Personality's voice: how personality traits shape verbal processes in collaborative problem-solving

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Organizational Behavior
• Communication Studies

Background:

• Understanding the link between personality and team collaboration is crucial for optimizing workplace dynamics.
• Verbal interactions are key to effective collaborative problem solving (CPS).
• Limited empirical research exists on how specific personality traits manifest in verbal behaviors during team problem-solving.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore associations between personality traits and verbal interactions during adult workplace team CPS.
• To investigate how personality domains, facets, and compounds relate to CPS-specific verbal behaviors and linguistic indicators.
• To provide an initial empirical mapping of personality-verbal interaction links in CPS.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the Business Attitudes Questionnaire to assess personality traits.
• Employed quantitative content analysis of utterance-level verbal interactions during a CPS training exercise.
• Incorporated dictionary-based linguistic analysis using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC).

Main Results:

• Openness, especially the Change-Oriented facet, was associated with increased knowledge sharing and cognitive process word usage.
• Ambitious individuals contributed more to shared knowledge but less to coordination/negotiation.
• Results-oriented individuals exhibited higher word counts, and Strategic individuals used more analytical language.

Conclusions:

• Personality traits demonstrate discernible links with specific verbal behaviors during collaborative problem solving.
• Findings suggest that personality influences knowledge sharing, coordination, negotiation, and language complexity in teams.
• This study provides a foundation for future research to confirm and expand upon these personality-CPS associations.