Does Personality Indicate a Proclivity Toward Negative Job Behaviors?

This study endeavored to show that negative job behaviors can be predicted from measures of personality. It was hypothesized that the measures of extroversion and neuroticism would be positively correlated with negative job behaviors. It was further hypothesized that the measures of agreeableness and conscientiousness would be negatively correlated with negative job behaviors. Participants responded to anonymous surveys. These surveys consisted of measures of personality, job behaviors and attitudes, a social desirability scale, and demographic questions. It was found that agreeableness and conscientiousness were both negatively related to negative job behaviors and that neuroticism was positively related to some negative job behaviors. Regression analyses revealed that personality variables accounted for between 6 and 15 percent of the variance in these negative behaviors.