The Effect Of Openness To Experience Commerce Essay

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show a correlation between Openness to Experience and Job Success and test the mediation effect Creativity and Intellect have on this relationship.

Design Methodology: An online survey was administered to over 300 people out of whom 166 filled the questionnaire. This survey contained scales of inventories to gauge the Openness to experience, Creativity, Intellect and the Job Success of the respondents. The respondents filled the survey and the results were then analysed using the SPSS software (v.16.0). The correlation between Openness to experience and Job Success was tested along with the mediation effect of Creativity and Intellect.

Findings: Creativity and Intellect fully mediated the relationship between Openness to experience and Job Success. Openness to experience and Job success were found to be positively correlated.

Research Implications/Limitations: This study shows a correlation between Openness to experience and Job Success. This topic of study can be expanded to show relations between other personality traits and Job Success. Future research can go further and show the differences between the degree of this correlation for several industries and for male and female managers.

Practical Implications: The findings of this paper could be used during the recruitment process for companies and during the intake process for business schools.

Originality/Value: This paper is one of the first to prove the correlation between Openness to experience and Job Success. The role of creativity and Intellect in this relationship is also explained by this paper which is another first.

Keywords: Openness to experience, Intellect, Creativity, Job Success, Human resources

Paper Type: Research Paper

Introduction

Retention of a manager on any job in any sector is largely dependent on that manager’s success in his job. Job success not only determines the motivation levels of the manager (Winter, 1991) but also has a significant impact on the overall success of the organisation. (Pfeffer and Veiga, 1993) Thus ensuring Job success is critical to Modern Business.

Several factors are known to affect Job success and it is important for companies to pick the right factors to measure in order to predict Job success with sufficient accuracy. This paper looks to determine the relationship between Openness to experience and Job success mediated by Creativity and Intellectual ability with a view to provide companies the option of measuring any of these parameters and being able to predict Job success to a reasonable extent.

Of all the dimensions of the Five-Factor Model (FFM) model, openness to experience is considered to be the most vast and least understood. Most research has studied this dimension as a part of personality and few have focussed on studying the link between openness to experience alone and job success. This research aims at creating a comprehensive model linking openness to experience and job success with creativity and intellect as mediators, which has not been done in the past. Building on research done on understanding the openness to experience dimension of the FFM and measuring job success of new hires, we will try to understand the relation between them. We will also see the effect of the two mediators, creativity and intellect on this relation.

Research objective

The objective of this study is two-fold:

To check whether the Openness to experience is a valid predictor for Job Success

To check if this relationship between Openness to Experience and Job Success is mediated by Creativity and Intellect

Research Gap and Hypotheses

OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE

Despite trait theories being often downplayed, Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality has remained popular. Also called the big five theory, FFM describes personality in 5 broad traits viz. Openness to Experience (O), Conscientiousness(C), Extroversion (E), Agreeableness (A) and Neuroticism (N). McCrae and Costa’s (1997) asserted that openness to experience is ”one of the broadest constructs in personality psychology. Openness to experience describes an individual’s imaginative capacity, independent thinking, aesthetic sensitivity, intellectual curiosity, preference for variety and attentiveness for inner feelings. A person with a low score in openness is seen to prefer the conventional and routine (Costa & McCrae, 1992; McCrae, 1996).

JOB SUCCESS

Career success has been defined as work related accomplishments that an individual has amassed due to their work experiences (Judge et al, 1995). Researchers have not accepted the popular conception of measuring success only in terms of salary or the position occupied in the organization (Gattiker & Larwood, 1986 etc.). In recent times most research on job success has defined it as being composed of two parts, extrinsic success and intrinsic or perceived success. Extrinsic success is measured using observable parameters like salary, job title, and number of promotions (London & Stumpf, 1982). The perceived career success is measured using a self appraisal of job performance (Rode et al, 2008). Childs and Klimoski (1986) used 12 career success items like earnings, self assessed success, number of people supervised and perceived peer rating to measure job success. Also, people who primarily measure success in terms of external criteria have said that enjoying their work is important to them (Sturges, 1999).

OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE AND JOB SUCCESS

Openness to experience would contribute to job success in situations where the nature of the job is such that it requires people to be open to new situations and learning (Bing & Lounsbury, 2000). In fact, Bing & Lounsbury tested openness to experience to job performance in US based Japanese manufacturing companies. The research supported a positive relation between two and the explanation to this could be that the local population had successfully adapted to the traditional Japanese style of working (Bing & Lounsbury, 2000). Burke and Witt have shown through their research findings that other personality variables acts as moderators in the openness to experience job performance relationship (Burke & Witt, 2002).

Research has shown that those who are more open towards the external environment are more adaptable while those who are more open towards the internal environment would be preoccupied with their internal thoughts and hence less aware of the changes in the environment(Griffin & Hesketh, 2004).

Young graduates from business schools join jobs that require them to be adaptable and learn as quickly as possible. Hence we expect that openness to experience will be positively correlated to job success.

There has been limited research studying these parameters in India and a model linking openness to experience, creativity and intellect to job success has not been developed. In particular, the research tries to study these relations in the context of business school graduates in their initial career stages.

With management education in India gaining popularity amongst students and professionals, research needs to be done to find out the predictors for job success in this field. The Western ideas of success may not necessarily hold good for India and it is time that studies focussing on India are conducted. Also, it is important to determine how far the parameters used in the selection criteria for admissions or recruitment are predictors of future job success.

CREATIVITY AND INTELLECT AS MEDIATORS

As stated in the previous section the correlation between Openness to Experience and Job Success is likely but this relationship is not empirically very strong. It is hence likely that these two parameters are mediated by other constructs. We feel that ‘Creativity’ and ‘Intellect’ function as mediators for this relationship.

CREATIVITY

There have been several studies about creativity conducted by several researchers. According to Lubbart (2000-01) creativity stems from a any process which gives rise to a ‘novel, adaptive production’. Glover and Gary (1975) assert that creative individuals are said to exhibit high levels of tolerance to uncertainty and to employ unusual problem solving techniques. William Scott (1965) defines creative behaviour as “any unusual response or combination of responses which are also uniquely adaptive and which result in products highly valued by society”. Creativity is thus characterised by something new or novel about the way things are done or idea that are produced.

OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE AND CREATIVITY

Barron (1988) described the creative person as possessing “alertness to opportunity,” “keen attention”, “intuition,” “a liking for complexity as a challenge to find simplicity,” and “a drive to find pattern and meaning”, “Openness to new ways of seeing”, “independence of judgment that questions assumptions,” et al. These qualities find strong parallels in the FFM dimension of Openness to Experience. Research by McCrae and others have demonstrated that, among the five factors of personality, only Openness to Experience correlates significantly and positively with divergent thinking. They have established a positive covariance of openness to experience with artistic interests (Costa, McCrae and Holland, 1984) and liberal values (McCrea and Costa, 1985). Other researches also show strong empirical and conceptual support to uphold the correlation between openness to experience with creativity (Griffin and McDermont, 1998; Leung and Chiu, 2008).

People who are high on openness to experience may wider range of experience, and greater appreciation of the merits of novelty and the potential for improving and changing the status quo, than individuals who are low on openness to experience. These qualities together with their greater sensitivity may cause them to come up with novel solutions to problems and creative ideas. In contrast, individuals who are low on openness to experience may find more comfort in the status quo (George and Zhou, 2001).

Griffin and Hesketh (2004), stated that the facets of Openness can be broadly sub-divided into openness towards internal and external environment. While Actions, Ideas and Values appear to describe areas external to the person, Fantasy and Feelings describe openness to areas inside the person. Facets of Openness from each of the Openness scales will differ in their ability to predict creativity. The external openness facets are expected to be better predictors of creativity at work than the latter (Pace, 2005).

In our study we predict that among participants in the target group, having more openness to experience would be positively correlated with the level of creative potential.

CREATIVITY AND JOB SUCCESS

There have been several papers which have linked Creativity to Job Success in some way.

A research in Pharmaceutical industry by Mats Sundgren and Alexander Styhre (2003) explores creativity as one of the most critical success factors and important assets in an R&D specific organisation. Taewon Suh and Hochang Shin (2005) used the relation between creativity and job performance to ascertain the difference between profit and non-profit organisations. Richard Beatty (1974) asserts that Job Performance and Job Success related and that job performance in fact leads to job success. This could be taken as evidence for a linkage between Creativity and Job Success. The linkage between Creativity and Job success has been used by several researchers (such as Caroline Marshall (2000) in varied research projects.

The linkage can also be justified by using the assertion of authors Tudor Rickards, Mark A. Runco, Susan Moger that creativity and leadership step from the same roots and that they have a lot in common . Since ‘leadership’ is known to be a strong contributor to job success (Kowalski and Campbell, 2000), a linkage between Creativity and Job Success can be expected.

As an example from the business of sales and marketing, Julie Britt, independent marketing consultant cites several examples how creativity is essential for success in this profession (2008). Several similar examples can be identified in real life like Bradley/Reid’s resourceful approach to promoting the Seward Sea Life Center discussed by Tracy Barbour (2001).

INTELLECT

Intellect is derived from the Latin word intellectus meaning “discernment, understanding”. This concept has been a constant subject of debate (Feuerstein et al., 1980; Spitz, 1986; Taylor and Richards, 1990; Chen-Shyuefee and Michael, 1993). Intellect has been viewed as both a single entity and as a collection of mental abilities (Heraty and Morely, 2000). An early model of intelligence was proposed by Thurstone (1939) who identified a number of primary mental abilities using factor analysis. Subsequently, Guilford (1956: 1959: 1967: 1981) proposed the structure of intellect (SOT). Utilising factor analysis, the model identified and organized intellectual abilities according to the mental processes involved, the kinds of information featured and the particular form that the items of information took. The SOT model consists of five kinds of psychological processes (operations), three types of stimuli (contents) and six forms of products (newly generated information serving as output arising from the application of a psychological operation upon given information) (Khattab et al., 1982).

OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE AND INTELLECT

There are claims that Openness to experience and Intellect are practically the same thing but Robert McCrae (1994) contends that ‘Intellect’ while, is a major contributing factor to ‘Openness of Experience’. Goldberg (1999) examined the correlation between these two factors using the International Personality Item Pool. This analysis revealed that Intellect encompasses traits reflecting intellectual engagement and perceived intelligence whereas Openness encompasses traits reflecting artistic and contemplative qualities related to engagement in sensation and perception, establishing that these two factor as related but separable aspects. Lexical studies also show that there are many other terms that characterise people high in only openness (such as artistic, perceptive), or only intellect (such as intelligent, philosophical) or both (such as imaginative, original) (George Saucier 1992).

The relation between intellect and openness has also been asserted by Colin G. DeYoung, Noah A. Shamosh and Adam E. Green, Todd S. Braver and Jeremy R. Gray (2009) who propound that Intellect and Openness to experience are related. Some research (George Saucier 1992) also exists to substantiate the relation by asserting that both openness and intellect are a part of the same factor namely Factor V of the Five factor model of Personality traits. This view has been contended by Paul Trapnell (1994) by asserting that Openness and Intellect are separated by a couple of factors, but the fact that these two are related is undeniable.

INTELLECT AND JOB SUCCESS

Intellect has been synonymously used with intelligence by researchers across the world. (Heraty and Morely, 2000) Also, research has shown that intelligence is an integral part of mental ability with strong correlations being obtained between these two constructs. (Schweizer and Moosbrugger, 1999) Tracey et al investigated the utility of mental ability and conscientiousness in predicting technical job success and successfully established that mental ability was a better predictor of performance for new managers, whereas conscientiousness was a better predictor of performance for experienced managers using a sample of restaurant workers. Dr. Colonia-Willner, in a landmark study involving 200 high level managers at a bank employing more than 22,000 people demonstrated that a major factor in achieving success in the workplace depends on intelligence (1999). Business schools across the world have been looking to prepare students for the complexities that would befall the students in the business world and their prime focus is on improving the mental abilities; the ability to think. (Lim, 2002) In their paper, Mol et al express astonishment at the lack of importance afforded to intelligence while measuring performance of expatriate managers. They have managed to bring out the relevance of intelligence in selection of managers by means of 30 primary studies. Using these associations between mental ability and job success as established by many a researchers, the link between mental ability and intelligence already established and the fact that intelligence and intellect have been used interchangeably we have conceptualized that intellect could be positively correlated with job success.

In conclusion to the above section, we propose the following hypotheses. See Figure 1 for further clarifications.

Hypothesis 1: Openness to experience is positively correlated to Job Success

Hypothesis 2: Openness to experience is positively correlated to Creativity

Hypothesis 3: Creativity is positively correlated to job Success

Hypothesis 4: Openness to Experience is positively correlated to Intellect.

Hypothesis 5: Intellect is positively correlated to job success.

Research Design

Sample

In this study, we examine measures of openness to experience, creativity, job success and intellect among a sample group of 166 people all with varying periods of work experience in various sectors.

Sample Design

The design used for this study is snowball sampling. This design was chosen since it is suitable in cases where it may be difficult for researchers to identify participants. The researchers contacted people they knew and these people further referred the questionnaire to their contacts.

Administration:

The data for the study was collected using an internet survey. An online questionnaire was prepared and administered to participants in the target group. The participants for the study were contacts of the researchers with an MBA and 1-4 years of work experience. These people were asked to share the questionnaire with people who had the same characteristics and they were also included in the study. A question asking people the number of years of their work experience was put in the survey so that those people who had lesser or greater work experience would not be included in the study. This data was collated and used for analysis.

Measures

The following model summarises what we were testing through this research paper.

Creativity

Openness to Experience

Job Success

Intellect

Figure 1: Model

Operational Definitions

Openness to experience: For the purpose of our research openness to experience is the proclivity of an individual to new situations and learning and a greater awareness of his environment.

Creativity: We have taken the definition of creativity as a means of producing or thinking something new. The key aspect of creativity is “originality”.

Intellect: For the purpose of our research intellect is defined as that cognitive ability which helps a person analyze complex situations and solve challenging problems.

Job Success: We have taken the term ‘Job Success’ to mean the extent to which a person is able to achieve the intended purpose of the job.

Scales

The study uses borrowed scales from professional and academic domain.

OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE

One of the most accepted measure of the FFM dimensions is the Neuroticism-Extroversion-Openness Personality Inventory Revised (NEO PI-R:Costa & McCrae, 1992). The NEO PI-R measures each dimension with six sub dimensions called the facets. Its sub-dimensions are for openness to experience are Fantasy, Aesthetics, Feelings, Actions, Ideas and Values. McCord designed the M5 questionnaire to assess traits of normal personality based on the facets described by Costa & McCrae. M5 is a self report measure that provides scores each facet based on six independent lower level facets. The M5 claims to strong internal reliability and good validity (Proctor & McCord, 2009).

The study administrates the M5 openness to experience inventory that measures similar facets of the NEO PI-R construct. Table 1 provides descriptions of each of these and the corresponding dimensions from the M5 instrument. (Refer Appendix A for the scale)

Table : M5 Instrument Dimensions

NEO PI-R Facet

M5

Definition of high scorers

Fantasy

Imagination

Have a vivid imagination &fantasy life which they believe enhances life

Aesthetics

Artistic interests

Highly esteem and can be moved by art, music, poetry &beauty

Feelings

Emotionality

Are receptive to inner feelings, deeply experience emotions &see them as important

Action

Adventurousness

Have a willingness to experience new activities, foods, places &prefer novelty to routine

Ideas

Intellect

Open-mindedness &willingness to consider new ideas &pursue intellectual interests

Values

Liberalism

Willingness to re-examine social, political &religious values

Lack of free available personality inventories is a major constraint for academic research. Cost factors and copyright issues inhibit flexible availability, editing and modifying of the professionally accepted measurement tools. For the purpose of our research we shall use the personality item inventories from the public domain collection of International Personality Item Pool (IPIP, 2001).

Lack of free available personality inventories, copy right issues and cost factors have inhibited the usage of professionally accepted measurement tools for the present academic research. For the purpose of our research we shall use the personality item inventories from the public domain collection of International Personality Item Pool (IPIP, 2001) to measure creativity and intellect. IPIP is intended as an international effort to develop and continually refine a set of personality inventories. The scales provided in this collaboratory can be used for both scientific and commercial purposes.

The Abridged Big Five Dimensional Circumplex (AB5C) taxonomy of personality traits was developed to integrate the 5-dimensional simple-structure and circumplex models of personality. It consists of the 10 circumplexes formed by pitting each of the Big Five factors against one another. The model maps facets of the Big Five dimensions as blends of 2 factors.

CREATIVITY

In this study we have used the Abridged Big Five-Dimensional Circumplex(AB5C) propounded by Hofstee, de Raad, & Goldberg [1992] for measurement of creativity. The AB5C taxonomy of personality traits was developed to integrate the 5-dimensional simple-structure and circumplex models of personality. It consists of the 10 circumplexes formed by pitting each of the Big Five factors against one another. The model maps facets of the Big Five dimensions as blends of 2 factors. The alpha coefficient of the scale as reported on IPIP website is 0.81 indicating the scale has good reliability and internal consistency. This scale is a five point Likert scale.

INTELLECT

In this study we have used the Abridged Big Five-Dimensional Circumplex propounded by Hofstee, de Raad, & Goldberg [1992] for measurement of intellect. The alpha coefficient of the scale as reported on IPIP website is 0.81 indicating the scale has good reliability and internal consistency. This scale is a five point Likert scale.

JOB SUCCESS

The study measures job success as perceived by the person. Selected items related to organization success as defined by Gattiker & Larwood (1986) will be measured on a five point Likert type scale. The alpha coefficient of the scale specified is 0.75.

Analysis

The 10 items on the Openness to experience scale (10 point – M5 Questionnaire) were summed up to create an aggregate score for Openness to Experience. The 7 items on the Job Success scale created by Gattiker and Larwood were summed up to create an aggregate score for job success. The 10 items on the IPIP (Domain AB5C) Creativity scale were summed up to create an aggregate score for creativity. The 10 items on the IPIP (Domain AB5C) Intellect Scale were summed up to create an aggregate score for intellect.

The data was analyzed for the Cronbach’s alpha value to determine the reliability of the scales. The data was then analyzed using Multiple Mediation Regression developed by Baron and Kenny (1986) which is a four-step process. This process was performed for both creativity and intellect. First, we performed a regression using openness to experience as the independent variable and job success as the dependent variable. Second, we performed a regression using creativity as the independent variable and job success as the dependent variable. Third, we performed a regression using openness to experience as the independent variable and creativity as the dependent variable. Finally, we performed a regression using openness to experience and creativity as the independent variable and job success as the dependent variable to identify the effect of mediator. The same process was repeated with intellect instead of creativity.

Results and Discussion

The Cronbach’s alpha values are tabulated below:

Table : Cronbach’s Alpha Values

Variable

Scale

Calculated Cronbach’s Alpha

Openness to Experience

10 point – M5 Questionnaire

0.809

Creativity

IPIP (Domain AB5C) Creativity scale

0.774

Intellect

IPIP(Domain AB5C) Intellect Scale

0.743

Job Success

Gattiker &Larwood Scale

0.809

Creativity

Openness to Experience

Creativity

Creativity

The results of the regression are tabulated below:

0.386 *

0.595 *

Model 1:

0.335*

Job Success

*Significant at 0.05 level

Table : Regression Analysis Results – Model 1

Step

Regression Variables

Coefficients

Dependent Variable

Independent Variable

R2

Unstandardized Beta

Std. error

Standardized Beta

1

Job success

Openness to experience

0.112

0.289

0.063

0.335

2

Creativity

Openness to experience

0.354

0.614

0.065

0.595

3

Job success

Creativity

0.149

0.322

0.06

0.386

4

Job success

Openness to experience

Creativity

0.166

0.141

0.241

0.077

0.074

0.164

0.288

In the table, step 1 shows the coefficients for regression analysis with openness to experience as independent variable and job success as the dependent variable. The analysis shows that there is a significant positive correlation between openness to experience and job success. Also the results show that there is a possibility of mediation. Hence, Hypothesis 1 is supported.

Step 2 shows the coefficients for regression analysis with openness to experience as independent variable and creativity as the dependent variable. The analysis shows that there is a significant positive correlation between openness to experience and creativity. Hence, Hypothesis 2 is supported.

Step 3 shows the coefficients for regression analysis with creativity as independent variable and job success as the dependent variable. The analysis shows that there is a significant positive correlation between creativity and job success. Hence, Hypothesis 3 is supported.

Step 4 shows the coefficients for regression analysis with openness to experience and creativity as independent variable and job success as the dependent variable. The regression between openness to experience and job success in step 1 is significant whereas in step 4 is not significant indicating that creativity fully mediates the relationship between openness to experience and job success. The mediation effect was tested using an online Sobel Calculator and was found to be statistically significant (Mediated effect = 0.171, Sobel Test Statistic Z-Score = 4.666, p<0.001). Hence, mediation effect of creativity in the relationship between openness to experience and job success is confirmed.

Step

Regression Variables

Coefficients

Dependent Variable

Independent Variable

R2

Unstandardized Beta

Std. error

Standardized Beta

1

Job success

Openness to experience

0.112

0.289

0.063

0.335

2

Intellect

Openness to experience

0.364

0.540

0.056

0.604

3

Job success

Intellect

0.158

0.383

0.069

0.397

4

Job success

Openness to experience

Intellect

0.172

0.130

0.296

0.077

0.086

0.150

0.307

Model 2:

0.397*

0.604*

Intellect

Openness to Experience

Openness to Experience

Job Success

Intellect

0.335*

*Significant at 0.05 level

Table 4: Regression Analysis Results – Model 2

In the table, step 1 shows the coefficients for regression analysis with openness to experience as independent variable and job success as the dependent variable. The analysis shows that there is a significant positive correlation between openness to experience and job success. Also the results show that there is a possibility of mediation. Hence, Hypothesis 1 is supported.

Step 2 shows the coefficients for regression analysis with openness to experience as independent variable and intellect as the dependent variable. The analysis shows that there is a significant positive correlation between openness to experience and intellect. Hence, Hypothesis 4 is supported.

Step 3 shows the coefficients for regression analysis with intellect as independent variable and job success as the dependent variable. The analysis shows that there is a significant positive correlation between intellect and job success. Hence, Hypothesis 5 is supported.

Step 4 shows the coefficients for regression analysis with openness to experience and intellect as independent variable and job success as the dependent variable. The regression between openness to experience and job success in step 1 is significant whereas in step 7 is not significant indicating that intellect fully mediates the relationship between openness to experience and job success. The mediation effect was tested using an online Sobel Calculator and was found to be statistically significant (Mediated effect = 0.185, Sobel Test Statistic Z-Score = 4.811, p<0.001). Hence, mediation effect of intellect in the relationship between openness to experience and job success is confirmed.

Implications

The study shows that Openness to Experience is fully mediated by both, Creativity and Intellect in relation to job success. Thus we can