Retaining the Productive Employee: The Role of Personality

Abstract

Prior meta-analyses and quantitative reviews have examined the construct-related true-score correlations by personality in predicting important organizational outcomes or have focused on relatively specific, practical problems generally associated with using personality tests in selection. However, there lacks a theoretical integration of major theories developed in the literature. In this review, we propose an integrative research paradigm for personality research by identifying key mediating and moderating mechanisms explaining why, how and when personality traits predict employee work effectiveness. Based on the compatibility principle, we develop a theoretical model to reconceptualize the effect of the five-factor model (FFM) on broadly defined work effectiveness outcomes. We contend researchers have not exploited the breadth of the FFM bandwidth and thus have underestimated the predictive power of personality. In support of our new propositions, we systematically review the almost overwhelming literature by focusing on retaining productive employees, in order to contribute theoretically by identifying a few key generalizable findings and to improve managerial efficiency by uncovering possible “best practices”.