An Investigation of Big Five and Narrow Personality Traits In Relation to Career Satisfaction of Managers

Career satisfaction has become an important research topic in both psychological and business research. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships between general managers’ career satisfaction, the Big Five personality traits (agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, extraversion, and openness), as well as narrow personality traits. An archival data source was used consisting of a sample of 6,042 general managers and 48,726 non-managers from various industries. I investigated the relationship between personality variables and general manager’s career satisfaction. Results indicated that several personality traits were significantly related to managers’ career satisfaction. For example, emotional resilience, extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, optimism, and work drive were significantly related to general managers’ career satisfaction. Among all the personality traits, emotional resilience and optimism had the highest correlations with general manager’s career satisfaction. The difference between managers and non-managers were compared. Implications for future research and practice were discussed.