A study of personality and leadership in a technical environment

l, This report presents the findings of a study of individual personalities of Naval Officers, Chief Petty Officers and Petty Officers serving in different environments within the Ministry of Defence and the Fleet. This sample was used to establish norms for the Cattell 16 PF Questionnaire, and these are compared with other occupational norms discussed in the literature. 2. The results obtained on psychometric measures were related to other data collected about the work and the formal organisation. This was in its turn related to problems facing the Navy because of changes in technology which have occurred or which are now taking place and are expected to make an impact in the future. 3. A need is recognised for a way of simulating the effects of proposed changes within the manpower field of the Royal Navy and a simulation model is put forward and discussed. 4. The use of psychometric measures in selection for entry and for special tasks is examined, Particular reference is made to problems of group formation in the context of leadership in a technical environment. 5. The control of the introduction of change is discussed in the recognition that people represent an increasingly important resource which is critical to the continuing life of the total organisation. 6. Conclusions are drawn from the various strands of the research and recommendations are made both for line management and for subsequent research programmes.

Innovation and the 'dark side' of personality:dysfunctional traits and their relationship to innovation potential

This paper explores the relationship between self-reported innovative characteristics and dysfunctional personality traits. Participants (N = 207) from a range of occupations completed the Innovation Potential Indicator (IPI) and the Hogan Development Survey (HDS). Those who reported innovative characteristics also reported the following dysfunctional traits: Arrogant, Manipulative, Dramatic, Eccentric; and lower levels of Cautious, Perfectionist and Dependent. A representative approximation of the higher order factor “moving against people” (Hogan & Hogan, 1997) was positively associated with innovative characteristics. It is concluded that innovation potential may be viewed as a positive effect of some otherwise dysfunctional traits, most notably those encompassed under the second-order HDS factor ‘moving against people’.

Personality across working life:the longitudinal and reciprocal influences of personality on work

Summary: This paper focuses on the role of personality at different stages of people's working lives. We begin by reviewing the research in industrial, work, and organizational (IWO) psychology regarding the longitudinal and dynamic influences of personality as an independent variable at different career stages, structuring our review around a framework of people's working lives and careers over time. Next, we review recent studies in the personality and developmental psychology domain regarding the influence of changing life roles on personality. In this domain, personality also serves as a dependent variable. By blending these two domains, it becomes clear that the study of reciprocal effects of work and personality might open a new angle in IWO psychology's long-standing tradition of personality research. To this end, we outline various implications for conceptual development (e.g., trait stability) and empirical research (e.g., personality and work incongruence). Finally, we discuss some methodological and statistical considerations for research in this new research domain. In the end, our review should enrich the way that IWO psychologists understand personality at work, focusing away from its unidirectional predictivist influence on job performance toward a more complex longitudinal reciprocal interplay of personality and working life. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The perceptual basis of the understanding of some spatial adjectives in primary school children

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Interactions of personality variables with inductive and deductive teaching strategies

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The effect of personality on the design team:lessons from industry for design education

This study examines the effect of individual character types in design teams through case studies at ARUP associates and five United Kingdom university design degree programmes. By observing an individual's approach and contribution within a team, patterns of design behaviour are highlighted and compared within the industrial and academic examples. Initial findings have identified discreet differences in design approach and ways of working. By identifying these initial character clusters, design behaviour can be predicted to help teams and individuals to strengthen their design process. This research brings together: 1. The design process and how engineering and design teams work to solve problems. 2. The natural characteristics of individuals and how they approach problems. This difference of approach can be viewed in relation to the design process where engineers and designers will recognise their preference for certain stages of the design process. This study suggests that these individual preferences are suited to different stages of the design process, and that industry uses teams to ensure a broad range of views, an approach design education would do well to apply by establishing collaborative input in the design process.

Comparing different approach and avoidance models of learning and personality in the prediction of work, university, and leadership outcomes

Jackson (2005) developed a hybrid model of personality and learning, known as the learning styles profiler (LSP) which was designed to span biological, socio-cognitive, and experiential research foci of personality and learning research. The hybrid model argues that functional and dysfunctional learning outcomes can be best understood in terms of how cognitions and experiences control, discipline, and re-express the biologically based scale of sensation-seeking. In two studies with part-time workers undertaking tertiary education (N=137 and 58), established models of approach and avoidance from each of the three different research foci were compared with Jackson's hybrid model in their predictiveness of leadership, work, and university outcomes using self-report and supervisor ratings. Results showed that the hybrid model was generally optimal and, as hypothesized, that goal orientation was a mediator of sensation-seeking on outcomes (work performance, university performance, leader behaviours, and counterproductive work behaviour). Our studies suggest that the hybrid model has considerable promise as a predictor of work and educational outcomes as well as dysfunctional outcomes.

The higher-order factor structures of five personality inventories

This study examined the internal higher-order structures of five personality inventories (the Hogan Personality Inventory, the Occupational Personality Questionnaire, the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, the Personality and Preferences Inventory, Profile Match). A sample of 356 individuals from the UK working population completed various combinations of the five inventories. Overall, the results indicated sensible and interpretable factor structures for the inventories. Cross-inventory factor analyses of the extracted factors revealed a variant of the Big Five model underpinning them, enabling examination of inventory convergence and divergence. Our study also examined and compared representations of the General Factor of Personality in each of the inventories. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.

Personality and engagement at work:the mediating role of psychological meaningfulness

In this study, we examined the associations of personality traits of the Big Five model with work engagement, and tested a theoretical model in which these associations are mediated by the positive state of psychological meaningfulness (perceptions that work is valuable and meaningful). In a sample of 238 UK working adults, we found that the personality facets assertiveness and industriousness were the strongest predictors of work engagement, and that both exhibited direct and indirect effects, mediated by psychological meaningfulness. Neuroticism demonstrated a marginal indirect association with engagement, again mediated by psychological meaningfulness. Our findings offered good support for our model, explaining a pathway from personality traits to engagement. Practical implications for management are discussed. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.