Personality and the Teaching of Public Administration: A Case for the Big Five

Abstract

Personality assessment is a key concept in the practice of public and nonprofit personnel management, but many faculty struggle with how to introduce the concept of personality in their courses. When Master of Public Administration curricula do include personality, discussions often consist solely of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a popular but theoretically dubious personality instrument. This article argues that the five-factor model of personality provides a theoretically sound, empirically valid, and open-access measure that can help faculty and students understand the role personality can play in public personnel management and decision making. To demonstrate the usefulness of this framework, we rely on existing research as well as the results of a unique survey of United Way managers.