Revisiting the relationship between conscientiousness and job performance linearity or non-linearity? /

by Little, Ian S.

Michael Zickar, Advisor Recent research into the possibility of a nonlinear relationship between conscientiousness and job performance has been unable to show that a nonlinear model was more appropriate than a linear model. This finding may be due to a lack of psychometric information at the higher end of conscientiousness in current measures of the construct. The current study attempted to create a new measure with test information focused at the higher end of the scale by combining conscientiousness and obsessive-compulsive personality items, and then used this new measure to revisit the notion of a nonlinear relationship between conscientiousness and performance via hierarchical multiple linear regression. Results indicated that the addition of obsessivecompulsive personality items served primarily to increase test information at the low end of the scale. Results of regression analyses between the original conscientiousness scale, obsessivecompulsive personality scale, the new conscientiousness scale, and leadership performance ratings suggest that the new scale may lack construct validity, and the original scales may be more appropriately applied separately. iii This work is dedicated to my wife Dana. Without your patience and support this would not have been possible. iv