Explain how the relationship between personality and performance can sometimes be curvilinear.

What will be an ideal response?


Finally, another conceptual perspective that allows us to understand why and when personality predicts performance is what has been called the “too-much-of-a-good-thing” effect (Pierce & Aguinis, 2013). Specifically, this principle “accounts for an apparent paradox in organizational life: ordinarily beneficial antecedents causing harm when taken too far” (p. 314). In other words, relations that are linear become flat (i.e., no relation) or even negative (i.e., curvilinear and even inverted U-shaped relation). In the particular domain of personality, Le et al. (2011) hypothesized that individuals scoring very high on conscientiousness can be considered “rigid, inflexible, and compulsive perfectionists” (p. 114). So, too much conscientiousness, a good thing, is not necessarily good. Huy et al. conducted a study in which they collected self-reports of personality and supervisory ratings of performance for more than 600 employees. They found a negative, curvilinear relationship between conscientiousness and (a) task performance and (b) organizational citizenship behaviors. In other words, the relations are initially positive, but then become negative. Huy et al. (2011) found similar results for another personality trait: emotional stability. In fact, for low-complexity jobs, the relation between the personality traits and the various types of performance became negative for the high end of the distributions of personality scores.

Legal Studies & Paralegal

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As used in the text, enacted law includes:

A. Regulations adopted by administrative bodies B. Opinions of the United States Supreme Court C. Statutes D. Ordinances E. All of the above F. Answers a, b, and c above G. Answers a, c, and d above

Legal Studies & Paralegal

A lease that provides for rent increases on specified dates in predetermined amounts is a     lease. 

Fill in the blank(s) with the appropriate word(s).

Legal Studies & Paralegal

In determining whether an abuse exists under § 707(b), the bankruptcy court is permitted to take into consideration past and future charitable contributions of the debtor.

Answer the following statement true (T) or false (F)

Legal Studies & Paralegal

You are running a predictive validity study, and so you give applicants your new measure as well as the ones you previously used for selection. Because of the nature of the study, you only use the scores from the previous measure to select, but this leads to most of the low scores on the new measure not being present in the sample when the criterion in measured. This is an example of ______.

A. homoscedasticity B. indirect range restriction C. direct range restriction D. range enhancement

Legal Studies & Paralegal