Personality, equity sensitivity, and discretionary workplace behavior

Abstract

The present study sought to utilize an equity based approach to understand the relationships between broad personality traits (i.e., Honesty-Humility, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness) and two important workplace behaviors: organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) and workplace deviance (WD). We hypothesized that the relationships between these traits and OCB/WD could be somewhat accounted for by the association between these traits and individual differences in equity sensitivity – one's input/output orientation. Using two samples (Ns=182 and 206) we found evidence that (a) Honesty-Humility and Conscientiousness are associated with equity sensitivity, (b) equity sensitivity predicts levels of OCB and WD, and (c) Honesty-Humility and Conscientiousness predict OCB and WD through their association with equity sensitivity. Although equity sensitivity provided clarity as to these relationships, direct effects remained for Conscientiousness on WD in one of the samples, and Honesty-Humility retained a direct effect on WD in both samples. Agreeableness was not robustly associated with equity sensitivity, but did have a direct negative effect on WD, indicating additional important mechanisms linking traits to WD. Overall, however, evidence emerged that individual differences in equity sensitivity (Benevolence versus Entitledness) can help to understand the associations between broad personality traits and workplace behavior.