one is notably high in Openness. Predictably, another applicant is especially
high in Agreeableness, whereas the final applicant ’s distinguishing score is his
or her high level of Conscientiousness. Time is running out, and you have to
make your decision based on this information alone. Looking back at the de-
scriptions of the Big Five factors on pages 159 –163, which of these five people
do you suppose you will hire? Of course, the answer to the question depends
on the kind of job and many other important variables. But if you had to
make a quick decision based on this limited amount of information, you mightconsider a growing body of research that in fact points to the best answer.
Employers have used scores from personality tests to make hiring and
promotion decisions for many years (Roberts & Hogan, 2001. And for justabout the same length of time, critics have complained that employers misuse
and misinterpret personality test scores when making these decisions. Just as
Mischel criticized clinical psychologists for relying too heavily on test scoresto make diagnoses about psychological disorders, these critics point to re-
search indicating low correlations between test scores and job performance
(Reilly & Chao, 1982; Schmidt, Gooding, Noe, & Kirsch, 1984).
But the debate about using personality tests to predict success in the
workplace changed with the development of the Big Five model (Goldberg,
1993; Landy, Shankster, & Kohler, 1994). Rather than examine a large num-
ber of personality variables that may or may not be related to how well peo-
ple perform their jobs, researchers addressed the question of personality and
job performance by using the five larger personality dimensions. The findings
from that research provided much stronger evidence for the relationship be-
tween personality and job performance than had been previously demon-
strated (Tett, Jackson, & Rothstein, 1991).
So, which of the five applicants is likely to make the best employee?
Although a case can be made for each of the five, a great deal of research in-
dicates that, of the Big Five factors, Conscientiousness may be the best predic-tor of job performance (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Barrick, Mount, & Judge,
2001; Hurtz & Donovan, 2000; Salgado, 1997). To understand why, we
need only look at some of the characteristics that make up this personality di-mension. People who score high in Conscientiousness are said to be careful,
thorough, and dependable. That is, they don ’t rush through a job but take
time to do the job correctly and completely. Highly conscientious people
tend to be organized and to lay out plans before starting a big project. These
individuals also are hardworking, persistent, and achievement-oriented.
It’s not difficult to see why people who exhibit this combination of traits
make great employees. Researchers in one study looked at the way sales re-presentatives for a large appliance manufacturer did their jobs (Barrick,
Mount, & Strauss, 1993). As in other studies, the investigators found Con-scientiousness scores were fairly good predictors of how many appliances the
employees sold. But a closer examination of the work styles of these salespeo-
ple helped to explain their success. Highly conscientious workers set highergoals for themselves than did the other employees. From the beginning they
had their eyes on fairly ambitious end-of-the-year sales figures. In addition,
these highly conscientious salespeople were more committed to reaching theirApplication: The Big Five in the Workplace 171