Personality

Deller, J., Albrecht, A.-G., Dilchert, S., Ones, D. S., & Paulus, F. M.
In J. Henze, S. J. Kulich, & Z. Wang (Eds.), Deutsch-Chinesische Perspektiven interkultureller Kommunikation und Kompetenz (pp. 165–184).
Springer Fachmedien
(2023)

Das Kapitel beschreibt die Ausgangslage und Methodik der iGOES Studie (international generalizability of expatriates success). Berichtet werden ausgewählte Ergebnisse in Bezug auf den Zusammenhang zwischen der Persönlichkeitsdimension Offenheit und ihren Facetten sowie der Anpassung, Arbeits- und Lebenszufriedenheit von Expatriates. Darüber hinaus werden Mittelwertsunterschiede in Offenheit zwischen den über 2000 interviewten Expatriates und der deutschsprachigen Normpopulation beschrieben. Entwicklungen und weiterhin offene Forschungsfragen im Bereich des Expatriate Management werden dargelegt.

Ones, D. S., Dilchert, S., Giordano, C., Stanek, K. C., & Viswesvaran, C.
European Journal of Personality, 34(4), 538–541.
(2020)

The HEXACO personality model does not provide an accurate organization of the personality domain: it over-relies on lexical research, focuses on one level of the personality hierarchy, and lacks coherent theory. The HEXACO personality inventory overemphasizes internal consistency, factorial homogeneity, and unidimensionality; lacks construct coverage and has construct validity problems.

Wiernik, B. M., Ones, D. S., Marlin, B. M., Giordano, C., Dilchert, S., Mercado, B. K., Stanek, K. C., Birkland, A., Wang, Y., Ellis, B., Yazar, Y., Kostal, J. W., Kumar, S., Hnat, T., Ertin, E., Sano, A., Ganesan, D. K., Choudhoury, T., & al’Absi, M.
European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 36(6), 935–947.
(2020)

Research interest in personality dynamics over time is rapidly growing. Passive personality assessment via mobile sensors offers an intriguing new approach for measuring a wide variety of personality dynamics. In this paper, we address the possibility of integrating sensorbased assessments to enhance personality dynamics research. We consider a variety of research designs that can incorporate sensor-based measures and address pitfalls and limitations in terms of psychometrics and practical implementation. We also consider analytic challenges related to data quality and model evaluation that researchers must address when applying machine learning methods to translate sensor data into composite personality assessments.

Dilchert, S., Ones, D. S., & Krueger, R. F.
Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 12(2), 143-150.
(2019)

Personality tests are reliable and valid tools that can aid organizations in identifying suitable employees. They provide utility for maximizing organizational productivity and for avoiding claims of negligent hiring. When properly deployed, personality tests (both normal and abnormal/clinical) pose little threat of violating individuals’ rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or other Equal Employment Opportunity–related laws and regulations. As evidenced by a dearth of successful legal challenges, even with increasing use of personality tests in recent years, organizations have become educated and sophisticated with regard to the ethical and legal use of such tests in employment settings. We predict this trend will continue, incorporating recent developments relating to contemporary models of psychopathology (Kotov et al., 2017; Markon, Krueger, & Watson, 2005), neurobiologically informed theoretical explanations of psychopathology (DeYoung & Krueger, 2018), and the alternative model of personality disorders (AMPD) included in the most recent edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fifth Edition; DSM-5).

Albrecht, A.-G., Ones, D. S., Dilchert, S., Deller, J., & Paulus, F. M.
In B. M. Wiernik, H. Rüger, & D. S. Ones (Eds.)
Managing expatriates: Success factors in private and public domains (pp. 71–82).
Budrich
(2018)

International assignments are strongly characterized novelty, complexity, insolubility, and unpredictability. In such environments, dispositional tolerance of (or even attraction to) ambiguity may be an important contributing factor to expatriate success. We use data from the iGOES project to examine the contributions of tolerance of ambiguity to expatriate outcomes. Results show that tolerance for ambiguity has only small positive benefits for expatriate locational and work adjustment, as well as for contextual and management/supervision performance. Tolerance of ambiguity-criterion relationships showed negligible variability across samples, suggesting that these weak relations are stable across differences in cultural distance and time on assignment. Results indicate that organizations selecting expatriates may realize better utility with constructs other than tolerance of ambiguity.

Hough, L. M., & Dilchert, S.
In J. L. Farr & N. T. Tippins (Eds.),
Handbook of employee selection (2nd ed., pp. 298-325).
Routledge
(2017)

In this chapter, we update the issues and evidence, and describe the emerging consensus about the usefulness of personality variables in employee selection. We describe the mega-trends that have influenced the personality variables that are selected for inclusion in selection systems, how they are measured, and the outcomes they are expected to predict. We describe factors that hinder our understanding and those that help increase our knowledge of personality variables and their role in more accurately predicting work-related criteria. We address issues related to taxonomic structure, measurement methods, level of measurement, validity, and factors that threaten and enhance the validity of personality measures.

Wiernik, B. M., Dilchert, S., & Ones, D. S.
Zeitschrift für Arbeits- und Organisationspsychologie.
(in press)

The present study used intraindividual criterion profile analysis to investigate the relationship between creative artistic and investigative interests and the Big Five personality traits. In 19 samples, we found that artistic and investigative interests showed distinct intraindividual personality profile patterns. Investigative interests were associated with elevated openness to intellect, conscientiousness, and emotional stability and low extraversion and agreeableness, relative to individuals’ other traits. Artistic interests were associated with personal strengths for openness to experiences and personal weaknesses for conscientiousness, assertiveness, and emotional stability. Across creative interests, profile pattern, not absolute trait level, drove the relationship between personality traits and interests. These findings replicated across numerous personality inventories and levels of interest specificity (RIASEC, basic interests, occupation-specific interests). We discuss the implications of these results for the complementary use of personality and interest scales in vocational counseling and personnel selection.

Deller, J., Dilchert, S., Ones, D. S., Albrecht, A.-G., & Paulus, F. M.
In X. Dai & G.-M. Chen (eds.),
Intercultural communication competence (pp. 356-365).
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
(2014)

Organizations that conduct business globally feel an increasing need to send employees on international assignments. Such international assignments are a challenge both for the organization and its employees. Reports from the applied and also the scholarly community reveal that reliable, valid, and easily applicable methods for selecting, preparing, and developing expatriate workers are crucial to the success of international assignments in general. This chapter provides an overview of project iGOES (international Generalizability of Expatriate Success Factors), which investigates the relevance of demographic variables, background characteristics, and individual differences traits in predicting expatriate adjustment and success. The most comprehensive project of its kind, iGOES systematically investigated whether relevant success factors differ across world regions expatriates are active in. The chapter illustrates the usefulness of the approach by focusing on and summarizing results for the personality trait of openness.

Dilchert, S., Ones, D. S., & Krueger, R. F.
Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 7, 98-110.
(2014)

Important changes have been occurring in the clinical psychology literature that are relevant to how maladaptive personality characteristics are conceptualized, measured, and used in workplace applications. We aim to clarify distinctions among maladaptive personality traits, measures of maladaptive personality constructs, and their behavioral consequences at work. In pursuing a connection between the industrial–organizational (I–O) and clinical psychology literatures on maladaptive personality, we distinguish maladaptive constructs, maladaptive measures, and maladaptive work behaviors. Conceptual clarification and linguistic precision are essential, as their distinctions are not merely academic but have important consequences for workplace research and practice.

Albrecht, A.-G., Dilchert, S., Deller, J., & Paulus, F. M.
Journal of Personality Assessment, 96, 64-75.
(2014)

Openness plays an important role in determining what kind of experiences individuals seek out not only in their personal lives, but also in work environments. The objectives of this study were (a) to examine the influence of openness and its facets on the decision to work abroad and (b) to study whether employees’ openness relates to cross-cultural adjustment as well as job and life satisfaction. We investigated these questions among a sample of 2,096 expatriates. In addition to self-reports of openness and cross-cultural adjustment, ratings of subjects’ adjustment were also obtained from 928 knowledgeable others. The openness facets of actions, ideas, and values appear to be good predictors of acceptance of international assignments. In addition, global Openness and its facets Openness to actions and feelings relate to self- and other ratings of cross-cultural adjustment.

Albrecht, A.-G., Paulus, F. M., Dilchert, S., Deller, J., & Ones, D. S.
Journal of Personnel Psychology, 12, 85-91.
(2013)

This research presents an in-depth investigation of the core self-evaluations (CSE) construct in several German samples. The English language (U.S.-American) version of the Core Self-Evaluations Scale (CSES; see Judge, Erez, Bono, & Thoresen, 2003) was adapted and translated into German. The study expands knowledge of CSE relationships with work-relevant experience constructs by providing the first reports of relationships with professional experience and job tenure. Criterion-related validities were examined for grade point average, organizational citizenship behaviors, and turnover intentions, extending English language based findings to a new language and cultural context (German) for the first time. The explicit examinations of the German CSES and other demographic (age, gender) and experience variables (organizational tenure) also provide the first investigations of these relationships, advancing the knowledge about the nomological network of the CSE construct. A constructive discussion of CSE measurement issues (frame of reference and item-specific response styles) is provided in order to improve future CSE measurement.

[Conscientiousness]
Dilchert, S., & Ones, D. S.
In W. Sarges (Ed.),
Management-Diagnostik (4th ed., pp. 323-332).
Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe.
(2013)

Gewissenhaftigkeit umfasst – wie die meisten Konstrukte höherer Ordnung – eine Vielzahl zusammenhängender, aber dennoch konzeptionell unterschiedlicher Facetten. Ziel dieses Kapitels ist es, die Bedeutung des psychologischen Konstrukts, einschließlich seiner wichtigsten Facetten, zu skizzieren und eine Übersicht darüber zu geben, wie es mit dem Arbeitsleben von Managern zusammenhängt.

Ones, D. S., Dilchert, S., Deller, J., Albrecht, A.-G., Duehr, E. E., & Paulus, F. M.
In A. M. Ryan, F. T. L. Leong, & F. L. Oswald (Eds.),
Conducting multinational research projects in organizational psychology: Challenges and opportunities (pp. 91-122).
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
(2012)

When differences are observed across samples in cross-cultural research, true cultural differences (and sample representativeness) are not the only explanations that ought to be considered. A main thesis of this chapter is that when differences are observed, findings can be due to chance (sampling error) as well as other statistical artifacts (see Hunter & Schmidt, 2004). Testing whether cross-cultural variability in findings is due to real effects of culture or such statistical artifacts is an important step that is essential in cross-cultural research. Addressing the biasing influences of statistical artifacts may help reveal cross-cultural universals. The magnitude of cultural variation in results can be empirically examined using approaches of psychometric meta-analysis. A major contribution that meta-analytic techniques can make to cross-cultural research is to enable researchers to test the cross-cultural generalizability of relationships. In the remainder of this chapter, we review, illustrate, and discuss three unique applications of meta-analysis to examine cross-cultural effects. First, we review and discuss pooling findings across intracultural studies to examine questions of cross-cultural generalizability. Second, we illustrate the value of applying meta-analysis to carefully conducted intercultural studies to examine the same question. Third, we demonstrate the use of meta-analysis to examine transcultural variability using primary data collected from different cultural settings. For each type of application, we offer a brief background, review and present illustrative findings, and discuss contributions and potential limitations.

[Living and working abroad – psychological factors and success in international occupational decisions]
Deller, J., Albrecht, A-G., Ones, D. S., Dilchert, S., & Paulus, F. M.
Berlin Medical, 10, 5-7.
(2012)

In den vergangenen Jahren haben wir Projekt iGOES (international Generalizability of Expatriate Success Factors) das mit bislang über 2.300 persönlich interviewten Auslandsmitarbeitern weltweit größte interkulturelle wirtschaftspsychologisch diagnostische Forschungsprojekt durchgeführt. Dieser Beitrag schildert in Anlehnung an Deller und Albrecht [l] das Projekt in seinen Grundzügen und berichtet zusätzlich ausgewählte Ergebnisse zur Bedeutung der Persönlichkeitsdimension „Offenheit” für Anpassung als eine Perspektive des Erfolges von Auslandseinsätzen.

Dilchert, S., & Ones, D. S.
In M. Ziegler, C. MacCann, & R. D. Roberts, (Eds.)
New perspectives on faking in personality assessments (pp. 177-200).
New York: Oxford University Press.
(2011)

This chapter addresses issues surrounding strategies to identify and reduce socially desirable responding, impression management, and faking in applied assessment settings. Strategies are discussed in terms of a framework with four categories based on purpose (identification or prevention) and level (scale/test or person). Three major questions are considered: Which forms do the strategies take (what are recommendations for use in applied assessment practice)? To what degree do test users rely on such strategies in identifying or preventing response distortion (what are the prevalence rates)? What is the effectiveness of each strategy in applied settings (does it lead to the successful identification or prevention of faking under realistic assessment conditions)? The chapter concludes that even those strategies that have received the most research attention so far do not present effective solutions in applied assessment settings.

Hough, L. M., & Dilchert, S.
In J. L. Farr & N. T. Tippins (Eds.),
Handbook of employee selection (pp. 299-319).
New York: Routledge.
(2010)

One of the most important advances in our field can be attributed to the recognition of the importance of personality variables in determining and explaining performance. With the addition of personality variables to our models of job performance, we are now able to explain significantly more variation in behavior and performance than ever before. In this chapter, we review the issues, document the evidence, and describe the consensus emerging about the usefulness of personality variables in employee selection. We describe factors that hinder our understanding and those that help increase our knowledge of personality variables and their role in more accurately predicting work-related criteria. We address issues related to taxonomic structure, measurement methods, level of measurement, validity, and factors that threaten and enhance the validity of personality measures.

Ones, D. S. & Dilchert, S.
InTheBlack, 54-55.
(2009)

We make judgments and evaluations about others’ personalities every day – when we meet new acquaintances, when we catch up with old friends, and even when we interact with our spouses or partners. Personality is important – it describes the general tendencies of individuals to feel, think, act, and react in a variety of life situations. And our work lives, of course, are one of those domains where personality plays a primary role. Organisations have long tried to glean information on individuals’ personalities for a variety of purposes, including career counselling, employee development and coaching, or candidate selection. The method most commonly used to try to learn more about someone’s “character” is the employment interview, and such interviews can be useful when properly designed and applied (especially when they are standardised to minimise the influence of human error and bias).

Dilchert, S., & Ones, D. S.
International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 17, 254-270.
(2009)

This study provides an investigation of the nomological net for the seven primary assessment center (AC) dimensions identified by Arthur, Day, McNelly, and Eden (Personnel Psychology, 56, 125–154, 2003). In doing so, the authors provide the first robust estimates of the relationships between all primary AC dimensions with cognitive ability and the Big 5 factors of personality. Additionally, intercorrelations between AC dimensions based on sample sizes much larger than those previously available in the meta-analytic literature are presented. Data were obtained from two large managerial samples (total N = 4985). Primary data on AC dimensions, personality, and cognitive ability interrelationships were subsequently integrated with meta-analytic data to estimate incremental validity for optimally and unit-weighted AC dimension composites as well as overall AC ratings over psychometric tests of personality and cognitive ability. Results show that unit- and optimally weighted composites of construct-based AC dimensions add incremental validity over tests of personality and cognitive ability, while overall AC ratings (including those obtained using subjective methods of data combination) do not.

Lievens, F., Ones, D. S., & Dilchert, S.
Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, 1514-1535.
(2009)

Admissions and personnel decisions rely on stable predictor–criterion relationships. The authors studied the validity of Big Five personality factors and their facets for predicting academic performance in medical school across multiple years, investigating whether criterion-related validities change over time. In this longitudinal investigation, an entire European country’s 1997 cohort of medical students was studied throughout their medical school career (Year 1, N = 627; Year 7, N = 306). Over time, extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness factor and facet scale scores showed increases in operational validity for predicting grade point averages. Although there may not be any advantages to being open and extraverted for early academic performance, these traits gain importance for later academic performance when applied practice increasingly plays a part in the curriculum. Conscientiousness, perhaps more than any other personality trait, appears to be an increasing asset for medical students: Operational validities of conscientiousness increased from .18 to .45. In assessing the utility of personality measures, relying on early criteria might underestimate the predictive value of personality variables. Implications for personality measures to predict work performance are discussed.

Ones, D. S., & Dilchert, S.
Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 2, 163-170.
(2009)

Hollenbeck (2009) suggests that executive selection decisions are often wrong and believes that selection of executives should be differentiated from selection at lower levels. In addition, he asserts that by focusing on competencies, rather than characteristics, ‘‘we are doing it backwards.’’ We agree with Hollenbeck that sound personnel selection should start with and be based on personal characteristics rather than amorphous, often ill-defined competencies. Yet, this principle applies to all selection not just executive selection. In order to determine whether executive selection should truly be a special process, two key questions must be asked and answered.

Dilchert, S., & Ones, D. S.
Zeitschrift für Personalpsychologie, 7, 1-23.
(2008)

The relationship between personality and salary was investigated among 4,150 managers. Individuals at five different managerial levels completed a measure of the Big Five personality dimensions as part of a work-related psychological assessment. The validity of personality for predicting salary was examined separately by managerial level, sex, as well as by purpose of assessment (selection versus development). Results indicated that personality predicts managerial salaries with useful levels of validity and thus is valuable for predicting extrinsic career success. While there was no evidence for differential validity by sex or purpose of assessment, results differed across managerial levels, with stronger relationships among the lowest and highest managerial groups (i.e., supervisors and top executives) largely due to increased predictor and criterion score variability.

Dilchert, S.
International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 15, 317-334.
(2007)

This study investigates the relationship between personality and leadership and managerial interests at different levels of the vocational interest taxonomy. Personality scale scores from four different inventories were used to predict vocational interests of 574 adults. Influencing/enterprising interests, leadership and supervisory interests, and job-specific managerial interests (e.g., CEO, Media Executive, Human Resources Director) served as criterion measures. A multiple regression-based pattern recognition procedure recently devised by Davison and Davenport was applied to identify configurations of personality scores relating to these interest criteria. The personality profile pattern predictive of influencing and leadership interests was stable across different managerial domains. Results indicate that personality profile patterns drive the predictive power of personality scores, and that they explain a larger proportion of the variance in influencing and leadership interests compared with individuals’ absolute trait levels.

Ones, D. S., & Dilchert, S., Viswesvaran, C., & Judge, T. A.
Personnel Psychology, 60, 995-1027.
(2007)

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.

Dilchert, S., Ones, D. S., Viswesvaran, C., & Deller, J.
Psychology Science, 48, 209-225.
(2006)

This introductory article to the special issue of Psychology Science devoted to the subject of “Considering Response Distortion in Personality Measurement for Industrial, Work and Organizational Psychology Research and Practice” presents an overview of the issues of response distortion in personality measurement. It also provides a summary of the other articles published as part of this special issue addressing social desirability, impression management, self-presentation, response distortion, and faking in personality measurement in industrial, work, and organizational settings.

Dilchert, S., Ones, D. S., Van Rooy, D. L., & Viswesvaran, C.
In J. H. Greenhaus & G. A. Callanan (Eds.),
Encyclopedia of career development (vol. 1, pp. 36-42).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
(2006)

The first part of this encyclopedia entry presents a brief history of the Big Five dimensions of personality. Then, each Big Five dimension is described. The entry concludes with a review of the relevance and usefulness of the Big Five in work and career contexts.

Ones, D. S., Viswesvaran, C., & Dilchert, S.
Human Performance, 18, 389-404.
(2005)

Personality variables have always predicted important behaviors and outcomes in industrial, work, and organizational psychology. In this commentary, we first review empirically supported structural models of personality that show the following: (a) Personality traits are hierarchically organized, (b) the Big Five are not orthogonal, (c) abnormal personality measures assess the same continuum of traits as normal adult personality measures, and (d) there are compound personality traits that are especially useful in the prediction of organizational behaviors. Second, we provide a brief overview of meta-analyses of compound personality variables. The highest operational validities of single scales (.40s) are associated with personality measures assessing broad, compound personality characteristics, such as integrity, violence potential, customer service orientation, and managerial potential, that incorporate aspects from multiple dimensions of the Big Five. Third, we also review meta-analytic evidence that has linked personality attributes to other important organizational attitudes and behaviors, such as job satisfaction, motivation, and leadership, with multiple correlations for the Big Five in the .40 to .50 range. Fourth, we discuss the important role that meta-analysis has had in establishing the predictive and explanatory value of personality variables. We conclude with some caveats and directions for future research.

Ones, D. S., & Dilchert, S.
In R. A. Spies & B. S. Plake (Eds.),
Mental measurements yearbook (16th ed., pp. 356-359). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
(2005)

The Emotional Judgment Inventory (EJI) is a self-report measure, assessing seven dimensions of emotional intelligence. The test is based on the definition of emotional intelligence from Salovey and Mayer (1990) as “the ability to appraise one’s own and others’ emotions, manage one’s own and others’ emotions, and use one’s emotions intelligently and adaptively in problem solving” (manual, p. 1). Seven EJl scales assess (a) being aware of emotions, (b) identifying own emotions, (c) identifying others’ emotions, (d) managing own emotions, (e) managing others’ emotions, (f) using emotions in problem solving, and (g) expressing emotions adaptively…

Ones, D. S., & Dilchert, S.
In R. A. Spies & B. S. Plake (Eds.),
Mental measurements yearbook (16th ed., pp. 414-416). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
(2005)

This review provides information about the development, reliability, and validity of the Giotto integrity test. Giotto is a self-report, paper-and-pencil personality-based integrity test. The developers intended it to be used for selection, promotion, appraisal, and development purposes in work settings. Seven attributes asserted to tap into aspects of the overall integrity construct arc measured: Prudence, Fortitude, Temperance, Justice, Faith, Charity, and Hope…

[What is the value of “personality” on the job?] 
Deller, J., Ones, D. S., & Dilchert, S.
Wirtschaftspsychologie Aktuell, 12, 35-38.
(2005)

Welchen Einfluss hat Persönlichkeit auf Aspekte wie Führung, Verhalten in Teams, Arbeitsleistung und Managementerfolg? Diesen Fragen ging im Frühsommer die Tagung „International Symposium on Personality at Work“ in Lüneburg nach. Etwa 60 Teilnehmer aus zwölf Nationen, darunter 21 Nachwuchswissenschaftler, trafen sich zum Austausch. State of the Art, Probleme und Trends – ein Interview mit den Veranstaltern.