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An examination of personality in occupational outcomes: antagonistic managers, careless workers and extraverted salespeople

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  • Robert Wells
  • Roger Ham
  • P. N. (Raja) Junankar

Abstract

This article investigates the role of personality in the sorting of individuals between a number of occupations, allowing for an extensive array of conditioning variables. The focus is an examination of the relationship between occupational outcomes and personality using the 'five-factor model'. We estimate a multinomial logit model using a panel data set from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. Human capital variables are found to exhibit strong credentialism effects and there is evidence for some small dynasty hysteresis. Personality effects are found to be significant, relatively large and persistent across all occupations. The personality effects are strong enough to rival that of various education credentials. These personality effects include but are not limited to managers being less agreeable and more antagonistic; labourers being less conscientiousness; and salespeople being more extraverted.

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  • Robert Wells & Roger Ham & P. N. (Raja) Junankar, 2016. "An examination of personality in occupational outcomes: antagonistic managers, careless workers and extraverted salespeople," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(7), pages 636-651, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:48:y:2016:i:7:p:636-651
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2015.1085636
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    2. Wehner, Caroline & de Grip, Andries & Pfeifer, Harald, 2022. "Do recruiters select workers with different personality traits for different tasks? A discrete choice experiment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    3. Eva Asselmann & Elke Holst & Jule Specht, 2022. "Longitudinal Bidirectional Associations between Personality and Becoming a Leader," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1167, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    4. Piero Esposito & Sergio Scicchitano, 2023. "Drivers of skill mismatch among Italian graduates: the role of personality traits," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(40), pages 4642-4663, August.
    5. Engelhardt, Carina, 2017. "Unemployment and personality: Are conscientiousness and agreeableness related to employability?," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-621, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    6. Watson, Barry & Osberg, Lars, 2019. "Can positive income anticipations reverse the mental health impacts of negative income anxieties?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 107-122.
    7. Blázquez, Maite & Herrarte, Ainhoa & Llorente-Heras, Raquel, 2018. "Competencies, occupational status, and earnings among European university graduates," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 16-34.
    8. Cuesta, Maite Blázquez & Budría, Santiago, 2017. "Unemployment persistence: How important are non-cognitive skills?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 29-37.
    9. Arnaud Wolff, 2022. "The Signaling Value of Social Identity," Working Papers of BETA 2022-15, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    10. Mehrzad B. Baktash & Uwe Jirjahn, 2023. "Are Managers More Machiavellian Than Other Employees?," Research Papers in Economics 2023-07, University of Trier, Department of Economics.
    11. Eva Asselmann & Jule Specht, 2023. "Climbing the Career Ladder Does Not Make You Happy: Well-being Changes in the Years Before and After Becoming a Leader," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 1037-1058, March.

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