Relatively little is known about individual differences which predispose individuals to use particular career strategies. Recently, Turban and Dougherty (1994) presented intriguing evidence suggesting that personality is related to proactivity in seeking out mentoring relationships, one aspect of career management. This paper extends and expands on this exploratory work by examining whether personality, as assessed within the "Big Five" framework (Goldberg, 1993), relates to a multi-dimensional measure of career management strategy. We begin by discussing career management strategies and recent developments in personality assessment. This is followed by a discussion of the potential relationships between personality and career management strategies. Next, we describe our study, including a presentation of the method, results and discussion of same.

In contrast with more traditional command and control organizations, recent years have witnessed a trend toward more participative managerial structures, where direct supervision is de‐emphasized and front‐line workers plan and think for themselves. As suggested by the person‐organization fit literature, research is needed which identifies individuals whose characteristics represent a good match with alternative manager‐subordinate relationship structures. This study investigates whether differences in personality are systematically associated with preferences for first‐line management jobs requiring alternative supervisory approaches. Using participants drawn from New Zealand and the United States (n = 200), results generally indicate that individuals who prefer more participative managerial styles also exhibit higher levels of agreeableness and openness to experience. Two components of extraversion (sociability and ambition), display significant and opposing relationships with preferences for more participative styles of management. While individuals preferring more participative styles of management exhibit higher levels of sociability, they also exhibit lower levels of ambition.

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