Individual Differences

Individual differences in cognitive and physical abilities, personality, interests, and core self-concepts are all relevant for understanding behavior in organizations. Cognitive abilities are hierarchically organized, which implies that general cognitive ability predicts performance on most tasks that involves active information processing. Physical abilities show a less well-defined structure; these abilities tend to be relevant to more narrowly defined tasks. Personality traits (especially the Big-Five-Neuroticism, Extroversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness) are most relevant to understanding interpersonal interactions. They are related to job performance, but this relationship is surprisingly weak. Interests are related to vocational choice, motivation, and satisfaction. Individual differences in core self-evaluations predict a willingness to take the initiative, to persevere, and to attempt to achieve challenging goals.