Uncertified absence from work and the Big Five:an examination of absence records and future absence intentions

Uncertified absence from work has traditionally been difficult to link to personality. The present paper argues that personality is best conceptualized as influencing an individual’s intention to be absent from work because of reasons that are within their control. This was investigated in an employed community sample of 128 individuals. These individuals used a self-report measure to express their future intentions to be absent from work as a result of several reasons. These reasons for absence were categorized as “being absent because of external pressure or commitment” (ABCo) and “being absence by choice” (ABCh). The Big Five personality factors were found to be unrelated to objective uncertified absence records and unrelated to ABCo. Three of the Big Five were related to ABCh. Agreeableness was negatively related to ABCh whereas Extraversion and Openness demonstrated a positive correlation. It was concluded that the results should be viewed tentatively, but that this study may provide a useful framework for conceptualizing the association of personality with uncertified absence.

Measuring the Big Five with single items using a bipolar response scale

The convergence on the Big Five in personality theory has produced a demand for efficient yet psychometrically sound measures. Therefore, five single-item measures, using bipolar response scales, were constructed to measure the Big Five and evaluated in terms of their convergent and off-diagonal divergent properties, their pattern of criterion correlations and their reliability when compared with four longer Big Five measures. In a combined sample (N?=?791) the Single-Item Measures of Personality (SIMP) demonstrated a mean convergence of r?=?0.61 with the longer scales. The SIMP also demonstrated acceptable reliability, self–other accuracy, and divergent correlations, and a closely similar pattern of criterion correlations when compared with the longer scales. It is concluded that the SIMP offer a reasonable alternative to longer scales, balancing the demands of brevity versus reliability and validity.

The Role of the big five personality traits, proactive behaviour, and socialisation influences in newcomer adjustment

During the early stages of employment, newly hired employees find out what their new organisations are like. Their first impressions are extremely important in determining the course of subsequent attitudes and behaviour. Recently, a considerable progress has been made towards the understanding of adjustment process, however, the literature remain divided along a number of fronts. Moreover, newcomer research has been conducted independent and irrespective of newcomer personality individual differences. This seems to be a critical oversight because there is overlap in predictions involving these constructs. The current research extended the previous one by examining these multiple antecedents, including Big Five personality traits of newcomer to the tandem process of adjustment as well as outcomes that immediate, or ?proximal? to the process of newcomer adjustment. Following a cross sectional pilot study of recent college graduate, a three- wave longitudinal study of newcomers in seven organisations examined Big Five personality traits, proactive behaviour, and socialisation influence (formal training, leaders, co-workers) as antecedents of proximal adjustment outcomes (group integration, political knowledge of organisation, and task performance). The main study results suggested that personality traits were related to proximal adjustment outcomes, specifically, Conscientiousness was positively related to all proximal adjustment outcomes. Openness to experience was related to task performance and political knowledge. Group integration is independently related to Agreeableness, Extraversion and Neuroticism. The socialisation influence moderate these relations, for example, leader socialisation moderate Conscientiousness as it relates to political knowledge and group integration, while co-worker moderate Extraversion as it relates to task performance. Finally, it was found that, the relationship between proximal adjustment outcomes and the personality dimensions Openness was mediated by proactive behaviour. Overall, the results suggested that individual differences have a role in newcomer adjustment as it facilitate the socialisation influence, and Big Five was one of the key determinants of newcomer adjustment.

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.

An empirical investigation of price competition and industry specialisation in NHS audit services

The NHS audit market is regulated by the Audit Commission (AC) and has unique features. We develop a model for audit fees that includes rigorous analysis of the type of auditor. Poor financial standing does not give rise to higher audit fees. Despite regulation the study supports the existence of a Big Five price premium on the audit fee, but only one firm has a premium. We found no premium due to industry specialisation. The removal of performance audit from AC regulation will require improved audit fee reporting and control.

The effects of faking on non-cognitive predictors of academic performance in University students

This study examined the extent to which students could fake responses on personality and approaches to studying questionnaires, and the effects of such responding on the validity of non-cognitive measures for predicting academic performance (AP). University students produced a profile of an ‘ideal’ student using the Big-Five personality taxonomy, which yielded a stereotype with low scores for Neuroticism, and high scores for the other four traits. A sub-set of participants were allocated to a condition in which they were instructed to fake their responses as University applicants, portraying themselves as positively as possible. Scores for these participants revealed higher scores than those in a control condition on measures of deep and strategic approaches to studying, but lower scores on the surface approach variable. Conscientiousness was a significant predictor of AP in both groups, but the predictive effect of approaches to studying variables and Openness to Experience identified in the control group was lower in the group who faked their responses. Non-cognitive psychometric measures can be valid predictors of AP, but scores on these measures can be affected by instructional set. Further implications for psychometric measurement in educational settings are discussed.

Predicting adult occupational environments from childhood personality traits

To test aspects of a theory of the role of personality and gender on the development of vocational interests and their subsequent effects on adult occupational choices, the authors of this study examined associations among childhood personality traits, gender, and occupational environments more than 40 years later. Participants (N = 587) were assessed on the Big Five by their teachers when the participants were between 6 and 12 years old. In middle-age (late 40s), the participants reported their occupation. Holland's (1997) RIASEC vocational types (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional) were used to characterize the job environments of reported occupations. Childhood Openness/Intellect and Conscientiousness, but no other Big Five traits, were associated with occupational environments. For the most strongly sex-typed work environments, associations with Openness/Intellect were moderated by gender. These findings suggest that the roots of the strongest gender-stereotyping effects in occupations may be found not only in the social factors associated with gender but also in the individual differences of children related to Openness/Intellect.

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.