Personality and Workplace Deviance: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

We present a comprehensive meta-analysis of the relations between personality and workplace deviance. More specifically, we compared the validities of the Big Five domain scales with the HEXACO domain scales in predicting workplace deviance. By including 68 studies and 460 effect sizes, we found that HEXACO Honesty- Humility shows the strongest relation with workplace deviance, followed by Conscientiousness (Big Five and HEXACO) and Agreeableness (Big Five and HEXACO). Big Five Neuroticism (positively) and HEXACO Emotionality (negatively) also correlate with workplace deviance. HEXACO and Big Five Openness to Experience and Extraversion show either non-significant or negligible correlations with workplace deviance. For the most part, these results support the conceptual differences between the Big Five and the HEXACO personality models. Importantly, none of the personality domain scales (Big Five and HEXACO) correlate differently with the two facets of workplace deviance (i.e., interpersonal and organizational workplace deviance). Based on a meta-analytic structural equation modeling analysis, we found that the HEXACO domain scales (24.9%) explain more variance in workplace deviance than the Big Five domain scales (17.1%). Consequently, the HEXACO model appears to be a viable alternative to the Big Five model when predicting and explaining levels of workplace deviance. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings as well as limitations and future research ideas are discussed.