Personality and Performance
European Journal of Personality, Eur. J. Pers. 25: 31–42 (2011)
Published online 4 April 2010 (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/per.769
Personality and the Prediction of Team Performance
THOMAS A. O’NEILL* and NATALIE J. ALLEN
Department of Psychology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
Abstract: Although much is known about personality and individuals’ job performance, only a few studies have considered the effects of team-level personality on team performance. Existing research examining the effects of personality on team performance has found that, of the Big Five factors of personality, Conscientiousness is often the most important predictor. Accordingly, we investigated the criterion validity of lower-level Conscientiousness traits to determine whether any one trait is particularly predictive of team performance. In addition to Conscientiousness, we examined the criterion validity of the other Big Five personality factors. We found that Conscientiousness and its facets predicted team performance. Agreeableness, Extraversion and Neuroticism were not predictive of team performance, whereas Openness had a modest negative relation with team performance. Copyright # 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Key words: team performance; team composition; personality; Big Five; narrow traits; personality facets
INTRODUCTION
The composition of a work team is defined by the individual characteristics of its members. One implicit rationale underlying the research on team composition is that individual characteristics of team members (i.e. their personalities, demographic characteristics, attitudes and so on) serve as inputs that indirectly influence team performance through group processes (e.g. collaboration) and emergent states (e.g. team cohesion). In other words, the characteristics of team members affect the way in which a team operates and its subsequent performance.
Personality, as a class of team composition variables,
Published online 4 April 2010 (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/per.769
Personality and the Prediction of Team Performance
THOMAS A. O’NEILL* and NATALIE J. ALLEN
Department of Psychology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
Abstract: Although much is known about personality and individuals’ job performance, only a few studies have considered the effects of team-level personality on team performance. Existing research examining the effects of personality on team performance has found that, of the Big Five factors of personality, Conscientiousness is often the most important predictor. Accordingly, we investigated the criterion validity of lower-level Conscientiousness traits to determine whether any one trait is particularly predictive of team performance. In addition to Conscientiousness, we examined the criterion validity of the other Big Five personality factors. We found that Conscientiousness and its facets predicted team performance. Agreeableness, Extraversion and Neuroticism were not predictive of team performance, whereas Openness had a modest negative relation with team performance. Copyright # 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Key words: team performance; team composition; personality; Big Five; narrow traits; personality facets
INTRODUCTION
The composition of a work team is defined by the individual characteristics of its members. One implicit rationale underlying the research on team composition is that individual characteristics of team members (i.e. their personalities, demographic characteristics, attitudes and so on) serve as inputs that indirectly influence team performance through group processes (e.g. collaboration) and emergent states (e.g. team cohesion). In other words, the characteristics of team members affect the way in which a team operates and its subsequent performance.
Personality, as a class of team composition variables,
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