Poster Presentation 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

Incremental Validity Of Character Strengths In Predicting Job Performance Beyond General Mental Abilities And Big Five (#522)

Natalia Bezuglova 1 , Claudia Harzer 1 2
  1. Department of Psychology, TU Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
  2. Department of Psychology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

Studies show that the character strengths play a positive role for different aspects of job performance (Harzer, Mubashar, & Dubreuil, 2017; Harzer & Ruch, 2014; Littman-Ovadia & Lavy, 2016). However, there is no research investigating the incremental validity of character strengths as predictors of job performance beyond general mental abilities and the Big Five. About 150 employees from various professions filled in an online survey including measures on character strengths, Big Five, and intelligence. The different dimensions of job performance were assessed by the corresponding line managers. There are meaningful, significantly positive relationships between some character strengths and different dimensions of job performance. Additionally, character strengths have incremental validity in predicting job performance beyond Big Five (up to 29%) or general mental abilities (up to 25%). The character strengths zest, perseverance, social intelligence, teamwork, and leadership proved to be particularly important predictors of job performance. Results are in line with previous publications on the correlations between character strengths and job performance (Harzer et al., 2017; Harzer & Ruch, 2014). Moreover, results indicated that character strengths predict job performance beyond general mental abilities and Big Five. Practical implications for personnel selection and personnel development, limitations, and future research will be discussed.