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.