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Personality and job performance: the importance of narrow traits
Author(s) -
Ashton Michael C.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of organizational behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.938
H-Index - 177
eISSN - 1099-1379
pISSN - 0894-3796
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199805)19:3<289::aid-job841>3.0.co;2-c
Subject(s) - psychology , big five personality traits , social psychology , personality , job performance , core self evaluations , applied psychology , job attitude , job satisfaction
Abstract In a recent discussion of the bandwidth–fidelity dilemma in personality measurement for personnel selection, Ones and Viswesvaran (1996) concluded that ‘broader and richer personality traits will have higher predictive validity than narrower traits’. In this paper, the arguments made by Ones and Viswesvaran in favor of the exclusive use of broad personality dimensions are discussed. New data are presented that contradict Ones and Viswesvaran's claim of the existence of a general, integrity‐related personality factor, and that show two narrow measures—the Responsibility and Risk Taking scales of the Jackson Personality Inventory—to have higher validities than the Big Five dimensions with respect to job performance criteria based on self‐reported workplace delinquency in a sample of 127 entry‐level employees. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.