly agree

are left as followers.

Job Performance and the Five-Factor Model

Of the five factors, the single factor of conscientiousness is the most predictive of

job performance (it is positively correlated with job performance). (Hurtz et. al., 2000)

Job Absences

Job absence is very much a part of job performance: employees are not

performing effectively if they do not even come to work. Introverted, conscientious

employees are much less likely to be absent from work, as opposed to extraverted

employees who are low on conscientiousness. Interestingly enough, neuroticism was not

highly correlated with absence (Judge et. al., 1997).

This is an interesting study considering the results of research performed on Job

Satisfaction and the five-factor model (Judge et. al., 2002). The results of that research

suggested that extroverted individuals were more satisfied at the workplace because it

gives them an opportunity to experience an optimal level of arousal, whereas introverted

individuals were less satisfied with their workplace experience due to too much

stimulation. Combining the results of these two studies would suggest that

conscientiousness is the deciding factor regarding job absence.

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Workplace Five Factors

Perhaps another factor is that although introverts may be less satisfied at the

workplace, they go to work anyway. This behavior might implicate a more conscientious

individual, or simply that the individual has no compelling reason not to go to work

(whereas an extrovert may have friends who urge him or her to skip work and go see a

movie). It is also, however, debatable that introverts would be tempted to skip work to

avoid the extra stimulation, and perhaps stay home and read a book (a book on

psychology, no doubt). Timothy Judge and his colleagues will likely continue their

research and perhaps provide answers in the future.

Personnel Selection

Research into the relation between the five factors and personnel hiring provides

additional evidence that conscientiousness is the most valid predictor of job performance.

(Schmidt et. al., 1993)

Since conscientious individuals have a tendency to perform better as employees, it

is easy to believe that employers will seek out that factor or the traits that coincide with it.

Summary

Job performance and personality are related, as are the five factors of the five-

factor model are related as well. It would appear as though the relation between job

performance and the five factors is more a consequence of the social aspects of the

workplace than actual ability.

Research indicates that cognitive ability is more strongly correlated to task

performance than any of the five factors. The five factors are strongly correlated with

cooperating with others and enjoying the overall workplace experience, which are key in

long-term job success. Being absent from work, or working as a team are examples of

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Workplace Five Factors

parts of personality that directly affect whether you will succeed in the workplace or not,

and they are strongly correlated with the big five, and not with cognitive ability.

It is worth noting that the majority of research is performed on observing sales

people, or other occupations in which interacting with people is required. Is it possible

that these studies are skewed? Perhaps researching individuals in jobs that require very

little human interaction (such as authors of fiction, like Steven King) would yield

different results.

Conscientiousness and extraversion are the two aspects of the five-factor model

that are always correlated with positive job performance, although conscientiousness is

more positively correlated (Extraversion is negatively correlated with job performance in

that it appears to inspire more absence, but only when combined with low levels of

conscientiousness). Agreeableness is negatively correlated with job performance within a

leadership role. Openness to experience is, in general, unrelated. Neuroticism is

negatively correlated with job performance.

Cognitive ability may be a factor regarding the abilities of an employee to

complete a specific task, but the ability to work with others and to stay motivated are due

to aspects of personality. The five-factor model is a valid predictor of workplace

performance. This research is indispensable for employers who are looking for quality

employees.

References

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Workplace Five Factors

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