The relationship of the big-five with workplace network resources: More quadratic than linear

Abstract

The relationship of the big-five of personality with workplace expressive and instrumental network resources was investigated in 183 individuals working for a large organization. Nine out of the ten identified relationships were of quadratic nature, U-shaped or inverted U-shaped, clearly indicating that linear only considerations provide an incomplete if not misleading picture. There were some differences in the patterns and strengths of associations for expressive and instrumental network resources, and big-five traits accounted for somewhat greater variance in expressive resources. With respect to emotional stability, openness and agreeableness, the findings indicated that they are the individuals who score around the middle of the trait distribution rather than those near the low end who are most disadvantaged in terms of workplace network resources. On the other hand, they were the moderately strong, but not the highest, levels of conscientiousness that appeared most beneficial. The relationship of extraversion with network resources had a positive overall trend, though at very strong levels it may prove detrimental for instrumental network resources.