Job attitudes in management: VI. Perceptions of the importance of certain personality traits as a function of line versus staff type of job.

In a questionnaire study, over 1800 managerial respondents rank-ordered 5 Other-Directed or Organization Man personality traits and 5 Inner-Directed traits in terms of their importance for job success. Responses were tabulated by 3 types of managerial positions: line, combined line-staff, and staff. Results showed that staff managers placed relatively more emphasis on the Other-Directed traits and less emphasis on the Inner-Directed traits than did line managers. Managers in combined line-staff jobs were intermediate between the other 2 groups in their responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Job attitudes in mangement: III. Perceived deficiencies in need fulfillment asa function of line versus staff type of job.

This study focused on differences in perceptions of the degree of fulfillment and importance of several types of psychological needs associated with line versus staff types of management jobs. Data were provided from a questionnaire, and the nation-wide sample of respondents included 1802 managers from a wide variety of types of companies. Results showed: (a) Line managers perceived greater need fulfillment than staff managers, with the largest line-staff differences occurring in the Esteem and Self-Actualization need areas. (b) Line and staff managers did not differ on the importance they attached to each type of need, with the exception of Autonomy needs which staff managers considered more important. (c) Effects of the line-staff variable were smaller than effects of the variable of vertical level of position within the management hierarchy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Job attitudes in management: I. Perceived deficiencies in need fulfillment as a function of job level.

This questionnaire study investigated perceived need fulfillment deficiencies in nearly 2000 managerial positions. Respondents represented all levels of management and a wide variety of companies. 5 need categories, chosen to represent a hierarchy of prepotency of needs, were studied. Results showed: (a) Vertical level of position within management had a strong relation to the degree of perceived satisfaction of the 3 highest-order needs—Self-actualization, Autonomy, and Esteem; for these needs, satisfactions increased at each higher level of management. (b) For the 2 lower-order types of needs, Security and Social, there were no systematic changes in satisfaction in relation to management level. (c) Among the 5 need categories, Self-actualization and Autonomy were consistently regarded as the least fulfilled needs at all levels of management. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Job attitudes in management: II. Perceived importance of needs as a function of job level.

By means of a questionnaire, 1916 managers indicated the degree of importance they attached to 13 items representing 5 areas of psychological needs. Respondents represented all levels of management and many different types of companies. The 5 need areas were Security, Social, Esteem, Autonomy, and Self-Actualization. Results showed that there was some relationship between vertical level of position within management and degree of perceived importance of needs. Higher-level managers placed relatively more emphasis on Self-Actualization and Autonomy needs than did lower-level managers. For each of the other 3 types of needs, however, there were no differences between responses from higher-level vs. lower-level managers. The findings from this study were compared with those from recent related studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived trait requirements in bottom and middle management jobs.

"This study investigated the perception of the relative importance of various personality traits for success in management jobs. The perceptions of 64 individuals in bottom management were compared with those of individuals in middle management jobs… . The results showed the following: a high correlation between the trait rankings derived from the selections of the lower-level managers; a high selection of traits indicating cooperativeness relative to traits indicating independence, within both management levels; and a moderate trend for the cooperative-type traits to be perceived as relatively more important for bottom management jobs than for middle management jobs." From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4LI32P. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Job attitudes in management: IV. Perceived deficiencies in need fulfillment as a function of size of company.

This study was concerned with the relationship between size of organization and perceptions of need satisfaction and need importance in management jobs. A questionnaire provided data from a nationwide sample of 1916 managers. Results showed that at lower levels of management small company managers were more satisfied than large company managers, but at higher levels of management large company managers were more satisfied than small company managers. Size of company had little relationship to the other attitude variable, perceptions of the importance of various needs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality traits and teacher–student behaviors in physical education.

Analyzed the relationship of teacher personality as measured by the 16PF to teacher behaviors in physical education as measured by a physical education teacher assessment instrument. Teacher behavior data were obtained from 18 physical education teachers in 3 junior high schools, 5 middle schools, and 6 elementary schools who volunteered to teach a 10-lesson beginning volleyball unit using their own individual teaching styles. Eight students were randomly selected from each teacher's class (n?=?144). Results indicate the primary personality traits of assertiveness, expediency, questioning, imaginativeness, genuineness, confidence, and experimenting related significantly to many important teacher and student behaviors observed in a typical physical education class. Teachers who scored high on these personality traits tended to exhibit a higher level of knowledge, utilized objectives and testing more effectively, and were more flexible and appropriate in their instruction. They also provided more planned instruction and more positive feedback. Teachers who scored high in assertiveness, questioning, and imaginativeness tended to provide their students with more time on task and a higher quality of practice time. Students of teachers who scored high in independence, assertiveness, questioning, and imaginativeness learned more than did students of teachers who were low in these personality traits. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Validity of observer ratings of the five-factor model of personality traits: A meta-analysis.

Conclusions reached in previous research about the magnitude and nature of personality–performance linkages have been based almost exclusively on self-report measures of personality. The purpose of this study is to address this void in the literature by conducting a meta-analysis of the relationship between observer ratings of the five-factor model (FFM) personality traits and overall job performance. Our results show that the operational validities of FFM traits based on observer ratings are higher than those based on self-report ratings. In addition, the results show that when based on observer ratings, all FFM traits are significant predictors of overall performance. Further, observer ratings of FFM traits show meaningful incremental validity over self-reports of corresponding FFM traits in predicting overall performance, but the reverse is not true. We conclude that the validity of FFM traits in predicting overall performance is higher than previously believed, and our results underscore the importance of disentangling the validity of personality traits from the method of measurement of the traits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Removing halo from job evaluation factor structure.

Intercorrelations of job-evaluation ratings were factor analyzed under 2 conditions: (a) the original matrix, produced directly from raters' initial evaluations, and (b) a "reduced" matrix resulting from partialling out job level from all original intercorrelations in the hope of removing a general "halo" factor characteristically emerging from job-rating studies. Comparisons of factors from each matrix showed a definite reduction of halo in the "reduced" matrix, as well as more meaningful factor structures for most factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex-specific association between psychopathic traits and electrodermal reactivity in children.

This study investigated the relationship of skin conductance response (SCR) to a child psychopathy measure. Blunted electrodermal activity is a theoretically important characteristic of psychopathy, but it has not been fully explored in preadolescents or females. The authors tested the hypothesis that reduced SCR magnitude is associated with psychopathic-like traits in boys and girls. Participants were drawn from an ethnically diverse community sample of 9- to 10-year-old twins. Given the fact that members of each twin pair were rated by the same individual (i.e., their caregiver) on the Child Psychopathy Scale, the authors examined individual differences at the within-family level. Skin conductance data were collected during a passive auditory task consisting of 75-dB tones as well as miscellaneous sounds (e.g., baby cries, bird noises, and speech-like stimuli). Reduced SCR magnitude (hyporeactivity) was characteristic only of boys with higher psychopathy scores. More specifically, electrodermal hyporeactivity was linked to the interpersonal facet of psychopathy, suggesting that it is a biological marker of a manipulative and deceitful orientation in males. No association was found between SCRs and psychopathic traits in girls, indicating the importance of sex specific etiologies of psychopathy in childhood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The cultural effects of job mobility and the belief in a fixed world: Evidence from performance forecast.

Results from 5 studies illustrate how perception of and experiences with low job mobility can shape culture-characteristic pattern of judgments and behaviors. Although both Americans and some Asian groups (e.g., Chinese, Asian Americans) consider having successful practitioners’ personality traits (role personalities) to be important to job performance, the Asian groups place heavier emphasis on possessing role personalities when making performance forecast than do Americans (Studies 1–3). Moreover, even among Americans, a brief subjective experience with low job mobility can increase the perceived importance of possessing role personalities in performance forecast (Study 4), and a brief direct experience with low job mobility can increase job applicants’ tendency to claim possession of role personality traits in job applications (Study 5). Furthermore, the belief in a fixed world mediates the relationship between perception of low job mobility and perceived importance of possessing role personalities in performance forecast (Study 2). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential self-perceptions of management personnel and line workers.

"A 64-pair forced-choice adjective check-list was filled out by 463 management personnel and 320 line workers. The responses of the individuals in the two groups were analyzed for each of the pairs of adjectives, and it was found that 25 pairs differentiated the two groups at the .05 level of confidence or better. From these differentiating adjectives, integrated pictures of the self-perceptions of the two groups were developed. Management personnel tended more often to describe themselves in terms of leadership-type traits, whereas line workers relatively more often pictured themselves in cooperative-follower terms. These findings were discussed as to their implications for understanding organizational structure and functioning and for labor-management relations." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relative importance of task and contextual performance dimensions to supervisor judgments of overall performance.

Although evidence supports the unique contribution of task performance and contextual performance to overall evaluations, little is known about the relative contribution that specific dimensions of contextual performance make to overall performance judgments. This study evaluated the extent to which supervisors consider task and contextual performance by using relative weights (J. W. Johnson, 2000) to statistically describe the relative importance of specific dimensions of each type of performance to overall performance ratings. Within each of 8 job families in a large organization, each of 4 dimensions of contextual performance made not only a unique contribution but a relatively important contribution to the overall evaluation. Evidence also supports the adaptive performance dimension of handling work stress as an aspect of contextual performance and job–task conscientiousness as an aspect of both task and contextual performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation between coping strategies, sex-typed traits, and environmental characteristics: A comparison of male and female managers.

I examined sex-typed traits (instrumentality and expressiveness), the work environment (demands and interpersonal resources), and importance of stressor episodes as predictors of 3 measures of coping (avoidance, problem reappraisal, and active problem solving) derived from a modified Ways of Coping Checklist. The data were collected from 132 managers (60 men and 72 women). Sex-typed trait measures and demographic information were assessed 1 month before the assessment of the work environment, stressful episodes, and coping responses. Women, compared with men, were more likely to use avoidance and problem-reappraisal coping, whereas there were no gender differences with regard to active problem-solving coping. Multiple regression analyses showed that sex-typed traits, the work environment, and episode importance were significant predictors of the coping scores after the effects of sex were removed, and that patterns of effects were different for each type of coping. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Five-factor model of personality and job satisfaction: A meta-analysis.

This study reports results of a meta-analysis linking traits from the 5-factor model of personality to overall job satisfaction. Using the model as an organizing framework, 334 correlations from 163 independent samples were classified according to the model. The estimated true score correlations with job satisfaction were -.29 for Neuroticism, .25 for Extraversion, .02 for Openness to Experience, .17 for Agreeableness, and .26 for Conscientiousness. Results further indicated that only the relations of Neuroticism and Extraversion with job satisfaction generalized across studies. As a set, the Big Five traits had a multiple correlation of .41 with job satisfaction, indicating support for the validity of the dispositional source of job satisfaction when traits are organized according to the 5-factor model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in personality traits from 10 to 65: Big Five domains and facets in a large cross-sectional sample.

Hypotheses about mean-level age differences in the Big Five personality domains, as well as 10 more specific facet traits within those domains, were tested in a very large cross-sectional sample (N = 1,267,218) of children, adolescents, and adults (ages 10–65) assessed over the World Wide Web. The results supported several conclusions. First, late childhood and adolescence were key periods. Across these years, age trends for some traits (a) were especially pronounced, (b) were in a direction different from the corresponding adult trends, or (c) first indicated the presence of gender differences. Second, there were some negative trends in psychosocial maturity from late childhood into adolescence, whereas adult trends were overwhelmingly in the direction of greater maturity and adjustment. Third, the related but distinguishable facet traits within each broad Big Five domain often showed distinct age trends, highlighting the importance of facet-level research for understanding life span age differences in personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preference reversals: Violations of unidimensional procedure invariance.

Preference reversals have usually been explained by weighted additive models, in which different tasks give rise to different importance weights for the stimulus attributes, resulting in contradictory trade-offs. This article presents a preference reversal of a more extreme nature. Let (10, 5 Migr) denote living 10 years with a migraine for 5 days per week. Many participants preferred (10, 5 Migr) to (20, 5 Migr). However, when asked to equate these two options with a shorter period of good health, they usually demanded more healthy life years for (20, 5 Migr) than for (10, 5 Migr). This preference reversal within a single dimension cannot be explained by different importance weights and suggests irrationalities at a more fundamental level. Most participants did not change their responses after being confronted with their inconsistencies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An experimental investigation of "point" job evaluation systems.

3 raters evaluated a sample of 82 jobs on 17 requirements. The study aim was to determine extent of influence through manipulation or forcing by evaluators. Both forced and unforced conditions were used. 5 factors emerged from the analysis in both conditions, with the 3 predominant factors in each being similar. "Forcing had the effect of increasing the job level variance from 86% in unforced ratings to 98% in forced ratings." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Managerial talent.

"I have come to the conclusion that important to managerial success are the traits of intelligence, supervisory ability, initiative, self-assurance and perceived occupational level." Self-assurance and initiative seem "to be of lesser importance than intelligence, supervisory ability, and perceived occupational level… . Self-realization and autonomy universally are more important to managers than prestige, social satisfactions, and even security." The "substratum of managerial talent is individuality and the desire for self-realization through creative activity." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Goal and Personality Trait Development in Emerging Adulthood.

The present research examined continuity and change in the importance of major life goals and the relation between change in goals and change in personality traits over the course of college (N = 298). Participants rated the importance of their life goals 6 times over a 4-year period and completed a measure of the Big Five personality traits at the beginning and end of college. Like personality traits, life goals demonstrated high levels of rank-order stability. Unlike personality traits assessed during the same period and in the same sample, the mean importance of most life goals decreased over time. Moreover, each goal domain was marked by significant individual differences in change, and these individual differences were related to changes in personality traits. These findings provide insights into the relatively unstudied question of how life goals change during emerging adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)