How Impactful Are Grit, I-Deals, and the Glass Ceiling on Subjective Career Success?

Due to the ever-changing organizational and societal conditions that make reliance on external definitions of success unworkable or undesirable, subjective career success has remained a critical topic in careers studies. Among the drivers of subjective career success, research has identified personality traits and job resources as essential sources. Grit, in the form of a personality trait, together with I-deals (job resource) and perceptions of employees’ glass ceiling can provide new insights regarding factors, which can heighten employees’ subjective career success. Therefore, the main purpose of the study is to investigate the direct and indirect effect of grit on each dimension of subjective career success via I-deals and perceptions of the glass ceiling. Surveys from 221 female security forces from both private and public sector in Oyo state, Nigeria, were collected and the data was analyzed using the smartPLS. The results showed that grit is positively related to I-deals, glass ceiling and career satisfaction, but not to happiness, psychological wellbeing, and work engagement. I-deals mediated the relationship between grit and subjective career success’ dimensions, while the glass ceiling did not. This study was able to infer that personality trait (grit) has much to relate with how women perceive the existence of the glass ceiling in their organization.

Assessment of Implicit Interests through an Unobtrusive Computer Task. Their Relations with Career Decision, Anxiety, and Personality Traits

Adolescence is a period where youngsters still do not know much about themselves. That makes some decisions, like those concerning vocational elections, a complicated issue that has important consequences for their life. The main goal of this piece of research is to measure implicit interests using a situated, unobtrusive computer tool (PrUnAs: Preferences Unobtrusive Assessment) as well as its connection with anxiety and personality traits: neuroticism, extraversion, self-efficacy, optimism, consciousness, and openness. Sample: 304 16-year-old adolescents enrolled in the last course of compulsory education. Instruments: Computer programs were used to measure implicit interests, career preferences, and to self-descript personality traits; finally, the paper-and-pencil test Stai was applied to measure anxiety. Results: Concordance between implicit interests and explicit choices was less than 50%. The software developed for assessing implicit interests not only proved to be an efficient tool to make them arise but also a good predictor of anxiety. Conclusions: Implicit interests and explicit elections are not the same. The approach from implicit preferences is an important shift in the approximation to vocational guiding and to reduce youngsters’ indecision level. Beyond vocational choice, this information may improve the short- and long-term quality of life and mental health.

Academic Majors and HEXACO Personality

Self-reports on the HEXACO-PI-R scales were examined in relation to academic majors in post-secondary education ( N > 73,000). Openness to Experience showed the largest mean differences across academic major areas, with the Visual/Performing Arts and Humanities areas averaging higher and Health Sciences and Business/Commerce averaging lower. Emotionality showed the second largest differences, with the Engineering and Physical Sciences/Math areas averaging lower and Visual/Performing Arts averaging higher; these differences in Emotionality became smaller in within-sex analyses. In addition, Extraversion tended to be higher for Business/Commerce and lower for Physical Sciences/Math, while Honesty-Humility was lower for Business/Commerce. The facet-level analyses provided additional detail, as facet scales in the same domain sometimes showed considerably different means within a given academic major area. In one case, Visual/Performing Art majors averaged lower in Prudence, but higher in Perfectionism, even though both facets belong to the Conscientiousness domain.

Understanding learners' completion intention of massive open online courses (MOOCs): role of personality traits and personal innovativeness

Purpose

The present study investigates the influence of five personality traits based on the Big Five model, i.e. extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness to experience and personal innovativeness on learners' intention to complete MOOCs.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed model was empirically tested using cross-sectional design. The primary data were gathered through a survey of 515 students at five higher educational institutions in the National Capital Region of Delhi, India. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypothesized relationships in the proposed model.

Findings

The study has found significant associations between the personality traits, personal innovativeness and MOOC completion intention. The findings indicate that extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness to experience and personal innovativeness have significant positive effects whereas neuroticism has no significant effect on MOOCs continuance intention. Personal innovativeness has been found to mediate the relationships between all the personality traits and MOOCs completion intention of learners.

Practical implications

Our findings can potentially address the issue of drop-out rates of MOOCs in developing countries such as India. The findings of the study are helpful for MOOCs providers and other stakeholders. The MOOC developers should develop courses with wide scope so as to accommodate learners with different personality profiles. Additionally, during the enrolment process, MOOC providers can identify the students' attributes through personality tests. This will help in customizing the study material and teaching pedagogy as per the needs of the students.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the growing area of research in MOOCs usage by exploring the influence of personality traits on learners' behaviour towards completing MOOCs. Since the learners' intention to complete MOOCs is a major concern for MOOC developers, hence the present study makes a worthwhile contribution as it is a relatively under-researched area.

The moderating effect of student club membership on the relationship between career intention in the tourism sector and post-graduate employability anxiety

The majority of the studies on students who study tourism reveal that they do not plan to build their careers in the tourism industry. It is important for both educators and the tourism industry to determine the career intentions of tourism students and the factors which affect them. There are many studies on tourism students' attitudes towards the tourism industry. The main purpose of this particular study is how extracurricular student club membership status of tourism students affect their career intentions and post-graduation employability anxiety. It analyzes student club membership status as a moderating variable in building relationships between the career intentions and post-graduation employability anxiety. Data were collected from 512 respondents via survey. The research model is tested with structural equation model (SEM) and to test the moderating role of student club membership status in the relationship in question, PROCESS macro for SPSS is favoured. The study presents both theoretical insights and practical implications.

Social-Cognitive Predictors of Iranian College Students’ Academic Well-Being

The purpose of this study was to examine the application of Lent and Brown’s social-cognitive model in predicting academic well-being of Iranian students. A total of 400 undergraduate students (252 female students and 148 male students) completed the measures of academic satisfaction, self-efficacy, environmental support, goal progress, and personality traits. Path analysis indicated that the modified social-cognitive model provided good fit to the data and accounted for substantial portion of the variance in academic satisfaction. The results of path analysis showed that self-efficacy, goal progress, environmental supports, and resources both directly and indirectly had relationship with academic well-being. It was revealed that only one of the personality traits (conscientiousness) had a direct and significant correlation with students’ academic well-being. However, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and extroversion had indirect and significant correlations with academic well-being through self-efficacy, environmental supports, and resources. According to the obtained findings, this research supported the role of social-cognitive variables in the academic well-being of Iranian students.

The necessity of targeted aptitude diagnostics for company founders: relationships between personality traits, perceived stress, satisfaction, and performance

In the course of a growing start-up market and strongly increasing investment volume, investors try to predict the success of a business as precisely as possible in advance. However, when assessing the personality of the founder or founding team, they still rely far too often on their gut feeling, thereby reducing the quality of their decisions. Our study therefore aimed at investigating whether there are any relationships between the founders' personality traits and their performance and thus justifying the need for more targeted and optimized diagnostics in the field of founder personality. With a total of 141 founders, clear correlations between personality traits (conscientiousness, emotional stability) and performance could be demonstrated in the present study. In addition, it became evident that perceived stress is also related to the founders’ personality (emotional stability negative, conscientiousness positive) and in turn has a negative effect on performance. Our findings contribute to raising awareness of the importance of personality as a predictor of founders' performance, improving decision-making, and, in the long run, replacing gut feeling as an inappropriate assessment criterion of investors.

Normal Personality, the Dark Triad, Proactive Attitude and Perceived Employability: A Cross-Cultural Study in Belgium, Switzerland and Togo

The current research examined the link between both normal and malevolent personality, proactive attitude, and self-perceived employability across some highly investigated (Belgium, Switzerland) and under-investigated populations of sub-Saharan Africa (e.g., Togo), considering proactive attitude as a potential mediator and self-perceived employability as an outcome. Conducting such a study in contexts which present notable differences in political organization and linguistic diversity, might contribute to enriching the literature on the relationships between personality and self-perceived employability. A sample of 968 participants aged 18 to 85 including 335 Belgians (50% women), 279 Swiss (58.1% women) and 354 Togolese (43.5% women) completed a French version of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire (ZKA-PQ/SF), Short Dark Triad (SD3), Proactive Attitude Scale (PAS), and Perceived Employability Scale (PES). All four instruments exhibited metric invariance but did not systematically show scalar invariance across the three countries. ZKA-PQ/SF’s activity and neuroticism and SD3’s narcissism dimensions predicted perceived employability, and these relations were fully or partially mediated by proactive attitude in all cultural contexts. Moreover, perceived employability was predicted by aggressiveness and psychopathy in the Swiss sample and by sensation seeking in both the Swiss and the Belgian samples. Finally, proactive attitude fully mediated between sensation seeking and employability in Belgium and partially between psychopathy and employability in Switzerland. This study illustrates that the link between personality and employability may be mediated by proactive attitude and that these links may be quite robust across cultures.

The Role of Personality Traits Toward Organizational Commitments and Service Quality Commitments

Service providers personality traits is one of important determinants to deliver proper service to customers to make them satisfied in service delivery. Despite numerous studies on personality traits and emotional labor, little empirical work has been conducted to investigate the causal effects of hotel middle managers' personality traits on their commitment to the hospitality industry. Thus, this study aims to examine the effects of hotel middle managers' personality on two dimensions of commitments: organizational commitment and service quality commitment meditated by emotional variables: emotional labor and emotional exhaustion. The sample of this study consists of 266 department managers from full-service hotels in a metropolitan city in the Southern United States. The results confirmed the significant role of hotel middle managers' personality traits, especially expressive personality, in organizational commitment and service quality commitment. Hotel operators should foster a work setting that consistently promotes congruent emotions via regular training and screening to reducing employees' emotional exhaustion, increasing organizational commitment and service quality commitment, ultimately, reducing employees' turnover intentions.

Personality and Specialty Choice in Speech-Language Pathology Students

The role of personality in specialty choices of speech-language pathology (SLP) students was examined. Specialty choices were obtained using a demographic questionnaire, and personality was measured with the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) in an electronic survey. The personalities of SLP students were compared to students in nine educational majors using Hotelling’s T2-test analyses. Multivariate analyses of variance were conducted to evaluate the effects of the 11 primary personality traits on age and setting choice. SLP students were found to significantly differ from the nine examined majors in the MPQ primary traits—social potency, alienation, aggression, harm avoidance, and control. Students were found to be organized, trusting of peers, nonaggressive, and harm avoidant when compared to other student groups. Personality traits did not significantly contribute to age or facility choice, and the degree of variance in the responses may indicate that a variety of personality types can thrive within the field.

Personality and Chinese adolescents’ career exploration: The mediation effects of self-efficacy and perceived parental support

The study compared the contributions of self- and social-oriented personality factors to Chinese adolescents’ career exploration with a longitudinal perspective. The mediation effects of career decision self-efficacy and perceived parental support were also investigated. A total of 488 high school students in Hong Kong took three waves of a questionnaire survey at Grade 10, Grade 11 and Grade 12 respectively. The results indicated that adolescents’ career exploration at Grade 12 could be predicted by both self- and social-oriented personalities at Grade 10. Specifically, both self- and social-oriented personality factors could contribute to adolescents’ environmental exploration, and the effect was mediated by perceived parental support at Grade 11, after controlling for the effect of career exploration at Grade 11; whereas self-oriented personality factor could contribute to self-exploration, and the effect was mediated by career self-efficacy at Grade 11. The implications for career counseling and education for Chinese adolescents are discussed.

The Joint Roles of Career Decision Self-Efficacy and Personality Traits in the Prediction of Career Decidedness and Decisional Difficulty

We examined the differential roles that career decision-making self-efficacy and the Big Five traits of neuroticism, extroversion, and conscientiousness may play in relation to career decision status and decisional difficulty. Following assumptions of the social cognitive model of career self-management, we hypothesized that the relations of the personality traits to level of decidedness and choice/commitment anxiety (CCA), a key source of indecision, would be mediated by self-efficacy. We also examined the possibility that the traits could function to moderate the relation of self-efficacy to the dependent variables. Employing a sample of 182 undergraduates, we found support for a mediational model in which each of the personality traits relates to self-efficacy which, in turn, predicts CCA and decidedness. In addition, conscientiousness was found to moderate the relation of career decision-making self-efficacy to CCA, and extroversion moderated the relation of self-efficacy to decidedness. We consider the findings in relation to the social cognitive model and discuss their implications for future research and career decision-making interventions.

Barriers to Medical Compassion as a Function of Experience and Specialization: Psychiatry, Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, Surgery, and General Practice

CONTEXT

Compassion is an expectation of patients, regulatory bodies, and physicians themselves. Most research has, however, studied compassion fatigue rather than compassion itself and has concentrated on the role of the physician. The Transactional Model of Physician Compassion suggests that physician, patient, external environment, and clinical factors are all relevant. Because these factors vary both across different specialities and among physicians with differing degrees of experience, barriers to compassion are also likely to vary.

OBJECTIVES

We describe barriers to physician compassion as a function of specialization (psychiatry, general practice, surgery, internal medicine, and pediatrics) and physician experience.

METHODS

We used a cross-sectional study using demographic data, specialization, practice parameters, and the Barriers to Physician Compassion Questionnaire. Nonrandom convenience sampling was used to recruit 580 doctors, of whom 444 belonged to the targeted speciality groups. The sample was characterized before conducting a factorial Multivariate Analysis of Covariance and further post hoc analyses.

RESULTS

A 5 (speciality grouping) × 2 (more vs. less physician experience) Multivariate Analysis of Covariance showed that the barriers varied as a function of both speciality and experience. In general, psychiatrists reported lower barriers, whereas general practitioners and internal medicine specialists generally reported greater barriers. Barriers were generally greater among less experienced doctors.

CONCLUSION

Documenting and investigating barriers to compassion in different speciality groups have the potential to broaden current foci beyond the physician and inform interventions aimed at enhancing medical compassion. In addition, certain aspects of the training or practice of psychiatry that enhance compassion may mitigate barriers to compassion in other specialities.

Validation of the German Career Decision-Making Profile—An Updated 12-Factor Version

The Career Decision-Making Profile (CDMP) was developed by Gati and colleagues in 2010 as an attempt to reliably measure which strategies individuals apply when making career decisions. In order to provide counseling and coaching professionals with a German version of the scale, we translated and validated the German version (G-CDMP) in two studies (total N = 622). Results of Study 1 verified the proposed 12-factor structure by means of confirmatory factor analyses, confirming that the G-CDMP assesses 12 distinct career decision-making strategies. Results of Study 2 demonstrated the G-CDMP’s construct validity on subscale level by relating it to self-evaluations (e.g., occupational self-efficacy) and personality (i.e., the Big Five) as well as to career-related constructs, such as career adaptability and cognitive reactions toward career-life decisions (e.g., life satisfaction). As the studies provide support for the G-CDMP’s factor structure and its construct validity, implications for its use during career counseling are discussed.

Linking the Big Five personality factors and career commitment dimensions

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship of the Big Five personality factors (extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability, and intellect/openness to experience) with career commitment measured in terms of three factors as career identity, career resilience, and career planning.

Design/methodology/approach

The study included 363 managers from public and private sector organizations in North India.

Findings

The authors found that in the Indian context, openness to experience/intellect is the Big Five personality dimension that acts as the significant predictor of all the three dimensions of career commitment (career identity, career resilience, and career planning). Further, conscientiousness was found as the significant predictor of only career identity, which indicated Indian managers who are focused identify well with their career line. In addition, the Big Five personality dimension of agreeableness was found to have a positive significant influence on career planning. From this, the authors inferred that tendency to get along well with others helps Indian managers in enhancing their career planning.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the existing literature on personality and careers in the South-Asian context.

Does Purpose Matter? The Stability of Personality Assessments in Organization Development and Talent Management Applications Over Time

Personality assessment has a long history of application in the workplace. While the field of organization development has historically focused on developmental aspects of personality tools, other disciplines such as industrial-organizational psychology have emphasized its psychometric properties. The importance of data-driven insights for talent management (e.g., the identification of high potentials, succession planning, coaching), however, is placing increasing pressure on all types of applied behavioral scientists to better understand the stability of personality tools for decision-making purposes. The current study presents research conducted with 207 senior leaders in a global consumer products organization on the use of personality assessment data over time and across two different conditions: development only and development to decision making. Results using three different tools (based on the Hogan Assessment Suite) indicate that core personality and personality derailers are generally not affected by the purpose of the assessment, though derailers do tend to moderate over time. The manifestation of values, motives, and preferences were found to change across administrations. Implications for organizational development and talent management applications are discussed.

Five Factor Biodata Inventory: Resistance to Faking

Faking on a biographical inventory compared to a traditional personality inventory was assessed in measuring the Five Factor Model of Personality. 705 subjects were randomly assigned to either an Answer Honestly or Faking condition. All subjects were recruited from psychology classes at two New Jersey State colleges. Women comprised 68.6% of the participants. The average age of the subjects was 24 yr. 383 subjects took part in the Answer Honestly condition. 322 participated in the Faking condition. In the Faking condition, subjects responded as if applying for the position of librarian. All subjects completed a biodata inventory, the NEO-Five Factor Inventory, a social desirability scale, a letter-cancellation task, and self-reported their grade point average. Criterion-related validity was assessed for both test scores across samples. Comparisons between samples indicated that subjects inflated scores on both inventories in socially desirable directions. Biodata Inventory scores were less elevated under the Faking conditions than the NEO-Five Factor Inventory scores.

The Mediation Effects of Career Exploration on the Relationship Between Trait Anxiety and Career Indecision

This study investigated trait anxiety, career exploration behaviors, and career indecision. Using longitudinal data, career exploration behavior was examined as a mediator in the relationship between trait anxiety and career indecision. Five hundred and one Korean college students completed online questionnaires at three different time points with a 6-month interval. Results showed significant mediation effects of career exploration behaviors. Specifically, a higher level of trait anxiety was associated with a lower level of initial career exploration, yet anxiety increased career exploration behaviors over time. Additionally, an increase in career exploration behaviors predicted a decrease in career indecision. The results suggest that the role of trait anxiety in career exploration and decision-making may change over time. While trait anxiety is related to less exploration and more difficulty in decision-making from a cross-sectional perspective, it may facilitate career exploration and, ultimately, career decision-making from a longitudinal perspective.

Different Forms of Relationships Between Vocational Interests and Career Maturity in Chinese Context

This study explores the relationships between vocational interests and career maturity in the context of China. We tentatively hypothesize that realistic, conventional, and artistic interests have negative linear relationships with career maturity, whereas investigative, social, and enterprising interests have positive but curvilinear relationships with career maturity. Analyses of the data collected from 5,474 participants provide support for most of the hypotheses. Specifically, the results demonstrate negative relationships of realistic and conventional interests with career maturity, a U-shaped relationship of artistic interest with career maturity, and concave upward curve relationships of investigative, social, and enterprising interests with career maturity. These findings add to the literature on vocational interests and provide practical suggestions for individuals and career counseling practitioners.

Social Hierarchy Maintenance and Assortment into Social Roles: A Social Dominance Perspective

Using vocational choice and social dominance theories as organizing frameworks, and employing data from a five-wave longitudinal study of undergraduates, we explored the relationship between generalized anti-egalitarianism, on the one hand, and the choice of hierarchy-enhancing (HE) and hierarchy-attenuating (HA) college majors and future careers on the other hand. Consistent with theoretical expectations, the data showed that students with high levels of anti-egalitarianism were more likely to choose HE college majors and future careers, while students with relatively low levels of generalized anti-egalitarianism were more likely to choose HA college majors and future careers. Congruent students (high antiegalitarianism/HE majors and low anti-egalitarianism/HA majors) enjoyed greater academic success, and greater expectations of academic success than incongruent students (high antiegalitarianism/HA majors and low anti-egalitarianism/HE majors). Finally, we explored three processes possibly responsible for the congruence between anti-egalitarianism and career path: (1) self-selection, (2) institutional socialization, and (3) differential success/differential attrition. The results only showed support for self-selection mechanisms.

The Role of Personality and Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy in the Career Choice Commitment of College Students

This study investigated the effects of personality and career decision-making self-efficacy on progress in career choice commitment in a sample of 184 college students. It was hypothesized that self-efficacy would mediate the relationship between neuroticism and extraversion and career choice commitment. Results revealed significant differences between White students and a composite group of students of color on the study variables. For White students, self-efficacy fully mediated the relationship between extraversion and career choice commitment, whereas for students of color, a partially mediated model fit the data in which neuroticism and extraversion were related to career choice commitment directly and indirectly through self-efficacy. The results of this study are discussed in terms of the implications they might have for career theory and research.

Technological Magic, Social Change, and Counseling Rituals: The Future of Career Assessment

This article highlights unfolding technological and scientific developments that will transform career assessment in the next 30 years and considers the part that vocational psychologists will play in shaping the future of career assessment.

Person-Organization Congruence and the Maintenance of Group-Based Social Hierarchy: A Social Dominance Perspective

Using vocational choice theory and social dominance theory as guiding frameworks, this paper examines the interrelationships between the types of social institutions that a person occupies, on the one hand, and the sociopolitical attitudes and behavioral predispositions that a person displays, on the other. Beginning with Holland (1959, 1966), numerous researchers have documented the fact that people’s work-related values tend to match the values of their work environments. Researchers have also found, as we might expect, that this value match yields superior job performance and greater employee satisfaction. Social dominance theory has proposed an important expansion of this research: people’s sociopolitical attitudes (e.g. anti-egalitarianism) should also be compatible, or congruent, with their institutional environments (e.g. schools, workplaces). A growing body of research supports this claim. Specifically, recent research has shown that hierarchy-enhancing (HE) organizations (e.g. police forces) tend to be occupied by those with anti-egalitarian beliefs, while hierarchy-attenuating (HA) organizations (e.g. civil liberties organizations) tend to be occupied by those with relatively democratic beliefs. This research has also provided evidence for five (non-mutually exclusive) processes underlying this institutional assortment: self-selection, institutional selection, institutional socialization, differential reward, and differential attrition. This paper reviews the literature bearing on each of these processes, and suggests key paths for future research.

The Role of Stress and Negative Emotions in an Occupational Crisis

The study examined how negative affects and exposure to various stressors are related to an occupational crisis. Two hundred and seventy-seven employees (53% women) from various occupations filled in the Occupational Crisis Scale, a stressor questionnaire, the Anger Expression Scale (measuring both suppressed and overt anger), Spielberger's Anxiety Inventory (measuring both state and trait anxiety) and Beck's Depression Inventory. The results showed that occupational crisis was a function of work overload, interpersonal problems and frustration at work, organizational changes, a threat of job loss, and/or family worries. In addition, occupational crises were typically experienced by women and were characterized more by trait anxiety, suppressed anger and depressive symptoms than by overtly expressed anger or state anxiety. Of the three female employee groups who were most vulnerable to the crisis, the group which had suffered from interpersonal problems and frustration at work displayed the most indices of the crisis.

The Validity of Holland’s Theory in Croatia

The validity of Holland’s theory in the Croatian sample has been tested. The Croatian version of Holland’s Self-Directed Search was applied on 1,866 Croatian adolescents from different age samples. The instrument has shown a good reliability of all RIASEC scales in all subsamples. Construct validity was also verified: The presence of circular structure of RIASEC types and two underlying dimensions was mostly confirmed, and hypothesized relations between RIASEC types and value orientations were found. Concurrent validity shows that on the basis of Holland’s RIASEC scores one can predict the educational program in which the student is enrolled. The results support the validity of Holland’s theory in the Croatian sample.

An Investigation of Personality Traits in Relation to Career Satisfaction

We examined personality traits in relation to career satisfaction and job satisfaction for 5,932 individuals in career transition. Personality traits were related to career satisfaction and job satisfaction in the total sample and 14 separate occupational groups. Regression analyses revealed three personality traits consistently related to career satisfaction: emotional resilience, optimism, and work drive in initial and holdout samples as well as in all 14 occupational groups, accounting for an average of 17% of career satisfaction variance. Personality traits correlated with career satisfaction included the Big Five traits of conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness and other, narrower traits, such as assertiveness, customer service orientation, and human managerial relations orientation. Results were discussed in terms of Holland's general personal competence factor, Goleman's emotional intelligence, career adaptation, and the nomothetic span of personality constructs. Also discussed were study limitations, suggestions for future research, and practical implications for career counseling.

The Five-Factor Model and Career Self-Efficacy

The present study investigates the hypothesis that the big five personality factors could exert two kinds of effects on career self-efficacy: (a) generalized or nonspecific effects and (b) domain-specific, content-correspondence effects. The hypothesis is examined using relationships of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory to 24 distinct domains of career-related self-efficacy—confidence for the six Holland themes, 17 basic dimensions of vocational activity represented by the Expanded Skills Confidence Inventory, and career decision self-efficacy. Findings suggest generalized effects for conscientiousness and extraversion in that both correlated positively with a broad range of self-efficacy domains, while neuroticism displayed significant negative relationships with nearly all forms of career self-efficacy. Content correspondence was shown in significant correlations of openness to experience with self-efficacy for creative and intellectual pursuits. Findings are evaluated in light of recent empirical and theoretical developments relating to the integration of trait and social-cognitive perspectives.

Five-Factor Model of Personality and Career Exploration

This study investigates whether the dimensions of the five-factor model (FFM) of personality are related to specific career exploration variables. Based on the FFM, predictions were made about the relevance of particular traits to career exploration variables. Results from a canonical correlation analysis showed that variable loadings on three roots were generally consistent with predictions. One source of covariation involved association between conscientiousness/extraversion/low neuroticism and career search self-efficacy/career information seeking. A second source involved association between openness and a lack of career information seeking. The third source involved association between neuroticism/openness and self-exploration. Results are discussed relative to the FFM and implications for career counseling and assessment.

Do Occupational Groups Vary in Expressed Organizational Culture Preferences?

The objective of our study was to examine whether there are differences in how employees in six occupations (Accounting, Management Information Systems, Marketing, Production, and Secretarial/Clerical) describe the organizational culture in which they felt they would be most effective. The differences found within the context of one national culture were differences in degree rather than in kind. Members of each occupational group indicated that an organizational culture that emphasizes constructive interpersonal relationships, participative management, and values individual work initiative and task accomplishment is preferred. Management Information Systems emerged as having significantly more extreme preferences in their description of an ideal organizational culture. Additionally, it was found that the professional occupations had distinctly different degrees of preferences for specific types of organizational culture than the non-professional occupations. The dominant type of work (person-oriented vs. task-oriented) also had an effect on organizational culture preferences.

Career Interests, Personality, and the Dark Triad

Career/vocational counsellors and researchers have traditionally focused on career interest surveys as a way of better matching client to careers that they will find both interesting and rewarding. However, recent research has demonstrated that personality is also an important, significant predictor of vocational choice, though is distinct from career interests. Only recently have researchers begun to explore personality in a broader context, by examining personality constructs outside of the five-factor model (FFM). In the current study, we explored whether the Dark Triad would add incremental prediction in broad scales of career interests beyond that of the FFM. Our findings indicated that the Dark Triad accounted for incremental prediction and unique variance in career interests as measured by the Jackson Career Explorer. The implications of this are discussed.

Contribution of Personality, Job Strain, and Occupational Self-Efficacy to Job Satisfaction in Different Occupational Contexts

Using a large sample of employed adults ( N = 1,714) living in Switzerland, this study investigates the relationship between the five-factor model of personality dimensions and job satisfaction, considering the role of job strain as defined by Karasek’s job demand–control model and occupational self-efficacy. These relationships were assessed both within the overall sample of employed and specific occupational groups. The analyses on the overall sample show an effect of neuroticism and extraversion on job satisfaction. Furthermore, job strain and occupational self-efficacy are related to job satisfaction. The effect of neuroticism is partly mediated by job strain and occupational self-efficacy, while extraversion and conscientiousness have an indirect effect through occupational self-efficacy. When we consider the occupational groups, the results highlight differences between the groups showing variability in the relationship between personality, job strain and occupational self-efficacy, and their effects on job satisfaction.

The Role of Personality in the Career Decision-Making Difficulties of Italian Young Adults

Both career-related developmental indecision and chronic indecisiveness are manifested in the difficulties individuals experience when choosing a career. Developmental career indecision is often regarded as a normal stage that many individuals undergo, regardless of individual differences in various personality factors. Testing this premise was the focus of this study. Specifically, the associations between career decision-making difficulties (Career Decision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire, a measure of developmental career indecision) and the Big Five personality factors were investigated among participants from three educational settings: 248 high school students, 167 on-the-job training (OJT) interns, and 186 university students. The results revealed that university students experience less developmental career indecision than high school students and OJT interns, suggesting that individuals’ educational setting affects the prevalence of such difficulties. However, the personality factors of Extroversion and Neuroticism consistently explained a significantly larger percentage of variance in participants’ developmental career indecision levels in all three samples than did educational setting or age. These results suggest that developmental career indecision may in fact be more personality related than previously thought.

Specific disgust sensitivities differentially predict interest in careers of varying procedural-intensity among medical students

Mismatches between the needs of public health systems and student interests have led to renewed study on the factors predicting career specializations among medical students. While most work examines career and lifestyle values, emotional proclivities may be important; disgust sensitivity may help explain preferences for careers with greater and lesser degrees of procedural content. In the study, 294 students completed measures assessing: (1) demographics, (2) career interest or intention regarding emergency medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, and pediatric medicine, (3) traditional determinants of career intention/interest, and (4) core/bodily product, animal reminder, contamination, and sexual/moral disgust sensitivity. As predicted, logistic regressions controlling for demographics and traditional career predictors, showed that greater animal reminder disgust predicted reduced interest in emergency medicine but greater interest in pediatric medicine. Conversely, greater core/bodily product disgust predicted lower interest in obstetrics/gynecology and pediatric medicine; greater contamination and sexual/moral disgust both predicted increased odds of interest in internal medicine. Overall, specific disgust sensitivities were the best predictors of specialization intention in multivariate models. Specific disgust sensitivities appear to differentially deter and/or predispose self-selection into specific trajectories varying in procedural content. Such findings may permit the early identification of specialty fit and provide guidance in career counseling.

Personality traits and simultaneous reciprocal influences between job performance and job satisfaction

Purpose

– This paper aims to test the relationships among three important variables in the management of Chinese employees: personality trait, job performance and job satisfaction. A causal model is developed to hypothesize how personality trait affects job performance and satisfaction and how job performance and satisfaction simultaneously affect each other.

Design/methodology/approach

– The survey was conducted from October to November 2009. In total, 414 questionnaires were distributed and 392 were returned. Using data collected, the theoretical model is empirically validated. Structural equation modelling using LISREL 8.8 is used to test the causal model.

Findings

– Job performance and job satisfaction have a bilateral relationship that is simultaneously influential. All Big Five personality traits significantly influence job performance, with agreeableness showing the greatest effect, followed by extraversion. Extraversion is the only personality trait that shows a significant influence over job satisfaction.

Originality/value

– This study contributes to the literature by clarifying the inconsistent findings of causal relationship between job performance and job satisfaction in previous studies. Another contribution is testing the effect of personality traits on job performance and job satisfaction in a simultaneous reciprocal model. A hybrid theory of expectance and equity is advanced in this study to explain the results.

Extending Theory on Job Stress

This article proposes that the variation in perceived job stress by individuals is explained by the interaction between the situational “Other 3” dimensions (locus of control, self-monitoring, and self-efficacy) and the “Big 5” personality traits. Situational stressors primarily impact the “Other 3” dimensions in the general model. The “Other 3” dimensions mediate the stressor–job stress relationship, while the “Big 5” dimensions moderate the “Other 3”–job stress relationship. In the sequential process model, the “Other 3” dimensions and job stress are cross-lagged related to define subsequent variations in the “Other 3” dimensions of personality and job stress. This perspective is consistent with the interactional perspective, wherein personality mediates the relationship of the individual with the environment. We offer several research propositions and conclude with implications for research and practice.

Nursing, pharmacy, or medicine? Disgust sensitivity predicts career interest among trainee health professionals

Given global demand on health workforces, understanding student enrollment motivations are critical. Prior studies have concentrated on variation in career and lifestyle values; the current work evaluated the importance of disgust sensitivity in the prediction of health career interests. We argue that emotional proclivities may be important and that disgust sensitivity may help explain differential student interest in nursing, pharmacy, or medical careers. 303 first year students attending a required course in human behavior provided consent before completing questionnaires assessing: (1) demographics, (2) career intentions/interests, (3) traditional determinants of career intention/interest, and (4) dispositional disgust sensitivity. As expected, disgust sensitivity varied across the three majors, with those targeting medical careers being less sensitive than those interested in either nursing or pharmacy. As importantly, even when controlling for demographics and traditional career determinants, analyses showed that greater disgust sensitivity was associated with reduced odds of intended enrolment in pharmacy versus medicine or nursing but did not predict the distinction between nursing and medicine. The impact of disgust sensitivity on career interest was substantial and equivalent to established predictors of career intention. Disgust sensitivity may represent an important factor impacting the specific choices students make within the health professions, particular when students are choosing between careers involving greater and lesser degrees of exposure to the normative elicitors of disgust.

The relationship between three stages of job change and long-term sickness absence

Although several researchers originally assumed that change always causes strain, a growing number of studies suggest that job change can have positive effects. However, the focus of these studies has generally been on subjective measures of satisfaction and well-being and rarely on health. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate how job change relates to long-term sickness absence during three stages: exit, entry, and normalization. Norwegian hospital employees, a low-unemployment group, were followed over a 6-year period as they moved in and out of different jobs. The study used fixed-effect methods to analyze changes in absence for each employee. The results show increased odds of long-term sickness absence during the 2 years prior to exiting an organization, a significant drop after the employee entered a new organization, and then a gradual increase in long-term sickness absence thereafter. After 2 years, the employee's odds of entering into long-term sickness absence were no longer significantly different from normal (i.e., the odds in months not related to job change). These findings on employee health are congruent with conclusions drawn from research on job satisfaction and well-being.

Assessment of the Efficacy of a Peer Mentoring Program in a University Setting

In the present study, the efficacy of a formal mentoring program applied to fourth and fifth year students of the Psychology Faculty of the Complutense University is assessed. In this program, fifth-year students took on the role of mentors and fourth-year students, the role of mentees. To assess the efficacy, the group of mentors was compared with a group of non-mentors and the group of mentees with a group of non-mentees, before and after the program, taking into account the variables related to career development function (knowledge acquired of the academic setting and satisfaction with the career of Psychology) and the psychosocial function (self-concept, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and involvement).

The results show a statistically significant increase in the knowledge acquired about the academic setting as a consequence of the program, both in the group of mentors and in the group of mentees. Moreover, the mentors achieved a better average grade in the subjects of the specialty of Work Psychology. There were no statistically significant differences between the experimental group and the control group in satisfaction with the career of Psychology, or in self-concept, self-esteem, or self-efficacy.

Personalidade e reações afetivas à exploração de carreira

Este estudo pretende avaliar relações entre as dimensões de personalidade e as reações afetivas à exploração de carreira em um grupo de estudantes universitários. A amostra é composta por um total de 115 estudantes universitários, 72 mulheres (63%) e 43 homens (37%), com idades compreendidas entre os 23 e os 65 anos (M= 31.28, DP= 10.58). As medidas utilizadas foram o Inventário de Personalidade NEOPI - R, para avaliar as dimensões de personalidade, e as medidas de satisfação com a informação, stress antecipado com a exploração e stress antecipado com a decisão do Career Exploration Survey, para avaliar as reações à exploração vocacional. A partir dos resultados da análise de regressão, identificou-se uma relação negativa entre a satisfação com a informação e o neuroticismo, e uma relação negativa entre o stress com a decisão e a idade. São discutidas as implicações dos resultados para a intervenção vocacional.