Assessing Strengths and Weaknesses in Solving Work Problems: A Knowledge and Appraisal Personality Architecture (KAPA) Analysis of the Trait Conscientiousness and Self-Efficacy

Our goal was to demonstrate the effect of personal strengths and weaknesses when solving work relatedproblems among students enrolled in business courses. We predicted that each participant would uniquelyactivate personal knowledge (such as strengths and weaknesses) in situations idiosyncratically judged as relevantto his or her strength or weakness. 65 participants completed all the measures of a two-study program (37participants in study 1 and 28 participants in study 2). At the outset of both studies, participants completed a cardsorting task regarding the relevance of self identified (via a brief written narrative) personal strengths andweaknesses to work related problems. In both studies, we primed our participants with their personal strengthsand personal weaknesses (counter balance session 1 and session 2) then assessed their self-efficacy for solvingwork related problems. In study 1 we also assessed the participants’ perceived effectiveness at solving workproblems. The results indicated that perceived self-efficacy varied as a function of the interaction betweenpersonal knowledge and appraisal of the situations. Participants who were primed with their personal strength(weakness) reported the highest (lowest) self-efficacy for the work problems that were relevant to their strength(weakness). The results also indicated that self-efficacy in turn mediated perceived effectiveness to handle workproblems over conscientiousness.