ADAPTATION AND INTRAINDIVIDUAL VARIATION IN SALES OUTCOMES: EXPLORING THE INTERACTIVE EFFECTS OF PERSONALITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL OPPORTUNITY

Many practices in the field of industrial-organizational psychology assume that individual performance is stable across time; yet, little is actually known about the extent to which performance varies within individuals. We specifically address this issue by exploring the longitudinal influence of a situational opportunity (referrals received from the central office) on intraindividual performance outcomes of sales representatives. We also explore Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience as traits that explain variation in adaptation to changes in referrals. Our results show that more weekly variation in individual performance resides within individuals than between individuals. A majority of this variance is explained by the situational opportunity of referrals. Furthermore, the positive relationship between referrals and outcomes is stronger for sales representatives high on Conscientiousness, but weaker for representatives high on Openness to Experience.     

STUDIES IN PERSONALITY. II

Experimentally determined fixation-ambivalence measures are related to some anxiety estimates obtained from a projective test in a group of male adolescents. It is shown that (i) fixation increases with increase in corporal injury anxiety when ambivalence is kept constant, (ii) ambivalence increases with increase in separation anxiety when fixation is kept constant, (iii) extremely hetero-fixated subjects show presence of intense guilt and absence of aggression towards the mother; one effect of this system of organizers seem to be suicidal tendencies, (iv) extremely ambivalent subjects have intense separation anxiety; one effect seems to be suicidal tendencies combined with high ambition and impaired cognitive capacity.     

BEYOND PERSONALITY TRAITS: A STUDY OF PERSONALITY STATES AND SITUATIONAL CONTINGENCIES IN CUSTOMER SERVICE JOBS

Although the interactionist approach has been applied to understanding situational influences on the expression of personality at work, examination of within‐person variation in personality trait expression in the workplace is lacking. Using experience sampling methodology, this study examined the moment‐to‐moment influences of situational characteristics on personality states (i.e., situational contingencies) during social interactions on 56 customer service employees over 10 days at work. At the within‐individual level, state Conscientiousness was associated with the immediacy of the task, and state Extraversion and Agreeableness were associated with the friendliness of the other party in the interaction. At the between‐individual level, self‐monitoring did not moderate the associations between situational characteristics and personality states but predicted the mean level of state Conscientiousness at work over and above trait Conscientiousness. Contrary to expectations, the relationship between state Extraversion and friendliness was weaker in customized service jobs than in noncustomized ones.     

IN SUPPORT OF PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT IN ORGANIZATIONAL SETTINGS

Personality constructs have been demonstrated to be useful for explaining and predicting attitudes, behaviors, performance, and outcomes in organizational settings. Many professionally developed measures of personality constructs display useful levels of criterion-related validity for job performance and its facets. In this response to Morgeson et al. (2007) , we comprehensively summarize previously published meta-analyses on (a) the optimal and unit-weighted multiple correlations between the Big Five personality dimensions and behaviors in organizations, including job performance; (b) generalizable bivariate relationships of Conscientiousness and its facets (e.g., achievement orientation, dependability, cautiousness) with job performance constructs; (c) the validity of compound personality measures; and (d) the incremental validity of personality measures over cognitive ability. Hundreds of primary studies and dozens of meta-analyses conducted and published since the mid 1980s indicate strong support for using personality measures in staffing decisions. Moreover, there is little evidence that response distortion among job applicants ruins the psychometric properties, including criterion-related validity, of personality measures. We also provide a brief evaluation of the merits of alternatives that have been offered in place of traditional self-report personality measures for organizational decision making. Given the cumulative data, writing off the whole domain of individual differences in personality or all self-report measures of personality from personnel selection and organizational decision making is counterproductive for the science and practice of I-O psychology.     

GENDER-ROLE PERSONALITY TRAITS IN JAPANESE CULTURE

The etic (universal) aspect of gender-role personality traits was examined in Japanese culture. The Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI; Bem, 1974, 1977) was validated for the Japanese culture and modified for this study. An investigation of the personality traits among 1,227 college students using the Japanese BSRI indicated that male students scored significantly higher on the Masculine scale than the female students, whereas they did not differ from each other on the Feminine scale. It was also found that both female and male students scored significantly higher on the Femininity than on the Masculinity scale.     

COGNITIVE DISABILITY IN A SOCIETY OF EQUALS

Abstract: This essay considers the range of possible policy options that are available if we wish to attempt to treat people with cognitive disabilities as equal members of society. It suggests that the goal of policy should be to allow each disabled person to establish a worthwhile place in the world and sets out four policy options: cash compensation, personal enhancement, status enhancement, and targeted resource enhancement. The essay argues for the social policy of targeted resource enhancement for individuals with cognitive disabilities, in the form of providing cash, with some limits on its use. Taking the example from the United Kingdom of "self-directed support," it argues that such policies can be cost-effective and advance the autonomy of people with cognitive disabilities, especially when compared with current policies of centrally provided services.     

PERSONALITY AND DRUGS IN VISUAL FIGURAL AFTEREFFECTS

The effects of dexedrine and phenobarbitone on visual figural aftereffect (VFAE) were examined in 32 postgraduate students selected after a preliminary testing with the Maudsley Personality Inventory. Calcium tablets were used as placebos. The subjects were repeatedly tested under each of the treatment conditions. The results supported the following conclusions: (1) extraverted subjects relative to introverted ones had larger VFAE; (2) the size of VFAE increased under the influence of phenobarbitone in all personality groups except N+E+ and N-E-; (3) interactions between the drug treatments and personality variables in effects on VFAE did not occur.