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Task-contingent conscientiousness as a unit of personality at work
Amirali Minbashian1, Robert E Wood, Nadin Beckmann
1Accelerated Learning Laboratory, Australian School of Business, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia. amiralim@unsw.edu.au
The Journal of Applied Psychology
|August 20, 2010
Summary
Personality at work, specifically conscientiousness, changes based on task demands. Individual differences in this task-contingent conscientiousness are stable and linked to trait conscientiousness.
Area of Science:
- Organizational Psychology
- Personality Psychology
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- Traditional personality research often overlooks situational influences.
- Understanding how personality traits manifest in dynamic work environments is crucial.
- Conscientiousness is a key trait influencing work behavior and performance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the concept of task-contingent units in personality research.
- To examine conscientiousness as an example of task-contingent behavior at work.
- To explore the relationship between task demands, individual differences, and conscientiousness.
Main Methods:
- Utilized experience-sampling data from 123 managers.
- Analyzed momentary conscientiousness in relation to task difficulty and urgency.
- Assessed individual differences in task-contingent conscientiousness and trait conscientiousness.
Main Results:
- Momentary conscientiousness at work is contingent on task difficulty and urgency.
- Significant, stable individual differences exist in task-contingent conscientiousness.
- Task-contingent conscientiousness is related to, yet distinct from, trait conscientiousness.
Conclusions:
- Personality expression, like conscientiousness, is dynamic and influenced by task context.
- Need for cognition may predict task-contingent conscientiousness.
- Task-contingent conscientiousness may impact adaptive performance.
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