Skip to main content
Log in

Coping with career development: a field study measuring the influence of work characteristics and employee personality

  • Invited Paper
  • Published:
Behaviormetrika Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study tested a model of the relationship between work performance, employee personality, and perceived career development. The model hypothesized that employee personality (extraversion) modifies the relationship between work characteristics (task, diversity, work feedback) and perceived career development. Results revealed that work characteristics (task diversity, work feedback) was positively related to perceived career opportunities and that extraversion positively moderated the relation between work characteristics (task diversity, work feedback) and perceived career opportunities. Issues related to the common method bias are discussed (see e.g. Podsakoff et al. in J Appl Psychol 88(5):879–903, 2003).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aguinis H, Kraiger K (2009) Benefits of training and development for individuals and teams, organizations, and society. Annu Rev Psychol 60:451–474

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aitken L, West S (1991) Multiple regression: testing and interpreting interactions. Sage, Newbury Park

    Google Scholar 

  • Andreou AN, Boone LW (2002) The impact of information technology and cultural differences on organizational behavior in the financial service industry. J Intell Cap 3:248–262

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arnold J (2001) Careers and career management. In: Anderson N, Ones DS, Sinagil HK, Viswesvaran C (eds) Handbook of industrial work and organizational psychology, vol 2. Sage, Thousand Oaks

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrick MR, Mount MK (1991) The big five personality dimensions and job performance: a meta-analysis. Pers Psychol 44:1–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berg JM, Wresniewski A, Dutton JE (2010) Perceiving and responding to challenges in job crafting at different ranks: when proactivity requires adaptivity. J Org Behav 31:158–186

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Birdi K, Allan C, Warr P (1997) Correlates and perceived outcomes of four types of employee development activity. J Appl Psychol 82:845–857

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buss DM, Craik KH (1983) The act frequency approach to personality. Psychol Rev 90:105–126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campion MA, Papper EM, Medsker GJ (1996) Relation between work team characteristics and effectiveness: a replication and extension. Pers Psychol 49:429–452

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carver CS, White TL (1994) Behavioral inhibition, behavioral activation, and affective responses to impending reward and punishment: the BIS/BAS scales. J Pers Soc Psychol 67:319–333

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caspi A, Elder GH Jr, Bem DJ (1988) Moving away from the world: life-course patterns of shy children. Dev Psychol 24:824–831

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cook JD, Hepworth SJ, Wall TD, Warr PB (1981) The experience of work: a compendium and review of 249 measures and their use. Academic Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Cranny CJ, Smith PC, Stone EF (1992) Job satisfaction. Lexington, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Crant JM (1995) The proactive personality scale and objective job performance among real estate agents. J Appl Psychol 80:532–537

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeFillippi RJ, Arthur MB (1996) Boundaryless contexts and careers: a competency-based perspective. In: Arthur MB, Rousseau DM (eds) The boundaryless career. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • DeMeuse KP (1985) A compendium of frequently used measures in industrial-organizational psychology. Ind Org Psychol 2:53–59

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunn WS, Mount MK, Barrick MR, Ones DS (1995) Relative importance of personality and general mental ability in managers’ judgments of applicant qualifications. J Appl Psychol 80:500–509

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Epstein S (1979) The stability of behavior: on predicting most of the people much of the time. J Pers Soc Psychol 37:1097–1126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eysenck HJ, Eysenck SBG (1975) Manual of the eysenck personality questionnaire. Hodder & Stoughton, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Frazier PA, Tix AD, Barron KE (2004) Testing moderator and mediator effects in counseling psychology research. J Couns Psychol 51:115–134

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frese M, Fay D, Hilburger T, Leng K, Tag A (1997) The concept of personal initiative: operationalization, reliability, and validity in two German samples. J Occup Org Psychol 70:139–161

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fried Y, Ferris GR (1987) The validity of the job characteristics model: a review and a meta-analysis. Pers Psychol 40:287–322

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fried Y, Grant AM, Levi AS, Hadani M, Haynes Slowic L (2007) Job design in temporal context: a career dynamics perspective. J Org Behav 28:911–927

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Furnam A, Zacherl M (1986) Personality and job satisfaction. Personal Individ Differ 7:453–459

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grant AM, Campbell EM, Chen G, Cottone K, Lapedis D, Lee K (2007) Impact and the art of motivation maintenance: the effects of contact with beneficiaries on persistence behavior. Org Behav Hum Decis Process 103:53–67

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenhouse JH (1987) Career management. Dryden Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Hackman JR, Oldham GR (1976) Motivation through the design of work: test of a theory. Org Behav Hum Perform 16:250–279

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hackman JR, Oldham GR (1980) Work redesign. Addison-Wesley, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall DT (1996) The career is dead—long live the career: a relational approach. Jossey-Bass, San Franscisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall DT, Mirvis PH (1995) Careers as lifelong learning. In: Howard A (ed) The changing nature of work. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Hersckovis MS, Turner N, Barling J, Arnold KA, Dupré KE, Inness M, LeBlanc MM, Sivanathan N (2007) Predicting workplace aggression: a meta-analysis. J Appl Psychol 92:228–238

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hom PW (2001) The legacy of Hulin’s work on turnover thinking and research. In: Drasgow FD, Brett JM (eds) Psychology of work. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah

    Google Scholar 

  • Howard A, Bray DW (1994) Predictions of managerial success over time: lessons from the management progress study. In: Clark KE, Clark MB (eds) Measures of leadership. Leadership Library of America, West Orange, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • Hulin CL (1991) Adaptation, persistence, and commitment in organizations. In: Dunnette MD, Hough LM (eds) Handbook of industrial psychology, vol 2, 2nd edn. Consulting Psychologist Press, Palo Alto, pp 445–505

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurtz GM, Williams KJ (2009) Attitudinal and motivational antecedents of participation in voluntary employee development activities. J Appl Psychol 94:635–653

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • James JR, Tetrick LE (1986) Confirmatory analytic tests of three causal models relating job perceptions to job satisfaction. J Appl Psychol 71:77–82

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson JA (1997) Seven social performance scales for the California psychological inventory. Hum Perform 10:1–30

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Judge TA, Bretz RD (1994) Political influence behavior and career success. J Manag 20:43–65

    Google Scholar 

  • Judge TA, Cable DM, Boudreau JW, Bretz RD (1995) An empirical investigation of the predictors of executive career success. Pers Psychol 48:485–519

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Judge TA, Higgins CA, Thoresen CJ, Barrick MR (1999) The big five personality traits and career success across the life span. Pers Psychol 52(48):485–519

    Google Scholar 

  • Judge TA, Hulin CL, Dalal RS (2012) Job satisfaction and job affect. In: Kozlowski SWJ (ed) The oxford handbook of industrial and organizational psychology. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelly J (1992) Does job re-design theory explain job re-design outcomes? Hum Relat 45:753–774

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kilduff M, Day DV (1994) Do chameleons get ahead? The effects of self-monitoring on managerial careers. Acad Manag J 37:1047–1060

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kraimer ML, Seibert SE, Wayne SJ, Liden RC, Bravo J (2011) Antecedents and outcomes of organizational support for development: the critical role of career opportunities. J Appl Psychol 96:485–500

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kristof AL (1996) Person-organization fit: an integrative review of its conceptualizations, measurement, and implications. Pers Psychol 49:1–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liden RC, Wayne SJ, Sparrowe RT (2000) The examination of the mediating role of psychological empowerment on the relations between the job, interpersonal relationships, and work outcomes. J Appl Psychol 85:407–416

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loher BT, Noe RA, Moeller NL, Fitzgerald MP (1985) A meta-analysis of the relation of job characteristics to job satisfaction. J Appl Psychol 70:280–289

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loi R, Lam LW, Chan KW (2012) Coping with job insecurity: the role of procedural justice, ethical leadership, and power distance orientation. J Bus Eth 108:361–372

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lucas RE, Diener E (2001) Understanding extraverts’ enjoyment of social situations. J Pers Soc Psychol 81(2):343–356

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lucas RE, Diener E, Grob A, Suh FM, Shao L (2000) Cross-cultural evidence for the fundamental features of extraversion. J Pers Soc Psychol 79(3):452–468

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maurer TJ, Tarulli BA (1994) Investigation of perceive environment, perceived outcome, and person variables in relationship to voluntary development activity by employees. J Appl Psychol 79:3–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maurer TJ, Pierce HR, Shore LM (2002) Perceived beneficiary of employee development activity: a three-dimensional social exchange model. Acad Manag Rev 27:432–444

    Google Scholar 

  • Maurer TJ, Weiss E, Barbeite F (2003) A model of involvement in work-related learning, and development activity: the effects of individual, situational, motivational, and age variables. J Appl Psychol 88:707–724

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCrae RR, Costa PT (1991) Adding liebe und arbeit: the full five-factor model and well-being. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 17:227–232

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Melamed T (1995) Career success: the moderating effect of gender. J Vocat Behav 47:35–60

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell KE, Levin AS, Krumboltz JD (1999) Planned happenstance: constructing unexpected career opportunities. J Couns Dev 2:115–124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morgeson FP, Humphrey SE (2006) TheWork Design Questionnaire (WDQ): developing and validating a comprehensive measure for assessing job design and the nature of work. J Appl Psychol 91:1321–1339

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morrison EW (1993) Longitudinal study of the effects of information seeking on newcomer socialization. J Appl Psychol 78:173–183

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Noe RA, Wilk SL (1993) Investigation of the factors that influence employees’ participation in development activities. J Appl Psychol 78:291–302

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oldham GR, Hackman JR (2010) Not what it was and not what it will be: the future of job design research. J Org Behav 31:463–479

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Organ DW, Ryan K (1995) A meta-analytic review of attitudinal and dispositional predictors of organizational citizenship behaviors. Pers Psychol 48:775–802

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parker SK, Wall TD (1998) Job and work design: organizing work to promote well-being and effectiveness. Sage, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker SK, Wall TD, Cordery J (2001) Future work design research and practice: towards an elaborated model of work design. J Occup Org Psychol 74:413–440

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Podsakoff PM, Mackenzie SB, Lee J-Y, Podsakoff NP (2003) Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. J Appl Psychol 88(5):879–903

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robbins SP (2005) Organizational behavior (Appendix B; Careers and career development). Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River

    Google Scholar 

  • Rousseau DM, Fried Y (2001) Location, location, location: contextualizing organizational research. J Org Behav 22:1–13

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roznowsky M, Hulin C (1992) The scientific merit of valid measures of general constructs with special reference to job satisfaction and job withdrawal. In: Cranny CJ, Smith PC, Stone EF (eds) Job satisfaction: how people feel about their jobs and how it affects their performance. Lexington Books, New York, pp 123–163

    Google Scholar 

  • Saari LM, Judge TA (2004) Employee attitudes and job satisfaction. Hum Resour Manag 43:395–407

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schein EM (1996) Career anchors revisited: implications for career development in the 21st century. Acad Manag Perspect 10:80–88

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seibert SE, Kraimer ML (2001) The five-factor model of personality and career success. J Vocat Behav 58:1–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seibert SE, Crant JM, Kraimer ML (1999) Proactive personality and career success. J Appl Psychol 84:416–427

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Selart M (2010) A leadership perspective on decision making. Cappelen Akademisk Forlag, Oslo

    Google Scholar 

  • Smillie LD, Cooper AJ, Wilt J, Revelle W (2012) Do extraverts get more bang for the buck? Refining the affective reactivity hypothesis of extraversion. J Pers Soc Psychol 103:306–326

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith PC, Kendall LM, Hulin CL (1969) Measurement of satisfaction in work and retirement. Rand-McNally, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Snipes RL, Oswald SL, LaTour M, Armenakis AA (2005) The effects of specific job satisfaction facets on customer perceptions of service quality: an employee-level analysis. J Bus Res 58:1330–1339

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strauss K, Griffin MA, Parker SK (2012) Future work selves: how salien hoped-for identities motivate proactive career behaviors. J Appl Psychol 97:580–598

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan SE (1999) The changing natures of careers: a review and research agenda. J Manag 25:457–477

    Google Scholar 

  • Tharenou P (1997) Managerial career advancement. Int Rev Ind Org Psychol 12:39–93

    Google Scholar 

  • Torraco RJ (2005) Work design theory: a review and critique with implications for human resource development. Hum Resour Dev Q 16:85–110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turban DB, Dougherty TW (1994) Role of protégé personality in receipt of mentoring and career success. Acad Manag J 37:688–702

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wall TD, Cordery JL, Clegg CW (2002) Empowerment, performance and operational uncertainty: a theoretical integration. J Appl Psychol 51:149–169

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson D, Clarke LA (1997) Extraversion and its positive emotional core. In: Hogan R, Johnson JA, Briggs SR (eds) Handbook of personality psychology. Academic Press, San Diego

    Google Scholar 

  • Wayne S, Liden B, Kraimer M, Graf I (1999) The role of human capital, motivation, and supervisor sponsorship to career success. J Org Behav 20:577–595

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wegge J, Schmidt K, Parkes C, van Dick K (2007) «Taking a sickie»: job satisfaction and job involvement as interactive predictors of absenteeism in a public organization. J Occup Org Psychol 80:77–89

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wresniewski A, Dutton JE (2001) Crafting a job: revisioning employees as active crafters of their own work. Acad Manag 26:179–201

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marcus Selart.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Communicated by Kazuhisa Takemura.

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Selart, M., Johansen, S.T. Coping with career development: a field study measuring the influence of work characteristics and employee personality. Behaviormetrika 44, 559–573 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41237-017-0035-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41237-017-0035-7

Keywords

Navigation