| Abstract | For this PhD thesis, individual differences in the workplace are studied, with the focus being on the key personality characteristics and styles identified in the field of business and organisational psychology: the Big Five, Team Roles, Conflict Management Styles, and Decision Making Styles. Some personality characteristics and styles have been identified as ‘healthy’ and productive, whilst others are considered ‘unhealthy’ and dysfunctional. Measuring individual differences in the workplace is seen as highly beneficial in view of its diagnostic potential. Furthermore, these constructs have been found to be significantly associated with employee performance, job satisfaction and climate for innovation.
The literature is scant with regards to studying these constructs under one umbrella to investigate their associations with employee performance, job satisfaction and climate for innovation. Moreover, most of the evidence, to date, has been collected in Western contexts and studies from
Middle Eastern countries are rare. The aim of this thesis is to address this research gap, by presenting a series of studies from Jordan – a collectivist society, which is becoming increasingly important in terms of economic growth and companies’ roles in the world market. Specifically, three empirical studies are presented that examine the structure of these individual differences constructs and how they are associated with employee performance, job satisfaction and climate for innovation.
For Study 1, the structure of individual differences constructs is investigated using a sample recruited from two of the top 20 companies in Jordan: a shipping and logistics company (n=224) and a telecommunications company (n=219). Confirmatory Factor Analyses largely confirmed the factorial structures found in studies in Western cultures: The big five were measured with the short and a longer version of the Big Five Inventory (i.e. BFI-10 and BFI-44), and a 5-factor structure was confirmed for the long, but not the short version. Team roles were measured with the Team Role Experience and Orientation questionnaire, and a 6-factor structure was confirmed. Conflict management styles were measured with the Dutch test for Conflict Handling, with a 5 factor structure being confirmed. Decision making styles were measured with the General Decision Making Style questionnaire and a 5-factor structure was confirmed. Lastly, climate for innovation was measured with the Team Climate Inventory, with a 4-factor structure being confirmed.
Study 2 involved examining how individual differences are associated with employee performance, job satisfaction and climate for innovation. For this purpose, data were collected from a new sample (n=249) from the shipping and logistics company. For employee performance, regression analysis identified conscientiousness from the big five and the problem-solving conflict management style as significant predictors (both positive). For job satisfaction, regression analysis identified neuroticism from the big five and avoidant decision-making style as significant predictors (both negative). For climate for innovation, regression analysis identified agreeableness (positive) and neuroticism (negative) from the big five as significant predictors, along with the problem-solving conflict management style (positive) and rational decision-making style (positive).
Study 3 was aimed at replicating the findings from Study 2 in a sample from the Jordanian general
population. Further, an additional more reliable measure of employee performance, the Individual Work Performance Questionnaire was used. Three hundred and ninety Jordanian employees participated. The findings from Study 2 were largely confirmed. Furthermore, from the regression analysis, additional predictors of employee performance, job satisfaction and climate for innovation emerged. i.e. neuroticism (negative), rational decision-making style (positive), and avoidant decision-making style (negative), were significant predictors of employee performance. Agreeableness (positive), the problem-solving conflict management style (positive), and the rational decision-making style (positive) were significant predictors of job satisfaction. Moreover, the avoidant decision-making style was found to be a negative predictor of climate for innovation.
These studies contribute to knowledge in several ways: first, by examining the factorial structure of the instruments used in a Jordanian, rather than a Western context and second, by investigating the individual differences constructs simultaneously under one umbrella, thereby identifying the most and least effective characteristics that contribute to high levels of employee performance, job satisfaction and climate for innovation in Jordan’s Middle Eastern context. |
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