Personality and employee selection:Credibility regained

Abstract

Conceptual and methodological advances on both the predictor and criterion side and several influential meta‐analytic reviews have contributed to a resurgence of credibility for personality as a predictor in employee selection. This paper reviews the prior problems with personality as a predictor, summarizes research findings on the effectiveness of personality in selection, and lays out the circumstances under which personality measures are most likely to be useful. The most consistent findings are that personality measures such as integrity and conscientiousness predict contextual and motivational aspects of performance reasonably well. Suggestions for future research on personality in selection are made, and human resource management implications of personality‐based selection are discussed