A meta‐analytic investigation into the moderating effects of situational strength on the conscientiousness–performance relationship

Abstract

SummaryDebates about the utility of conscientiousness as a predictor of job performance have focused primarily on mean effect size estimates, despite theoretical and empirical reasons to expect variability across situations. The present study meta-analytically demonstrates that occupation-level situational strength is one important source of this variability. Consistent with theory, predicted uncorrected conscientiousness-performance correlations ranged from r ¼ .09 to .23 (overall performance) and r ¼ .06 to .18 (task performance), with stronger correlations observed in weak occupations. These results highlight the need for continued inquiry into the nature of situational strength, its impact on other predictor-outcome relationships, and the implications of these issues vis-à-vis theory and practice.

Individual differences in the experience of cognitive workload

“…This point is basically true (Meyer, Dalal, and Bonaccio 2009), although some researchers have found that conscientiousness only has a positive impact on performance when the overall emotional climate of the workplace is positive, and could be negative otherwise (Byrne et al 2005;Meyer, Dalal, and Bonaccio 2009). Others have reported that there could be limits to the effectiveness of conscientiousness in some circumstances, such that there is an optimal level for performance, but very high scores could be counterproductive; in Cattell, Eber, and Tatsuoka's (1970) taxonomy, the opposite of conscientiousness is expedience which places value on getting things done in a reasonable amount of time.…”

Implications of dispositional and process views of traits for individual difference research in leadership

“…1) varied across situations. More recently, Meyer, Dalal, and Bonaccio (2009) show that although conscientiousness is frequently utilized as a distal predictor of job performance, its predictive validity varied depending on whether the situation was 'strong' or 'weak', where strong situations can reduce the criterion-related validity of individual differences by restricting (or homogenizing) the expression of personality, and thereby its effects on behavior (see also Meyer et al, 2010). For instance, strong situations may have clearly defined behavioral scripts that automatically direct behavior when specific situations occur (Gioia & Poole, 1984).…”

Procedural Justice and Employee Engagement: Roles of Organizational Identification and Moral Identity Centrality

“…For example, Klein et al (2011) found that value diversity has a weaker positive effect on team conflict when the team leader shows stronger task-focused team leadership. Through a metaanalysis, Meyer et al (2009) found that conscientiousness has a weaker positive effect on employee organizational citizenship behavior when occupation-level situational strength is stronger. Meyer et al (2011) developed a construct that measures job-related situational strength directly and found that employee personality traits have a weaker (stronger) effect on employee organizational citizenship behavior and performance when the situational strength is stronger (weaker).…”