Personality and High-Maintenance Employee Behavior

We applied the Abridged Big Five Dimensional Circumplex (AB5C) model (Hofstee, de Raad, & Goldberg, 1992; Johnson & Ostendorf, 1993) to examine the intertwined influence of conscientiousness and agreeableness on high-maintenance employee behavior. Specifically, we investigated whether these two traits help to mutually paint a portrait of individuals who engage in chronic and annoying behavioral responses in the workplace. Results of hierarchical regression analyses on matched data collected from 338 clerical workers indicated, as hypothesized, that among highly conscientious employees, those low in agreeableness received higher supervisory ratings of high-maintenance behavior than workers high in agreeableness. Implications for research and practice are highlighted.