NEO Personality Inventory Revised (UK edition)

Norms:

From the UK standardisation study carried out at the Psychometrics Centre at the University of Cambridge under the auspices of Prof John Rust:

• UK Working Population (N= 759)
• UK Job Applicants (N=542)
• Total Standardisation Sample (N=1,301)
• Total Standardisation Sample by gender (women N=353, men N=797)

From data collected by a major UK provider of financial services:

• Financial Services Population (N=561)

Reliability:

Item analysis (Cronbach's Alpha) and factor analysis were carried out on a sample of 609 respondents in the UK Anglicisation study. The UK results show close alignment with those from the US. The domain scales show internal reliabilities which range from .87 to .92. Facet scales show internal reliabilities ranging from .58 to .82.

Test retest reliabilities are all above .75.

Validity:

Validity data is extensive; for a full account the reader is referred to the Professional Manual, and reference lists are available from the publishers. Synopses of some examples of predictive validity studies for the NEO PI-R and the model upon which it is based are listed below:

Furnham, A., & Miller, T. (1997). Personality, absenteeism and productivity. Personality and Individual Differences, 23, 705-707.
Extraversion was positively related to both performance ratings and periods of leave and neuroticism was negatively associated with potential ratings.

Moutafi, J., Furnham, A. & Crump, J. (2007). Is Managerial Level Related to Personality? British Journal of Management. Published article online: doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8551.2007.00511.x 

A total of 900 participants completed two personality tests (Revised NEO Personality Inventory; Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and reported their managerial level in their organisation. Results showed that conscientiousness, extraversion and MBTI intuition were positively correlated with managerial level, and neuroticism, MBTI introversion and sensing were negatively correlated with managerial level. These findings attest to the utility of personality tests used within the occupational community, for selection and assessment of suitability for promotion to senior managerial roles.

Salgado, J. (1997). The Five factor model of personality and job performance in the European Community. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 30-43.
Conscientiousness and emotional stability were valid predictors of job performance across a range of job criteria and different occupational groups. The remaining factors are valid only for some criteria and for some occupational groups. Extraversion was a predictor for 2 occupations, and Openness and Agreeableness were valid predictors of training proficiency.

Salgado, J.F. (2003). Predicting job performance using FFM and non-FFM personality measures. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 76, 323-346
A large database consisting of American as well as European validity studies was meta-analysed. The results showed that for conscientiousness and emotional stability, the FFM-based inventories had greater criterion validity than the non FFM-based inventories. Conscientiousness showed an operational validity of .28 (N = 19,460, 90% CV = .07) for FFM-based inventories and .18 (N =5,874, 90% CV = -.04) for non-FFM inventories. Emotional stability showed an operational validity of .16 (N = 10,786, 90% CV = .04) versus .05 (N = 4,541, 90% CV = -.05) for FFM and non-FFM-based inventories respectively. No relevant differences emerged for extraversion, openness, and agreeableness.

Barrick, M.R. & Mount, M.K. (1991). The Big Five Personality Dimensions and Job Performance: A Meta-Analysis. Personnel Psychology 44 (1), 1–26.
Conscientiousness showed consistent relations with all job performance criteria for all occupational groups. Extraversion was a valid predictor for two occupations involving social interaction, managers and sales (across criterion types). Also, both Openness to Experience and Extraversion were valid predictors of the training proficiency criterion (across occupations). Other personality dimensions were also found to be valid predictors for some occupations and some criterion types, but the magnitude of the estimated true score correlations was small (ρ < .10).

Barrick, M. R. & Mount, M. K. (1993). Autonomy as a moderator of the relationships between the Big Five personality dimensions and job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 111-118.
On the basis of data from 146 managers, results indicated that two dimensions of personality, Conscientiousness (r =.25) and Extraversion (r =.14), were significantly related to job performance. Consistent with our expectations, the validity of Conscientiousness and Extraversion was greater for managers in jobs high in autonomy compared with those in jobs low in autonomy. The validity of Agreeableness was also higher in high-autonomy jobs compared with low-autonomy ones, but the correlation was negative.

Boudreau, J. W., Boswell, W. R., & Judge, T. A. (2001). Effects of personality on executive career success in the United States and Europe. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 58, 53-81.
Career success models were extended by incorporating traits from the five-factor model and several dimensions of extrinsic (remuneration, ascendancy, job level, employability) and intrinsic (job, life, and career satisfaction) career success. Data were collected from two large samples of American and European executives. Extroversion related positively, and neuroticism negatively, to intrinsic career success across both the U.S. and the European samples. Conscientiousness was mostly unrelated to extrinsic success and negatively related to intrinsic success in both samples, and agreeableness was negatively related to extrinsic success in both samples. Differences emerged between the European and U.S. samples, in that neuroticism associated with lower levels of extrinsic success for the U.S. executives but not the Europeans, and extroversion associated with higher levels of extrinsic success for the European executives but not the U.S. executives.

Colbert, A. E., Mount, M. K., Harter, J. K., Witt, L. A., & Barrick, M. R. (2004). Interactive effects of personality and perceptions of the work situation on workplace deviance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89 (4), 599-609.
The authors found support for the hypothesis that positive perceptions of the work situation are negatively related to workplace deviance. In addition, the personality traits of conscientiousness, emotional stability, and agreeableness moderated this relationship. Specifically, the relationship between perceptions of the developmental environment and organisational deviance was stronger for employees low in conscientiousness or emotional stability, and the relationship between perceived organisational support and interpersonal deviance was stronger for employees low in agreeableness.

Dalton, M., & Wilson, M. (2000). The relationship of the Five-Factor Model of personality to job performance for a group of Middle Eastern expatriate managers. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 31, 250-258.
This article reports on the relationship of the Five-Factor Model of personality to job performance for a group of Middle Eastern expatriate managers. Job performance ratings from the expatriate’s host and home-country bosses indicate that agreeableness and conscientiousness were related to home-country ratings of job performance, but not host-country ratings.

George, J. M., & Zhou, J. (2001). When openness to experience and conscientiousness are related to creative behavior: An interactional approach. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 513-524.
Openness to experience is theorized to result in high levels of creative behavior and conscientiousness is theorized to result in low levels of creative behavior when the situation allows for the manifestation of the trait influences. More specifically, the authors hypothesized that openness to experience would result in high levels of creative behavior if feedback valence were positive and job holders were presented with a heuristic task that allowed them to be creative. The authors also hypothesized that conscientiousness would result in low levels of creative behavior if supervisors engaged in close monitoring and coworkers were unsupportive. The authors tested their hypotheses in a sample of office workers, and 5 out of the 6 hypotheses were supported.

Hartman, R.O. & Betz, N.E. (2007). The Five-Factor Model and Career Self-Efficacy: General and Domain-Specific Relationships. Journal of Career Assessment, 15,145-161.
Findings suggest generalized effects for conscientiousness and extraversion in that both correlated positively with a broad range of self-efficacy domains, while neuroticism displayed significant negative relationships with nearly all forms of career self-efficacy. Content correspondence was shown in significant correlations of openness to experience with self-efficacy for creative and intellectual pursuits.

Hurtz, G. M., & Donovan, J. J. (2000). Personality and job performance: The Big Five revisited. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 869-879.
The present study sought to provide a meta-analytic estimate of the criterion-related validity of explicit Big 5 measures for predicting job performance and contextual performance. The results for job performance closely paralleled 2 of the previous meta-analyses, whereas analyses with contextual performance showed more complex relations among the Big 5 and performance. A more critical interpretation of the Big 5-performance relationship is presented, and suggestions for future research aimed at enhancing the validity of personality predictors are provided.

Judge, T. A., Martocchio, J. J., & Thoresen, C. J. (1997). Five-factor model of personality and employee absence. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 745-755.
Data were collected from a sample of 89 university employees. Results suggest that extraversion and conscientiousness predicted absenteeism and that part, but not all, of the relationship between these traits and absence was mediated through absence history.

Judge, T. A., Heller, D., & Mount, M. K. (2002). Five-Factor model of personality and job satisfaction: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 530-541.
The estimated true score correlations with job satisfaction were -.29 for Neuroticism, .25 for Extraversion, .02 for Openness to Experience, .17 for Agreeableness, and .26 for Conscientiousness. Results further indicated that only the relations of Neuroticism and Extraversion with job satisfaction generalized across studies. As a set, the Big Five traits had a multiple correlation of .41 with job satisfaction, indicating support for the validity of the dispositional source of job satisfaction when traits are organized according to the 5-factor model.

Judge, T.A. & Bono, J.E. (2001). Relationship of core self-evaluations traits--self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, locus of control and emotional stability--with job satisfaction and job performance: a meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(1), 80-92.
This article presents meta-analytic results of the relationship of 4 traits—self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, locus of control, and emotional stability (low neuroticism)—with job satisfaction and job performance. With respect to job performance, the correlations were .19 for emotional stability.

Judge, T A., & Ilies, R. (2002). Relationship of personality to performance motivation: A meta analytic review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87 (4), 797-807.
This article provides a meta-analysis of the relationship between the five-factor model of personality and 3 central theories of performance motivation (goal-setting, expectancy, and self-efficacy motivation). Results indicated that Neuroticism (average validity = -.31) and Conscientiousness (average validity = .24) were the strongest and most consistent correlates of performance motivation across the 3 theoretical perspectives. Results further indicated that the validity of 3 of the Big Five traits--Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness--generalized across studies. As a set, the Big Five traits had an average multiple correlation of .49 with the motivational criteria, suggesting that the Big Five traits are an important source of performance motivation.

Lim, B. & Ployhart, R.E. (2004). Transformational leadership: Relations to the five-factor model and team performance in typical and maximum contexts. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 610-621.
Data were collected from 39 combat teams from an Asian military sample (N = 276). Results found that neuroticism and agreeableness were negatively related to transformational leadership ratings. Team performance ratings correlated at only.18 across the typical and maximum contexts. Finally, transformational leadership fully mediated the relationship between leader personality and team performance in the maximum context but only partially mediated the relationship between leader personality and team performance in the typical context.

Neuman, G. A., & Wright, J. (1999). Team effectiveness: Beyond skills and cognitive ability. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 376-389.
Measures of personality (i.e., Agreeableness and Conscientiousness) predicted peer ratings of team member performance beyond measures of job-specific skills and general cognitive ability. Similarly, at the group level of analysis, both Agreeableness and Conscientiousness predicted supervisor ratings of work team performance, objective measures of work team accuracy, and work completed. At both the individual and group levels, the trait of Agreeableness predicted Interpersonal Skills.

Silverthorne, C. (2001). Leadership effectiveness and personality: A cross-cultural evaluation. Personality and Individual Differences, 30, 303-310.
This study compared samples of effective and not effective leaders in the US, the Republic of China (Taiwan) and Thailand. Based on the results of this study, there is evidence that the five-factor model of personality relationship to leadership has support in the US sample. Further, support was found for four of the five factors in the Republic of China sample but only for two of the factors in the Thailand sample. Overall, effective managers differ from less effective ones in describing themselves as more extraverted, more agreeable, more conscientious, and less neurotic in all three cultures studied, and US managers (but not Chinese and Thai) also describe themselves as more open to experience.

Vinchur, A., Schippmann, J., Switzer, F., & Roth, P. (1998). A meta-analytical review of predictors of job performance for sales people. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 30-43.
Extraversion and Conscientiousness predicted sales success for both objective and subjective sales performance. Potency (which includes assertiveness) appeared to be the key part of Extraversion that predicted sales performance. Achievement may be the key part of Conscientiousness that predicted objective sales success.