the impact of five – factor model of personality on job satisfaction of non academic employees in...

South East Asian Journal of Contemporary Business, Economics and Law, Vol. 1 ISSN 2289-1560 2012

85

THE IMPACT OF FIVE - FACTOR MODEL OF PERSONALITY ON JOB SATISFACTION OF NON- ACADEMIC EMPLOYEES IN SRI LANKAN UNIVERSITIES

U.W.M.R. SampathKappagoda PhD Research Scholar School of Graduate Studies Management and Science University Malaysia 0940713407005 [email protected] ABSTRACT

Job satisfaction has been identified as an important topic in organizational research due to its many effects on the overall well-being of the organization. Personality is one of the antecedents of job satisfaction. However, the extent of the association has not been investigated comprehensively in the context of the Sri Lankan universities. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of five factor model of personality on job satisfaction of non - academic employees in Sri Lankan universities. The sample consisted of 150 non academic employees from university of Rajarata, Wayamba and Sabaragamuwa. Fifty non-academic employees were selected from each university using convenience sampling method. A questionnaire with two instruments was administered among the non- academic employees to measure their job satisfaction and five factor model of personality. The collected data were analyzed using correlation coefficient and regression analysis. The results of the study indicated that the personality types of extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness of non-academic employees had significant positive relationships with their job satisfaction. Results further indicated that neuroticism had significant negative association with job satisfaction. Insignificant relationship was reported between openness to experience and job satisfaction. It is concluded that five factor model of personality had a strong influence on non academic employees job satisfaction. This study will help to get a better understanding of non-academic employees personality and its relationship to their job satisfaction. This understanding can also better inform administrators to comprehend the importance of dispositional factor in determining job satisfaction. Keywords: Five Factor Model of Personality, Job Satisfaction, Non Academic Employees, Organizational Commitment INTRODUCTION Job satisfaction is an important topic in organizational research because of its many effects on the overall well-being of the organization. It has received much attention in the work place due to its correlation with many employee behaviors and attitudes. Job satisfaction is closely associated with job performance (Buitendach & De Witte, 2005; Hunt, Chonko, & Wood,1985;Christen, Lyer, & Soberman, 2006), employee motivation and performance (Ostroff, 1992),absenteeism and turnover intension (Buck & Watson, 2002; Mathieu &Zajac, 1990; Meyer, Allen, & Smith, 1993; Whitener & Walz, 1993; Brooke & Price,1989;Scott andTaylor,1985),organizational citizenship behavior (organ & Ryan, 1995),organizational commitment (Certin, 2006; Cohrs, Abele, & Dette, 2006; Rayton, 2006). Since the job satisfaction of employees is one of the key factors in deciding the success or failure of any organization, many researchers and practitioners have focused their researches to find out the antecedents of job satisfaction. Among them, dispositional factorshave been identified as one of the important antecedents of job satisfaction. Personality characteristics, needs, attitudes, preferences and motives that result in a tendency to react to situations in a predetermined manner are the dispositional factors (House, Shane &Herrold, 1996). Understanding someones personality is important to administrators because this knowledge is also useful for placing people into jobs and it gives them clues about how that person is likely to act and feel in a variety of situations. According to Kumar and Bakhshi (2010) the dispositional factors are always referring to the five-factor model of personality namely extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience (Kumar and Bakhshi, 2010). Big five is one of the most prominent models in contemporary psychology to describe the most salient aspects of personality (Goldberg, 1990; John &Srivastava, 1999). Although the researches on identification of antecedents of job satisfaction have increased enormously over the past few years, dispositional sources are given less consideration. The relationship of the five factor model of personality on job satisfaction is much less studied (Gelade, Dobson & Gilbert, 2006; Silva, 2006). In Sri Lankan research literature, there were few researches on personality and job satisfaction but nothing can be found on the impact of five factor model of personality on job satisfaction in the non-academic employees in Sri Lankan universities. PROBLEM STATEMENT In order to improve the job satisfaction of the employees, the managers have to identify the factors influencing on job satisfaction. In reviewing the literature, lots of researchers have identified different factors influencing to job satisfaction. Among them, big five personality characteristics of the employees are identified as important factors which shape the employees job satisfaction. Anyway, there were no any researches on the impact of five factor model of personality on job satisfaction among


86

the non-academic employees in Sri Lankan universities. Therefore, the problem addressed in this study is to investigate How does five factor model of personality influence on job satisfaction of non academic employees in Sri Lankan universities? OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY To investigate the impact of five factor model of personality on job satisfaction of non-academic employees in Sri Lankan universities. LITERATURE REVIEW FIVE FACTOR MODEL OF PERSONALITY The five-factor model of personality or the Big Five dimensions of personality involves five relatively independent traits that provide meaningful information about individual differences in an organization and their responses (Kumar and Bakhshi, 2010). Openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism are the traits of this model. These dimensions altogether provide a meaningful taxonomy for the study of individual differences. Openness to experience is the degree to which a person is curious, original, intellectual, creative, and open to new ideas. People high in openness seem to thrive in situations that require flexibility and learning new things. They are highly motivated to learn new skills, and they do well in training settings (Barrick& Mount, 1991; Lievens, Harris, Van Keer&Bisqueret, 2003). The most prominent part of this personality is originality and creativity whereby this type of person is mostly innovators and initiators (Teng, 2008). Conscientiousness refers to the degree to which a person is organized, systematic, punctual, achievement-oriented, and dependable. Conscientiousness is the one personality trait that uniformly predicts how high a persons performance will be across a variety of occupations and jobs (Barrick& Mount, 1991). This type of personality can be referred as self-discipline and ability to act obediently (Erdheim, Wang and Zickar, 2006). Extraversion is the degree to which a person is outgoing, talkative, sociable, and enjoys socializing (Teng, 2008). Employees with this type of personality have the propensity to have more friends and spend more time in social circumstances. Extraverts have an easier time than introverts do when adjusting to a new job. They actively seek information and feedback and build effective relationships, which helps them adjust (Wanberg&Kammeyer-Mueller, 2000).Agreeableness is the degree to which a person is affable, tolerant, sensitive, trusting, kind, and warm (Kumar and Bakhshi, 2010). People who are high in agreeableness are likeable people who get along with others. Not surprisingly, agreeable people help others at work consistently; this helping behavior does not depend on their good mood (Ilies, Scott, & Judge, 2006).Neuroticism or emotional stability refers to the degree to which a person is anxious, irritable, temperamental, and moody (Teng, 2008). It is perhaps the only Big Five dimension where scoring high is undesirable. People very high in Neuroticism experience a number of problems at work. They have trouble forming and maintaining relationships and are less likely to go for advice and friendship (Klein, Beng-Chong, Saltz& Mayer, 2004). JOB SATISFACTION According to the theoretical and empirical study, there are various conceptualizations of job satisfaction. Most researchers conceptualize it as cognitive, affective and evaluative reactions. Locke (1976) defines job satisfaction as a pleasurable or positive emotional states resulting from the appraisal of ones job or job experience. job satisfactionis a result of employees perception of how well their job provides those things that are viewed as important. According to Henne and Locke (1985), job satisfaction is an emotional response to a value judgment by an individual worker. If his job values are perceived as being fulfilled, he will experience the pleasurable emotions of satisfaction. If they are perceived as being frustrated, he will experience unpleasurable emotion of dissatisfaction. The intensity of these emotional reactions will depend on the importance of the values whose fulfillment is being facilitated or frustrated by the work experience.Some researchers define job satisfaction in terms of feeling, attitudes and beliefs. Robbins (2002) defines job satisfaction as a subjective measure of worker attitudes, that is, an individuals general attitudes to his or her job. A person with high job satisfaction holds positive attitudes towards the job and one who is dissatisfied with, has negative attitudes toward it. George and Jones (1996) define it as the collection of feeling and beliefs that people have about their current jobs. FIVE FACTOR MODEL OF PERSONALITY AND JOB SATISFACTION Several researchers have pointed out the correlation between the big five personality factors and job satisfaction. Initial research indicated that conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness are positively correlated with job satisfaction, whereas neuroticism is negatively correlated with job satisfaction. Openness to experience has a negligible impact on job satisfaction. According to Judge, Heller, & Mount (2002) Conscientiousness, agreeableness, extraversion and neuroticism have most obvious connections with job satisfaction. According to Furnham and Zacherl (1986) there is a positive relationship between extraversion and job satisfaction. Furthermore, people with high extraversion scores correlated positively with all sub dimensions of job satisfaction. Extraversion tend to experience positive affect and to get more out of social interactions (Watson and Clark, 1997). Therefore, they are likely to experience higher levels of job satisfaction. Judge et al, (2002) also found a similar result.Extraverts are predisposed to experience positive emotions (Costa & McCrae, 1992) and positive emotionality likely generalizes to job satisfaction. Rhodes & Hammer (2000) stated that agreeableness is a reliable predictor of job satisfaction, and people with personality similarities have better relationships. Furthermore, they measured the similarity of supervisors and subordinates using


87

agreeableness. They compared these similarities to job satisfaction. They found that job satisfaction tends to increase when agreeableness similarity between supervisor and subordinate increases. McCrae and Costa (1991) argued that agreeableness should be related to happiness because agreeable individuals have greater motivation to achieve interpersonal intimacy, which should lead to greater levels of well-being.Agreeableness individuals get along with coworkers in enjoyable ways (Organ and Lingl, 1995) which should lead to higher levels of job satisfaction. Organ and Lingl (1995) and Judge et al, (2002) pointed out a positive relationship between conscientiousness and job satisfaction. Since the conscientiousness represents a general work involvement tendency and thus leads to a greater likelihood of obtaining satisfying work rewards, both formal (e.g., pay, promotions) and informal (e.g., recognition, respect, feelings of personal accomplishment) it should be related to job satisfaction (Organ and Lingl,1995). There is a negative relationship between neuroticism and job satisfaction (Judge et al, 2002; Bowling,Beehr,&Lepisto2006; Connoly&Viswesvaran, 2000). Judge et al, (2002) found neuroticism to be the strongest and most consistent correlation of job satisfaction. Furnham and Zacherl (1986) identified that neuroticism correlated negatively with job satisfaction. Employees with high neuroticism scores tended to be less satisfied with the amount of work, their coworkers and their pay. Similarly Brief, Butcher and Roberson (1995) found that neuroticism has the strongest negative correlation with job satisfaction. Neurotic individuals experience more negative life events than other individuals (Magnus, Diener, Fujita, &Pavot, 1993) therefore they would lead to diminished levels of job satisfaction. According to empirical evidence the openness to experience has not correlated with job satisfaction. People who are high in openness to experience not related to job satisfaction (Judge et al, 2002).Based on these empirical evidences, the following hypotheses are formulated. H1: There will be a positive relationship between extraversion and job satisfaction of non-academic employees H2: There will be a positive relationship between agreeableness and job satisfaction of non-academic employees H3: There will be a positive relationship between conscientiousness and job satisfaction of non-academic employees H4: There will be a negative relationship between neuroticism and job satisfaction of non-academic employees H5: There will not bea correlation between openness to experience and job satisfaction of non-academic employees RESEARCH METHODOLOGY THE RESEARCH DESIGN The current study employed a correlational research design in order to explore the relationship between non-academic employees big five personality (independent variable) and non - academic employees job satisfaction (dependent variable). This field study is conducted in natural environment in the university sector under non-contrived settings. The unit of study is individual. POPULATION AND SAMPLE The population of this study is all the permanent non academic employees who work in universities of Rajarata, Wayamba and Sabaragamuwain Sri Lanka.Three newly established universities university of Rajarata, university of Wayamba and university of Sabaragamuwa- were selected for this study. Then, with the permission of the Registrar/Bursar, 150 non-academic employees, 50 from each university were selected using convenience sampling method. MEASURES Non - academic employees job satisfaction was the dependent variable and five factor model of personality of the non-academic employees is the independent variable of this research. These variables were measured usingstandard instruments. The questionnaire was separated into three sections for demographic data, big five personality types and job satisfaction. Six questions were included to get the demographic information. The big five inventory (John, Donahue, and Kentle,1991) was used to measure big five personality. It was measured using 44 questions including 8,9,9,8,10 questions for measuring extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience respectively.16 questions were used to measure the job satisfaction under five dimensions (Work itself, pay, promotion, supervision and coworkers). VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY The questionnaire which was prepared for non-academic employees consists of 02 instruments (big five personality and job satisfaction). Big five inventory is a standard questionnaire which has been developed and assured the content validity. The instrument which is used to measure job satisfaction was developed after correctly identifying the relevant dimensions and indicators. Therefore, it can be assured that the instrument has content validity.


88

Table 01: Alpha value for test retests reliability

Variables Alpha value

Extraversion 0.83 Agreeableness 0.87 Conscientiousness 0.81 Neuroticism 0.86 Openness to experience 0.84 Job Satisfaction 0.87

Table 02: Cronbach coefficient alpha value for internal consistency

Variables Cronbach alpha value Extraversion 0.80 Agreeableness 0.84 Conscientiousness 0.91 Neuroticism 0.87 Openness to experience 0.89 Job Satisfaction 0.86

It can be concluded that the instruments possesses high test retest reliability and the internal consistency reliability is satisfactory owing to the data represented in table 01 and 02. METHODS OF DATA ANALYSIS The data were analyzed using correlation coefficient and regression analysis. SPSS data analysis package of 17th version was used to analyze the data. RESULTS The results of the univariate data are given in table 03 and 04. According to the data, the level of job satisfaction is high among the non-academic employees. They are highly satisfied with their coworkers whereas they have comparatively low satisfaction with their pay.According to the table 04, lots of non-academic employees are agreeable individuals. Neuroticism is the lowest personality trait among the non-academic employees.

Table 03: The results of univariate analysis job satisfaction

Variables Mean Std.Deviation

Work itself 3.47 0.52 Pay 3.01 0.61 Promotion 3.89 0.54 Supervision 3.77 0.65 Coworkers 3.79 0.60 Job Satisfaction 3.59 0.57

Table 04: the results of univariate analysis- five factor model of personality

Variables Mean Std.Deviation

Extraversion 3.60 0.71 Agreeableness 4.37 0.51 Conscientiousness 4.12 0.56 Neuroticism 2.39 0.70 Openness to experience 3.67 0.61


89

Table 05: Correlation coefficient between independent variables and dependent variables

Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

1.Work itself - 2.Pay .25* - 3.Promotion .32** .11 - 4.Supervision .19* .08 .28** - 5.Coworkers .07 .15 .12* .21 - 6.Job Satisfaction .65** .84** .62** .73** .36** - 7.Extraversion .11** .06* 24** .13* .41** .25** - 8. Agreeableness .17** .21* .15 .29** .56** .27** .31** - 9.Conscientiousness .23** .29** .19** .09* .30** .20** .28** .25* - 10.Neuroticism -.26** -.37** -.11* .14 -.32** -.31** -.38** -.20* -.34** - 11.Openness to experience

.13 .04 .09** .21* .32** .04* .32** .19* .24** -.18 -

*p


90

CONCLUSION Based on the results of the study, it can be concluded that five factor model of personality had a strong influence on non-academic employees job satisfaction.Extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and neuroticism are the strong predictors of job satisfaction. Extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness have significantly and positively correlated to job satisfaction whereas neuroticism has significant negative relationship with job satisfaction. Anyway, openness to experience is not a significant predictor of job satisfaction according to the findings of this research. LIMITATIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH The results must be considered in the context of several limitations. The first has to do with its generalizability as the data collection was confined to three newly established universities. Second limitation was of relying on self-reported data. The types of personality and job satisfaction of the non - academic employees were measured according to the respondents own attitudes. Thirdly, the difficulty of exploring the psychological factors like personality through the structured questionnaire was another limitation of this study. The present study provides many potential paths for future researchers. In this study five factor model of personality and job satisfaction were the major variables of interest. However, exploration of how personality influences other areas in an organization and life may be fruitful. For example, the question of how personality affects organizational commitment, job performance, organizational citizenship behavior, leadership styles, withdrawal intention, turnover, family conflict and stress etc. The research study attempted to demonstrate the direct relationship between five factor model of personality and job satisfaction. The further researches would be advantages to explore potential moderators for this connection. This research focused only the university sector but other researchers can expand the sample to the other service organizations or different organizations in Sri Lanka. REFERENCES Barrick, M. R., & Mount, M. K. (1991). The Big Five personality dimensions and job performance: a meta-analysis.

Personnel Psychology, 44, 1-26. Bowling,N.A;Beehr,T.A.,&Lepisto, L.R. (2006). Beyond job satisfaction: A five years prospective analysis of the

dispositional approach to work attitudes.Journal of Vocational Behavior, 69, 315-330. Brief, A., Butcher, A., & Roberson, L. (1995). Cookies, disposition, and job attitudes: the effects of positive moodinducing

events and negative affectivity on job satisfaction in a field experiment. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 62, 5562.

Brooke, P.P; Russell, D.W; Price, J.L. (1988). Discriminant validation of measures of job satisfaction, job involvement and organizational commitment.Journal of Applied Psychology, 73, 139-145.

Buck, J., & Watson, J. (2002). Retaining staff employees: the relationship between human resource management strategies and organizational commitment.Innovative Higher Education, 36(3), 175-193.

Buitendach, J.H., & De Witte, H. (2005). Job insecurity, extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment of maintenance workers in a parastatal.South African Journal of Business Management, 36(2), 27-37.

Certin, M. O. (2006). The relationship between job satisfaction, occupational and organizational commitment of academics.The Journal of American Academy of Business, 8(1), 78-88.

Christen, M., Lyer, G., &Soberman, D. (2006). Job satisfaction, job performance, and Effort: A reexamination using agency theory. Journal of Marketing, 70(1), 137- 150.

Cohrs, J. C., Abele, A. E., &Dette, D. A. (2006). Integrating situational and dispositional determinants of job satisfaction: Findings from three samples of professionals.The Journal of Psychology, 140(4), 363-395.

Connolly, J., &Viswesvaran, C. (2000). The role of affectivity in job satisfaction: a meta-analysis. Personality and Individual Differences, 29, 265281.

Erdheim, J., Wang, M., &Zickar, M. J. (2006). Linking the Big Five personality constructs to organizational commitment. Personality and Individual Differences, 41(5), 959-970.

Furnham, A., &Zacherl, M. (1986). Personality and job satisfaction.Personality and Individual Differences, 1, 453459. Gelade, G. A., Dobson, P., & Gilbert, P. (2006). National differences in organizational commitment: Effect of economy,

product of personality, or consequence of culture? Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 37(5), 542- 556. George, J. M., & Jones, G. R. (1996). The experience of work and turnover intentions: Interactive effects of value attainment,

job satisfaction, and positive mood. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81, 318325. Goldberg, L. R. (1990). An alternative description of personality: The big-five factor structure. Journal of Personality

& Social Psychology, 59, 12161229. Henne, D., & Locke, E. A. (1985). Job dissatisfaction: What are the consequences? International Journal of Psychology,

20, 221-240. Hunt, S.D., Chonko, L.B. & Wood, V.R. (1985). Organizational commitment and marketing.Journal of Marketing, 49(1):

112-127. House, R. J., Shane, S. A., &Herold, D. M. (1996). Rumors of the death of dispositional research are vastly exaggerated.

Academy of Management Review, 21, 203224. Ilies, R., Scott, B. A., & Judge, T. A. (2006). The interactive effects of personal traits and experienced states on

intraindividual patterns of citizenship behavior.Academy of Management Journal, 49, 561575.


91

John, O. P., Donahue, E. M., &Kentle, R. L. (1991). The Big Five Inventory. Institute of Personality and Social Research, University of California, Berkeley, CA.

John, O. P., &Srivastava, S. (1999). The Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In E. Pervin& O. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality (pp. 102 138). New York: Guilford Press.

Judge, T. A., Heller, D., & Mount, M. K. (2002). Five-Factor model of personality and job satisfaction: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 530541.

Klein, K. J., Beng-Chong, L., Saltz, J. L., & Mayer, D. M. (2004). How do they get there? An examination of the antecedents of centrality in team networks.Academy of ManagementJournal, 47, 952963.

Kumar, K., and Bakhshi, A. (2010). The Five-factor model of personality and organizational commitment: Is there any relationship? Humanity and Social Sciences Journal, 5(1), 25-34.

Lievens, F., Harris, M. M., Van Keer, E., & Bisqueret, C. (2003). Predicting cross- cultural training performance: The validity of personality, cognitive ability, and dimensions measured by an assessment center and a behavior description interview.Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 476489.

Locke, E.A. (1976). The nature and causes of job satisfaction, In M. D. Dunnette, Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology, Chicago: McNally.

Luthans, F. (2000). Organisationalbehaviour. (9th

ed.). McGraw-Hill, Inc. Mathieu, J.E., &Zajac, D.M. (1990).A review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates and consequences of

organizational commitment.Psychological Bulletin, 108(2), 171194. McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T., Jr. (1991). Adding liebe und arbeit: The full five- factor model and well-

being.Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 227232. Meyer, J. P., Allen, N. J. & Smith, C. (1993). Commitment to organizations and occupations: Extension and test of a

three component conceptualization.Journal of Applied Psychology,87,538-551 Magnus, K., Diener, E., Fujita, F., &Pavot, W. (1993). Extraversion and neuroticism as predictors of objective life events: A

longitudinal analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 10461053. Organ, D. W., and Lingl, A. (1995). Personality, satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior.The Journal of

Social Psychology, 135, 339-350. Organ, D. W., & Ryan, K. (1995). A meta-analytic review of attitudinal and dispositional predictors of organizational

citizenship behavior.Personnel Psychology, 48, 775802. Ostroff, C. (1992). The relationship between satisfaction, attitudes, and performance: An organizational Level Analysis.

Journal of Applied Psychology, 77, 963- 974. Rayton, B. A. (2006). Examining the interconnection of job satisfaction and organizational commitment: An application of

the bivariate probit model.International Journal of Human Resource Management, 17(1), 139- 154. Rhodes, L.D., & Hammer, E.Y. (2000). The relation between job satisfaction and personality similarity in supervisors and

subordinates.Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research, 5, 56-59. Robbins, S.P. (2002). Organizational Behaviour,9th edition, Pearson Education Asia. Scott, K.D., & Taylor, G.S. (1985). An Examination of Conflicting Findings on the relationship between Job Satisfaction and

Absenteeism: A Meta-Analysis. Academy of Management Journal, 28, 599-612. Silva, P. (2006). Effects of disposition on hospitality employee job satisfaction and commitment. International journal of

Contemporary Hospitality Management, 18 (4),317-328. Teng, C.-I. (2008). Personality differences between online game players and non- players in a student sample. Cyber

Psychology & Behavior, 11(2), 232-234. Thompson, D.P., & McNamara, J.F, (1997). Job satisfaction in educational organizations: A synthesis of research findings.

Educational Administration Quarterly, 33(1),1-31. Wanberg, C. R., &Kammeyer-Mueller, J. D. (2000). Predictors and outcomes of proactivity in the socialization process.

Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 373385. Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. (1997). Extraversion and its positive emotional core. In S. R. Briggs, W. H. Jones, & R. Hogan

(Eds.), Handbook of personality psychology. New York: Academic Press. Whitener, E. M., &Walz, P. M. (1993). Exchange theory determinants of affective and continuance commitment and

turnover, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 42, 265-281.

the impact of five – factor model of personality on job satisfaction of non academic employees in...

Documents