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Who Earns More and Why? A Multiple Mediation Model from Personality to Salary

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate multiple indirect Big Five personality influences on professionals’ annual salary while considering relevant mediators. These are the motivational variables of occupational self-efficacy and career-advancement goals, and the work status variable of contractual work hours. The motivational and work status variables were conceptualized as serial mediators (Big Five → occupational self-efficacy/career-advancement goals → contractual work hours → annual salary).

Design/Methodology/Approach

We realized a 4 year longitudinal survey study with 432 participants and three points of measurement. We assessed personality prior to the mediators and the mediators prior to annual salary.

Findings

Results showed that except for openness the other Big Five personality traits exerted indirect influences on annual salary. Career-advancement goals mediated influences of conscientiousness (+), extraversion (+), and agreeableness (−). Occupational self-efficacy mediated influences of neuroticism (–) and conscientiousness (+). Because the influence of occupational self-efficacy on annual salary was fully mediated by contractual work hours, indirect personality influences via occupational self-efficacy always included contractual work hours in a serial mediation.

Implications

These findings underline the importance of distal personality traits for career success. They give further insights into direct and indirect relationships between personality, goal content, self-efficacy beliefs, and an individual’s career progress.

Originality/Value

Previous research predominantly investigated direct Big Five influences on salary, and it analyzed cross-sectional data. This study is one of the first to investigate multiple indirect Big Five influences on salary in a longitudinal design. The findings support process-oriented theories of personality influences on career outcomes.

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Notes

  1. In a pretest with 68 students (mean age 23 years), we tested the reliability of the short version of the personality measure and we also assessed its correlation with the longer 60 items version. The reliability results were as follows: Extraversion Cronbach’s α = .70 (12-item scale: Cronbach’s α = .76); Neuroticism Cronbach’s α = .78 (12-item scale: Cronbach’s α = .87); Conscientiousness Cronbach’s α = .73 (12-item scale: Cronbach’s α = .86); Agreeableness Cronbach’s α = .71 (12-item scale: Cronbach’s α = .73); Openess Cronbach’s α = .74 (12-item scale: Cronbach’s α = .72). The correlations between the short version and the longer one were: Extraversion r = .89; Neuroticism r = .96; Conscientiousness r = .93; Agreeableness r = .92; Openness r = .88. These data suggest that the short version measures the Big Five as reliably as the longer 60-item version.

  2. Missing at random (MAR) assumes that the probability of missing values depends on observed variables. If, for instance, the probability of responding is higher for persons with better GPA and GPA is included into the model then MAR is suitable and missing values should be treated by full information maximum likelihood approach (cf. Little and Rubin 2002). In contrast, treating missing data by means of list-wise deletion presumes an even more restrictive assumption, which is the assumption of missing completely at random (MCAR) (cf. Little and Rubin 2002), i.e., the probability of assessment is independent of observed and unobserved variables as well as independent of time. We therefore assume that MAR is the more suitable approach here. Nevertheless, we also tested whether the kind of treatment of missing values had an effect on the findings by comparing a model with list-wise deletion of missing values with our full information maximum likelihood approach. The results were by and large the same.

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Acknowledgment

The present research was supported by a grant from the Volkswagen Foundation (VW I/73 739; VW I/77 195; VW I/73 195-1) to Andrea E. Abele. We would like to thank Susanne Bruckmueller, Judith Volmer, Juliane Wagner, and Mirjam Uchronski who gave valuable comments to an earlier version of this paper. Parts of the data were presented at the 24th Annual Meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, New Orleans, 2009.

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  1. Social Psychology Group, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Bismarckstr. 6, 91054, Erlangen, Germany

    Daniel Spurk & Andrea E. Abele

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  1. Daniel Spurk
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Correspondence to Daniel Spurk.

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Table 3 Factor loadings for latent constructs
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Spurk, D., Abele, A.E. Who Earns More and Why? A Multiple Mediation Model from Personality to Salary. J Bus Psychol 26, 87–103 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9184-3

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