Job search and employment: A personality–motivational analysis and meta-analytic review.

Abstract

A motivational, self-regulatory conceptualization of job search was used to organize and investigate the relationships between personality, expectancies, self, social, motive, and biographical variables and individual differences in job search behavior and employment outcomes. Meta-analytic results indicated that all antecedent variables, except optimism, were significantly related to job search behavior, with estimated population correlations ranging from -.15 to .46. As expected, job search behavior was significantly and positively related to finding employment. Several antecedents of job search were also significantly related to employment success, although the size of these relationships was consistently smaller than those obtained for job search. Moderator analyses showed significant differences in the size of variable relationships for type of job search measure (effort vs. intensity) and sample type (job loser vs. employed job seeker vs. new entrant).

Can personality predict retirement behaviour? A longitudinal analysis combining survey and register data from Norway

“…Contrarily, employees being argumentative, inflexible, uncooperative, uncaring, intolerant or disagreeable (low in agreeableness) are less effective at teamwork and more likely to engage in counterproductive behaviour (op cit.). Agreeableness is also associated with short spells of unemployment (Kanfer et al 2001), which could indicate that employers appreciate agreeableness in male workers.…”

“…Individuals high in extraversion and conscientiousness and low in neuroticism report higher satisfaction with their work (Judge et al 2002). In a meta-analysis, Kanfer et al (2001) find that conscientiousness, openness, extraversion and agreeableness can all predict shorter spells of unemployment. Judge et al (1999) argue that personality affects at least two kinds of career success: intrinsic success, including job satisfaction, and extrinsic success, including income and occupational status.…”

“…We also expect openness to be associated with later retirement, since some research indicates it is associated with shorter unemployment spells (Kanfer et al 2001), perhaps also with late retirement (Filer and Petri 1988). These traits might affect both disability and non-disability retirements.…”

Personality change following unemployment.

“…For example, individuals may be initially subject to personality change as they actively search for new employment, but, after several years of failed searches, may experience lack of motivation to continue pursuing job leads (Kanfer, Wanberg, & Kantrowitz, 2001). This motivational burnout may still spark personality change, albeit different from that of the initial "search" years.…”

Adolescent conscientiousness predicts lower lifetime unemployment.

“…evidence that the conscientious are more effective at the job search process, which helps them re-enter employment more quickly (Kanfer, Wanberg, & Kantrowitz, 2001). Furthermore, they also appear to experience greater drops in well-being following unemployment and gain greater satisfaction from their jobs and higher income, suggesting they may be particularly motivated to achieve productive employment (Boyce, Wood, & Brown, 2010;Boyce & Wood, 2011;Judge, Heller, & Mount, 2002).…”