Conscientiousness is key. As researchers recently stated, “Personal attributes related to conscientiousness and agreeableness are important for success across many jobs, spanning across low to high levels of job complexity, training, and experience.”18 Employees who score higher in conscientiousness develop higher levels of job knowledge, probably because highly conscientious people learn more (conscientiousness may be related to GPA),19 and these levels correspond with higher levels of job performance. Conscientious people are also more able to maintain their job performance when faced with abusive supervision, according to a study in India.20

Like any trait, conscientiousness has its pitfalls. Highly conscientious individuals can prioritize work over family, resulting in more conflict between their work and family roles (termed work-family conflict).21 They may also become too focused on their own work to help others in the organization,22 and they don’t adapt well to changing contexts. Furthermore, conscientious people may have trouble learning complex skills early in a training process because their focus is on performing well rather than on learning. Finally, they are often less creative, especially artistically.23

Despite pitfalls, conscientiousness is the best overall predictor of job performance. However, the other Big Five traits are also related to aspects of performance and have other implications for work and for life. Exhibit 5-1 summarizes these other relations.

Of the Big Five traits, emotional stability is most strongly related to life satisfaction, job satisfaction, and low stress levels. People with high emotional stability can adapt to unexpected or changing demands in the workplace.24 At the other end of the spectrum, neurotic individuals who are unable to cope with these demands may experience burnout.25 These people also tend to experience work-family conflict, which can affect work outcomes.26

Extraverts perform better in jobs with significant interpersonal interaction. They are socially dominant, “take charge” people.27 Extraversion is a relatively strong predictor of leadership emergence in groups. Some negatives are that extraverts are more impulsive than introverts, are more likely to be absent from work, and may be more likely than introverts to lie during job interviews.28

Open people are more likely to be effective leaders—and more comfortable with ambiguity. They cope better with organizational change and are more adaptable. While openness isn’t related to initial performance on a job, individuals higher in openness are less susceptible to a decline in performance over a longer time period.29 Open people also experience less work-family conflict.30

Agreeable individuals are better liked than disagreeable people; they tend to do better in interpersonally oriented jobs such as customer service. They’re more compliant and rule abiding, less likely to get into accidents, and more satisfied in their jobs. They also contribute to organizational performance by engaging in organizational citizenship behavior (OCB; see Chapter 1).31 Disagreeable people, on the other hand, are more likely to engage in counterproductive work behavior (CWB; see Chapter 3), as are people low in conscientiousness.32 Low agreeableness also predicts involvement in work accidents.33 Lastly, agreeableness is associated with lower levels of career success (especially earnings), perhaps because highly agreeable people consider themselves less marketable and are less willing to assert themselves.34

In general, the Big Five personality factors appear in almost all cross-cultural studies,35 including China, Israel, Germany, Japan, Spain, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, and the United States. However, a study of illiterate indigenous people in Bolivia suggested the Big Five framework may be less applicable when studying the personalities of small, remote groups.36

Hao is a young bank manager in Shanghai. He’s received three promotions in the past four years and makes no apologies for the aggressive tactics he’s used. “My name means clever, and that’s what I am—I do whatever I have to do to get ahead,” he says. Hao would be termed Machiavellian.

The personality characteristic of Machiavellianism (often abbreviated Mach) is named after Niccolo Machiavelli, who wrote in the sixteenth century on how to gain and use power. An individual high in Machiavellianism is pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends can justify means. “If it works, use it” is consistent with a high-Mach perspective. High Machs manipulate more, win more, are persuaded less by others, but persuade others more than do low Machs.39 They are more likely to act aggressively and engage in CWBs as well. Surprisingly, Machiavellianism does not significantly predict overall job performance.40 High-Mach employees, by manipulating others to their advantage, win in the short term at a job, but lose those gains in the long term because they are not well liked.

Machiavellian tendencies may have ethical implications. One study showed high-Mach job seekers were less positively affected by the knowledge that an organization engaged in a high level of corporate social responsibility (CSR; see Chapter 3),41 suggesting that high-Mach people may care less about sustainability issues. Another study found Machs’ ethical leadership behaviors were less likely to translate into followers’ work engagement because followers see through these behaviors and realize they are cases of surface acting.42

Sabrina likes to be the center of attention. She often looks at herself in the mirror, has extravagant dreams about her future, and considers herself a person of many talents. Sabrina is a narcissist. The trait is named for the Greek myth of Narcissus, a youth so vain and proud he fell in love with his own image. In psychology, narcissism describes a person who has a grandiose sense of self-importance, requires excessive admiration, and is arrogant. Narcissists often have fantasies of grand success, a tendency to exploit situations and people, a sense of entitlement, and a lack of empathy.43 However, narcissists can be hypersensitive and fragile people.44 They also may experience more anger.45

While narcissism seems to have little relationship to job effectiveness or OCB,46 it is one of the largest predictors of increased CWB in individualistic cultures—but not in collectivist cultures that discourage self-promotion.47 Narcissists commonly think they are overqualified for their positions.48 When they receive feedback about their performance, they often tune out information that conflicts with their positive self-perception, but they will work harder if rewards are offered.49

On the bright side, narcissists may be more charismatic than others.50 They also might be found in business more often than in other fields. They are more likely to be chosen for leadership positions, and medium ratings of narcissism (neither extremely high nor extremely low) are positively correlated with leadership effectiveness.51 Some evidence suggests that narcissists are more adaptable and make better business decisions than others when the issue is complex.52 Furthermore, a study of Norwegian bank employees found those scoring high on narcissism enjoyed their work more.53

Psychopathy is part of the Dark Triad, but in OB, it does not connote clinical mental illness. In the OB context, psychopathy is defined as a lack of concern for others, and a lack of guilt or remorse when actions cause harm.54 Measures of psychopathy attempt to assess motivation to comply with social norms, impulsivity, willingness to use deceit to obtain desired ends, and disregard, that is, the lack of empathic concern for others.

The literature is not consistent about whether psychopathy is important to work behavior. One review found little correlation between measures of psychopathy and job performance or CWB. Another found antisocial personality, which is closely related to psychopathy, was positively related to advancement in the organization but unrelated to other aspects of career success and effectiveness.55 Still other research suggests psychopathy is related to the use of hard influence tactics (threats, manipulation) and bullying work behavior (physical or verbal threatening).56 The cunning displayed by people who score high on psychopathy may thus help them gain power in an organization but keep them from using it toward healthy ends for themselves or their organizations.

The Dark Triad is a helpful framework for studying the three dominant dark-side traits in current personality research, and researchers are exploring other traits as well. One emerging framework incorporates five additional aberrant compound traits based on the Big Five. First, antisocial people are indifferent and callous toward others. They use their extraversion to charm people, but they may be prone to violent CWBs and risky decision making. Second, borderline people have low self-esteem and high uncertainty. They are unpredictable in their interactions at work, are inefficient, and may have low job satisfaction.57 Third, schizotypal individuals are eccentric and disorganized. In the workplace, they can be highly creative, although they are susceptible to work stress. Fourth, obsessive-compulsive people are perfectionists and can be stubborn, yet they attend to details, carry a strong work ethic, and may be motivated by achievement. Fifth, avoidant individuals feel inadequate and hate criticism. They can function only in environments requiring little interaction.58