Five-Factor Model of personality and Performance in Jobs Involving Interpersonal Interactions

In this article, the results of a meta-analysis that investigates the degree to which dimensions of the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality are related to performance in jobs involving interpersonal interactions are reported. The article also investigates whether the nature of the interactions with others moderates the personality-performance relations. The meta-analysis was based on 11 studies (total N = 1,586). each of which assessed the FFM at the construct level using the Personal Characteristics Inventory. Results support the hypothesis that Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Emotional Stability are positively related to performance in jobs involving interpersonal interactions. Results also support the hypothesis that Emotional Stability and Agreeableness are more strongly related to performance in jobs that involve team- work (where employees interact interdependently with coworkers), than in those that involve dyadic interactions with others (where employees provide a direct service to customers and clients). Implications for developing theories of work performance and for selecting employees are discussed.     

Stress Management and the Motives of Restorative Events at the United States Coast Guard Academy

The United States Coast Guard Academy seeks to develop leaders of character to become officers and manage its numerous missions. During training, cadets receive multiple stressors from their academic, military, and athletic responsibilities, not to mention the social stressors of friends and family. To become leaders of character, cadets need to effectively manage these stressors. This study reviewed cadets' motives leading to effective and noneffective stress management techniques they employed. During the winter of 2008, cadets described their stressors and stress reduction techniques (restorative events) and evaluated their efficacy based on the factors of attention restoration theory (ART). Discriminant analysis identified several motives associated with restorative events; however, many of the common events employed by cadets did not include components of ART, indicating that these events may not be effectively mitigating stress. A follow-up logistic regression indicated that stress reduction was based on restorative events performed to escape routine and role overloads, provide achievement, teach or share skills, and enjoy nature. Events affording low restoration involved motives of physical rest, learning, and physical fitness. Recommendations to improve cadets' stress management are discussed.     

Relations between Unsociability and Peer Problems in Chinese Children: Moderating Effect of Behavioural Control

Unsociable children are likely to develop adjustment difficulties in Chinese society. The primary goal of the present study was to examine the moderating effect of behavioural control on the relation between unsociability and peer problems in Chinese children. Participants were fourth to eighth grade students in urban China (N = 787). Assessments of unsociability, shyness, peer problems and behavioural control were obtained from peer nominations and teacher ratings. Results indicated that unsociability was positively related to peer problems in Chinese children after controlling for shyness. Also, the relation between unsociability and peer problems was attenuated among children with higher behavioural control. Thus, behavioural control may be a buffering factor that serves to protect unsociable children from developing peer problems. Gender and age also moderated these associations. Results are discussed in terms of the meaning and implications of unsociability and behavioural control in Chinese culture. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Personality And Leadership Composition in Top Management Teams: Implications For Organizational Effectiveness

This study examines whether top management team (TMT) personality and leadership are associated with organizational effectiveness beyond the effects of CEO personality and leadership, as suggested by upper echelons theory. Using direct measures of personality and leadership, rather than proxy variables from archival sources or demographic data, we found that mean levels of conscientiousness among TMT members were related to lagged indicators of organizational performance, as were CEO conscientiousness and transformational leadership. Follower commitment to the organization was found to be associated with higher levels of transformational leadership from both the CEO and TMT. The results are consistent with the upper echelons perspective that organizational effectiveness is influenced not only by the CEO but also by a dominant coalition of leaders. Yet, the results also show that the CEO plays a distinct role in influencing organizational financial performance and collective organizational commitment. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.     

Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and the Ethics of Body and Place: Critical Methodological Reflections

This article is a critical methodological reflection on the use of interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) initiated in the context of a qualitative research project on the experience of seclusion in a psychiatric setting. It addresses an explicit gap in the IPA literature to explore the ways that Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology can extend the remit of IPA for noncognitivist qualitative research projects beyond the field of health psychology. In particular, the article develops Merleau-Ponty’s understanding of the lived-body, language, and embodied speech, with specific attention to the ethical implications of body and place. It concludes with a discussion on phenomenological reflexivity and prompts a reconsideration of phenomenological methods across a wide range of qualitative research projects concerned with subjectivity and ethical practice, including critical health studies, critical bioethics, and cultural studies that employ a qualitative empirical research design.     

On the origins of cultural differences in conformity: four tests of the pathogen prevalence hypothesis

What are the origins of cultural differences in conformity? The authors deduce the hypothesis that these cultural differences may reflect historical variability in the prevalence of disease-causing pathogens: Where pathogens were more prevalent, there were likely to emerge cultural norms promoting greater conformity. The authors conducted four tests of this hypothesis, using countries as units of analysis. Results support the pathogen prevalence hypothesis. Pathogen prevalence positively predicts cultural differences in effect sizes that emerge from behavioral conformity experiments (r=.49, n=17) and in the percentage of the population who prioritize obedience (r=.48, n=83). Pathogen prevalence also negatively predicted two indicators of tolerance for nonconformity: within-country dispositional variability (r=-.48, n=33) and the percentage of the population who are left-handed (r=-.73, n=20). Additional analyses address plausible alternative causal explanations. Discussion focuses on plausible underlying mechanisms (e.g., genetic, developmental, cognitive).