Personality traits and organizational commitment across cultures: A meta-analysis

Abstract

This study set out to examine the relationships between the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality traits and three forms of organizational commitment (affective, normative, and continuance commitment) and their variability across individualistic and collectivistic cultures. Meta-analytic results based on 34 independent samples from 30 studies (N = 8,342) revealed that (a) all FFM traits had positive relationships with affective commitment; (b) all FFM traits except for Emotional Stability had positive relationships with normative commitment; and (c) only Emotional Stability had a negative relationship with continuance commitment. In particular, Agreeableness was found to be the most strongly related to both affective and normative commitment. The results also showed that Emotional Stability, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness tended to have stronger relationships with affective and normative commitment in collectivistic cultures than individualistic cultures. We provide theoretical and practical implications of these findings for the personality, job attitude, and employee retention literatures.