The Big Five Personality Traits, General Mental Ability, and Career Success Across the Life Span

Abstract

The present study investigated the relationship of traits from the 5factor model of personality (often termed the "Big Five") and general mental ability with career success. Career success was argued to be comprised of intrinsic success (job satisfaction) and extrinsic success (income and occupational status) dimensions. Data were obtained from the Intergenerational Studies, a set of 3 studies that followed participantsfrom early childhood to retirement. The most general findings were that conscientiousness positively predicted intrinsic and extrinsic career success, neuroticism negatively predicted extrinsic success, and general mental ability positively predicted extrinsic career success. Personality was related to career success controlling for general mental ability and, though adulthood measures of the Big Five traits were more strongly related to career success than were childhood measures, both contributed unique variance in explaining career success.Considerable evidence has accumulated regarding the antecedents of career success. A recent review of the career success literature (Tharenou, 1997) identified several categories of influences on career success. The most commonly investigated influences were human capital attributes (training, work experience, education) and demographic factors (age, sex, marital status, number of children). Although these classes of influences have provided important insights into the determinants of career success, there is room for further development. Specifically, little research has entertained the idea that career success may have dispositional causes. There have been a few exceptions, such as Bray's (1988, 1994) study of the career advancement of AT&T managers. However, as Tharenou noted, few studies have taken a more comprehensive, personological approach to career success.

Can personality predict retirement behaviour? A longitudinal analysis combining survey and register data from Norway

“…Tett et al (1991) found that, in a meta-analysis, neuroticism was adversely correlated with job performance. Later research has confirmed this finding; for example, individuals high in neuroticism have significantly lower earnings (Gelissen and de Graaf 2006;Judge et al 1999;Sutin et al 2009). …”

“…Research shows that personality is correlated with jobrelated factors such as job performance (Judge et al 1999) and career choice (Page et al 2008). Hence, personality could also be correlated with the timing of retirement and the pathways towards retirement because more successful and more satisfied workers are likely to retire later than those who are less successful and less satisfied with their work.…”

“…In a meta-analysis, Kanfer et al (2001) find that conscientiousness, openness, extraversion and agreeableness can all predict shorter spells of unemployment. Judge et al (1999) argue that personality affects at least two kinds of career success: intrinsic success, including job satisfaction, and extrinsic success, including income and occupational status. If personality affects people's intrinsic success in relation to work, then we expect personality to predict voluntary non-disability retirement because workers satisfied with their jobs are likely to work longer than those less satisfied.…”

“…Seen this way, retirement is simultaneously an end of working life and a beginning of the so-called third or fourth age (Laslett 1991). Personality may affect the timing of people's retirement because it affects how successful or well-adapted people are in their jobs (Judge et al 1999) and how risky or optimistically they anticipate a life without work (Bailey and Hansson 1995). These effects are not always easily predictable.…”

Neuroticism and conscientiousness respectively positively and negatively correlated with the network characteristic path length in dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex: A resting‐state fNIRS study

“…Those who score high for this factor are considered to be more self‐controlled and motivated. Conscientiousness is also associated with academic and vocational success (Judge, Higgins, Thoresen, & Barrick, 1999; Noftle & Robins, 2007; O'Connor & Paunonen, 2007). Our results showed that conscientiousness was negatively correlated with the L p in dlPFC, which plays an essential role in executive function.…”