goals than were other workers. That is, they were more likely to expend extra
effort to hit their targets and were more persistent when faced with the inevi-table obstacles and downturns that got in their way.
In short, there are many reasons a person high in Conscientiousness
would make an excellent employee. As one team of investigators put it, “It is
difficult to conceive of a job in which the traits associated with the Con-
scientiousness dimension would not contribute to job success ”(Barrick &
Mount, 1991, pp. 21 –22). And these efforts do not go unnoticed. Highly con-
scientious employees typically receive higher evaluations from their supervi-sors (Barrick et al., 1993). Moreover, one study found that workers who
scored high on Conscientiousness were among the least likely to lose theirjobs when companies were forced to lay off employees (Barrick, Mount, &
Strauss, 1994). Not surprisingly, highly conscientious people do better in col-
lege (Poropat, 2009) and in their careers (Judge, Higgins, Thoresen, &Barrick, 1999) than people low on this dimension.
This is not to say that Conscientiousness is the only Big Five dimension
related to job performance. On the contrary, a strong case can be made for
hiring people high in Agreeableness (Tett et al., 1991). These individuals are
trusting, cooperative, and helpful. They are pleasant to have around the office
and probably work especially well in jobs calling for teamwork. Others stud-
ies indicate that extraverts often have an edge in the business world over
introverts and that openness to experience can be beneficial in some job set-
tings (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Caldwell & Burger, 1998; Mount, Barrick, &
Strauss, 1994; Tett et al., 1991). In short, knowing where an applicant falls
on the Big Five personality dimensions may be useful when making a hiring
decision.
Nonetheless, one caveat is in order. Although research relating Big Five
personality characteristics and job performance has been encouraging, it
would be an egregious oversimplification to conclude that one should alwayshire the person highest in Conscientiousness. Personality may account for a
significant proportion of job performance variance, but it is only one of
many important variables that contribute to how well an individual performshis or her job. Just as it is inappropriate to base decisions about mental health
or education solely on personality test scores, making hiring and promotion
decisions on test score data alone is unwise and unfair.
ASSESSMENT: SELF-RE PORT INVENTORIES
It is unlikely you have reached college age without taking a number of self-
report inventories. You may have received interest and abilities tests from a
counselor, achievement and aptitude tests from a teacher, or personality anddiagnostic inventories from a therapist. You may have even tried a few of
those magazine quizzes for your own entertainment and curiosity. Self-report
inventories are the most widely used form of personality assessment.Typically, these are pencil-and-paper tests that ask people to respond to ques-
tions about themselves. Relatively simple scoring procedures allow the tester
to generate a score or set of scores that can be compared with others along a172 CHAPTER 7 The Trait Approach