Compatibility of Personality and Productivity: An Analysis of the Relationship with Construction Crews

Abstract

The labor productivity of a crew depends on how efficiently workers are used in the construction process. Skills, capabilities, resources, and even personality affect the efficiency of the workers and may have an impact on the productivity of their crew. This paper illustrates how the personality profiles of the workers in a crew can be used to determine the relationship between compatibility of personality and productivity. Masons working in eight live construction projects completed the big five of personality to indicate their personality traits. Based on the personality traits, the compatibility of the crews was calculated. Productivity at the task-level was measured to determine the performance of the crews. Various statistical analyses are performed to establish the relationship between compatibility and crew productivity and the true value of the coefficient (and its likeliness). The results indicate that there is a high positive correlation between compatibility of personality and productivity at the task-level (= 0.758). Results also indicate that in the worst case scenario, there is a moderate correlation between compatibility and productivity (> 0.3; probability: 0.728). The implications of the relationship for managing crews in construction projects is discussed.