How do the “Big Five” Personality Dimensions impact employee selection and the creation and performance of teams? A Qualitative Review

Personality as a construct is subjective in nature (Atwood and Tomkins 1976) and brings with it many inconsistencies in findings throughout the literature base. Quantitative studies in this area have been examined extensively so this research was carried out qualitatively to uncover the underlying themes that reveal the true nature of what happens when people that are diverse in personality work together on a project. This research assesses some of the findings on personality both at the individual level and when it comes to creating a team and addresses some of these irregularities. It also discusses the common issues that arise from working with a team diverse in terms of personality centred around Goldberg’s (1990) “Big Five” Model. Seven people managers based in Ireland participated for the purpose of this study and semi structured interviews were carried out virtually with them to take an exploratory approach to this topic. A thematic analysis was carried out on all the data collected. It was found that an understanding of personality on a team can be a useful tool in getting to know and developing your team in terms of blind-spots or areas of opportunity, but many psychometric assessments, including the Big Five test only provide a small snapshot as to what someone is like and more rigorous tests are needed to gain a better understanding of employee personality today. This paper adds to the knowledge of personality at work by teaching managers how personality and background diversity on a team can work in their favour when done correctly but management have a huge role to play in ensuring congruence amongst team members. The implications for these findings are discussed and recommendations made for practitioners going forward to be aware of. Future research directions have also been suggested following the results analysis and a personal learning statement has been noted at the end to meet the CIPD requirements for this project