The Big Five

This activity is important because as a manager, you should know the importance of employee traits to workplace attitudes and behaviors, such as job performance and organizational commitment. Most traits reflect one of five broad dimensions of the Big Five: conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience, and extraversion.

Match each of the Big Five personality traits to descriptions of candidate personalities.

1. Openness to Experience 2. Conscientiousness 3. Agreeableness

4. Neuroticism 5. Extraversion

In his recommendation letter, Cynthias prior supervisor indicated that she was a hardworking employee she showed up to work early almost every day, helped out whenever necessary, and was generally very organized with how she conducted her work.

In one recommendation letter, Cynthia's manager stated that she was always cooperative, helping others and considerate about their needs.

Some of the notes you took were more about Cynthias demeanor in the interview than the words she spoke. In particular, you noted that she seemed a bit more nervous than necessary and was fidgeting a lot during the interview. When you asked about topics that she didnt seem to like such as coworker relationships her mood seemed to change rather drastically.

Based on her description of her strengths, Cynthia seemed to be more concerned with getting her work done and following rules the rules and procedures of a job than finding new ways to accomplish her work tasks.

Based on your interactions with Cynthia in the interview, you think she might be a good leader of the sales team one day. In particular, when she explained some of her successes on projects, she indicated that she took initiative and took control of the situation.