Personality traits and individual performance: test of the mediating role of motivation among top management

Abstract

Personality traits, considered as indicators of the employee's performance and motivation which concentrated on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (Mot), plays an important role in employee performance. This paper aims to investigate the relationships between the personality traits (conscientiousness, neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, and agreeableness) and the individual in-role and extra-role performance (IP). In addition, the motivation is being explored in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic of employees. To achieve these objectives, a data-set was collected by surveying 167 general managers (GMs) and general manager's assistants (Asst. GMs) of five star hotels in Malaysia. The partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to examine the dataset and test the hypotheses. The findings indicated a significant linkage among extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, Mot and IP. On the other hand, Mot mediated the relationships among extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness and IP. The participants of the current study revealed a better individual in-role and extra-role performance through an appropriate implementation of personality traits practice.